333 emerald dr vista ca 92083
New US CHAdeMO chargers in May 2023
2023.06.06 12:37 boutell New US CHAdeMO chargers in May 2023
Here are all of the new US CHAdeMO (Leaf fast-charging) stations that rolled out in May 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
There were 124 "new" CHAdeMOs added in May. To put it in perspective, there were 112 CHAdeMO chargers added in April. I think the pace of CHAdeMO rollout has stabilized, while the pace of CCS rollout is still increasing. This makes sense given that only Nissan still makes a CHAdeMO car.
Some of these chargepoints will be "refreshes," e.g. the provider replaced them with faster chargers etc. Some may be incorrect. This report is only as good as the Alternative Fuels Data Center data.
We all know that CHAdeMO is a legacy format and will eventually go away, but clearly Nissan and their partners are continuing to support it for the time being. This shouldn't be surprising. After all, you can still buy a new Leaf.
If you'd like to know about new chargers along your routes right away, or reading these monthly reports is just frustrating in your state, I've set up a free service that provides email notifications only when new stations actually open. You can sign up at evpov.com. I built it to help EV owners like myself (especially my fellow Leaf owners). You can pick other plug types as well.
To streamline this post, multi-chargepoint locations are listed with the number of chargepoints first, so that's why the post is shorter than in previous months.
submitted by boutell to leaf [link] [comments]
There were 124 "new" CHAdeMOs added in May. To put it in perspective, there were 112 CHAdeMO chargers added in April. I think the pace of CHAdeMO rollout has stabilized, while the pace of CCS rollout is still increasing. This makes sense given that only Nissan still makes a CHAdeMO car.
Some of these chargepoints will be "refreshes," e.g. the provider replaced them with faster chargers etc. Some may be incorrect. This report is only as good as the Alternative Fuels Data Center data.
We all know that CHAdeMO is a legacy format and will eventually go away, but clearly Nissan and their partners are continuing to support it for the time being. This shouldn't be surprising. After all, you can still buy a new Leaf.
If you'd like to know about new chargers along your routes right away, or reading these monthly reports is just frustrating in your state, I've set up a free service that provides email notifications only when new stations actually open. You can sign up at evpov.com. I built it to help EV owners like myself (especially my fellow Leaf owners). You can pick other plug types as well.
To streamline this post, multi-chargepoint locations are listed with the number of chargepoints first, so that's why the post is shorter than in previous months.
➡ CA (1) Fairfield Inn & Suites 8700 Spectrum Pkwy Bakersfield, CA 93308 (1) MOSSY CDJR DC 1 1875 Auto Park Ave Chula Vista, CA 91911 (3) DC CORRIDOR CHEVRON C DC 2 25032 W Dorris Ave Coalinga, CA 93210 (1) South Coast Collection (SoCo) 3303 Hyland Ave Costa Mesa, CA 92626 (1) SCPPA SCPPA CPE200T 1160 Nicole Ct Glendora, CA 91740 (1) Mojave Air & Spaceport (Building 1) 16922 Airport Blvd Mojave, CA 93501 (1) Albertsons 1345 (Morro Bay, CA) 730 Quintana Road Morro City, CA 93442 (1) CircleK - Palm Desert, CA 78005 Country Club Dr Palm Desert, CA 92211 (1) Hilton Garden Inn 20 Advantage Ct Sacramento, CA 95834 (1) BoA Hillcrest CA0-120 (San Diego, CA) 737 UNIVERSITY AVE San Diego, CA 92103 (1) WinCo Foods - Vacaville #60 855 Davis St Vacaville, CA 95687 ➡ CO (1) CITY OF ASPEN RIO GRANDE L3 427 Rio Grande Pl Aspen, CO 81611 (4) CSG EV BOULDER PL4 1500 Pearl St Boulder, CO 80302 (1) CircleK - Colorado City, CA 8950 S Interstate 25 Colorado City, CO 81004 (2) GPM INVESTMENTS 4590 DC1 8105 N Academy Blvd Colorado Springs, CO 80920 (2) KUM & GO CRAIG PL2 700 East Victory Way Craig, CO 81625 (1) DINO WELCOME DINOSAUR PL1 101 Stegosaurus Freeway Dinosaur, CO 81610 (2) PIKES PK CHARGE BA.CA.MI LLC #2 11027 US-24 Divide, CO 80814 (3) ANNEX SITE GEORGETOWN PL2 1120 Argentine Street Georgetown, CO 80444 (4) KUM & GO RIFLE PL4 705 Taugenbaugh Boulevard Rifle, CO 81650 (2) KUM & GO SB SPRINGS PL2 80 Anglers Drive Steamboat Springs, CO 80487 ➡ FL (1) JNKNS JACKSONVI DC FAST 2 11107 Atlantic Blvd Jacksonville, FL 32225 (1) Starbucks 9200 FL-228 Macclenny, FL 32063 (1) Ocean Cadillac 17800 Ipco Road Miami, FL 33162 (1) Sun Plaza 6339 W Colonial Dr Orlando, FL 32818 (1) BHY CHARGER 1 9915 E Adamo Dr Tampa, FL 33619 (1) Chase Bank - 5601 Red Bug Lake Rd 5601 Red Bug Lake Rd Winter Springs, FL 32708 ➡ GA (1) GEORGIA POWER EPICENTER DC1 135 riverside parkway SW Austell, GA 30168 (1) JACKSON EMC GAINESVILLE 1000 Dawsonville Highway Gainesville, GA 30501 ➡ IN (1) AVON HYUNDAI SALES 8775 E 36 Avon, IN 46123 (1) HOC CHARGERS CHARGER #1 4200 E 96th St Indianapolis, IN 46240 ➡ KS (1) HATCHETT FRONT_WEST 11200 E Central Ave Wichita, KS 67206 (1) HATCHETT BACK EAST 11330 E Central Ave Wichita, KS 67206 ➡ KY (1) JEFF WYLER FH EXPRESS 250 949 Burlington Pike Florence, KY 41042 ➡ MA (6) MASSPORT TNC 4 226 Porter St Boston, MA 02128 (2) MASSPORT TAXI 4 56 Harborside Dr Boston, MA 02128 ➡ MD (2) POTOMAC EDISON ROCKY GAP DC1 16701 Lakeview Rd NE Flintstone, MD 21530 ➡ ME (1) DARLINGS HYUNDA SALES CHARGER 2 439 Western Ave Augusta, ME 04330 (2) IRVINGOIL ME-FFLD-L3-0001 206 Center Rd Fairfield, ME 04937 (1) MOBIL ONTHEWAY STATION 1 1930 Lisbon Street Lewiston, ME 04240 (1) MOBIL ONTHEWAY STATION 2 1938 Lisbon St Lewiston, ME 04240 ➡ MI (1) Belle Isle DC Fast Charge 176 Lakeside Dr Detroit, MI 48207 (1) Evergetic Charging Spa 330 South Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard Lansing, MI 48915 ➡ MN (1) WINNER GAS BROOKDALE DR 1500 Brookdale Dr Minneapolis, MN 55444 ➡ NC (1) CAPE HATTERAS AVON PIER DCFC2 41001 North Carolina Hwy 12 Avon, NC 27915 (1) AEMC- AEMC HQ FAST 125 Cooperative Way Hertford, NC 27944 (1) Chestnut Arbor 2925 Weddington Matthews Rd Matthews, NC 28105 ➡ NE (1) ERNST CHARGER 1 EAC CHARGER 615 23rd St E Columbus, NE 68601 ➡ NJ (1) ShopRite Carteret - Wakefern #511 801 Roosevelt Ave Carteret, NJ 07008 (2) FREEHOLDHYUNDAI VERIZON 1 4075 9 Freehold Township, NJ 07728 (2) CLASS 3 CHARGER HYUNDAI-2 250 Rte 4 Paramus, NJ 07652 (1) CIRCLEAUTOGROUP CH- CPE250 1 641 Shrewsbury Ave Shrewsbury, NJ 07702 (1) ROUTE 1 HYUNDAI CPE-250-02 3905 US 1 South Brunswick Township, NJ 08852 (1) ROUTE 1 HYUNDAI RT1-01 3913 US-1 South Brunswick Township, NJ 08852 ➡ NY (1) AAA WESTCENTRAL DC FAST CHARGER 100 International Dr Amherst, NY 14221 (2) KEELER STATION 6 1111 Troy Schenectady Rd Latham, NY 12110 (1) LEXUSMIDDLETOWN STATION 1 3496 US-6 Middletown, NY 10940 (3) BOB JOHNSON BOB JOHNSON KIA 3817 W Henrietta Rd Rochester, NY 14623 ➡ OH (2) CRESTMONT DRIVECRESTMONT2 2961 Center Rd Brunswick, OH 44212 (1) Hampton Inn - Canton 5256 Broadmoor Cir NW Canton, OH 44709 (1) JEFF WYLER EXPRESS 250 Loop @ Far Hills Centerville, OH 45459 (1) DONWOODAUTO DW CHEVY 2 12916 OH-664 Logan, OH 43138 (1) JEFF WYLER CORP 4- DC FAST 401 Milford Pkwy Milford, OH 45150 (1) Friendship Kitchen 70 3800 E. State Rd. Port Clinton, OH 43452 (1) Friendship Kitchen 83 4024 Hayes Ave. Sandusky, OH 44870 ➡ OK (1) EDMOND HYUNDAI EDMOND 4 14137 N Broadway Ext Edmond, OK 73013 ➡ OR (1) PGE IBEW 48 15937 NE Airport Way Portland, OR 97230 ➡ PA (1) DOYLESTOWN 024B1000008033 4465 W Swamp Rd Doylestown, PA 18902 (2) LIBERTY CHARWASH PL 2 2595 Maryland Road Willow Grove, PA 19090 ➡ PR (2) BMW AUTOGERMANA CPE 250 PKNG 2 106 Calle Acuarela Guaynabo, PR 00969 (2) BMW AUTOGERMANA FTZ120KW-2 1086 Ave. Muñoz Rivera San Juan, PR 00919 ➡ SC (1) Travelers Rest Municipal Complex 125 Trailblazer Dr Travelers Rest, SC 29690 ➡ TN (4) I24 EXIT11 STATION 1 (LL) 701 Sango Road Clarksville, TN 37043 (2) DISTRICT 2 STATION 1 (L) 28 S Park Ave Hohenwald, TN 38462 (2) LAWRENCEBURG STATION 2 (R) 2347 Hwy 43 N Leoma, TN 38468 (1) MB OF MEMPHIS STATION 1 5401 Poplar Ave Memphis, TN 38119 ➡ TX (1) Plaza de Oro 4450 W Jefferson Blvd Dallas, TX 75211 ➡ UT (2) VOLVO CAR USA SANDY DC 2 56 W 9000 S Sandy, UT 84070 ➡ VA (2) KOONS HYUNDAI STATION 1 1880 Opitz Blvd Woodbridge, VA 22191 ➡ WA (2) HANSON MOTORS HM3 QUICKCHARGE 2300 Carriage Loop SW Olympia, WA 98502 (1) Walmart 2539 - Spokane Valley, WA 15727 E Broadway Ave Spokane Valley, WA 99037 (1) 7054 -Vancouver, WA 98664 (10314 SE Mill Plain Road) 13014 SE Mill Plain Rd Vancouver, WA 98684 ➡ WI (1) BERG HYUNDAI VLI-L3-PDI-4 2900 N Victory Ln Appleton, WI 54913 (1) Wheelers Chevrolet of Coloma 1978 Charles Way Coloma, WI 54930 (1) Wheelers Chevrolet GMC of Marshfield 2701 S. Maple Ave Marshfield, WI 54449
2023.06.06 12:32 boutell New US CCS chargers report for May 2023
Here are all of the new US CCS (Level 3 fast-charging) stations that rolled out in May 2023, according to the Department of Energy. These chargers are suitable for most new EVs on the market, except for:
There were 222 CCS charge points added or refreshed in May 2023, which is up from 171 in April. For comparison, there were only 74 new CCS charge points in May 2022. Things are speeding up.
"What about CCS charging at Tesla superchargers?" Tesla is in the process of rolling out their "magic dock" for non-Tesla cars, but so far in very few locations. If they start doing this at scale and reporting it to the Alternative Fuels Data Center then it will be reflected here.
"What about Ford vehicles with NACS (Tesla) plugs?" They are not on sale yet. Current-generation Ford vehicles have CCS plugs. The next generation will have NACS (Tesla) plugs, but will also support CCS via an adapter.
If you'd like to know about new chargers along your routes right away, or just prefer not to check this list monthly when new openings are rare in your area, I've set up a free service that provides email notifications as soon as they open. You can sign up at evpov.com. Or not! I don't really have a business plan here, I built it to help EV owners like myself.
To streamline this post, multi-chargepoint locations are listed with the number of chargepoints first, so that's why the post is shorter than in previous months.
submitted by boutell to electricvehicles [link] [comments]
- Tesla drivers who haven't bought the official CCS adapter yet. Certain older Teslas need additional work done to accept the adapter.
- Leaf owners like me, and some owners of older cars that also use CHAdeMO. If you drive a Leaf, or an older CHAdeMO car, see my matching post in leaf.
There were 222 CCS charge points added or refreshed in May 2023, which is up from 171 in April. For comparison, there were only 74 new CCS charge points in May 2022. Things are speeding up.
"What about CCS charging at Tesla superchargers?" Tesla is in the process of rolling out their "magic dock" for non-Tesla cars, but so far in very few locations. If they start doing this at scale and reporting it to the Alternative Fuels Data Center then it will be reflected here.
"What about Ford vehicles with NACS (Tesla) plugs?" They are not on sale yet. Current-generation Ford vehicles have CCS plugs. The next generation will have NACS (Tesla) plugs, but will also support CCS via an adapter.
If you'd like to know about new chargers along your routes right away, or just prefer not to check this list monthly when new openings are rare in your area, I've set up a free service that provides email notifications as soon as they open. You can sign up at evpov.com. Or not! I don't really have a business plan here, I built it to help EV owners like myself.
To streamline this post, multi-chargepoint locations are listed with the number of chargepoints first, so that's why the post is shorter than in previous months.
➡ AR (1) Franklin's Charging Little Rock 724 Woodrow St Little Rock, AR 72205 ➡ AZ (6) 942 E Parma Street (US-CMK-NVL-2A) 942 E Parma Street Gila Bend, AZ 85337 (1) Kroger Frys 62 (Mesa, AZ) 554 W Baseline Rd Mesa, AZ 85210 ➡ CA (1) Fairfield Inn & Suites 8700 Spectrum Pkwy Bakersfield, CA 93308 (1) MOSSY CDJR DC 1 1875 Auto Park Ave Chula Vista, CA 91911 (3) DC CORRIDOR CHEVRON C DC 2 25032 W Dorris Ave Coalinga, CA 93210 (1) South Coast Collection (SoCo) 3303 Hyland Ave Costa Mesa, CA 92626 (1) SCPPA SCPPA CPE200T 1160 Nicole Ct Glendora, CA 91740 (1) Chase Bank - 925 N Hacienda Blvd 925 N Hacienda Blvd La Puente, CA 91744 (1) WOODLANDHILLS ABB 24KW 01 22006 Erwin Street Los Angeles, CA 91367 (1) 7071 - Merced, CA (2020 Childs Ave) 2020 Childs Ave Merced, CA 95341 (1) Mojave Air & Spaceport (Building 1) 16922 Airport Blvd Mojave, CA 93501 (1) BMW MONROVIA OFF NETWORK 01 1425 Mountain Ave Monrovia, CA 91016 (1) Albertsons 1345 (Morro Bay, CA) 730 Quintana Road Morro City, CA 93442 (1) 3333 Fruitvale Ave 3333 Fruitvale Ave Oakland, CA 94602 (1) 7126 - Oakley, CA (5540 Bridgehead Road) 5540 Bridgehead Road Oakley, CA 94561 (1) CircleK - Palm Desert, CA 78005 Country Club Dr Palm Desert, CA 92211 (1) Hilton Garden Inn 20 Advantage Ct Sacramento, CA 95834 (1) BoA Hillcrest CA0-120 (San Diego, CA) 737 UNIVERSITY AVE San Diego, CA 92103 (1) WinCo Foods - Vacaville #60 855 Davis St Vacaville, CA 95687 ➡ CO (1) CITY OF ASPEN RIO GRANDE L3 427 Rio Grande Pl Aspen, CO 81611 (4) CSG EV BOULDER PL4 1500 Pearl St Boulder, CO 80302 (5) 1 Flatiron Crossing (US-ME8-73R-2B) 1 Flatiron Crossing Broomfield, CO 80021 (1) CircleK - Colorado City, CA 8950 S Interstate 25 Colorado City, CO 81004 (2) GPM INVESTMENTS 4590 DC1 8105 N Academy Blvd Colorado Springs, CO 80920 (2) KUM & GO CRAIG PL2 700 East Victory Way Craig, CO 81625 (1) DINO WELCOME DINOSAUR PL1 101 Stegosaurus Freeway Dinosaur, CO 81610 (2) PIKES PK CHARGE BA.CA.MI LLC #2 11027 US-24 Divide, CO 80814 (4) ANNEX SITE GEORGETOWN PL4 1120 Argentine Street Georgetown, CO 80444 (4) KUM & GO RIFLE PL4 705 Taugenbaugh Boulevard Rifle, CO 81650 (2) KUM & GO SB SPRINGS PL2 80 Anglers Drive Steamboat Springs, CO 80487 ➡ CT (1) BOA East Hartford CT2-120 (Hartford, CT) 805 E Main Street East Hartford, CT 06108 (1) HARTFORD BMW ABB OUTSIDE 1 Weston Park Rd Hartford, CT 06120 ➡ DE (1) First State Chevrolet 22694 DUPONT BLVD GEORGETOWN, DE 19947 ➡ FL (1) JNKNS JACKSONVI DC FAST 2 11107 Atlantic Blvd Jacksonville, FL 32225 (1) Simon Tampa Premium Outlets (Lutz, FL) 2300 Grand Cypress Dr Lutz, FL 33559 (1) Starbucks 9200 FL-228 Macclenny, FL 32063 (1) Ocean Cadillac 17800 Ipco Road Miami, FL 33162 (1) Sun Plaza 6339 W Colonial Dr Orlando, FL 32818 (1) Simon Orlando Vineland (Orlando, FL) 8200 Vineland Ave Orlando, FL 32821 (1) Simon Tyrone Square (St Petersburg, FL) 6901 22nd Ave N Peterburg, FL 33710 (1) BHY CHARGER 1 9915 E Adamo Dr Tampa, FL 33619 (1) Chase Bank - 5601 Red Bug Lake Rd 5601 Red Bug Lake Rd Winter Springs, FL 32708 ➡ GA (1) GEORGIA POWER EPICENTER DC1 135 riverside parkway SW Austell, GA 30168 (1) JACKSON EMC GAINESVILLE 1000 Dawsonville Highway Gainesville, GA 30501 ➡ IL (1) Castle Chevrolet North 175 N Arlington Heights Rd Elk Grove Village, IL 60007 (1) Sunrise Chevrolet 414 E N Ave Glendale Heights, IL 60139 ➡ IN (1) AVON HYUNDAI SALES 8775 E 36 Avon, IN 46123 (1) SHRM CHRG MERCEDESBENZFW 7227 W Jefferson Blvd Fort Wayne, IN 46804 (1) HOC CHARGERS CHARGER #1 4200 E 96th St Indianapolis, IN 46240 (1) Sullivan Cadillac 4040 SW College Rd Ocala, IN 34474 ➡ KS (1) HATCHETT FRONT_WEST 11200 E Central Ave Wichita, KS 67206 (1) HATCHETT BACK EAST 11330 E Central Ave Wichita, KS 67206 ➡ KY (1) JEFF WYLER FH EXPRESS 250 949 Burlington Pike Florence, KY 41042 ➡ LA (1) All Star Automotive 12730 Airline Highway Baton Rouge, LA 70817 (1) Target T1469 (Monroe, LA) 4103 Pecanland Mall Dr Monroe, LA 71203 ➡ MA (6) MASSPORT TNC 4 226 Porter St Boston, MA 02128 (2) MASSPORT TAXI 4 56 Harborside Dr Boston, MA 02128 (1) Littleton Electric Light & Water Department 39 Ayer Road Littleton, MA 01460 ➡ MD (2) POTOMAC EDISON ROCKY GAP DC1 16701 Lakeview Rd NE Flintstone, MD 21530 ➡ ME (1) DARLINGS HYUNDA SALES CHARGER 2 439 Western Ave Augusta, ME 04330 (2) IRVINGOIL ME-FFLD-L3-0001 206 Center Rd Fairfield, ME 04937 (1) MOBIL ONTHEWAY STATION 1 1930 Lisbon Street Lewiston, ME 04240 (1) MOBIL ONTHEWAY STATION 2 1938 Lisbon St Lewiston, ME 04240 ➡ MI (1) Belle Isle DC Fast Charge 176 Lakeside Dr Detroit, MI 48207 (1) Meijer 254 (Hudsonville, MI) 4075 32nd Ave Hudsonville, MI 49426 (1) Evergetic Charging Spa 330 South Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard Lansing, MI 48915 (1) Genesis Cadillac 19900 E Nine Mile Road St Clair Shores, MI 48080 (1) MBSTL ENTRANCE ABB 1048 Hampton Avenue St. Louis, MI 63139 (1) Range USA Ypsilanti 660 James L Hart Pkwy Ypsilanti, MI 48197 ➡ MN (1) WINNER GAS BROOKDALE DR 1500 Brookdale Dr Minneapolis, MN 55444 ➡ MO (1) GM - Allen Christian Buick GMC Inc 724 W Business US Highway 60, Dexter, MO 63841 (1) Store 290 Joplin - 2101 S. Prigmore &I44 2101 S Prigmore Joplin, MO 64804 ➡ MS (1) 1685 High St 1685 High St Jackson, MS 39202 ➡ NC (1) CAPE HATTERAS AVON PIER DCFC2 41001 North Carolina Hwy 12 Avon, NC 27915 (1) Westcott Buick GMC 2410 S CHURCH ST BURLINGTON, NC 27215 (1) 9960 Poplar Tent Rd 9960 Poplar Tent Rd Concord, NC 28027 (1) AEMC- AEMC HQ FAST 125 Cooperative Way Hertford, NC 27944 (1) Capital Hyundai of Jacksonville 2325 N Marine Blvd Jacksonville, NC 28546 (1) Chestnut Arbor 2925 Weddington Matthews Rd Matthews, NC 28105 ➡ NE (1) ERNST CHARGER 1 EAC CHARGER 615 23rd St E Columbus, NE 68601 ➡ NH (1) Berlin City Chevrolet 545 MAIN STREET GORHAM, NH 03581 (2) Tanger Tilton Under Armour 06-07 120 Laconia Road Tilton, NH 03256 ➡ NJ (1) ShopRite Carteret - Wakefern #511 801 Roosevelt Ave Carteret, NJ 07008 (1) Lester Glenn Freehold 3712 Rte 9 Freehold, NJ 07728 (2) FREEHOLDHYUNDAI VERIZON 1 4075 9 Freehold Township, NJ 07728 (2) CLASS 3 CHARGER HYUNDAI-2 250 Rte 4 Paramus, NJ 07652 (1) CIRCLEAUTOGROUP CH- CPE250 1 641 Shrewsbury Ave Shrewsbury, NJ 07702 (1) ROUTE 1 HYUNDAI CPE-250-02 3905 US 1 South Brunswick Township, NJ 08852 (1) ROUTE 1 HYUNDAI RT1-01 3913 US-1 South Brunswick Township, NJ 08852 (1) Lester Glenn Buick-GMC 230 RTE 37 E TOMS RIVER, NJ 08753 (1) Lester Glenn Chevrolet 398 Rt 37 Toms River, NJ 08753 ➡ NY (1) AAA WESTCENTRAL DC FAST CHARGER 100 International Dr Amherst, NY 14221 (2) KEELER STATION 6 1111 Troy Schenectady Rd Latham, NY 12110 (1) LEXUSMIDDLETOWN STATION 1 3496 US-6 Middletown, NY 10940 (1) Lerner NYC Station Plaza (Port Jefferson Station, NY) 5145 Nesconset Highway Port Jefferson Station, NY 11776 (3) BOB JOHNSON BOB JOHNSON KIA 3817 W Henrietta Rd Rochester, NY 14623 (1) Burr Truck Level 3 DC Fast Charge 2901 Vestal Rd Vestal, NY 13850 ➡ OH (1) Serra Chevrolet 3281 S Arlington Rd Akron, OH 44312 (1) Tim Lally Chevrolet 24999 Miles Rd Bedford Heights, OH 44128 (2) CRESTMONT DRIVECRESTMONT2 2961 Center Rd Brunswick, OH 44212 (1) Lambert Buick GMC 2409 FRONT ST CUYAHOGA FALLS, OH 44221 (1) Hampton Inn - Canton 5256 Broadmoor Cir NW Canton, OH 44709 (1) JEFF WYLER EXPRESS 250 Loop @ Far Hills Centerville, OH 45459 (1) DONWOODAUTO DW CHEVY 2 12916 OH-664 Logan, OH 43138 (2) WAG ABB STATION 1 8457 N Springboro Pike Miamisburg, OH 45342 (1) JEFF WYLER CORP 4- DC FAST 401 Milford Pkwy Milford, OH 45150 (1) Friendship Kitchen 70 3800 E. State Rd. Port Clinton, OH 43452 (1) Friendship Kitchen 83 4024 Hayes Ave. Sandusky, OH 44870 (1) Serpentini Chevrolet of Strongsville 15303 Royalton Rd Strongsville, OH 44136 (1) Don's Automotive Group 720 N SHOOP AVE WAUSEON, OH 43567 (1) Bush Auto Place 1850 Rombach Avenue Wilmington, OH 45177 ➡ OK (1) EDMOND HYUNDAI EDMOND 4 14137 N Broadway Ext Edmond, OK 73013 ➡ OR (6) 12000 SE 82nd Ave (US-H8H-UM5-2A) 12000 SE 82nd Ave Happy Valley, OR 97086 (1) PGE IBEW 48 15937 NE Airport Way Portland, OR 97230 ➡ PA (1) DOYLESTOWN 024B1000008033 4465 W Swamp Rd Doylestown, PA 18902 (2) LIBERTY CHARWASH PL 2 2595 Maryland Road Willow Grove, PA 19090 (1) Bergeys Inc 518 RTE 309 colmar, PA 18915 ➡ PR (2) BMW AUTOGERMANA CPE 250 PKNG 2 106 Calle Acuarela Guaynabo, PR 00969 (2) BMW AUTOGERMANA FTZ120KW-2 1086 Ave. Muñoz Rivera San Juan, PR 00919 ➡ RI (1) Paul Masse Chevrolet 1111 Taunton Ave East Providence, RI 02914 ➡ SC (1) Travelers Rest Municipal Complex 125 Trailblazer Dr Travelers Rest, SC 29690 ➡ TN (4) I24 EXIT11 STATION 1 (LL) 701 Sango Road Clarksville, TN 37043 (2) DISTRICT 2 STATION 1 (L) 28 S Park Ave Hohenwald, TN 38462 (2) LAWRENCEBURG STATION 2 (R) 2347 Hwy 43 N Leoma, TN 38468 (1) MB OF MEMPHIS STATION 1 5401 Poplar Ave Memphis, TN 38119 ➡ TX (1) Friendly Chevrolet 2754 North Stemmons Way Dallas, TX 75207 (1) Plaza de Oro 4450 W Jefferson Blvd Dallas, TX 75211 (1) Shell 3302 S Eastman Rd Longview, TX 75602 (1) 3220 Gulf Fwy 3220 Gulf Fwy Texas City, TX 77591 ➡ UT (2) VOLVO CAR USA SANDY DC 2 56 W 9000 S Sandy, UT 84070 ➡ VA (1) BLACKWELL D1 4874 Riverside Dr Danville, VA 24541 (1) Fleet Management Site (For Testing Purpose Only) 512 Herndon Pkwy Herndon, VA 20170 (6) 2577 Jeb Stuart Highway (US-TDM-SCC-1C) 2577 Jeb Stuart Highway Meadows of Dan, VA 24120 (5) 2203 Franklin Road Southwest (US-TUJ-L2K-2C) 2203 Franklin Road Southwest Roanoke, VA 24014 (6) 437 Tiffany Drive (US-CHT-WF7-2C) 437 Tiffany Drive Waynesboro, VA 22980 (2) KOONS HYUNDAI STATION 1 1880 Opitz Blvd Woodbridge, VA 22191 ➡ VT (1) Cody Chevrolet 364 RIVER ST MONTPELIER, VT 05602 ➡ WA (1) 7112 - Bellevue WA (12903 NE 20th Street) 12903 NE 20th Bellevue, WA 98005 (1) 7060 - Burlington, WA (1790 South Burlington Blvd) 1790 South Burlington Blvd Burlington, WA 98233 (1) 5507 - Everett, WA (901 Casino Road) 901 Casino Road Everett, WA 98204 (1) 7025 - Everett, WA (13131 Bothell Everett Hwy) 13131 Bothell Everett Hwy Everett, WA 98208 (1) 4397 - Kelso, WA (1700 Allen Street) 1700 Allen Street Kelso, WA 98626 (1) 7063 - Olympia, WA (1725 Evergreen Park Drive SW) 1725 Evergreen Park Drive SW Olympia, WA 98502 (2) HANSON MOTORS HM3 QUICKCHARGE 2300 Carriage Loop SW Olympia, WA 98502 (1) 7096 - Sequim, WA (51 Carlsborg Road) 51 Carlsborg Road Sequim, WA 98382 (1) Walmart 2539 - Spokane Valley, WA 15727 E Broadway Ave Spokane Valley, WA 99037 (1) 7054 -Vancouver, WA 98664 (10314 SE Mill Plain Road) 13014 SE Mill Plain Rd Vancouver, WA 98684 (1) 7059 - Woodinville, WA (13023 NE 175th St) 13023 NE 175th St Woodinville, WA 98072 ➡ WI (1) BERG HYUNDAI VLI-L3-PDI-4 2900 N Victory Ln Appleton, WI 54913 (1) Wheelers Chevrolet of Coloma 1978 Charles Way Coloma, WI 54930 (1) Wheelers Chevrolet GMC of Marshfield 2701 S. Maple Ave Marshfield, WI 54449
2023.06.05 23:44 rgent006 Redditors on the PCT Week 13 (5 JUNE 2023)
We have hikers in SoCal, the Sierra, NorCal, and even some in Washington :) I hope everyone is having fun out there (Type 1 & 2), wherever you may be!
General PSA: I have noticed that some people are signing up to be included on this list because they are hiking the trail this year. That's great! However, if you did not provide any social media links for me to follow you (public or private), you will not be included in weekly updates because I have no way of knowing where you are. Think less "Trail Register" and more "Observe and Report." Happy trails nonetheless!!
As always, we appreciate all of your updates from trail and wish you nothing but the absolute best as your embark and continue on your PCT journey. HYOH, LNT, and remember to thank your local Trail Angel.
JOIN THESE UPDATES
If you are hiking the trail this year (Thru or LASH) and would like to be added to these posts, please fill out the survey linked here or comment below and we'll get you added into future updates. These updates will come on a weekly basis and be put out on Mondays.
If for any reason you'd like to be removed from these updates OR if something does not look right, please message me directly.
Thread for hikers to post current trail conditions
Sierra Beta via Andrew Skurka (5/31)
Middle Fork San Joaquin River Bridge is Out (mile 912.2)
PCTA - Most Recent Trail Closure Updates
The below usernames are clickable links that take you to that hiker's social media page (IG, YT, blog etc.)
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submitted by rgent006 to PacificCrestTrail [link] [comments]
General PSA: I have noticed that some people are signing up to be included on this list because they are hiking the trail this year. That's great! However, if you did not provide any social media links for me to follow you (public or private), you will not be included in weekly updates because I have no way of knowing where you are. Think less "Trail Register" and more "Observe and Report." Happy trails nonetheless!!
As always, we appreciate all of your updates from trail and wish you nothing but the absolute best as your embark and continue on your PCT journey. HYOH, LNT, and remember to thank your local Trail Angel.
VIBE OF THE WEEK: PERIPATETIC
*traveling from place to place*JOIN THESE UPDATES
If you are hiking the trail this year (Thru or LASH) and would like to be added to these posts, please fill out the survey linked here or comment below and we'll get you added into future updates. These updates will come on a weekly basis and be put out on Mondays.
If for any reason you'd like to be removed from these updates OR if something does not look right, please message me directly.
Thread for hikers to post current trail conditions
Sierra Beta via Andrew Skurka (5/31)
Middle Fork San Joaquin River Bridge is Out (mile 912.2)
PCTA - Most Recent Trail Closure Updates
The below usernames are clickable links that take you to that hiker's social media page (IG, YT, blog etc.)
| Hiker | Trail Name | Start Date | Current Location-ish | Week 12 Update: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| u/Schrodingers-cat-30 | Ditto | MAR 2 2023 (NOBO) | Sierra Nevada | 6/5: no update posted |
| u/TrailNicks, Link 2 | Golden | MAR 5 2023 (NOBO) | flipping to Old Station | 6/5: took a detour to SanFran to visit mama after KMS, flipping up to Old Station |
| u/TrailHead42 | Trailhead | MAR 10 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 6/5: no update posted |
| u/juliozz59, Link 2 | Spread | MAR 20 2023 (NOBO) | Sierra Nevada | 6/5: should be arriving in Bishop soon if not already, summitted Mt Whitney!!! |
| u/emdem55 | Keys | MAR 22 2023 (NOBO) | Off Trail! | 6/5: off trail to await snow melt |
| u/Beefandsteel | MAR 22 2023 (NOBO) | Off Trail! | 6/5: off trail to await snow melt | |
| u/jacobburns | MAR 22 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 6/5: no update posted | |
| u/ThrowAwayTheAT | MAR 22 2023 (NOBO) | Sierra Nevada | 6/5: Sierra Nevada | |
| u/7-legged-octopus | MAR 27 2023 (NOBO) | Off Trail! | 6/5: got to KMS and decided to flip to WA and SOBO. Taking a few weeks off for snow | |
| u/frankiehikes | Tabs | MAR 28 2023 (NOBO) | NorCal | 6/5: Flipped up to NorCal |
| u/particularamphibian, Link 2, Link 3 | MAR 28 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 6/5: no update posted | |
| u/yourgirlbribri | MAR 29 2023 (NOBO) | Off Trail! | 6/5: Completed the desert portion! | |
| u/Intrepid-Ad-4770, Link 2 | Sweets | MAR 29 2023 (NOBO) | KMS | 6/5: hustled 200mi over 10 days, nero'd in Tehachapi and now KMS bound! |
| u/Future_Psychology_91 | Dundee on the AT.. on the PCT? | MAR 30 2023 (NOBO) | NorCal | 6/5: flipped up to NorCal, hit mi 1000 - blessed with running water high in the pines |
| u/Kalmes12345 | MAR 31 2023 (NOBO) | Off Trail! | 6/5: off trail to await snow melt | |
| u/chroniclesofvanlife, Link 2, Link 3 | Stitches | APR 1 2023 (NOBO) | Bishop | 6/5: living up to her trail name and had to get helicopter evacuated near Pinchot Pass for stitches again. Currently in great care and getting back on at Bishop |
| u/nataliethisisnatalie | Bestie | APR 1 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 6/5: first marathon day! SOBO'd from Big Bear to Cabazon and officially closed their gap |
| u/Phantom_dong | APR 5 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 6/5: no update posted | |
| u/pelostrece | Spanish Inquisition | APR 5 2023 (NOBO) | mi 1200ish | 6/5: "spectacular scenery, we saw our first bear ... dozens of frozen lakes, spectacular scenery and very variable but respectful weather" |
| u/UtahHiker69 | Fry Pocket | APR 6 2023 (NOBO) | Sierra Nevada | 6/5: "Man, I love this adventure. Every day is something new." heading into the sierra today. Best of luck! |
| u/shoebinn, Link 2 | APR 7 2023 (NOBO) | Off Trail! | 6/5: off trail to await snow melt | |
| u/evoncassier | APR 7 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 6/5: no update posted | |
| u/RedNi12 | APR 9 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 6/5: no update posted | |
| u/tomnomnom17 | APR 10 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 6/5: hit mi 700! | |
| u/Beccatravels | Pepper | APR 10 2023 (NOBO) | mi 550ish | 6/5: night hiked LA AQ " The beginning is fun, the middle is a bit tedious, and by the end we are deliriously tired so it’s maybe fun again??" |
| u/jesshikes | APR 11 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 6/5: no update posted | |
| u/DrWolffe | Scrambles | APR 11 2023 (NOBO) | Sierra Nevada | 6/5: officially in the sierra! |
| u/mikenikey | Water Taxi | APR 12 2023 (NOBO) | Sierra Nevada | 6/5: hit KMS after a short jaunt off trail and ready to enter the sierra |
| u/woodsbearoutdoors | APR 14 2023 (NOBO) | flipping North | 6/5: "Dipping our toes in the Sierras before we flip up north." | |
| u/pollyf | APR 14 2023 (NOBO) | flipping North | 6/5: "4am starts, walking through the night, Joshua trees, wind burn, sand, endless stretches with no water, buckets of sun cream (for me, no one else on the pct believes in spf), mountains, rattle snakes and to top it off yesterday we saw our first BEAR." | |
| u/hallroosevelt, Link 2 | APR 15 2023 (NOBO) | Sierra Nevada | 6/5: made it to KMS! "Tomorrow I will set out into the high sierra to take on the first 90 mile stretch. I’ll be walking into a world of white snow. I expect this to be the most challenging push yet, but possibly the most rewarding 😌 Feeling excited, nervous and cautious. Oh what a feeling." | |
| u/AgentDouble00 | Doppler | APR 15 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 6/5: On Trail! |
| u/Bullish_bear000 | APR 19 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 6/5: pulling consistent 20+ days churning out the desert | |
| u/esahr | Guidebook | APR 19 2023 (NOBO) | flipping North | 6/5: flipping north out of Walker Pass |
| u/Just_karo | Flamethrower | APR 20 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 6/5: flipping north out of Walker Pass |
| u/charles1503, Link 2, Link 3 | APR 21 2023 (NOBO) | approaching KMS | 6/5: "Got to experience faster days + more mileage. Saw a random tiger. Almost done with the desert section. We’re now getting ready and moving towards Kennedy Meadows South to start The Sierra." | |
| u/B2Pats | Marine | APR 23 2023 (NOBO) | past Tehachapi | 6/5: had some foot pain but rested in Tehachapi and onward to finish the desert |
| u/loganlaliberte | Juice | APR 25 2023 (NOBO) | Wrightwood | 6/5: "sometimes you gotta close a door to open a window" |
| u/FishingFrank, Link 2 | Papa Roja | APR 26 2023 (NOBO) | Tehachapi | 6/5: "Have to turn back because of a wildfire on trail next to 58. Tehachapi didn't want us to go yet!" |
| u/Havasu-Hiker23, u/Havasu-hiker | Stix | APR 26 2023 (NOBO) | approaching KMS | 6/5: "I am excited to walk up to the traditional “round of applause!” from the other hikers & get my cheeseburger and beer!" |
| u/MoonMoonMoonMooon | APR 27 2023 (NOBO - Section) | No update posted | 6/5: no update posted | |
| u/hejkathinka, Link 2 | CEO | APR 28 2023 (NOBO) | past Tehachapi | 6/5: pulling 30mi days like it's no big deal. Last week in the desert! |
| u/free-bobby-now | Worthy | APR 29 2023 (NOBO) | Flipping to WA | 6/5: got off at Walker Pass to flip up to WA "I was a bit sad knowing I won’t be hiking with them anymore, but I am excited to cross paths with them again in the future when I am Southbounding." |
| u/Mschoee | MAY 1 2023 (NOBO) | past mi 300 | 6/5: "With all the adjustments as brought a lot of joy in challenging myself and seeing improvements as I get stronger and more confident everyday." | |
| u/loombisaurus | Daisy | MAY 1 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 6/5: no update posted |
| u/MoogyzHikez, u/environmental-pop-11 | MAY 4 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 6/5: had pizza in Big Bear and made a friend | |
| u/sharkdork | MAY 5 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 6/5: sunrises and sunsets on trail | |
| u/Kristi_Tho | MAY 6 2023 (NOBO) | Wrightwood | 6/5: "After two zero days we walked nearly 100 miles in 6 days. We finished Section C and today took our one millionth step since starting the trail 4 weeks ago." | |
| u/jkeller52 | MAY 10 2023 (NOBO) | Baden Powell | 6/5: "Since Jacinto, I’ve been feeling stronger and averaging 20 mile days. The trail is starting to seem normal, and I’m enjoying what every day and section of wilderness has to offer." | |
| u/Powerful-Plantain-84 | MAY 10 2023 (NOBO) | Past LA AQ | 6/5: Day hiked LA AQ, hit 500 mi mark! | |
| u/kinn0n14 | Jabberwocky | MAY 13 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 6/5: Switchbacks near Idyllwild |
| u/dgerken81 | Hot Pink | MAY 13 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 6/5: posting in arrears (2 weeks behind) |
| u/innoutberger | Jenga | MAY 14 2023 (NOBO) | NorCal | 6/5: "After 1,121 days and over 6,000 miles of hiking, I have at last reached the halfway point of the PCT!! So good to be connecting this footpath that stretches across the country, one step at a time." |
| u/spiderwinder23 | MAY 15 2023 (NOBO) | Wrightwood | 6/5: " I may have gotten a mile off trail by accident so I wandered to a highway were Kate, an amazing older lady, gave me a ride into town saving me 14mi of hiking. " | |
| u/positiv3vib3z | MAY 15 2023 (NOBO) | Cajon Pass | 6/5: Cajon Pass McD's. | |
| u/niccolojoe | MAY 18 2023 (NOBO) | past mi 300 | 6/5: hit mi 300! "San Jacinto was beautiful" | |
| u/packfullofgoldbars | MAY 20 2023 (NOBO - Section) | Big Bear | 6/5: "PCT Scene Report, I’m officially Karaoke-Blazing " | |
| u/bongwaterbaneRYO | The Bane | MAY 20 2023 (NOBO) | past Idyllwild | 6/5: took a day off in Idyllwild |
| u/bbqbaconsandwich | MAY 22 2023 (NOBO) | past mi 200 | 6/5: hit mi 200 and doordashed Chipotle to the I-10 underpass. Legendary! | |
| u/Big_Bad_Panda | Tinman | MAY 25 2023 (NOBO) | approaching mi 200 | 6/5: "151 miles in. Two things I’ve learned. 1. Check the bush for a snake. 2. There is a snake in that bush." |
| u/brick_50 | MAY 25 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 6/5: "We got some miles behind us, the desert is cool, plenty of lizards and cool friendly" | |
| u/margot380, Link 2 | JUL 2 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/jocheeseburger11 | Early Bird | JUL 7 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | |
| u/Sea_counter8398 | JUL 8 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/lilmisscactus | JUL 8 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/Agreeable_Ad_5423 | JUL 10 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/canthinkofone9 | Sweet Rinn | JUL 26 2023 (SOBO - Section) | Not Yet On Trail |
Week 1
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Week 12
2023.06.05 21:47 Haileychung_ SUMMER SUBLEASE FULLY-FURNISHED PRIVATE BEDROOM AND BATHROOM WITH IN_UNIT WASHER AND DRYER
Private Room For Rent
295 Arroyo Dr, Irvine, CA 92617-5323, United States
Hi everyone!
I’m looking to take over my VDCN fully-furnished private bedroom and bathroom in a 2 bed / 2 bath premium floor plan this summer around June 19 - September 2.
UCI Students only.
Fully-furnished apartment with in-unit washer and dryer!!
Rent is ~ $1100 per month with utilities!
The floor plan is a 2 bed / 2 bath premium.
Plus, my housemate is graduating, so you'll have the entire common area all to yourself!
If you have any questions or would like to schedule a tour, don't hesitate to reach out.
link to the floor plan: https://www.americancampus.com/student-apartments/ca/irvine/vista-del-campo-norte/floor-plans#/detail/762-2bed-2bathpremium-fall2023_fullterm
Contact:
909-330-8273
submitted by Haileychung_ to UCI [link] [comments]
295 Arroyo Dr, Irvine, CA 92617-5323, United States
Hi everyone!
I’m looking to take over my VDCN fully-furnished private bedroom and bathroom in a 2 bed / 2 bath premium floor plan this summer around June 19 - September 2.
UCI Students only.
Fully-furnished apartment with in-unit washer and dryer!!
Rent is ~ $1100 per month with utilities!
The floor plan is a 2 bed / 2 bath premium.
Plus, my housemate is graduating, so you'll have the entire common area all to yourself!
If you have any questions or would like to schedule a tour, don't hesitate to reach out.
link to the floor plan: https://www.americancampus.com/student-apartments/ca/irvine/vista-del-campo-norte/floor-plans#/detail/762-2bed-2bathpremium-fall2023_fullterm
Contact:
909-330-8273
2023.06.04 18:40 NewYorkMetsBot2 GAME THREAD: Blue Jays @ Mets - Sun, Jun 04 @ 01:40 PM EDT
Blue Jays @ Mets - Sun, Jun 04
Game Status: Final - Score: 6-4 Blue Jays
Links & Info
- Current conditions at Citi Field: 64°F - Cloudy - Wind 5 mph, In From LF
- TV: National: MLBN (out-of-market only), Blue Jays: SNET NOW App, TVA Sports (fr), SNET, Mets: SNY
- Radio: Blue Jays: Sportsnet.ca, SN590, Mets: Audacy (es), ESPN Deportes 1050 (es), WCBS 880
- MLB Gameday
- Game Graphs
- Savant Gamefeed
| Blue Jays Batters | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | K | LOB | AVG | OBP | SLG | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Springer - RF | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | .257 | .321 | .391 |
| 2 | Bichette - SS | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | .329 | .364 | .519 |
| 3 | Guerrero Jr. - DH | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .289 | .356 | .467 |
| 4 | Belt - 1B | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | .259 | .379 | .415 |
| 5 | Chapman, M - 3B | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .281 | .363 | .489 |
| 6 | Varsho - LF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .217 | .283 | .380 |
| 7 | Merrifield - 2B | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .299 | .349 | .392 |
| 8 | Biggio - 2B | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | .172 | .258 | .333 |
| Kiermaier - CF | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .295 | .339 | .481 | |
| 9 | Heineman - C | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .133 | .278 | .200 |
| a-Kirk - C | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .261 | .358 | .331 | |
| Totals | 34 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 11 |
| Blue Jays |
|---|
| a-Struck out for Heineman in the 8th. |
| BATTING: 2B: Merrifield (12, Senga); Chapman, M (22, Senga). HR: Guerrero Jr. (9, 3rd inning off Senga, 0 on, 1 out); Belt (3, 7th inning off Leone, 1 on, 1 out). TB: Belt 4; Chapman, M 2; Guerrero Jr. 5; Merrifield 3; Varsho. RBI: Belt 2 (14); Guerrero Jr. (37); Merrifield 2 (23). Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Biggio; Springer 3. Team RISP: 1-for-6. Team LOB: 7. |
| FIELDING: DP: (Bichette-Biggio-Belt). |
| Mets Batters | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | K | LOB | AVG | OBP | SLG | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pham - CF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .234 | .327 | .457 |
| 2 | Canha - LF | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .244 | .332 | .396 |
| 3 | Lindor - SS | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | .213 | .284 | .404 |
| 4 | Alonso - 1B | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .231 | .324 | .538 |
| 5 | Escobar, Edu - 3B | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .234 | .277 | .415 |
| 6 | Marte, S - RF | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .250 | .314 | .333 |
| 7 | McNeil - 2B | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .282 | .357 | .352 |
| 8 | Vientos - DH | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .188 | .206 | .281 |
| 9 | Alvarez - C | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .237 | .291 | .492 |
| Totals | 33 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 11 | 6 |
| Mets |
|---|
| BATTING: 2B: Marte, S (5, Kikuchi). HR: Pham 2 (5, 3rd inning off Kikuchi, 0 on, 1 out, 5th inning off Kikuchi, 0 on, 2 out); Alonso (21, 6th inning off Pearson, 0 on, 1 out); Marte, S (3, 6th inning off Pearson, 0 on, 2 out). TB: Alonso 4; Lindor; Marte, S 6; Pham 8; Vientos. RBI: Alonso (47); Marte, S (17); Pham 2 (16). 2-out RBI: Pham; Marte, S. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Vientos. GIDP: Alvarez. Team RISP: 0-for-2. Team LOB: 3. |
| FIELDING: E: Alvarez (4, throw). Pickoffs: Alvarez (Guerrero Jr. at 1st base). PB: Alvarez (2). |
| Blue Jays Pitchers | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | HR | P-S | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kikuchi | 5.0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 89-62 | 4.40 |
| Pearson (W, 3-0)(BS, 1) | 1.0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 15-9 | 2.50 |
| Cimber (H, 1) | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11-7 | 3.94 |
| Swanson, E (H, 14) | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8-7 | 2.83 |
| Romano (S, 15) | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6-6 | 3.00 |
| Totals | 9.0 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 11 | 4 |
| Mets Pitchers | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | HR | P-S | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senga | 2.2 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 68-34 | 3.75 |
| Nogosek | 3.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 47-30 | 5.55 |
| Leone (L, 0-2) | 1.1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 18-11 | 5.40 |
| Smith, Dr | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 18-11 | 3.48 |
| Brigham | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 11-7 | 3.80 |
| Totals | 9.0 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 2 |
| Game Info |
|---|
| WP: Kikuchi. |
| Pitches-strikes: Kikuchi 89-62; Pearson 15-9; Cimber 11-7; Swanson, E 8-7; Romano 6-6; Senga 68-34; Nogosek 47-30; Leone 18-11; Smith, Dr 18-11; Brigham 11-7. |
| Groundouts-flyouts: Kikuchi 1-3; Pearson 1-1; Cimber 2-0; Swanson, E 1-1; Romano 1-0; Senga 3-0; Nogosek 2-2; Leone 2-0; Smith, Dr 0-2; Brigham 1-0. |
| Batters faced: Kikuchi 20; Pearson 5; Cimber 3; Swanson, E 3; Romano 3; Senga 16; Nogosek 11; Leone 6; Smith, Dr 4; Brigham 3. |
| Inherited runners-scored: Nogosek 2-0; Leone 2-0. |
| Umpires: HP: Jeremie Rehak. 1B: Chad Fairchild. 2B: Nic Lentz. 3B: Charlie Ramos. |
| Weather: 64 degrees, Cloudy. |
| Wind: 5 mph, In From LF. |
| First pitch: 1:40 PM. |
| T: 2:47. |
| Att: 42,169. |
| Venue: Citi Field. |
| June 4, 2023 |
| Inning | Scoring Play | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Top 2 | Whit Merrifield doubles (12) on a line drive to center fielder Tommy Pham. Matt Chapman scores. Daulton Varsho scores. | 2-0 TOR |
| Top 3 | Vladimir Guerrero Jr. homers (9) on a fly ball to left field. | 3-0 TOR |
| Top 3 | Mets challenged (tag play), call on the field was upheld: Daulton Varsho walks. Matt Chapman scores. Daulton Varsho to 2nd. Throwing error by catcher Francisco Alvarez. | 4-0 TOR |
| Bottom 3 | Tommy Pham homers (4) on a fly ball to right field. | 4-1 TOR |
| Bottom 5 | Tommy Pham homers (5) on a fly ball to left field. | 4-2 TOR |
| Bottom 6 | Umpire reviewed (home run), call on the field was upheld: Pete Alonso homers (21) on a fly ball to left field. | 4-3 TOR |
| Bottom 6 | Starling Marte homers (3) on a fly ball to left field. | 4-4 |
| Top 7 | Brandon Belt homers (3) on a fly ball to center field. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. scores. | 6-4 TOR |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | LOB | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Jays | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 7 | |
| Mets | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 3 |
Decisions
- Winner: Nate Pearson (3-0, 2.50)
- Loser: Dominic Leone (0-2, 5.40)
- Save: Jordan Romano (15, 3.00)
Division Scoreboard
PHI 11 @ WSH 3 - FinalOAK 5 @ MIA 7 - Final
ATL 8 @ AZ 5 - Game Over
Last Updated: 06/04/2023 07:27:09 PM EDT
2023.06.04 11:39 Chemical_Ad_4146 Just a great night in San Diego
 | Just worked 10 hours today and it was all worth it submitted by Chemical_Ad_4146 to uberdrivers [link] [comments] |
2023.06.03 19:10 Marijanovic License plates of Europe map (2023)
 | submitted by Marijanovic to MapPorn [link] [comments] |
2023.06.03 03:51 Limilnalatte RTX 3060 , RTX 4070, RTX 4060ti 16GB? for a Productivity/Streaming/Gamming Build in 2023
Now that my 4 year old HP Pavilion Ryzen 5 3500U CPU and Vega 8 Graphics laptop is starting to fall apart, I am currently picking the parts for my first pc build for productivity/streaming/gaming. However, I am having trouble choosing which GPU to buy. I have researched the best I could, but the many online debates between team red and team green and the discussions of NVIDIA's overpriced GPUs has left me unsure about my GPU choice.
Here is the build that I have in mind:
[PCPartPicker Part List](https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/rgMszf
Generated by [PCPartPicker](https://pcpartpicker.com) 2023-06-02 21:46 EDT-0400
I am making a build that is primarily orientated for productivity purposes while being able to live stream some of the games I play. In terms of productivity, the relevant benchmarks I primarily use are Blender, Adobe Premier Pro, Photoshop and Illustrate (note: Davinci Resolve has recently piqued my interest so I have tried adjusting my parts to fit the needed system requirements in case I do install it). Gaming wise, I want to be able to livestream the games I play in high or ultra 1080p. In the list, the BenQ Mobiuz EX2510S is a used one which I already bought from a friend who recently upgraded to a 1440p monitor. Most of the games I play are fighting games like Guilty Gear Strive and Granblue Fantasy Versus, games like Warframe and the Monster Hunter series and indie games that do not require much from my 4 year old Hp Pavilion with a Ryzen 5 3500U CPU and Vega 8 Graphics. However, since I'm building a new pc, I do want to be able to both stream and play the more beefier benchmark games like God of War, Elden Ring and also the upcoming Armored Core 6 on 1080p High-Ultra settings. I don't care about Ray Tracing, I just want to experience smooth gameplay without having to reduce the game's resolution and without picking the lowest graphics settings.
From what I understand about the two main GPU companies, NVIDIA cards are better for productivity and have better encoding for streaming while AMD cards offer better gaming experience at a better price. The RTX 4070 was picked in my list for its performance and the fact that it is a NVIDIA card suitable for productivity/streaming/gaming. However, the 4070 goes for $800 CAD while only having 12GB RAM (but then again, it is considered to be the best performance value among NVIDIA's 40s series cards). On AMD's side, many online have recommended the 6800xt over the 4070 for its 16GB RAM while being within a similar price range. Some have also mentioned that AMD's encoding is starting to get better, but I do not know if this information is credible. But, the consensus online is that since I am making build focusing on productivity, NVIDIA seems to be the better graphics card choice.
However, as mentioned before, the 4070's price has got me considering buying the RTX 3060 instead. While the 4070 does perform way better then the 3060, the latter is more budget friendly and prices at $450 CAD, has 12GB RAM like the 4070 and is recommended by many as a good performance/value for 1080p, which seems to be a good fit for my Mobiuz EX2510S. I have also seen on the Canadian Newegg store that the MSI 3060s are going through a price drop which makes it even more appealing than the 4070: https://www.newegg.ca/p/pl?d=3060 . I also saw the news of NVIDIA releasing a 4060ti 16GB in July, but after seeing the failure of the recent 8GB variant and the backlash online, I don't even know if the 16GB 4060ti should even be considered as a choice. While I do plan on upgrading to a 1440p setup, I don't think that will be happening in the near future.
TL;DR, the 3060 is slowly convincing me to be my final GPU choice for my productivity/streaming/gaming PC build due to its pricing and overall positive 1080p performance among users online. My concerns are: is the 3060 is still viable for productivity/streaming/gaming in 2023? or should I just straight up buy the 4070 for its recency and better performance? Or should I pick a god and pray for the 4060ti 16GB success? Or should I consider buying a AMD card or even Intel's affordable A770 with 16GB RAM?
Thank you all in advance for the feedback, and take care o7.
submitted by Limilnalatte to buildapc [link] [comments]
Here is the build that I have in mind:
[PCPartPicker Part List](https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/list/rgMszf
| Type | Item | Price |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i5-13500 2.5 GHz 14-Core Processor | $325.95 @ shopRBC |
| CPU Cooler | Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 White ARGB 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler | $72.90 @ Amazon Canada |
| Motherboard | MSI PRO B760-P WIFI DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard | $204.99 @ Amazon Canada |
| Memory | TEAMGROUP T-Create Expert 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory | $72.98 @ Amazon Canada |
| Storage | 2x Crucial P3 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive | 2x $61.99 @ PC-Canada |
| Video Card | Asus DUAL OC GeForce RTX 4070 12 GB Video Card | $809.50 @ Vuugo |
| Case | Lian Li LANCOOL 216 ATX Mid Tower Case | $139.99 @ Memory Express |
| Power Supply | Corsair CX650M (2021) 650 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply | $104.50 @ Vuugo |
| Monitor | BenQ MOBIUZ EX2510S 24.5" 1920 x 1080 165 Hz Monitor | $333.74 @ Best Buy Canada |
| TOTAL | $2188.53 CAD |
I am making a build that is primarily orientated for productivity purposes while being able to live stream some of the games I play. In terms of productivity, the relevant benchmarks I primarily use are Blender, Adobe Premier Pro, Photoshop and Illustrate (note: Davinci Resolve has recently piqued my interest so I have tried adjusting my parts to fit the needed system requirements in case I do install it). Gaming wise, I want to be able to livestream the games I play in high or ultra 1080p. In the list, the BenQ Mobiuz EX2510S is a used one which I already bought from a friend who recently upgraded to a 1440p monitor. Most of the games I play are fighting games like Guilty Gear Strive and Granblue Fantasy Versus, games like Warframe and the Monster Hunter series and indie games that do not require much from my 4 year old Hp Pavilion with a Ryzen 5 3500U CPU and Vega 8 Graphics. However, since I'm building a new pc, I do want to be able to both stream and play the more beefier benchmark games like God of War, Elden Ring and also the upcoming Armored Core 6 on 1080p High-Ultra settings. I don't care about Ray Tracing, I just want to experience smooth gameplay without having to reduce the game's resolution and without picking the lowest graphics settings.
From what I understand about the two main GPU companies, NVIDIA cards are better for productivity and have better encoding for streaming while AMD cards offer better gaming experience at a better price. The RTX 4070 was picked in my list for its performance and the fact that it is a NVIDIA card suitable for productivity/streaming/gaming. However, the 4070 goes for $800 CAD while only having 12GB RAM (but then again, it is considered to be the best performance value among NVIDIA's 40s series cards). On AMD's side, many online have recommended the 6800xt over the 4070 for its 16GB RAM while being within a similar price range. Some have also mentioned that AMD's encoding is starting to get better, but I do not know if this information is credible. But, the consensus online is that since I am making build focusing on productivity, NVIDIA seems to be the better graphics card choice.
However, as mentioned before, the 4070's price has got me considering buying the RTX 3060 instead. While the 4070 does perform way better then the 3060, the latter is more budget friendly and prices at $450 CAD, has 12GB RAM like the 4070 and is recommended by many as a good performance/value for 1080p, which seems to be a good fit for my Mobiuz EX2510S. I have also seen on the Canadian Newegg store that the MSI 3060s are going through a price drop which makes it even more appealing than the 4070: https://www.newegg.ca/p/pl?d=3060 . I also saw the news of NVIDIA releasing a 4060ti 16GB in July, but after seeing the failure of the recent 8GB variant and the backlash online, I don't even know if the 16GB 4060ti should even be considered as a choice. While I do plan on upgrading to a 1440p setup, I don't think that will be happening in the near future.
TL;DR, the 3060 is slowly convincing me to be my final GPU choice for my productivity/streaming/gaming PC build due to its pricing and overall positive 1080p performance among users online. My concerns are: is the 3060 is still viable for productivity/streaming/gaming in 2023? or should I just straight up buy the 4070 for its recency and better performance? Or should I pick a god and pray for the 4060ti 16GB success? Or should I consider buying a AMD card or even Intel's affordable A770 with 16GB RAM?
Thank you all in advance for the feedback, and take care o7.
2023.06.02 02:47 kauan1983 The conspiracy lore and the dynamic between the government agencies in Stranger Things
 | Something that i am extremely fascinated about in Stranger Things is the government conspiracy angle of the series, and over the seasons, i felt that the writing started to give us less details about how the government agencies work in this universe. Also, many details of the lore are still unresolved, and i fear some of them might not be resolved in S5, so I decided to make an analysis of everything that involves the government in the show to create my own version of the timeline of the events involving the U.S. government, and gather information to hypothesize events that may have happened offscreen, the occupations of some characters within the government and what agencies are involved with everything that has happened in the show since S1. I hope you guys enjoy the read! submitted by kauan1983 to StrangerThings [link] [comments] PROJECT MKULTRA - In 1953, The MKUltra program was officially sanctioned by the CIA, a multimillion-dollar initiative intended to develop mind control techniques. The experiments would be conducted in many hospitals, prisons and colleges across the U.S. Hawkins National Laboratory was one of many facilities in the U.S. where MKUltra was being conducted - Dr. Martin Brenner was the director of CIA operations at this laboratory. - MKUltra is a real CIA-sanctioned research that was officially halted in 1973. And it was the basis for a science-based horror in the show's lore. But the Duffers never wanted to really dive into it, as the story they wanted to tell was mainly inspired by the Montauk Project and would focus in children with super powers and other dimensions. There is a little talk about it in the official behind the scenes companion Worlds Turned Upside Down: I wouldn't say we had done necessarily a deep dive into it. It was more a surface glance of seeing what they were up to and then using it as an excuse to have science-based horror in our narrative. — Ross Duffer- The presence of the MKUltra in the lore is what canonically establishes the CIA as the bad men we see in S1 and briefly in S2. The agency is only mentioned once in the show when Hopper and Powell are investigating documents about the HNL/MKUltra, but we can confirm that the CIA was also responsible for funding Brenner's program as in the Worlds Turned Upside Down book we can see government cards with a "Central Intelligence Agency Clandestine Ops" badge in it. PROJECT INDIGO - Doctor Brenner's program. It's the main government project of Stranger Things, and although never mentioned in the show, the name of the program was supposed to be "INDIGO" which was also the proposed name of the show as stated by the Duffers in their MasterClass: So we just came up with a bunch of ideas. We had The Keep, we had INDIGO which was gonna be the name of the government program, and amidst that we had Stranger Things. — Ross DufferIt's unclear if the Duffers kept the name as it was never mentioned in the show, but the name is mentioned in the Suspicious Minds book, which was supervised by one of the show's writers - Paul Dichter. Project Indigo is basically the Hawkins equivalent of the Montauk Project. While the MKUltra was the Duffers' basis for a science-based horror in the lore, INDIGO is where the most crazy, cutting-edge developments in science come in. The Duffers had the desire to play with the "sandbox" of elements that the Montauk conspiracy could offer. In the conspiracy, there were talks about children with psychic/psionic powers (which became the Numbers 001 to 018), other dimensions (like the Upside Down, Dimension X and the Hellscape), alien contact, monsters being unleashed (Demogorgon/DX entities) and even time travel, which is something that was originally part of the ST mythology as we can see in the document below: The Montauk Pitch by the Duffer Brothers THE PROGRAM STARTS - As we learned in S4, the beginning of the program happens in 1959, and is a result of Dr. Brenner discovering a boy with extraordinary psychic abilities, Henry, after his mother contacts him in the hopes of sending him to a facility where he would be locked away and fixed. Henry, knowing what his mother was planning, decided to kill his whole family, but would eventually fall into a coma due to not knowing his limits while using his psychic powers. - Brenner knew what the boy did and also what he was capable of, and wanted to not just study but also control him. After the Creel House murders, Brenner would take Henry to the lab and the CIA would cover up anything that could compromise their operation. Victor Creel, the only survivor of the events in the house was declared legally insane, the records of what Victor claimed to have occurred in his house were sealed. - Brenner eventually sold to the CIA a separate program that he planned to start, a program that would study Henry Creel who was presented to the government as a potential weapon against the Soviets as stated by Matt Duffer in this interview by Deadline. He knew what this kid did and also what he was capable of when he was young. Brenner’s going, how can I mold this character, but not just into a weapon? That’s really how he sold it to the government, but for him as a scientist, it’s like, what other worlds can this kid show me about how our universe works? — Matt Duffer- As a scientist, Brenner had the desire to not only mold Henry into a weapon but also use him as a means to reach other worlds/dimensions and understand how the universe works. That makes me think that, at the time, Brenner expected Henry to be able to do what he would later discover only Eleven could do, which was the capablity of opening a rift or tear in time-space via psychic energy. - At some point, I would guess in late 1959 - early 1960s, an unknown event led Brenner to pacify Henry's abilities via Soteria. After that, Brenner would decide to evolve his program, replicating Henry's powers in other kids. This is something Matt Duffer confirmed that S5 will explore, It’s something we will get into in Season 5. What happened to that program once Henry became involved and how Brenner evolved it into including multiple kids. We’re going to go back and see some of that in Season 5.How Brenner tried to replicate Henry's abilities is unclear, but there's something mentioned in the Montauk bible that caught my attention and could be a brief explanation of how these preternatural abilities arise in some individuals: ELEVEN was an orphan with telekinesis. her preternatural abilities have been linked to mutations caused by her mothers drug use.In this version of the Eleven's backstory, the Duffers had not yet conceived El's mother being Terry Ives, the MKUltra involvement in the lore, and El's abilities being the result of experiments on her mother. Instead, we have genetic mutations caused by drug use. If there's any chance this is an explanation to how some individuals are born with psychic abilities, i suspect that Brenner knew that drugs had the potential to cause such mutations and that via experiments and training, he would unlock these supernatural psychic abilities. Knowing that, Brenner would use the MKUltra (which mainly involved psychedelic drugs) as a means to new supernatural kids to be born, just like it happened to Eleven. Virginia Creel's backstory In episode 7, Henry mentions that his parents did "such awful things." and that he "held up a mirror" to show them who they really were, but we never got to see what Henry used against his mother. Whatever awful thing she did, is still a mystery in the show. Also, Virginia somehow knew that Henry had supernatural abilities, so i think it's plausible to assume that, perhaps, Virginia knew it because of something dark in her past, something she believed resulted in her son being born with supernatural abilities and becoming a "broken" kid. The drug element that i mentioned before could also play a role in the origin of Henry's powers and whatever these dark memories of Virginia are. In S4E7 script, we can see that the whole part where Virginia suspects Henry is the responsible for the strange happenings in the house and contacts Brenner to lock her son away is missing. Meaning the writers later decided to add more layers to this backstory that may be explored in S5. The Duffer Brothers have confirmed in interviews that S5 will explore more of Henry's prequel story, and it was recently revealed in an article from BBC that the 'The First Shadow' stage play influences S5, so i'm hoping this means we'll see more of the Creels, specially Virginia. They were able to adjust some of the "things in the play" and said that working on it had given them ideas for the upcoming season five.1960's - THE PROGRAM EVOLVES - The evolution of Brenner's program logically took place during the 1960s, and some of that was already hinted in S2 when we discover that Terry had documents about people she believed were like her daughter. In some of those documents we get to see that Kali was abducted in London, a Cleveland teen girl who was seemingly abducted in Indiana, and a newborn boy was taken from a hospital. The baby was in the care of a nurse who was found dead in her home. - in 1969, Ray Carroll started working at HNL as an orderly. 1970's - At some point in the early 70's, Terry Ives got involved with MKUltra. (In the Suspicious Minds book, we learn that Terry was involved with MKUltra in 1969 but i'm not considering any information from the book due to the huge amount of inconsistencies.) - After Brenner kidnapped Eleven in 1971, the BreneHNL would face charges and lawsuits from Terry Ives but they were denied due to lack of evidence. - In 1973, the MKUltra was officially halted. - In 1974, Terry would try to take Eleven from the laboratory. Brenner ordered Terry to undergo an eletroshock therapy, ordering Ray Carroll to set the voltage up to 450 and then proceeded to electrocute her until her brain was damaged. - In 1979, One succeeded in having El "free" him by removing the Soteria from him. Regaining his psychic abilities, Henry kills all the Indigo numbers except for Eleven who would eventually banish him out of our dimension. After the attack, El falls into a coma, and Brenner doesn't dare bring another number to the lab. Instead, Brenner focuses the experiments on Eleven, who has repressed not only her memories of the past events but also her powers after waking up from her coma. Brenner knew that Eleven's abilities weren't lost but needed a "spark" to be restored. 1983 - Brenner believed that One was somewhere out there, "hiding in the darkness", and in 1983, after Eleven's powers were restored, Brenner would eventually use her abilities to find him. - In one experiment, El hears a strange sound that would get Brenner's attention. Despite El getting scared and the experiment being aborted, Brenner would repeat the experiment with the intention of making "contact". - On the night of november 6, 1983, El makes psychic contact with the Demogorgon in the Void, inadvertentely creating TUD, opening the mothergate and unleashing the monster. She eventually escaped the HNL that night. - On the next day, Brenner and the CIA receive a visit from agents that according to the S1E1 script were NSA. CIA and NSA agents would eventually work together to find Eleven and cover up anything that would compromise the secrecy of their clandestine operation. - Brenner and his team of agents along with MPs would go to the Hawkins Middle School in order to find Eleven after Hopper revealed her location. For their surprise, the Demogorgon appears in the school, distracting the agents and MPs, allowing the kids to run away from the CIA with Eleven. Brenner is brutally attacked by the Demogorgon, but survives the attack. - After the events in the school, we see hopper entering a black sedan with CIA agents. - CIA agents go to the Wheelers House searching for Eleven. This is the last time we see Brenner's men in the show. In the next season, the HNL would have a new director and a new staff. - In a clipping at Hawkins Police Station, there's information on the aftermath of the events in november, 1983, where we learn that Joyce Byers publicy alleged that Will was the subject of a secret government program. Joyce's allegation comes amidst the investigation into the past allegations of the lab's involvement with mind control experiments (MKUltra). - As to where Brenner and his entire staff were after the events in november, it is unknown, but i suspect Owens knew about what happened to them as in S2 he seems to be certain that Brenner's men were gone. The point is, mistakes have been made. Yes. Abundant mistakes, but, the men involved with those mistakes, the ones responsible for what happened to your brother and Miss Holland's death, they're gone. They're gone, and for better for worse, i'm the schmuck they brought in to make things better. — Sam OwensI've come to suspect that after the events of November '83, when the entire HNL staff was replaced, everything documented/recorded about the CIA's clandestine operations was securely locked away by CIA or DOE operatives, likely in the decommissioned Nevada Silo. (One alternate possibility is that those documents and recordings were stored in the Silo after the HNL was closed in december, 1984) Something that I find interesting is that both the Silo Lab and Owens' residence are located in Nevada, and in S4E5, when Eleven is taken to the Silo, originally the titles "Ruth, Nevada" appeared on the screen, that was later removed, but it implies that both the Silo and Owens' residence were close. This leads me to suspect that long before Owens and Brenner conceived of the NINA program, Owens already knew about the abandoned Silo in Nevada and decided to used it to store every TOP-SECRET documents/recordings of the CIA operations at HNL. https://preview.redd.it/qjidk3560i3b1.png?width=1334&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=287916d61b1b71b59d7b8c7ed3a7355f2b073f44 One interesting detail is that the idea of the government securely locking away videotapes is something the Duffers planned for their original Montauk conception, which most of it was a prototype for what we've seen in Stranger Things. In The Montauk Experiment, the O.S.S. would securely lock away film cannisters with recordings of everything that happened in Camp Hero after the experiments ended in a blood-soaked event. Details in the document below: The logline for 'The Montauk Experiment' DOCTOR SAM OWENS' POSITION IN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT - Sam Owens is a high-ranking member within U.S. Department of Energy as mentioned in the first official description of his character. Sometime between late 1983 - early 1984 he would be brought to HNL on a ‘clean-up’ assignment, tasked with containing the mess left by the CIA in 1983 and making things better. - As I previously mentioned, Owens may have been responsible for locking away all the documented CIA experimentation at HNL, and he also may have known the whereabouts of Brenner and other scientists and CIA operatives who worked with him all along. I would even assume that Owens and Brenner may have been in contact all this time. - During his time as director of the operations at HNL, Owens was involved in Will's treatment and in containing the spread of TUD. - In November 1984, during the Demodogs invasion, Owens met Eleven, who eventually closed the gate, ending TUD invasion. - A month later, the operations at HNL were officially shut down and the lab was closed after the release of the tape recording Owens' "confession", and Owens decided to help Eleven have a normal life under Hopper's care, giving him a forged birth certificate, and recommending Hopper to "let things cool off" for a year. This, of course, was done without the knowledge of the U.S. government. FACTONS WITHIN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT After the events os S2, in addition to the CIA Clandestine Ops and the DOE, other different agencies were introduced in the story: - US Army/Pentagon that briefly appears at the end of s3 (although we've seen the Military Police in the previous seasons which is a branch of the Army), and would be an antagonist faction in S4. - FBI agents who are presented as friends of Owens and allied to our main characters in S4. SULLIVAN'S FACTION - At some point after the HNL was closed, Doctor Owens, in addition to his high-ranking position in the DOE, also gained some position within the U.S. Army/Pentagon, probably tasked with monitoring and maintaining security in Hawkins after the lab was closed and the military presence left town. Lieutenant Colonel Jack Sullivan was involved in this, and it's possible he and Owens worked together. - An interesting detail is that the arm patch on Lt. Colonel Sullivan's uniform confirms that he's an United States Army Criminal Investigation Division operative, hence his associaton with the Pentagon. - At some point (i assume 1985), rumors about Eleven being alive and receiving help from someone within the U.S. government began to surface within the Pentagon, this would affect Owens' reputation. - It's also worth mentioning that in S4E6, Sullivan seems to imply that he knew or at least believed Brenner was alive. Explanation two, Dr. Brenner's special little pet has gone rogue again and he and his lackeys are now seeking to cover it up. Perhaps in the hopes of selling their pet to the Soviets. — Lt. Colonel SullivanThere's also this interview with Sherman Augustus where the interviewer asks him if Sullivan knows that Brenner is still alive, and Sherman's answer implies that Brenner being alive is something that wouldn't surprise Sullivan, Maybe because it was rumored within the Pentagon too. Basically, there's nothing that Sullivan doesn't know or expect about what's been happening in Hawkins and within the government since the events of S1. I'm pretty sure he knows that there's certain elements... because he says in the dialogue "there's rumors that she's getting help from someone on the inside". So there is nothing that he is not, you know, equating in that situation, he's not surprised. Whatever it is, you have to be a really strong and dynamic individual to be able to go in and try to kick E.T in the butt. — Sherman Augustus- In July 1985, Owens would find out about a foreign government invasion in Hawkins, and would go to Hawkins with Army/Pentagon forces to deal with the invasion, only to find an empty Soviet bunker. OWENS' FACTION - After the events in July, Owens got fired from his position in the miitary for failing his assignment to monitor security at Hawkins, i believe the previously mentioned rumors about him may also have played a role in his dismissal. - Owens, knowing that El had lost her powers, feared a further re-emergence of the TUD, which led him to begin developing a means to restore her abilities and bring them back stronger than before. - Owens would ally with Brenner to develop a way to restore Eleven's abilities, and Brenner convinced Owens that the only way to do so was via a process of re-experiencing her repressed memories in a program that they would later call NINA. It's unclear when Brenner and Owens' alliance started, but i personally believe they knew each other for longer than we initially thought, and shortly after the July events, Owens' looked for Brenner's help in order to develop a means to restore El's powers. - Despite being fired from his position in the military, Owens was still a DOE member and also had connections to the FBI (Ellen Stinson and other agents), and he used his power to clandestinely provide Brenner with the necessary resources to establish the NINA Project. For the program to be sanctioned, he had to compromise his principles, and risk his life and that of his family. Something worth noting is that in the episode 7 script, the dialogue where Owens expresses his disappointment with NINA's progress is a little different: I've given you all the resources you've asked for, i've given you your people, i've compromised my principles, i've risked my life, my family's life, all because you assured me this would work. That this was the only way. — Sam OwensBy "i've given you your people" we can confirm that Owens gave to Brenner his old HNL staff, who as we saw in S4E8, were loyal to him. And we can also confirm by Sam's words that he had to give Brenner resources, meaning, wherever Brenner was after the events oF S1, he was left with no resources and access to his old staff. - Owens and Brenner would establish NINA in the same abandoned Silo in Nevada where Owens presumably locked away all the video tapes and documents from HNL. THE FACTION CONFLICT - After Owens' dismissal, Sullivan apparently became the responsible for monitoring Hawkins and maintaining the security in the town. - In March 1986, a supernatural murder in Hawkins comes to Sullivan's attention, and after an autopsy is performed by Army medical doctors, Sullivan concludes that the murder was done remotely, which tied in with the rumors about Eleven being alive and getting help from someone within the U.S. government who he, and probably other operatives within the Pentagon believed was Sam Owens. - Upon that conclusion, Sullivan would begin a clandestine military operation in order to investigate Eleven's whereabouts, and this leads him to Owens. - Something worth noting is that when we are first introduced to Sullivan, he arrives in Indiana in an U.S. Army helicopter to investigate the circumstances of an unusual murder, but when he begins his operation to hunt down Eleven, he goes to Ruth, Nevada in an unmarked black helicopter, alluding to the fact that this is a clandestine military operation: Sullivan arrives in Indiana Sullivan leaves Owens' residence in Nevada Something interesting about the scene where Sullivan visits Owens that adds some information on what the U.S. government has been up to is the dialogue between Sullivan and Owens from this audition tape which is a bit different from the dialogue from the show: There were no signs of an attacker. No bruises, no signs of any struggle. It's as if her attacker was a ghost. — Lt. Colonel SullivanSo what is this, really? I mean, why are you here? all of the sudden you want to help again? — Sam Owens Dr. Owens, 30 civilians died last year, a foreign government invaded our country all under your watch. There had to be consequences, you've got to understand that — Lt. Colonel SullivanOwens' question implies that Sullivan has been helping him at some point, probably in monitoring Hawkins like a mentioned before, which would explain how he knew so much about what has happened there all this years. And Sullivan's response implies that after Owens got fired, it became his responsability to maintain security in Hawkins, which is why he was there, asking Owens Eleven's whereabouts. - Owens refuses to tell Sullivan Eleven's whereabouts, and Jack decides to do things "the hard way", taking multiple items from Owens' house in order to investigate everything Sam has done and everyone he has spoken to in 1985 and luckily, be able to find where Eleven is. - Owens knew that the former Indigo test subject One was back when he saw pictures of Chrissy's body, and via a DOE intranet, he requests the immediate acceleration of NINA. He makes it clear that their secret program and facility were compromised and that the Pentagon was involved. And for the security of their program, Owens implements a communication lockdown. - Owens uses his FBI connections to have agents help him find Eleven, maintain the secrecy of the operation and protect people closely associated with Eleven who could be found by Sullivan. Some of those agents are Ellen Stinson, who seems to be Owens' right hand, Agent Harmon, and Agent Wallace. - In the meantime, Sullivan/the Pentagon was able to find out that Owens moved Eleven to Lenora Hills, CA, and would eventually send a group of agents/soldiers to find her. - After finding Eleven with a group of agents and convicing her to go with him in order to get her powers back, Owens takes El to the Silo Lab while Agents Harmon and Wallace would stay with Mike, Jonathan and Will to protect them, and Agent Stinson would be closely monitoring Hawkins with 2 more agents. - Sullivan, after a shootout in the Byers' house takes Agent Wallace to a black site to torture him in order to find out where Eleven was, and after a long time of torture, Wallace gave away Eleven's location. - After NINA succeeded in restoring Eleven's abilities, Owens, believing she was ready, would call Stinson to have her prepare the transit from Nevada to Hawkins, Indiana through her connections at Nellis. - Brenner would eventually betray Owens and considered killing him in order to stop Eleven from leaving the Silo Lab. After the conflict between Owens and Brenner, the Pentagon finally arrives at the location revealed by Agent Wallace and a conflict between the U.S army and the MP soldiers resulted in the death of Brenner, his men and all the scientists in the Silo Lab, except Owens. - Eleven escapes the Pentagon with her friends, and we see Sullivan and some of his soldiers for the last time in S4, in the Nevada desert. Episodes 8 and 9 made it clear that El still needs to hide and Sullivan's faction is still after her. It's worth mentioning that Sullivan was the only villain in ST4 not to be killed or at least injured, so it's almost certain that this guy will be back in ST5 to kick E.T's ass. Specially know that a full-scale TUD invasion is about the happen in Hawkins. POSSIBILITIES FOR S5: Sullivan investigates the video tapes in the silo lab S4 ended without us knowing what happened to Owens and Sullivan after eleven escaped, but we do know that both characters are in the Silo Lab and that Sullivan now has access to a vast amount of video tapes that he would certainly investigate and this would create many possibilities for the Pentagon's role in S5. Sullivan's Mission in Hawkins Sullivan is still responsible for monitoring Hawkins, and at some point he will probably learn about what is happening in the town (which is also where El is hiding now), possibly via the military presence in Hawkins that we saw in the ST4 epilogue. Something that caught my attention was the presence of a Research Lab vehicle on the set of downtown Hawkins, this vehicle never appeared in the show, and it was not mentioned in the script of episode 9. But it makes me think that at the end of S4, the Military is not just trying to help Hawkins citizen after this "federal disaster", but also researching into TUD, which perhaps is an operation led by Sullivan? let me know what you guys think. S1 parallels If we have Sullivan in Hawkins in S5, we most certainly will get more Government vs Eleven scenes, which would parallel Brenner and the CIA in S1. I particularly believe that S5 will have many parallels with what the Duffers planned for the first season of Montauk, ACT THREE (episodes 7-8) will climax with characters working together to outsmart the military, venture into this alternate dimension, save Will, and, hopefully, close this "tear" once and for all. Doctor Owens in 1959 flashbacks Something I found extremely suspicious is that in S4, Owens seemed to know more than we initially thought. He's claimed three victims so far, and when i saw the eyes, i knew... i knew that was him. He was him. He was sending us a message, letting us know he's back.This sentence from Owens confirms that he somehow knew Henry's killing manner. It's plausible to assume that Owens learned about Henry and the other Indigo Numbers after being brought to the lab to "make things better". But I personally believe that there must be a greater reason why he was brought to HNL after S1, I believe Owens was already aware of the clandestine operations that had been happening in the HNL for years (at least some of it) and had known Dr. Brenner since the 1950's. I would even consider the possibility that Owens has been involved in clandestine government operations in the past and that somehow led him to find out about the HNL and Brenner's program. In this interview by The Wrap, Ross Duffer's words about Brenner and Owens' alliance caught my attention because the way he puts it felt like Owens has known Brenner for longer than we think. Once that first kill with Chrissy happens, then their fears are realized and that’s what jump starts their whole storyline. I mean, that is why Owens is collaborating with Brenner, a man he also does not like. He respects him, but despises the man, because he also knows he’s the key to stopping One, to stopping Vecna.By my suspicion, i came up with the theory/fanfic that Owens could have worked with Brenner in the 50's and was aware of what happened in the Creel House in '59. Maybe he even met young Henry and interacted with him after he woke up from his coma. If there's any chance that i'm right about it, i would imagine the Owens and Henry interactions would parallel the scenes with Owens and Will in S2. Stinson becomes the new Owens / Her alliance with the adults Agent Stinson was apparently Owens' right hand in S4 and also the leader among the agents of Owens' faction, being involved in the operations in Nevada, Hawkins and even being responsible for driving Hopper and Joyce to Hawkins. Imo, Stinson has the potential to become the "new Owens"/Main government operative to help our main characters while Owens is MIA. She could also send some agents to investigate what happened to Owens. I have a personal theory that Stinson will join the adults in S5 and help them on a mission to outsmart the military. And i think the "knowing nod" between Hop and Stinson in S4E9 might be a hint of a possible team up for S5. |
2023.06.02 02:40 kauan1983 The conspiracy lore and the dynamic between the government agencies in Stranger Things
| | Something that i am extremely fascinated about in Stranger Things is the government conspiracy angle of the series, and over the seasons, i felt that the writing started to give us less details about how the government agencies work in this universe. Also, many details of the lore are still unresolved, and i fear some of them might not be resolved in S5, so I decided to make an analysis of everything that involves the government in the show to create my own version of the timeline of the events involving the U.S. government and gather information to hypothesize events that may have happened offscreen, the occupations of some characters within the government and what agencies are involved with everything that has happened in the show since S1. I hope you guys enjoy the read! submitted by kauan1983 to HawkinsAVclub [link] [comments] PROJECT MKULTRA - In 1953, The MKUltra program was officially sanctioned by the CIA, a multimillion-dollar initiative intended to develop mind control techniques. the experiments would be conducted in many hospitals, prisons and colleges across the US. Hawkins National Laboratory was one of many facilities in the U.S where MKUltra was being conducted - Dr. Martin Brenner was the director of CIA operations at this laboratory. - MKUltra is a real CIA-sanctioned research that was officially halted in 1973. And it was the basis for a science-based horror in the show's lore. But the Duffers never wanted to really dive into it, as the story they wanted to tell was mainly inspired by the Montauk Project and would focus in children with super powers and other dimensions. There is a little talk about it in the official behind the scenes companion Worlds Turned Upside Down: I wouldn't say we had done necessarily a deep dive into it. It was more a surface glance of seeing what they were up to and then using it as an excuse to have science-based horror in our narrative. — Ross Duffer- The presence of the MKUltra in the lore is what canonically establishes the CIA as the bad men we see in S1 and briefly in S2. The agency is only mentioned once in the show when Hopper and Powell are investigating documents about the HNL/MKUltra, but we can confirm that the CIA was also responsible for funding Brenner's program as in the Worlds Turned Upside Down book we can see government cards with a "Central Intelligence Agency Clandestine Ops" badge in it. PROJECT INDIGO - Doctor Brenner's program. It's the main government project of Stranger Things, and although never mentioned in the show, the name of the program was supposed to be "INDIGO" which was also the proposed name of the show as stated by the Duffers in their MasterClass: So we just came up with a bunch of ideas. We had The Keep, we had INDIGO which was gonna be the name of the government program, and amidst that we had Stranger Things. — Ross DufferIt's unclear if the Duffers kept the name as it was never mentioned in the show, but the name is mentioned in the Suspicious Minds book, which was supervised by one of the show's writers - Paul Dichter. Project Indigo is basically the Hawkins equivalent of the Montauk Project. While the MKUltra was the Duffers' basis for a science-based horror in the lore, INDIGO is where the most crazy, cutting-edge developments in science come in. The Duffers had the desire to play with the "sandbox" of elements that the Montauk conspiracy could offer. In the conspiracy, there were talks about children with psychic/psionic powers (which became the Numbers 001 to 018), other dimensions (like the Upside Down, Dimension X and the Hellscape), alien contact, monsters being unleashed (Demogorgon/DX entities) and even time travel, which is something that was originally part of the ST mythology as we can see in the document below: The Montauk pitch by the Duffer Brothers THE PROGRAM STARTS - As we learned in S4, the beginning of the program happens in 1959, and is a result of Dr. Brenner discovering a boy with extraordinary psychic abilities, Henry, after his mother contacts him in the hopes of sending him to a facility where he would be locked away and fixed. Henry, knowing what his mother was planning, decided to kill his whole family, but would eventually fall into a coma due to not knowing his limits while using his psychic powers. - Brenner knew what the boy did and also what he was capable of, and wanted to not just study but also control him. After the Creel House murders, Brenner would take Henry to the lab and the CIA would cover up anything that could compromise their operation. Victor Creel, the only survivor of the events in the house was declared legally insane, and the records of what Victor claimed to have occurred in his house were sealed. - Brenner eventually sold to the CIA a separate program that he planned to start, a program that would study Henry Creel who was presented to the government as a potential weapon against the Soviets as stated by Matt Duffer in this interview by Deadline. He knew what this kid did and also what he was capable of when he was young. Brenner’s going, how can I mold this character, but not just into a weapon? That’s really how he sold it to the government, but for him as a scientist, it’s like, what other worlds can this kid show me about how our universe works? — Matt Duffer- As a scientist, Brenner had the desire to not only mold Henry into a weapon but also use him as a means to reach other worlds/dimensions and understand how the universe works. That makes me think that, at the time, Brenner expected Henry to be able to do what he would later discover only Eleven could do, which was the capablity of opening a rift or tear in time-space via psychic energy.
It’s something we will get into in Season 5. What happened to that program once Henry became involved and how Brenner evolved it into including multiple kids. We’re going to go back and see some of that in Season 5. — Matt DufferHow Brenner tried to replicate Henry's abilities is unclear, but there's something mentioned in the Montauk bible that caught my attention and could be a brief explanation of how these preternatural abilities arise in some individuals: ELEVEN was an orphan with telekinesis. her preternatural abilities have been linked to mutations caused by her mothers drug use.In this version of the Eleven's backstory, the Duffers had not yet conceived El's mother being Terry Ives, the MKUltra involvement in the lore, and El's abilities being the result of experiments on her mother. Instead, we have genetic mutations caused by drug use. If there's any chance this is an explanation to how some individuals are born with psychic abilities, i suspect that Brenner knew that drugs had the potential to cause such mutations and that via experiments and training, he would unlock these supernatural psychic abilities. Knowing that, Brenner would use the MKUltra (which mainly involved psychedelic drugs) as a means to new supernatural kids to be born, just like it happened to Eleven. Virginia Creel's backstory In episode 7, Henry mentions that his parents did "such awful things." and that he "held up a mirror" to show them who they really were, but we never got to see what Henry used against his mother. Whatever awful thing she did, is still a mystery in the show. Also, Virginia somehow knew that Henry had supernatural abilities, so i think it's plausible to assume that, perhaps, Virginia knew it because of something dark in her past, something she believed resulted in her son being born with supernatural abilities and becoming a "broken" kid. The drug element that i mentioned before could also play a role in the origin of Henry's powers and whatever these dark memories of Virginia are. In S4E7 script, we can see that the whole part where Virginia suspects Henry is the responsible for the strange happenings in the house and contacts Brenner to lock her son away is missing. Meaning the writers later decided to add more layers to this backstory that may be explored in S5. The Duffer Brothers have confirmed in interviews that S5 will explore more of Henry's prequel story, and it was recently revealed in an article from BBC that the 'The First Shadow' stage play influences S5, so i'm hoping this means we'll see more of the Creels, specially Virginia. They were able to adjust some of the "things in the play" and said that working on it had given them ideas for the upcoming season five. 1960's - THE PROGRAM EVOLVES - The evolution of Brenner's program logically took place during the 1960s, and some of that was already hinted in S2 when we discover that Terry had documents about people she believed were like her daughter. In some of those documents we get to see that Kali was abducted in London, a Cleveland teen girl who was seemingly abducted in Indiana, and a newborn boy was taken from a hospital. The baby was in the care of a nurse who was found dead in her home. - in 1969, Ray Carroll started working at HNL as an orderly. 1970's - At some point in the early 70's, Terry Ives got involved with MKUltra. (In the Suspicious Minds book, we learn that Terry was involved with MKUltra in 1969 but i'm not considering any information from the book due to the huge amount of inconsistencies.) - After Brenner kidnapped Eleven in 1971, the HNL would face charges and lawsuits from Terry Ives but they were denied due to lack of evidence. - In 1973, the MKUltra was officially halted. - In 1974, Terry would try to take Eleven from the laboratory. Brenner ordered Terry to undergo an eletroshock therapy, ordering Ray Carroll to set the voltage up to 450 and then proceeded to electrocute her until her brain was damaged. - In 1979, One succeeded in having El "free" him by removing the Soteria from him. Regaining his psychic abilities, Henry kills all the Indigo numbers except for Eleven who would eventually banish him out of our dimension. After the attack, El falls into a coma, and Brenner doesn't dare bring another number to the lab. Instead, Brenner focuses the experiments on Eleven, who has repressed not only her memories of the past events but also her powers after waking up from her coma. Brenner knew that Eleven's abilities weren't lost but needed a "spark" to be restored. 1983 - Brenner believed that One was somewhere out there, "hiding in the darkness", and in 1983, after Eleven's powers were restored, Brenner would eventually use her abilities to find him. - In one experiment, El hears a strange sound that would get Brenner's attention. Despite El getting scared and the experiment being aborted, Brenner would repeat the experiment with the intention of making "contact". - On the night of november 6, 1983, El makes psychic contact with the Demogorgon in the Void, inadvertentely creating TUD, opening the mothergate and unleashing the monster. She eventually escaped the HNL that night. - On the next day, Brenner and the CIA receive a visit from agents that according to the S1E1 script were NSA. CIA and NSA agents would eventually work together to find Eleven and cover up anything that would compromise the secrecy of their clandestine operation. - Brenner and his team of agents along with MPs would go to the Hawkins Middle School in order to find Eleven after Hopper revealed her location. For their surprise, the Demogorgon appears in the school, distracting the agents and MPs, allowing the kids to run away from the CIA with Eleven. Brenner is brutally attacked by the Demogorgon, but survives the attack. - After the events in the school, we see hopper entering a black sedan with CIA agents. - CIA agents go to the Wheelers House searching for Eleven. This is the last time we see Brenner's men in the show. In the next season, the HNL would have a new director and a new staff. - In a clipping at Hawkins Police Station, there's information on the aftermath of the events in november, 1983, where we learn that Joyce Byers publicy alleged that Will was the subject of a secret government program. Joyce's allegation comes amidst the investigation into the past allegations of the lab's involvement with mind control experiments (MKUltra). - As to where Brenner and his entire staff were after the events in november, it is unknown, but i suspect Owens knew about what happened to them as in S2 he seems to be certain that Brenner's men were gone. The point is, mistakes have been made. Yes. Abundant mistakes, but, the men involved with those mistakes, the ones responsible for what happened to your brother and Miss Holland's death, they're gone. They're gone, and for better for worse, i'm the schmuck they brought in to make things better. — Sam OwensI've come to suspect that after the events of November '83, when the entire HNL staff was replaced, everything documented/recorded about the CIA's clandestine operations was securely locked away by CIA or DOE operatives, likely in the decommissioned Nevada Silo. (One alternate possibility is that those documents and recordings were stored in the Silo after the HNL was closed in december, 1984) Something that I find interesting is that both the Silo Lab and Owens' residence are located in Nevada, and in S4E5, when Eleven is taken to the Silo, originally the titles "Ruth, Nevada" appeared on the screen, that was later removed, but it implies that both the Silo and Owens' residence were close. This leads me to suspect that long before Owens and Brenner conceived of the NINA program, Owens already knew about the abandoned Silo in Nevada and decided to used it to store every TOP-SECRET documents/recordings of the CIA operations at HNL: https://preview.redd.it/xh9e7lxqye3b1.png?width=1334&format=png&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=eafda108e43adbb8ff115ac586a13add1f1e8442 One interesting detail is that the idea of the government securely locking away videotapes is something the Duffers planned for their original Montauk conception, which most of it was a prototype for what we've seen in Stranger Things. In The Montauk Experiment, the O.S.S. would securely lock away film cannisters with recordings of everything that happened in Camp Hero after the experiments ended in a blood-soaked event. Details in the document below: The logline for 'The Montauk Experiment' DOCTOR SAM OWENS' POSITION IN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT - Sam Owens is a high-ranking member within U.S. Department of Energy as mentioned in the first official description of his character. Sometime between late 1983 and early 1984 he would be brought to HNL on a ‘clean-up’ assignment, tasked with containing the mess left by the CIA in 1983 and making things better. - As I previously mentioned, Owens may have been responsible for locking away all the documented CIA experimentation at HNL, and he also may have known the whereabouts of Brenner and other scientists and CIA operatives who worked with him all along. I would even assume that Owens and Brenner may have been in contact all this time. - During his time as director of the operations at HNL, Owens was involved in Will's treatment and in containing the spread of TUD. - In November 1984, during the Demodogs invasion, Owens met Eleven, who eventually closed the gate, ending TUD invasion. - A month later, the operations at HNL were officially shut down and the lab was closed after the release of the tape recording Owens' "confession", and Owens decided to help Eleven have a normal life under Hopper's care, giving him a forged birth certificate, and recommending Hopper to "let things cool off" for a year. This, of course, was done without the knowledge of the U.S. government. FACTONS WITHIN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT After the events os S2, in addition to the CIA Clandestine Ops and the DOE, other different agencies were introduced in the story: - US Army/Pentagon that briefly appears at the end of s3 (although we've seen the Military Police in the previous seasons which is a branch of the Army), and would be an antagonist faction in S4. - FBI agents who are presented as friends of Owens and allied to our main characters in S4. SULLIVAN'S FACTION - At some point after the HNL was closed, Doctor Owens, in addition to his high-ranking position in the DOE, also gained some position within the U.S. Army/Pentagon, probably tasked with monitoring and maintaining security in Hawkins after the lab was closed and the military presence left town. Lieutenant Colonel Jack Sullivan was involved in this, and it's possible he and Owens worked together. - An interesting detail is that the arm patch on Lt. Colonel Sullivan's uniform confirms that he's an United States Army Criminal Investigation Division operative, hence his associaton with the Pentagon. - At some point (i assume 1985), rumors about Eleven being alive and receiving help from someone within the U.S. government began to surface within the Pentagon, this would affect Owens' reputation. - It's also worth mentioning that in S4E6, Sullivan seems to imply that he knew or at least believed Brenner was alive. Explanation two, Dr. Brenner's special little pet has gone rogue again and he and his lackeys are now seeking to cover it up. Perhaps in the hopes of selling their pet to the Soviets. — Lt. Colonel SullivanThere's also this interview with Sherman Augustus where the interviewer asks him if Sullivan knows that Brenner is still alive, and Sherman's answer implies that Brenner being alive is something that wouldn't surprise Sullivan, Maybe because it was rumored within the Pentagon too. Basically, there's nothing that Sullivan doesn't know or expect about what's been happening in Hawkins and within the government since the events of S1. I'm pretty sure he knows that there's certain elements... because he says in the dialogue "there's rumors that she's getting help from someone on the inside". So there is nothing that he is not, you know, equating in that situation, he's not surprised. Whatever it is, you have to be a really strong and dynamic individual to be able to go in and try to kick E.T in the butt. — Sherman Augustus - In July 1985, Owens would find out about a foreign government invasion in Hawkins, and would go to Hawkins accompanied by Army/Pentagon forces to deal with the invasion, only to find an empty Soviet bunker. OWENS' FACTION - After the events in July, Owens got fired from his position in the miitary for failing his assignment to monitor security at Hawkins, i believe the previously mentioned rumors about him may also have played a role in his dismissal. - Owens, knowing that El had lost her powers, feared a further re-emergence of the TUD, which led him to begin developing ways to restore her abilities. - Owens would ally with Brenner to develop a way to restore Eleven's abilities, and Brenner convinced Owens that the only way to do so was via a process of re-experiencing her repressed memories in a program that they would later call NINA. It's unclear when Brenner and Owens' alliance started, but i personally believe they knew each other for longer than we initially thought, and shortly after the July events, Owens' looked for Brenner's help in order to develop a means to restore El's powers. - Despite being fired from his position in the military, Owens was still a DOE member and also had connections to the FBI (Ellen Stinson and other agents), and he used his power to clandestinely provide Brenner with the necessary resources to establish the NINA Project. For the program to be sanctioned, he had to compromise his principles, and risk his life and that of his family. Something worth noting is that in the episode 7 script, the dialogue where Owens expresses his disappointment with NINA's progress is a little different: I've given you all the resources you've asked for, i've given you your people, i've compromised my principles, i've risked my life, my family's life, all because you assured me this would work. That this was the only way. — Sam OwensBy "i've given you your people" we can confirm that Owens gave to Brenner his old HNL staff, who as we saw in S4E8, were loyal to him. And we can also confirm by Sam's words that he had to give Brenner resources, meaning, wherever Brenner was after the events oF S1, he was left with no resources and access to his old staff. - Owens and Brenner would establish NINA in the same abandoned Silo in Nevada where Owens presumably locked away all the video tapes and documents from HNL. THE FACTION CONFLICT - After Owens' dismissal, Sullivan apparently became the responsible for monitoring Hawkins and maintaining the security in the town. - In March 1986, a supernatural murder in Hawkins comes to Sullivan's attention, and after an autopsy is performed by Army medical doctors, Sullivan concludes that the murder was done remotely, which tied in with the rumors about Eleven being alive and getting help from someone within the U.S. government who he, and probably other operatives within the Pentagon believed was Sam Owens. - Upon that conclusion, Sullivan would begin a clandestine military operation in order to investigate Eleven's whereabouts, and this leads him to Owens. - Something worth noting is that when we are first introduced to Sullivan, he arrives in Indiana in an U.S. Army helicopter to investigate the circumstances of an unusual murder, but when he begins his operation to hunt down Eleven, he goes to Ruth, Nevada in an unmarked black helicopter, alluding to the fact that this is a clandestine military operation: Sullivan arrives in Indiana Sullivan leaves Owens' residence in Ruth, Nevada Something interesting about the scene where Sullivan visits Owens that adds some information on what the U.S. government has been up to is the dialogue between Sullivan and Owens from this audition tape which is a bit different from the dialogue in the show, There were no signs of an attacker. No bruises, no signs of any struggle. It's as if her attacker was a ghost. — Lt. Colonel SullivanOwens' question implies that Sullivan has been helping him at some point, probably in monitoring Hawkins like a mentioned before, which would explain how he knew so much about what has happened there all this years. And Sullivan's response implies that after Owens got fired, it became his responsability to maintain security in Hawkins, which is why he was there, asking Owens Eleven's whereabouts. - Owens refuses to tell Sullivan Eleven's whereabouts, and Jack decides to do things "the hard way", taking multiple items from Owens' house in order to investigate everything Sam has done and everyone he has spoken to in 1985 and luckily, be able to find where Eleven is. - Owens knew that the former Indigo test subject One was back, and via a DOE intranet, he requests the immediate acceleration of NINA. He makes it clear that their secret program and facility were compromised and that the Pentagon was involved. And for the security of their program, Owens implements a communication lockdown. - Owens uses his FBI connections to have agents help him find Eleven, maintain the secrecy of the operation and protect people closely associated with Eleven who could be found by Sullivan. Some of those agents are Ellen Stinson, who seems to be Owens' right hand, Agent Harmon, and Agent Wallace. - In the meantime, Sullivan/the Pentagon was able to find out that Owens moved Eleven to Lenora Hills, CA, and would eventually send a group of agents/soldiers to find her. - After finding Eleven with a group of agents and convicing her to go with him in order to get her powers back, Owens takes El to the Silo Lab while Agents Harmon and Wallace would stay with Mike, Jonathan and Will to protect them, and Agent Stinson would be closely monitoring Hawkins with 2 more agents. - Sullivan, after a shootout in the Byers' house takes Agent Wallace to a black site to torture him in order to find out where Eleven was, and after a long time of torture, Wallace gave away Eleven's location. - After NINA succeeded in restoring Eleven's abilities, Owens, believing she was ready, would call Stinson to have her prepare the transit from Nevada to Hawkins, Indiana through her connections at Nellis. - Brenner would eventually betray Owens and considered killing him in order to stop Eleven from leaving the Silo Lab. After the conflict between Owens and Brenner, the Pentagon finally arrives at the location revealed by Agent Wallace and a conflict between the U.S army and the MP soldiers resulted in the death of Brenner, his men and all the scientists in the Silo Lab, except Owens. - Eleven escapes the Pentagon with her friends, and we see Sullivan and some of his soldiers for the last time in S4, in the Nevada desert. Episodes 8 and 9 made it clear that El still needs to hide and Sullivan's faction is still after her. It's worth mentioning that Sullivan was the only villain in ST4 not to be killed or at least injured, so it's almost certain that this guy will be back in ST5 to kick E.T's ass. Specially know that a full-scale TUD invasion is about the happen in Hawkins. POSSIBILITIES FOR S5: Sullivan investigates the video tapes in the silo lab S4 ended without us knowing what happened to Owens and Sullivan after eleven escaped, but we do know that both characters are in the Silo Lab and that Sullivan now has access to a vast amount of video tapes that he would certainly investigate and this would create several different possibilities for the Pentagon's role in S5. Sullivan's Mission in Hawkins Sullivan is still responsible for monitoring Hawkins, and he will likely learn about what is happening in the town (which is also where El is hiding now), possibly through the military presence in Hawkins that we saw in the ST4 epilogue. Something that caught my attention was the presence of a Research Lab vehicle on the set of down town hawkins, this vehicle never appeared in the show, and it was not mentioned in the script of episode 9. But it makes me think that at the end of S4, the Military is not just trying to help Hawkins citizen after this "federal disaster", but also researching into TUD, which perhaps is an operation led by Sullivan? let me know what you guys think. S1 parallels If we have Sullivan in Hawkins in S5, we most certainly will get more Government vs Eleven scenes, which would parallel Brenner and the CIA in S1. I particularly believe that S5 will have many parallels with what the Duffers planned for the first season of Montauk: ACT THREE (episodes 7-8) will climax with characters working together to outsmart the military, venture into this alternate dimension, save Will, and, hopefully, close this "tear" once and for all. Doctor Owens in 1959 flashbacks Something I found extremely suspicious is that in S4, Owens seemed to know more than we initially thought... He's claimed three victims so far, and when i saw the eyes, i knew... i knew that was him. He was him. He was sending us a message, letting us know he's back.This sentence from Owens confirms that he somehow knew Henry's killing manner. It's plausible to assume that Owens learned about Henry and the other Indigo Numbers after being brought to the lab to "make things better". But I personally believe that there must be a greater reason why he was brought to HNL after S1, I believe Owens was already aware of the clandestine operations that had been happening in the HNL for years (at least some of it) and had known Dr. Brenner since the 1950's. I would even consider the possibility that Owens has been involved in clandestine government operations in the past and that somehow led him to find out about the HNL and Brenner's program. In this interview by The Wrap, Ross Duffer's words about Brenner and Owens' alliance caught my attention because the way he puts it felt like Owens has known Brenner for much longer than we think. Once that first kill with Chrissy happens, then their fears are realized and that’s what jump starts their whole storyline. I mean, that is why Owens is collaborating with Brenner, a man he also does not like. He respects him, but despises the man, because he also knows he’s the key to stopping One, to stopping Vecna. — Ross DufferBy my suspicion, i came up with the theory/fanfic that Owens could have worked with Brenner in the 50's and was aware of what happened in the Creel House in '59. Maybe he even met young Henry and interacted with him after he woke up from his coma. If there's any chance that i'm right about it, i would imagine the Owens and Henry interactions would parallel the scenes with Owens and Will in S2. Stinson becomes the new Owens / Her alliance with the adults Agent Stinson was apparently Owens' right hand in S4 and also the leader among the agents of Owens' faction, being involved in the operations in Nevada, Hawkins and even being responsible for driving Hopper and Joyce to Hawkins. Imo, Stinson has the potential to become the "new Owens"/Main government operative to help our main characters while Owens is MIA. She could also send some agents to investigate what happened to Owens. I have a personal theory that Stinson will join the adults in S5 and help them on a mission to outsmart the military. And i think the "knowing nod" between Hop and Stinson in S4E9 might be a hint of a possible team up for S5. |
2023.05.31 18:57 Qwelyn Is this a bug? Tournament mode hasn't even started yet
 | submitted by Qwelyn to CallOfDutyMobile [link] [comments] |
2023.05.27 17:49 rgent006 Redditors on the PCT Week 12 (27 MAY 2023)
Who will enter the Sierra? Who will take time off? Who will skip ahead to NorCal? TIME IS CURRENTLY TELLING and I am reporting.
All of my NOBO bb's have officially set off on their journeys which means....... It's almost time for dirty SOBO szn ;) Luv u bbs
As always, we appreciate all of your updates from trail and wish you nothing but the absolute best as your embark and continue on your PCT journey. HYOH, LNT, and remember to thank your local Trail Angel.
JOIN THESE UPDATES
If you are hiking the trail this year (Thru or LASH) and would like to be added to these posts, please fill out the survey linked here or comment below and we'll get you added into future updates. These updates will come on a weekly basis and be put out on Mondays.
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Week 11
submitted by rgent006 to PacificCrestTrail [link] [comments]
All of my NOBO bb's have officially set off on their journeys which means....... It's almost time for dirty SOBO szn ;) Luv u bbs
As always, we appreciate all of your updates from trail and wish you nothing but the absolute best as your embark and continue on your PCT journey. HYOH, LNT, and remember to thank your local Trail Angel.
VIBE OF THE WEEK: AUSTERE..ing
*given to exacting standards of discipline and self-restraint*JOIN THESE UPDATES
If you are hiking the trail this year (Thru or LASH) and would like to be added to these posts, please fill out the survey linked here or comment below and we'll get you added into future updates. These updates will come on a weekly basis and be put out on Mondays.
If for any reason you'd like to be removed from these updates OR if something does not look right, please message me directly.
Thread for hikers to post current trail conditions
Sierra Beta (5/17)
Middle Fork San Joaquin River Bridge is Out (mile 912.2)
PCTA - Most Recent Trail Closure Updates
The below usernames are clickable links that take you to that hiker's social media page (IG, YT, blog etc.)
| Hiker | Trail Name | Start Date | Current Location-ish | Week 11 Update: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| u/Schrodingers-cat-30 | Ditto | MAR 2 2023 (NOBO) | Sierra Nevada | 5/26: no update posted |
| u/TrailNicks, Link 2 | Golden | MAR 5 2023 (NOBO) | not sure | 5/26: Had a grand old time at KMS, but may be skipping north? |
| u/TrailHead42 | Trailhead | MAR 10 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/26: no update posted |
| u/juliozz59, Link 2 | Spread | MAR 20 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/26: practicing fire safety on trail |
| u/emdem55 | Keys | MAR 22 2023 (NOBO) | Off Trail! | 5/26: off trail to await snow melt |
| u/Beefandsteel | MAR 22 2023 (NOBO) | Off Trail! | 5/26: off trail to await snow melt | |
| u/jacobburns | MAR 22 2023 (NOBO) | past mi 400 | 5/26: Cajon Pass McD's, hit mi 400, "had the final party at The Oasis in Agua Dulce before they banned alcohol" | |
| u/ThrowAwayTheAT | MAR 22 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/26: no update posted | |
| u/7-legged-octopus | MAR 27 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/26: no update posted | |
| u/frankiehikes | Tabs | MAR 28 2023 (NOBO) | Off Trail! | 5/26: Off trail to await snow melt, flipping to NorCal |
| u/particularamphibian, Link 2, Link 3 | MAR 28 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/26: no update posted | |
| u/yourgirlbribri | MAR 29 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/26: no update posted | |
| u/Intrepid-Ad-4770, Link 2 | Sweets | MAR 29 2023 (NOBO) | past Tehachapi | 5/26: "Now this the desert i thoughtit would be! Hot and LONG water carries" |
| u/Future_Psychology_91 | Dundee on the AT.. on the PCT? | MAR 30 2023 (NOBO) | Tehachapi | 5/26: took a couple zero's in Tehachapi |
| u/Kalmes12345 | MAR 31 2023 (NOBO) | Off Trail! | 5/26: Taking some time off to travel while waiting for snow melt | |
| u/chroniclesofvanlife, Link 2, Link 3 | Stitches | APR 1 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/26: no update posted |
| u/nataliethisisnatalie | Bestie | APR 1 2023 (NOBO) | Big Bear | 5/26: "Mile 369.3 - 266.1, Returning to trail after our weekend in Wrightwood felt natural and calm. Compared to the previous week, this one was a walk in the park!" |
| u/Phantom_dong | APR 5 2023 (NOBO) | Sierra Nevada | 5/26: "There were multiple times that there were semi-fresh tracks on the trail that I would follow for miles. I even saw a baby print at one point… Along with all this, I passed both the 25% mark as well as 700 miles from the Mexico border. " | |
| u/pelostrece | Spanish Inquisition | APR 5 2023 (NOBO) | SL Tahoe | 5/26: decided to skip up to Tahoe |
| u/UtahHiker69 | Fry Pocket | APR 6 2023 (NOBO) | KMS | 5/26: winning the award for most fun had on trail so far! |
| u/shoebinn, Link 2 | APR 7 2023 (NOBO) | Off Trail! | 5/26: hit mi 600 but posted this morning that they are taking a train from Bakersfield to Portland so might be off trail for a little? | |
| u/evoncassier | APR 7 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/26: "The more I use my body, the quieter my mind becomes. Journaling is almost nonexistent. Dirt adds texture to your food but it’s a terrible seasoning." | |
| u/RedNi12 | APR 9 2023 (NOBO) | LA AQ | 5/26: night hiked the LA AQ | |
| u/tomnomnom17 | APR 10 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/26: Wind farms for days | |
| u/Beccatravels | Pepper | APR 10 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/26: no update posted |
| u/jesshikes | APR 11 2023 (NOBO) | KMS | 5/26: "The Desert: the first major section of the PCT—702 miles; full of snow, waterless exposed ridges, valleys, and lots of ice cream." | |
| u/DrWolffe | Scrambles | APR 11 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/26: No update posted |
| u/mikenikey | Water Taxi | APR 12 2023 (NOBO) | Off Trail! | 5/26: had an unfortunate time and got airlifted to a hospital, getting back on at Walker Pass at a later date |
| u/woodsbearoutdoors | APR 14 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/26: no update posted | |
| u/pollyf | APR 14 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/26: no update posted | |
| u/hallroosevelt, Link 2 | APR 15 2023 (NOBO) | past Tehachapi | 5/26: night hiked the LA AQ, | |
| u/AgentDouble00 | Doppler | APR 15 2023 (NOBO) | Warner Springs | 5/27: Warner Springs |
| u/Bullish_bear000 | APR 19 2023 (NOBO) | Baden Powell | 5/27: Crosscountry skiied into Wrightwood, broke a trekking pole, and then plans to crawl back up to Baden Powell | |
| u/esahr | Guidebook | APR 19 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/27: No update posted |
| u/Just_karo | Flamethrower | APR 20 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/27: "Good times and good friends - what else do you need!" |
| u/charles1503, Link 2, Link 3 | APR 21 2023 (NOBO) | mi 450ish | 5/27: hit 400 mi mark! Getting awesome trail magic in the desert | |
| u/B2Pats | Marine | APR 23 2023 (NOBO) | past mi 400 | 5/27: "I'm thinking I'll try the Sierra (Motor and Sister too), others don't. Things may change before then, but in the meantime, let's make the most of it." |
| u/loganlaliberte | Juice | APR 25 2023 (NOBO) | Mill Creek | 5/27: catching beautiful sunrises in the desert |
| u/FishingFrank, Link 2 | Papa Roja | APR 26 2023 (NOBO) | past Wrightwood | 5/27: "Sunsets and a sunrise before making the last push into Wrightwood!" |
| u/Havasu-Hiker23, u/Havasu-hiker | Stix | APR 26 2023 (NOBO) | approaching mi 500 | 5/27: stayed in Acton, hit mi 400! Vasquez Rocks "The overcast skies were amazing all day, keeping the temperature down!" |
| u/MoonMoonMoonMooon | APR 27 2023 (NOBO - Section) | No update posted | 5/27: No update posted | |
| u/hejkathinka, Link 2 | CEO | APR 28 2023 (NOBO) | mi 400ish | 5/27: Beautiful sunrises and sunsets in the desert |
| u/Mschoee | MAY 1 2023 (NOBO) | past Cajon Pass | 5/27: hot springs and McD's, need I say more? | |
| u/loombisaurus | Daisy | MAY 1 2023 (NOBO) | approaching KMS | 5/27: back on trail, dropped gear off at KMS and went back to make up miles, will attempt the sierra "it makes my hair stand on end and my blood vessels dilate." |
| u/MoogyzHikez, u/environmental-pop-11 | MAY 4 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/27: On Trail! | |
| u/sharkdork | MAY 5 2023 (NOBO) | approaching mi 400 | 5/27: hit 300 mi mark! | |
| u/Kristi_Tho | MAY 6 2023 (NOBO) | Big Bear | 5/27: "Now taking two “zero” days in Big Bear Lake to resupply and catch up on some luxuries (margaritas) #pct2023" | |
| u/jkeller52 | MAY 10 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/26: no update posted | |
| u/Powerful-Plantain-84 | MAY 10 2023 (NOBO) | Requested IG | 5/26: requested access to IG | |
| u/kinn0n14 | Jabberwocky | MAY 13 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/26: Hit 100 mi mark! |
| u/dgerken81 | Hot Pink | MAY 13 2023 (NOBO) | past mi 100 | 5/26: "Big Miles & Burnt out." |
| u/innoutberger | Jenga | MAY 14 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/26: "The snowpack continues to blanket the landscape, burying the trees, trail, water sources, and my sense of sanity along with it." |
| u/spiderwinder23 | MAY 15 2023 (NOBO) | Off Trail! | 5/26: Caught a stomach bug around MVM, taking a few days off but getting back on for SanJac region | |
| u/niccolojoe | MAY 18 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/26: On Trail! | |
| u/packfullofgoldbars | MAY 20 2023 (NOBO - Section) | past mi 100 | 5/26: Hit 100 mi mark! | |
| u/bongwaterbaneRYO | The Bane | MAY 20 2023 (NOBO) | past Mt Laguna | 5/26: second time on the PCT, made it to Mt Laguna. "Everything about the PCT has been just as magical as I remember." |
| u/bbqbaconsandwich | MAY 22 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/26: No update from trail yet | |
| u/Big_Bad_Panda | Tinman | MAY 25 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/27: no update from trail yet |
| u/brick_50 | MAY 25 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/27: no update from trail yet | |
| u/margot380, Link 2 | JUL 2 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/jocheeseburger11 | Early Bird | JUL 7 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | |
| u/Sea_counter8398 | JUL 8 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/lilmisscactus | JUL 8 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/Agreeable_Ad_5423 | JUL 10 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/canthinkofone9 | Sweet Rinn | JUL 26 2023 (SOBO - Section) | Not Yet On Trail |
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Week 9
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Week 11
2023.05.24 03:36 neepshmeep Build Ideas
 | Hey Reddit, ive had an scx24 for a while now, and I wanna mod it. I want to swap the wheels, maybe lift it, and I want to be able to fit a slightly bigger batterey. I might buy/make a new body, but idk. Id really like if someone had some rim suggestions, i want something small, and much more scale for more realistic full scale looks. here are some images of what kinda clearance and size rims i was thinking: submitted by neepshmeep to SCX24 [link] [comments] PS: is there a such thing as scx24 wheel spacers? I have a 3d printer if someone has a file. https://preview.redd.it/847fcbs5no1b1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=8f9559d4112145444bbfa26c711adc9dacc63a01 https://preview.redd.it/gjwpqf28no1b1.png?width=639&format=png&auto=webp&s=89f295e7548db836d8eeed4d77c041236363b47b https://preview.redd.it/hejci1epno1b1.png?width=1040&format=png&auto=webp&s=d9f2139cd826f1305e24ba4a129217229a957d95 |
2023.05.23 23:01 koiFishy10 Need me late night head can’t host thou 20m Vista Ca Emrald dr m4femboy
submitted by koiFishy10 to FemboyHookup [link] [comments]
2023.05.22 23:04 lbabinz [Amazon] Weekly Video Game Price Drops (May 15 - 22)
2023.05.22 19:15 rgent006 Redditors on the PCT Week 11 (22 MAY 2023)
Hiking season is in full swing and it's making my heart very happy :) You will see a lot of quotes from people's social media accounts* for updates in the coming weeks instead of my usual, short, 1 sentence summaries of their progress. I want to more or less create a yearbook of quotes for the Class of 2023. I will continue to post "Current Location-ish" HAGS, HAKAS!
*User accounts that have opted to publicize their social media links
As always, we appreciate all of your updates from trail and wish you nothing but the absolute best as your embark and continue on your PCT journey. HYOH, LNT, and remember to thank your local Trail Angel.
JOIN THESE UPDATES
If you are hiking the trail this year (Thru or LASH) and would like to be added to these posts, please fill out the survey linked here or comment below and we'll get you added into future updates. These updates will come on a weekly basis and be put out on Mondays.
If for any reason you'd like to be removed from these updates OR if something does not look right, please message me directly.
Thread for hikers to post current trail conditions
PCTA - Most Recent Trail Closure Updates
San Jacinto Update 5/10
The below usernames are clickable links that take you to that hiker's social media page (IG, YT, blog etc.)
ARCHIVE
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
submitted by rgent006 to PacificCrestTrail [link] [comments]
*User accounts that have opted to publicize their social media links
As always, we appreciate all of your updates from trail and wish you nothing but the absolute best as your embark and continue on your PCT journey. HYOH, LNT, and remember to thank your local Trail Angel.
VIBE OF THE WEEK: BURGEONING
*to grow or develop rapidly; expand or proliferate*JOIN THESE UPDATES
If you are hiking the trail this year (Thru or LASH) and would like to be added to these posts, please fill out the survey linked here or comment below and we'll get you added into future updates. These updates will come on a weekly basis and be put out on Mondays.
If for any reason you'd like to be removed from these updates OR if something does not look right, please message me directly.
Thread for hikers to post current trail conditions
PCTA - Most Recent Trail Closure Updates
San Jacinto Update 5/10
The below usernames are clickable links that take you to that hiker's social media page (IG, YT, blog etc.)
| Hiker | Trail Name | Start Date | Current Location-ish | Week 11 Update: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| u/Schrodingers-cat-30 | Ditto | MAR 2 2023 (NOBO) | Sierra Nevada | 5/20: "We pushed the envelope of what is possible. Went 145 miles straight in the sierra from KMS to aspendel and we had a blast. Words can’t describe and pictures can’t do it justice. That was amazing" |
| u/TrailNicks, Link 2 | Golden | MAR 5 2023 (NOBO) | KMS | 5/20: heading to KMS! |
| u/TrailHead42 | Trailhead | MAR 10 2023 (NOBO) | past mi 250 | 5/20: Got back on trail in the evening, did 4 mi and set up camp |
| u/juliozz59, Link 2 | Spread | MAR 20 2023 (NOBO) | Sierra Nevada | 5/20: having a blast with his 'La #Tramilia' heading into the Sierra from KMS |
| u/emdem55 | Keys | MAR 22 2023 (NOBO) | Off Trail! | 5/20: pulled their first 30mi day headed up to Walker Pass. Getting off trail for a month but will get back on in NorCal in late June. Will keep hiker on the list |
| u/Beefandsteel | MAR 22 2023 (NOBO) | Off Trail! | 5/20: Got to Walker Pass but getting off trail until early June. Will keep hiker on the list | |
| u/jacobburns | MAR 22 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/20: No update posted | |
| u/ThrowAwayTheAT | MAR 22 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/20: No update posted | |
| u/7-legged-octopus | MAR 27 2023 (NOBO) | KMS | 5/20: Took dope pics at the LA. "next stop: kennedy meadows, and the end of the desert section." | |
| u/frankiehikes | Tabs | MAR 28 2023 (NOBO) | Off Trail! | 5/20: "We made it 704 miles to Kennedy meadows! I will be off trail for a couple of weeks and rejoin in Northern California." |
| u/particularamphibian, Link 2, Link 3 | MAR 28 2023 (NOBO) | past mi 600 | 5/20: "Miles 400-558.5. Snowstorms, new friends, desert superbloom, night trips with glowsticks. Another eventful week on the PCT " | |
| u/m | MAR 28 2023 (NOBO) | Off Trail! | 5/20: seems to be off trail, will archive hiker next week if no update | |
| u/yourgirlbribri | MAR 29 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/20: hit 500 miles and feeling proud (you should!!) "Night hiking the LA aqueduct and seeing the wind farm against the stars of desert sky was such an amazing experience and one of my favorite days on trail so far." | |
| u/Intrepid-Ad-4770, Link 2 | Sweets | MAR 29 2023 (NOBO) | KMS | 5/20: completed Section E and nighthiked the LA AQ. Possibly saw UFO? headed to KMS! |
| u/Future_Psychology_91 | Dundee on the AT.. on the PCT? | MAR 30 2023 (NOBO) | Tehachapi | 5/20: big miles, long, hot days through windmill fields, ending in Tehachapi for town chores |
| u/Kalmes12345 | MAR 31 2023 (NOBO) | Tehachapi | 5/20: seeing how far they can stretch their legs, pulling 20s is no big deal at this time. night hiked the LA AQ as per tradition | |
| u/chroniclesofvanlife, Link 2, Link 3 | Stitches | APR 1 2023 (NOBO) | KMS | 5/20: Reached KMS!!!!! So proud!! "I feel as though I am experiencing earth at the pace of earth itself, slowly shifting to different biomes and watching different plants bloom." |
| u/nataliethisisnatalie | Bestie | APR 1 2023 (NOBO) | SanJac | 5/20: Summitted SanJac! Big Win! |
| u/Phantom_dong | APR 5 2023 (NOBO) | past Tehachapi | 5/20: Morning hiked LA AQ, napped under a bridge as per tradition, nero'd and zero'd in Tehachapi to round out the desert portion. | |
| u/pelostrece | Spanish Inquisition | APR 5 2023 (NOBO) | KMS | 5/20: completed SanJac, rolled into Big Bear, 2 days ago he was at KMS |
| u/UtahHiker69 | Fry Pocket | APR 6 2023 (NOBO) | mi 600ish | 5/20: had a big reunion at Hikertown, as well as an incredible burger. "We’re out here, happy, nonjudgmental. Just equal humans on a journey through life. Just the way it should be." |
| u/shoebinn, Link 2 | APR 7 2023 (NOBO) | mi 600ish | 5/20: plans to get off at KMS to wait for snow to melt, in the meantime stopped in at Hikertown and then night hiked LA AQ | |
| u/evoncassier | APR 7 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/20: No update posted | |
| u/RedNi12 | APR 9 2023 (NOBO) | Acton | 5/20: hit mi 400! Took highway around Baden Powell, chilling in Acton | |
| u/tomnomnom17 | APR 10 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/20: hit 500 mi mark! | |
| u/Beccatravels | Pepper | APR 10 2023 (NOBO) | past Wrightwood | 5/20: new shoes, pizza at the trailhead and Cajon Pass McD's; then slogged into Wrightwood for a zero and pushing to Tehachapi |
| u/jesshikes | APR 11 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/20: "the PCT is starting to feel like a normal life; I have a routine, daily tasks, people I see regularly. Everyday is different and yet the unknown feels strangely comfortable now." | |
| u/DrWolffe | Scrambles | APR 11 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/20: No update posted |
| u/mikenikey | Water Taxi | APR 12 2023 (NOBO) | Tehachapi | 5/20: set off on a solo night hike of LA AQ however found some friends and finished a 37 mi day with their first cowboy camp. Rolled into Tehachapi |
| u/woodsbearoutdoors | APR 14 2023 (NOBO) | Tehachapi | 5/20: Summited San Jacinto, Mount Baden Powell and Throop. Destroying lots of gear along the way :) | |
| u/pollyf | APR 14 2023 (NOBO) | Tehachapi | 5/20: rolled through the wind farm | |
| u/hallroosevelt, Link 2 | APR 15 2023 (NOBO) | mi 500ish | 5/20: more than halfway done with desert section, approaching mi 500 | |
| u/AgentDouble00 | Doppler | APR 15 2023 (NOBO) | Hikertown | 5/20: Hikertown |
| u/Bullish_bear000 | APR 19 2023 (NOBO) | Big Bear | 5/20: hit mi 300! Stopped at the hot springs and pulled a 25 mi day, counting the miles to Big Bear | |
| u/esahr | Guidebook | APR 19 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/20: No update posted |
| u/Just_karo | Flamethrower | APR 20 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/20: Loving the snow again and happy to be on trail! |
| u/charles1503, Link 2, Link 3 | APR 21 2023 (NOBO) | Cajon Pass | 5/20: "Finished up week 4. The views keep getting better.... Met a lot of dope people, and the kindness of them taking care of us has helped out a lot." | |
| u/B2Pats | Marine | APR 23 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/20: No update posted |
| u/loganlaliberte | Juice | APR 25 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/20: Baden Powell area |
| u/FishingFrank, Link 2 | Papa Roja | APR 26 2023 (NOBO) | Wrightwood | 5/20: hit mi 300! |
| u/Havasu-Hiker23, u/Havasu-hiker | Stix | APR 26 2023 (NOBO) | Wrightwood | 5/20: hit Cajon Pass McD's and pushing into Wrightwood |
| u/MoonMoonMoonMooon | APR 27 2023 (NOBO - Section) | On Trail! | 5/20: "I truly don’t even know where to begin posting about this hike while I’m still on it" | |
| u/hejkathinka, Link 2 | CEO | APR 28 2023 (NOBO) | Cajon Pass | 5/20: Hit up Cajon Pass McD's |
| u/Mschoee | MAY 1 2023 (NOBO) | mi 250ish | 5/20: made it past SanJac and Whitewater, waking up earlier these days to beat the heat. Taking a nice deserved zero with friends | |
| u/loombisaurus | Daisy | MAY 1 2023 (NOBO) | Off Trail! | 5/22: got off trail to take his doggy home but plans to get back on |
| u/MoogyzHikez, u/environmental-pop-11 | MAY 4 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/22: shared a tent with a lizard, living their best life. | |
| u/sharkdork | MAY 5 2023 (NOBO) | past mi 200 | 5/22: hit mi 200, walked in the rain, saw a rattler | |
| u/Kristi_Tho | MAY 6 2023 (NOBO) | past Idyllwild | 5/22: checking off a lot of "firsts" took their first zero in Idyllwild "first spotting of the poisonous poodle dog brush, and first view of Palm Springs" | |
| u/jkeller52 | MAY 10 2023 (NOBO) | Idyllwild | 5/22: took their first well deserved zero in Idyllwild before they tackle SanJac and roll into Big Bear | |
| u/kinn0n14 | Jabberwocky | MAY 13 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/22: got their trail name! |
| u/dgerken81 | Hot Pink | MAY 13 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/22: "My feet and legs are tired. Back hurts a little. Shoulders are sore. We’ll see what tomorrow holds. " |
| u/innoutberger | Jenga | MAY 14 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/22: snow |
| u/spiderwinder23 | MAY 15 2023 (NOBO) | past mi 100 | 5/22: "Day 6-7: Absolutely crushing these early miles. Making some good friends and did some night hiking on the mountains. Hit mile 100 earlier today" | |
| u/niccolojoe | MAY 18 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/22: no update from trail yet | |
| u/packfullofgoldbars | MAY 20 2023 (NOBO - Section) | No update posted | 5/22: no update from trail yet | |
| u/bbqbaconsandwich | MAY 22 2023 (NOBO) | Starts Today! | 5/22: No update from trail yet | |
| u/Big_Bad_Panda | Tinman | MAY 25 2023 (NOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | |
| u/brick_50 | MAY 25 2023 (NOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/margot380, Link 2 | JUL 2 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/jocheeseburger11 | Early Bird | JUL 7 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | |
| u/Sea_counter8398 | JUL 8 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/lilmisscactus | JUL 8 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/Agreeable_Ad_5423 | JUL 10 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/canthinkofone9 | Sweet Rinn | JUL 26 2023 (SOBO - Section) | Not Yet On Trail |
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2023.05.19 23:34 Adderalin Portfolio Margin Guide
What is portfolio margin? It is a risked based method of giving you margin based on the expected worst case one day move.
Max out your BP unwisely all long SPY at 15% margin (6.66x leverage) then if you lose exactly one dollar on the position = $1 dollar margin call. Spy gaps down 15% overnight = lose entire account. Spy gaps down 20% overnight = owe your broker.
You need $110k - $125k - $175k - $250k of equity to enable it with various brokerages.
Reg-T breaks margin into initial and maintenance margin. Most brokerages offer 2x initial margin for stocks, and 25%-30% maintenance margin.
If you have a 100k account you can buy 200k of SPY and your stock buying power is $0 and options buying power is $0. You have a negative 100k cash balance - your margin loan.
Then you currently have $100k equity as a millisecond later you can probably close your trade for the same exact price and pay off your margin loan.
Now let's say spy dips down to where you have $25k equity. This would be a 125k spy position on 100k margin loan. Spy would have to drop 37.5%. At this point you are at 5x leverage and you're putting your brokers money at risk. With a 25% maintenance margin broker you will now send you a margin call. Most brokers use 30% maintenance margin.
Portfolio Margin is Different:
Portfolio Margin is risk based. It is based on the realistic risk how various stocks and indexes move in one day. Portfolio margin stress tests your individual positions based on a "risk array" testing down moves at -3%, -6%, -9%, -12%, and -15% for most stocks and indexes. It also tests up moves in the same percentages. Whatever is the maximum loss becomes the margin required.
Portfolio Margin your initial margin = maintenance margin. You get immediate margin relief. Unlike Reg-T margin where you only get extra leverage if it goes against you, PM gives it to you right away.
Then at TD Ameritrade, it is displayed differently. Everyone is used to options BP = cash and stock BP = 2x cash, and if you spend all of your money on long spy unlevered you only have .5x option BP.
For a $100k Reg-T account buying $100k of spy you will have $50k option BP remaining and $100k stock BP remaining.
On a $100k PM account you'll see $100k option BP and $100k stock BP. I've seen some people get really upset and turn off PM thinking they didn't get any leverage. However if you try to buy $100k of spy that will cost $15k option and stock BP (from here on it's going to be just BP.) Leaving you with $85k BP left to deploy capital more efficiently or do other trades with leverage!
On PM having $0 BP = instant margin call if you close or open the next day $0 or negative for roughly the amount of BP needed to bring it back up.
I like to keep a healthy buffer.
The answer is BP calculations are different. Read over The Margin Investor's Reg-T Calculation Guide and how various Option Strategies Perform under PM.
Most of us have found that selling naked calls and naked puts tend to bring in the most money profitably. The Reg-T calculations work by:
(many brokers use 30% maintenance and 20% of underlying)
On Reg-T no matter how far out of the money you sell options you are still getting that 10-20% of the underlying price reserved minus OTM amount. Ouch. You may as well have sold the ATM straddle!
Reg-T doesn't allow your premium from your short calls to offset your short puts. Portfolio margin does! Portfolio margin gives you 15% instead of 20% bp on a short straddle, and lets you add the premium from the put or call sold, then figures out your maximum risk for your whole position. So in effect if the expected move on a straddle is 5% each way, the stock can't both go up or down, and so your margin on PM works out to be about 10% of the underlying stock for the ATM straddle!
The same trade on Reg-T would be $5 + 20% of the underlying stock... on a $100 stock that'd be $2,000 margin please. $4k on a $200 stock, and so on. Crazy right - you can't scale this strategy and sell it on a massive number of stocks. With Portfolio Margin - you can. On my $225k account I currently have short option positions on 259 active positions.
Now, lots of people claim selling these options were picking up pennies in front of a steam roller. Let's be realistic here, how many stocks suddenly just shoot up 50%? Very few - maybe a few outstanding earnings reports (easy to dodge), and buyouts - which are unpredictable. Is it realistic that all 259 of my positions will jump 50% all at once? No.
Ok, let's do the math on what if I just had $5 on 259 positions, well that is $1,295 a week. Lets say we stick to $100 stocks or under. How much loss would it be if one of those stocks had a buyout? Well, worst case if it is a $100 stock, we sold the $150 call, and lets say they got a juicy $200 per share offer (really really rare - most buyouts are 20% to 30% above market.) Well, that is a $5,000 loss. So, with this strategy in order to have enough income to overcome that, its $5,000 / $1,295 = 3.8 weeks before we are up $5 grand.
Portfolio Margin encourages spreading the risk wide and far.
On Portfolio Margin your BP does not significantly change because of an assignment! (Assuming the stock price is the same when you're assigned.)
We have a potential trade going long 100 shares of TSLA. Notice it is $5,016 BP. Now assume we short the long at the money 0.50 delta TSLA put, notice its $4,640 BP, giving you lower bp because you took in some premium ($400.)
Adding $400 back gives you 5040.03 BP requirements, basically the same risk! The raw short put is slightly higher risk as vol expansion can make the buyback premiums higher than the same movement risk loss on the underlying stock.
There are no early assignment fears trading on portfolio margin for most trades! If you started out shorting a straddle you want that early assignment as it meant the buyer blew up their remaining theta!
Now remember to still trade responsibly. You don't want to oversize any short option trade where if it touches the money it severely puts your account at risk. I personally don't risk more than 1% to 2% of my account for if a position goes at the money. That's a $1k-$2k loss per $100k NLV.
You also don't want to get too used to Portfolio Margin that you start getting really sloppy on your trade management practices that you let positions ride the second they touch the money because you have a lot more margin and breathing room than Reg-T. I come up with % out of the money targets I close all my trades at. Imagine having a $4k loss with SIVB being $267/share, then next thing you get whacked with a $267 per share loss or $26.7k per contract loss.
Always keep notional risk and concentration risk in mind on trading on portfolio margin!
What stops one from opening a $125k PM account and buying $825k of TSLA, and owing the broker money if TSLA opened 30% down? Concentration rules!
Each brokerage has concentration rules that make such tactics hard or impossible.
I'm only familiar with TD Ameritrade's concentration rules so I'll briefly cover them here:
In addition to the -15% /+15% risk array stress test, TD Ameritrade tests your portfolio by testing its Point of No Return (PNR) compared to the Expected Price Range (EPR). For TSLA, the EPR is 50%, which means TDA can conceivably see TSLA gapping open 50% down overnight.
So why is TDA allowing me to go 6.6x on TSLA but they think they'd really open 50% down? Only if I bet really small will they allow me the full buying power reduction.
If they see I'd lose my entire account if TSLA dropped 50%, they move the risk array to test -50% / +50% instead. This greatly inflates the buying power and now your account is locked as your buying power is well past your net liquidation value!
Short Unit Test
Ok ok, I know, what if I sell a bunch of options with insane leverage on many tickers and use up all my BP? Well TDA has another concentration rule called the Short Unit Test. You can only have your NLV / 200 in net short counts of call options and put options. It kind of makes the minimum BP be $200. A $100k account can only be short 500 naked call options and 500 naked put options. So the maximum growth you'd get on $5 per contract lottos would be $5k/week on a $100k account. Hey - 5% a week is incredible.
SPX Beta Test All portfolio margin brokers require you to not lose X% of your account if SPX moves.
Spread the love on PM!
You can also get a 90% offset by being long VTI and buying SPY puts. This still greatly reduces margin.
The Margin Investor's website has a great breakdown showing the various offsets: http://www.themargininvestor.com/pl-offsets.html
My post on using Using Portfolio Margin to Legally Convert Realized STCG into LTCG Via Offsetting Pairs Trades makes use of these product group offsets to get crazy reduction of margin to do long-short trades getting a lot more margin relief than your typical 6.6x leverage!
I like to use the OCC's Portfolio Margin Calculator to look up the current various offsets: https://www.theocc.com/risk-management/portfolio-margin-calculator
So on SPAN margin you can hedge and get significant correlation buying power reductions by going short cattle, and going long corn. You've just hedged the corn price risk from cattle and now you're really trading cattle. You've also hedged the USD risk out too - as both futures are denominated in USD:
Short Cattle is short cows and short USD Long Grain is long grain and long USD
Therefore:
USD cancels out, you don't care how the dollar moves to other currencies (yay infinite money printer), and your two trades are a lot more pure.
SPAN works by scanning your portfolio and applying various ever-changing offsets they base on current correlations.
You can't do this on TIMS outside say VTI vs VOO... SPY vs TLT is a NO. which brings me to...
First Post
Second Post
Blowup Post
The clues were:
Fortunately IBKR does the correct BPu calculations for UPRO and TMF.
So for PM outside of TD Ameritrade - BPu is the leverage factor times the underlying index the LETF tracks. Go crazy investing in LETFs outside of TD Ameritrade!
That is taking on a $60m position intraday with $5m. If you're amazing at day-trading - portfolio margin unlocks some serious leverage.
Also remember that you can easily oversize your account on PM. You can have too many beta-weighted deltas to SPY. In my most recent margin call I didn't realize I had 4x deltas to SPY in put options... that were still far out of the money and could easily explode to 5x more delta thanks to their repricing effects! If you're going to be trading short naked options on PM you must know how to beta weight your portfolio for delta, vega, and gamma, and realize what that means to SPY's movements, and not only know how to do it - but keep up with it every day. Same goes for beta testing your portfolio and obeying all other house margin rules (SUT, etc.)
Here are other oddities I've noticed with Thinkorswim Portfolio Margin:
2005 - Customer Portfolio Margin began as a pilot program.
2006 - SEC approved Portfolio Margin for retail
2007 - Thinkorswim started offering Portfolio Margin
What you want to look for is known as mini-primes. These people are introducing brokers that carry smaller prime accounts ($500k-$1m), and combine several accounts to meet the much larger than legal requirements to prime with Goldman, JPM, etc. There are so many more people offering mini-prime services than I could ever imagine.
I want to expand on the legal requirements on how you can get a prime account with PM margin relief:
https://www.sec.gov/divisions/marketreg/mr-noaction/pbroker012594-out.pdf
Previously RenTech has gotten in trouble for banks creating basket-option accounts and handing over the username-passwords to RenTech traders to trade in. It's possible Simons found an advisor to prime for $100k instead of $500k. :)
So you might be able to find a financial advisor that will "manage" your account but still let you do the manual trading inside the account!
My biggest edge in trading isn't strategy specific (lottos, etc), it's networking. Every trading edge I've discovered it's died in 6 months or so. Being able to talk with my network of trading friends, venture capital contacts, etc., has allowed me to have more trading ideas than I have capital for, so when one edge dies I can jump to the next edge immediately if it still exists.
I wouldn't have made back all my HFEA losses if it wasn't for networking with this subreddit and discord, which is why I continue to write extensive detailed guides to give back to the community. <3
At the end of the day the various edges I've found are a result of market participants, and being flexible and knowing what the market is doing helps identify possible new fundamental advantages/edges.
Broker-Dealers who are not clearing/market makers: Raw TIMS: +/- 15% for equities, narrow-based indexes, non-high cap indexes. +- 10% for high cap index, +-6% for major forex, +-20% for all other currencies.
Non-Clearing Specialists/Market Makers: +6/-8% for high cap indexes, +/-10% for non-high cap indexes, +-4.5% for major forex.
For any BD: $0.25 per share min margin ($25 per contract) (remember retail is 0.375!) 95% high-cap-diverse-index correlation offset instead of the 90% retail gets for indexes, and 92.5% for non-high-cap-diverse index (retail only gets ~70%).
Then like the above prime-broker accounts, you can pool money to meet various broker-dealer net-capital requirements! It is known as a Joint Back Office Arrangement. Every partner in a JBO needs to be a registered and licensed broker-dealer with different securities licenses depending on your home state. (Series 23/24, Series 7, Series 56, and so on!) JBOs these days have became less popular with the proliferation of customer portfolio margin, so for most people these days forming a JBO is limited to Prop Firms that want to mark up commissions or trade against their traders (modern legal-bucket shops) and legit prop firms that want to act as Market-Makers/High Frequency Traders that need to directly connect to an equities or equities-option exchange, as exchange rules require you to be licensed.
Option Market Makers don't require a locate to hedge bonafide option trades. Since 2008 the SEC removed their close-out exemption in Reg-SHO, so they HAVE to deliver by settlement.
FINRA Net Capital Rules
Risk Based Haircuts
The Margin Investor
SEC 1994 Prime Broker Regulations
Joint Back Office Arrangements
Portfolio Margin allows you to sell naked far OTM options that only take $37.50 per contract on margin, while Reg-T would require $2005 margin for a $100 stock.
$5 / $37.50 bp = 13.333% return on capital.
Any option that is 15% out the money or more gets maximum buying power compared to Reg-T.
Spread the love on as many positions as possible on PM! Use innovative hedges that don't margin well with Reg-T accounts. Try new strategies that are only realistically executed in a portfolio margined account!
submitted by Adderalin to PMTraders [link] [comments]
Max out your BP unwisely all long SPY at 15% margin (6.66x leverage) then if you lose exactly one dollar on the position = $1 dollar margin call. Spy gaps down 15% overnight = lose entire account. Spy gaps down 20% overnight = owe your broker.
You need $110k - $125k - $175k - $250k of equity to enable it with various brokerages.
Reg-T vs Portfolio Margin
Reg-T margin is strategy based. It's based on over time that roughly a 100% spy position happens to lose 50% of it's value before recovering, long individual stocks likewise don't drop more than 50% before a broker can reasonably react in a few days, and short options probably introduce 20% losses of the underlying's stock price.Reg-T breaks margin into initial and maintenance margin. Most brokerages offer 2x initial margin for stocks, and 25%-30% maintenance margin.
If you have a 100k account you can buy 200k of SPY and your stock buying power is $0 and options buying power is $0. You have a negative 100k cash balance - your margin loan.
Then you currently have $100k equity as a millisecond later you can probably close your trade for the same exact price and pay off your margin loan.
Now let's say spy dips down to where you have $25k equity. This would be a 125k spy position on 100k margin loan. Spy would have to drop 37.5%. At this point you are at 5x leverage and you're putting your brokers money at risk. With a 25% maintenance margin broker you will now send you a margin call. Most brokers use 30% maintenance margin.
Portfolio Margin is Different:
Portfolio Margin is risk based. It is based on the realistic risk how various stocks and indexes move in one day. Portfolio margin stress tests your individual positions based on a "risk array" testing down moves at -3%, -6%, -9%, -12%, and -15% for most stocks and indexes. It also tests up moves in the same percentages. Whatever is the maximum loss becomes the margin required.
Portfolio Margin your initial margin = maintenance margin. You get immediate margin relief. Unlike Reg-T margin where you only get extra leverage if it goes against you, PM gives it to you right away.
Then at TD Ameritrade, it is displayed differently. Everyone is used to options BP = cash and stock BP = 2x cash, and if you spend all of your money on long spy unlevered you only have .5x option BP.
For a $100k Reg-T account buying $100k of spy you will have $50k option BP remaining and $100k stock BP remaining.
On a $100k PM account you'll see $100k option BP and $100k stock BP. I've seen some people get really upset and turn off PM thinking they didn't get any leverage. However if you try to buy $100k of spy that will cost $15k option and stock BP (from here on it's going to be just BP.) Leaving you with $85k BP left to deploy capital more efficiently or do other trades with leverage!
On PM having $0 BP = instant margin call if you close or open the next day $0 or negative for roughly the amount of BP needed to bring it back up.
I like to keep a healthy buffer.
Options Trading Reg-T vs Portfolio Margin
So you might be thinking - well what's great about PM if Reg-T gives me 100-50k options BP and PM gives me 100k-85k?The answer is BP calculations are different. Read over The Margin Investor's Reg-T Calculation Guide and how various Option Strategies Perform under PM.
Most of us have found that selling naked calls and naked puts tend to bring in the most money profitably. The Reg-T calculations work by:
Uncovered Call (i.e. Naked Call) A short in-the-money (or at-the-money) call: 100% of the option market value plus 15% of the underlying price for Broad Based Indexes or 20% for Equities and Narrow Based Indexes. A short out-of-the-money call must have an amount posted into the account equal to the maximum of: 1) 100% of the option market value plus 10% of the underlying price or 2) 100% of the option market value plus 20% (or 15% for Broad Based Indexes) of the underlying price minus 100% the out-of-the-money amount.Portfolio margin is different. It takes the risk array I wrote above and likewise stresses your positions. That means - any short options that are statically 15% out of the money or more have very little buying power requirements. The buying power for OTM options becomes what theoretical option pricing formulas say the option should be priced if the stock dropped 15%. Portfolio applies a $0.375 per share ($37.50) minimum margin requirement for any short options regardless of how far out of the money they are too.
Uncovered Puts (i.e. Naked Puts) A short in-the-money (or at-the-money) put must have 100% of the option market value plus 15% of the underlying price for Broad Based Indexes or 20% for Equities and Narrow Based Indexes. A short out-of-the-money put must have an amount posted into the account equal to the maximum of: 1) 100% of the option market value plus 10% of the underlying price or 2) 100% of the received premium plus 20% (or 15% for Broad Based Indexes) of the underlying price minus 100% the out-of-the-money amount.
(many brokers use 30% maintenance and 20% of underlying)
On Reg-T no matter how far out of the money you sell options you are still getting that 10-20% of the underlying price reserved minus OTM amount. Ouch. You may as well have sold the ATM straddle!
Reg-T doesn't allow your premium from your short calls to offset your short puts. Portfolio margin does! Portfolio margin gives you 15% instead of 20% bp on a short straddle, and lets you add the premium from the put or call sold, then figures out your maximum risk for your whole position. So in effect if the expected move on a straddle is 5% each way, the stock can't both go up or down, and so your margin on PM works out to be about 10% of the underlying stock for the ATM straddle!
Portfolio Margin is steroids for option selling strategies
The popular lottos strategy sold $5 puts and calls so far out of the money (50%) that they had the minimum $37.50 margin even if the stock shot up 15% and put you 35% out of the money. A simple math calculation would show your return on buying power is $5 / $37.50 = 13.3%. Imagine selling this once a week, every week. Insane profit right? It was!The same trade on Reg-T would be $5 + 20% of the underlying stock... on a $100 stock that'd be $2,000 margin please. $4k on a $200 stock, and so on. Crazy right - you can't scale this strategy and sell it on a massive number of stocks. With Portfolio Margin - you can. On my $225k account I currently have short option positions on 259 active positions.
Now, lots of people claim selling these options were picking up pennies in front of a steam roller. Let's be realistic here, how many stocks suddenly just shoot up 50%? Very few - maybe a few outstanding earnings reports (easy to dodge), and buyouts - which are unpredictable. Is it realistic that all 259 of my positions will jump 50% all at once? No.
Ok, let's do the math on what if I just had $5 on 259 positions, well that is $1,295 a week. Lets say we stick to $100 stocks or under. How much loss would it be if one of those stocks had a buyout? Well, worst case if it is a $100 stock, we sold the $150 call, and lets say they got a juicy $200 per share offer (really really rare - most buyouts are 20% to 30% above market.) Well, that is a $5,000 loss. So, with this strategy in order to have enough income to overcome that, its $5,000 / $1,295 = 3.8 weeks before we are up $5 grand.
Portfolio Margin encourages spreading the risk wide and far.
No Early Assignment Fears
As you can see above Reg-T requires 20% + market price of the option, while PM measures your combined risk on a +- 15% move (most stocks, excluding house margin), regardless if it was options or long stock. Remember - reg T requires 50% initial margin on any assignment - leading to you know what - high BP utilization or possibly margin calls on assignment!On Portfolio Margin your BP does not significantly change because of an assignment! (Assuming the stock price is the same when you're assigned.)
We have a potential trade going long 100 shares of TSLA. Notice it is $5,016 BP. Now assume we short the long at the money 0.50 delta TSLA put, notice its $4,640 BP, giving you lower bp because you took in some premium ($400.)
Adding $400 back gives you 5040.03 BP requirements, basically the same risk! The raw short put is slightly higher risk as vol expansion can make the buyback premiums higher than the same movement risk loss on the underlying stock.
There are no early assignment fears trading on portfolio margin for most trades! If you started out shorting a straddle you want that early assignment as it meant the buyer blew up their remaining theta!
Now remember to still trade responsibly. You don't want to oversize any short option trade where if it touches the money it severely puts your account at risk. I personally don't risk more than 1% to 2% of my account for if a position goes at the money. That's a $1k-$2k loss per $100k NLV.
You also don't want to get too used to Portfolio Margin that you start getting really sloppy on your trade management practices that you let positions ride the second they touch the money because you have a lot more margin and breathing room than Reg-T. I come up with % out of the money targets I close all my trades at. Imagine having a $4k loss with SIVB being $267/share, then next thing you get whacked with a $267 per share loss or $26.7k per contract loss.
Always keep notional risk and concentration risk in mind on trading on portfolio margin!
Concentration Rules
PNR vs EPRWhat stops one from opening a $125k PM account and buying $825k of TSLA, and owing the broker money if TSLA opened 30% down? Concentration rules!
Each brokerage has concentration rules that make such tactics hard or impossible.
I'm only familiar with TD Ameritrade's concentration rules so I'll briefly cover them here:
In addition to the -15% /+15% risk array stress test, TD Ameritrade tests your portfolio by testing its Point of No Return (PNR) compared to the Expected Price Range (EPR). For TSLA, the EPR is 50%, which means TDA can conceivably see TSLA gapping open 50% down overnight.
So why is TDA allowing me to go 6.6x on TSLA but they think they'd really open 50% down? Only if I bet really small will they allow me the full buying power reduction.
If they see I'd lose my entire account if TSLA dropped 50%, they move the risk array to test -50% / +50% instead. This greatly inflates the buying power and now your account is locked as your buying power is well past your net liquidation value!
If the PNR is outside of EPR, then the risk array will generally default to the TIMS (Theoretical Intermarket Margining system) minimum margin percentage. This applies to both up and down movement; for example, if upside PNR is 60% and EPR is 50%, then margin will generally default to TIMS. Similarly, if downside PNR is -50% and downside EPR is -30%, then margin will generally default to TIMS.https://tickertape.tdameritrade.com/trading/how-does-portfolio-margin-work--15553
Under the TIMS methodology, equity positions are generally stressed at plus or minus 15%.
If PNRs are outside of the EPR, then the house risk array is used, generally with TIMS percentages. Now, if the converse occurs, that is, when the PNR is inside the EPR range, then a risk concentration exists, and action is taken in real time to increase the portfolio margin requirement. When concentration exists, the margin requirement will be set to the EPR. For example, if upside PNR is 30% and upside EPR is 40%, then the margin requirement will use 40% EPR to calculate the risk array even if the TIMS minimum may be 15%, for example.
Short Unit Test
Ok ok, I know, what if I sell a bunch of options with insane leverage on many tickers and use up all my BP? Well TDA has another concentration rule called the Short Unit Test. You can only have your NLV / 200 in net short counts of call options and put options. It kind of makes the minimum BP be $200. A $100k account can only be short 500 naked call options and 500 naked put options. So the maximum growth you'd get on $5 per contract lottos would be $5k/week on a $100k account. Hey - 5% a week is incredible.
SPX Beta Test All portfolio margin brokers require you to not lose X% of your account if SPX moves.
Spread the love on PM!
Amazing Portfolio Margin Trades you just can't do well in Reg-T
Portfolio Margin is amazing not just for adding risk - but also for hedging. Here are some of my favorite trades that I like to do in Portfolio Margin that is prohibitively expensive margin wise in reg-t:- Married put trades - for instance instead of buying a long call option, you can buy a long stock position + long put position and get significant margin relief. You still get the same risk payoff but it is significantly more tax efficient if it goes your way. Imagine buying TSLA in February 2016 for $10.84 a share. If you were on Reg-T and bought leaps you'd have to either sell them or exercise them, resetting your cost basis holding period, or incurring capital gains taxes. Doing a married put + long stock combo trade for a +1 year put doesn't freeze your holding period for long term capital gains, and for your winners when the put expires - well you already have the stock so you don't have to exercise it. You can hang onto TSLA indefinitely, or sell it later for capital gains, or so on.
- Backratio trades. They are a popular hedging strategy because at times they are a "free" hedge. For instance you can sell a 0.25 delta put to fund buying two 10 delta puts for a net credit. Reg-T margins this strategy terribly - you have the full credit spread margin + separate margin of buying the long put raw. Backratio trades are very interesting on PM - the margin is the one day move of the position. If you put on a 30 dte backspread ratio and the next day your long put is $0.01 away from being ITM, are you at max loss? NO - you're wildly profitable. Most the time these trades are zero buying power!
- Short Calendar Trades. The typical calendar trade is a long calendar trade - you short the nearer month option to buy a longer dated option for a net debit. The long calendar trade is +theta, +vega, -gamma. Selling the calendar is -theta, -vega, +gamma. Reg-T margins the inverse short calendar trades terribly - it thinks you're going to be dumb as rocks and not close the trade when your long expires, leaving the naked option alone, so you get the naked short margin. Portfolio Margin calculates your theoretical loss, which these guys can be tiny as heck. For instance for earnings trades I did a few short ATM calendar trades on NFLX, TSLA, and the like. Guess what the margin was on an ATM TSLA short calendar ER play? $75 per contract for a short calendar. I made about $200 per contract off that trade being -vega, +gamma. Talk about a really nice earnings play strategy - benefit from IV crush, or benefit from huge moves being +gamma? Very little theta burn because I opened before close and closed first thing in the morning? Sign me up to do more of these! (Most retail traders will be placing long calendar trades on these stocks looking at the expiration graph - not at the actual greeks!)
- Long and Short Box Spreads with European style options. Reg-T's margin of 25% of the underlying + market price makes long/short box spreads prohibitive. Not so on Portfolio Margin - since the box is fully hedged, it's one day move is going to be the interest rate loss for a short box, and the interest rate gain for a long box. That means... drumroll... your BP for a long box is a big fat zero, and your BP cost for a short box is the interest you "pay" that day. You get better rates than t-bills lending money, and you get better borrow rates than even IBKR's margin. Go to the website https://www.boxtrades.com/ to see current interest rates and see how to place a long (lender) or short (borrower) box trade. Thanks to box spread trades passive investors can do so much better on PM. You get PAL like levels of leverage borrowing with short boxes + PM margin relief, or if you're into levered portfolios such as Hedgefundie's Excellent Adventure you get better results managing it yourself than going with UPRO/TMF. I averaged 2.5% per year gains doing SPY+TLT over UPRO/TMF thanks to saving the 0.75% management fee and coming up with a leverage reset strategy that reduced volatility drag, ignoring the fact I was able to sell options ontop of that thanks to PM's generous margin leverage.
- Delta Hedging/Gamma Scalping - Portfolio Margin gives you the same margin relief as market makers get. Given these days of $0 commission trades and $0 take fees from liquidity for retail, and odd-lots getting price improvement from payment for order flow, I'd argue retail traders with a good delta hedging script can delta hedge/gamma scalp more cost effectively than market makers can. You still have to be right about your volatility predictions of course!
Correlation Offsets
Portfolio Margin allows P&L offsets across various class groups, product groups, and portfolio group offsets. For instance if you buy SPY puts but have a long VOO position you get the full margin relief! Go buy the much more liquid SPY puts and sell SPY covered calls, and hang onto the VOO position. This is the one reason why VOO has illiquid options - only reg-t traders are trading these. Everyone else gets full margin relief by buying VOO and trading SPY options.You can also get a 90% offset by being long VTI and buying SPY puts. This still greatly reduces margin.
The Margin Investor's website has a great breakdown showing the various offsets: http://www.themargininvestor.com/pl-offsets.html
My post on using Using Portfolio Margin to Legally Convert Realized STCG into LTCG Via Offsetting Pairs Trades makes use of these product group offsets to get crazy reduction of margin to do long-short trades getting a lot more margin relief than your typical 6.6x leverage!
I like to use the OCC's Portfolio Margin Calculator to look up the current various offsets: https://www.theocc.com/risk-management/portfolio-margin-calculator
Portfolio Margin vs SPAN
So, there is another risk based margin system - portfolio margin for futures, known as SPAN. SPAN offers two huge advantages over portfolio margin:- SPAN's minimum account size is simply the buying power needed. You can start doing PM-like strategies well before needing $110k/$125k to enable it with various brokers!
- SPAN margin allows for correlation offsets among many more products/classes/and so on. Portfolio Margin limits it to "similar products." - think SPY and VTI.
So on SPAN margin you can hedge and get significant correlation buying power reductions by going short cattle, and going long corn. You've just hedged the corn price risk from cattle and now you're really trading cattle. You've also hedged the USD risk out too - as both futures are denominated in USD:
Short Cattle is short cows and short USD Long Grain is long grain and long USD
Therefore:
USD cancels out, you don't care how the dollar moves to other currencies (yay infinite money printer), and your two trades are a lot more pure.
SPAN works by scanning your portfolio and applying various ever-changing offsets they base on current correlations.
You can't do this on TIMS outside say VTI vs VOO... SPY vs TLT is a NO. which brings me to...
A Confession
So - when I joined in Discord over a year ago I let everyone know that my margin blowup posts was fake, it never happened. I left a ton of clues which only TWO people ever picked up on and PMed me about:First Post
Second Post
Blowup Post
The clues were:
- TDA Live PM never had -8% +6% risk array rules for SPX/TMF/UPRO at the time
- TDA PM had PNR at the time, I would have been PNR locked even with the correlation offsets! LOL!
- Portfolio Margin USED to have the same correlation offsets as SPAN did! It was in the PM Pilot Program. For good reasons they took it out. Yes, you USED to be able to offset UPRO and TMF (or SPY/TLT, etc) via correlations, how it used to work was it beta weighted any two ETFs or stocks and gave you insane leverage if they were uncorrelated or inversely correlated (or insane leverage for long/short portfolios for correlated products - ie long NVDA and short AMD). People blew up hard in the pilot program and the SEC took it out in 2006.
- PM margin calls are never 5 days - they are three business days AT MOST, and you REALLY should meet them same business day! (It's really helpful to be on the good side of risk management btw - I get a lot of leeway because I take my IRL trading seriously. They are your friends, not your enemy!)
- Which risk manager in the world would let ANY client turn a $454k debt/loss to keep invested until it was a $1m loss?!? (Well I might if my client was Buffet!)
Leveraged ETFs and PM
I originally wrote the blowup post out of anger as at the time TDA decided to make UPRO & TMF have a house margin of 90% on portfolio margin which is ridiculous. How LETFs are supposed to work is they multiply the risk array by the leverage factor. If SPY is 15% up and down, UPRO should be 45% up and down tests, basically instead of 15% BPu, it will be 45% BPu. Some reason TDA decided "LETFs were not suitable to hold for long terms" and ramp up house margin - on something that moves exactly like 3x spy in one day. Sure a year from now you could have a wasteland of a portfolio due to volatility decay - but I debate holding 3x leverage raw without resetting the leverage is going to do more to destroy a portfolio than holding UPRO.Fortunately IBKR does the correct BPu calculations for UPRO and TMF.
So for PM outside of TD Ameritrade - BPu is the leverage factor times the underlying index the LETF tracks. Go crazy investing in LETFs outside of TD Ameritrade!
Day-Trading with PM
You can daytrade on PM at most brokers that offer realtime monitoring (TDA, Lightspeed,etc) up to 6.66x. Lime offers 8x intraday margin for $5m+ for daytrading on PM. Lightspeed offers up to 12x.That is taking on a $60m position intraday with $5m. If you're amazing at day-trading - portfolio margin unlocks some serious leverage.
Gotchas with Portfolio Margin
The first thing to realize with portfolio margin is your BP usage is not static. It is real time, dynamically calculated every second stress testing all your positions. That means your $0 bp backratio trade on 30 dte might not be BP free at 20 dte! Likewise if you forget about your short calendar spread and the nearer month long expires off - hello naked short margin.Also remember that you can easily oversize your account on PM. You can have too many beta-weighted deltas to SPY. In my most recent margin call I didn't realize I had 4x deltas to SPY in put options... that were still far out of the money and could easily explode to 5x more delta thanks to their repricing effects! If you're going to be trading short naked options on PM you must know how to beta weight your portfolio for delta, vega, and gamma, and realize what that means to SPY's movements, and not only know how to do it - but keep up with it every day. Same goes for beta testing your portfolio and obeying all other house margin rules (SUT, etc.)
Here are other oddities I've noticed with Thinkorswim Portfolio Margin:
- Confirm and Send and analyze tab doesn't always match the resulting buying power reduction on the backend. At times the backend will make it think it uses a lot more BP than what TOS says it should have. Other times I get surprise BP reductions.
- If you want any correlation offset relief you have to leg in both sides in small increments.
- TOS's BP calculations seem to include 1 day's of theta/IV prediction into their calculations, so very negative theta positions might have more BP than Reg-T.
- Remember your final BP is a result of your entire portfolio. Most the time we are position focused, but realize there are tremendous trading opportunities with ETF products that give correlation offsets - like playing regional banks vs all bank ETFs. You can get some tremendous long-short leverage haircuts doing this well past 6.6x raw notional leverage.
Asset Protection Strategies With PM
I'm not a lawyer, and neither is Robert Green of Green Trader Tax, but Green has an asset protection suggestion:If you want asset protection, consider a single-member LLC (SMLLC) taxed as a “disregarded entity.” That’s a “tax nothing” in the eyes of the IRS. You still file as a TTS sole proprietor on Schedule C.In other articles on his website Green suggests to form your LLC in your home state to maximize asset protection strategies. Brokers tend to not require a require a personal guarantee for Portfolio Margin.
A TTS trader might hire employees, lease an office, co-locate automated trading equipment with a broker, and use massive leverage. These traders should consider liability protection using an SMLLC. Consult an attorney.
History of Portfolio Margin
Portfolio Margin has existed since 1986 - for self clearing member firms that had at least $5 million. This is why Lightspeed gives you raw TIMS margin at $5 million+:No additional 20% of exchange mandated portfolio margin requirement (TIMS plus House add-ons).Then in 1993 TIMS margin (Portfolio Margin) became available to Floor Brokers and Floor Traders under the 1993 SEC Net Capital Rules Admendment for floor brokers/traders that had at least $100k. That's right, if you have a time machine, print off my guide and go make some serious money getting insane margin relief from options trading.
2005 - Customer Portfolio Margin began as a pilot program.
2006 - SEC approved Portfolio Margin for retail
2007 - Thinkorswim started offering Portfolio Margin
Mini-Prime Brokerage Services
I wanted to talk a bit more about why there are are limited retail brokers offering customer-retail portfolio margin. I've finally got the right nomenclature down to search for better portfolio margin offerings. The OG Prime Brokerages - Goldman Sachs, JPM, etc., require huge minimums well past $1m/$10m if you want to directly prime with them, making getting a prime brokerage account unfeasible for most of us, and the previous list of prime brokers really small.What you want to look for is known as mini-primes. These people are introducing brokers that carry smaller prime accounts ($500k-$1m), and combine several accounts to meet the much larger than legal requirements to prime with Goldman, JPM, etc. There are so many more people offering mini-prime services than I could ever imagine.
I want to expand on the legal requirements on how you can get a prime account with PM margin relief:
https://www.sec.gov/divisions/marketreg/mr-noaction/pbroker012594-out.pdf
- $500k+ trading your own account, mini-primes still want to see $1m+ so you don't bust a $500k account, but they are likely much more accepting of letting you run at $600k than an OG prime broker would ever let you do.
- $100k+ if you have an advisor open your own account. Accounts managed by an investment adviser registered under Section 203 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 only require $100k to prime
- You can also prime if you have at least $100k if another customer provides a cross-guarantee.
$100k+ Investment AdviserHere is a potential loophole I found. Some people told me I should get a financial advisor. I felt so insulted by it as my trading has been averaging well above market for years now. Turns out the man running best performing hedge fund in the world (Renaissance Technologies) - Jim Simons has a financial advisor.
That’s right. The man whose hedge fund generated 66% average annual returns, the man whose fund took $100 billion out of the market, asked if it was a good idea to be shorting stocks at the absolute bottom. Just unbelievable.So, while it's amazing that Simons had a financial advisor stop him from emotionally trading - I wonder if Simons had a financial advisor for another reason: To get prime services originally at $100k!
Previously RenTech has gotten in trouble for banks creating basket-option accounts and handing over the username-passwords to RenTech traders to trade in. It's possible Simons found an advisor to prime for $100k instead of $500k. :)
So you might be able to find a financial advisor that will "manage" your account but still let you do the manual trading inside the account!
Cross-guaranteeA Cross-Guarantee is the only other way to be able to have a prime brokerage account for less than $500k (still $100k minimum.) You can pool your money with others in a partnership-like entity structure to access a prime broker. You can all pool it in one giant account, or have a 500k+ master account cross-guarantee $100k+ sub accounts. See a good prime-brokerage securities lawyer!
Mini-Prime Requirements
Then mini-primes have a lot more flexibility. Large banks might require $200k+ of commissioned revenue/clearing fees/etc to be interested in priming with you directly. A mini prime like StoneX only requires $40k per year. A bank can take 1 month to 6 months to get set up with an account. StoneX - 2 weeks.Minimum PB revenue of 40k per year$40k/year in commissions isn't much - its $3,330/month. My annualized commissions on $175k NLV doing the "lottos" options trading strategy was $30k! I'm now 230k and I'm close to meeting their minimum revenue per year well below most prime's minimum sizes!
Prime-Broker Short Selling
With a prime broker account you can sign custom lending agreements where you can get partial to full use of the short sale proceeds! That's right, you can find lenders that will allow you to NOT segregate short-sale proceeds and you can then use it to buy stocks!Networking is a huge edge
Finally, I really love that StoneX is open and transparent about their requirements and benefits. The last thing they offer is this:Industry event invites YesNetworking, networking is huge. Do you think TDA would invite you to an industry event? Naw, they're happy to pocket my $39k/year commissions I'm currently generating for them.
My biggest edge in trading isn't strategy specific (lottos, etc), it's networking. Every trading edge I've discovered it's died in 6 months or so. Being able to talk with my network of trading friends, venture capital contacts, etc., has allowed me to have more trading ideas than I have capital for, so when one edge dies I can jump to the next edge immediately if it still exists.
I wouldn't have made back all my HFEA losses if it wasn't for networking with this subreddit and discord, which is why I continue to write extensive detailed guides to give back to the community. <3
At the end of the day the various edges I've found are a result of market participants, and being flexible and knowing what the market is doing helps identify possible new fundamental advantages/edges.
Broker-Dealer (BD) Risk-Based Haircuts (PM for BDs, $100k+)
BD margin is known as Risk Based Haircuts, link below.Broker-Dealers who are not clearing/market makers: Raw TIMS: +/- 15% for equities, narrow-based indexes, non-high cap indexes. +- 10% for high cap index, +-6% for major forex, +-20% for all other currencies.
Non-Clearing Specialists/Market Makers: +6/-8% for high cap indexes, +/-10% for non-high cap indexes, +-4.5% for major forex.
For any BD: $0.25 per share min margin ($25 per contract) (remember retail is 0.375!) 95% high-cap-diverse-index correlation offset instead of the 90% retail gets for indexes, and 92.5% for non-high-cap-diverse index (retail only gets ~70%).
Then like the above prime-broker accounts, you can pool money to meet various broker-dealer net-capital requirements! It is known as a Joint Back Office Arrangement. Every partner in a JBO needs to be a registered and licensed broker-dealer with different securities licenses depending on your home state. (Series 23/24, Series 7, Series 56, and so on!) JBOs these days have became less popular with the proliferation of customer portfolio margin, so for most people these days forming a JBO is limited to Prop Firms that want to mark up commissions or trade against their traders (modern legal-bucket shops) and legit prop firms that want to act as Market-Makers/High Frequency Traders that need to directly connect to an equities or equities-option exchange, as exchange rules require you to be licensed.
Option Market Makers don't require a locate to hedge bonafide option trades. Since 2008 the SEC removed their close-out exemption in Reg-SHO, so they HAVE to deliver by settlement.
Various Customer-Portfolio Margin Brokerages ($100k+ requirement)
- TD Ameritrade/Thinkorswim [125k] - I consider TOS to be one of the best brokerages offering portfolio margin (unless you trade LETFs). They seem to have the most relaxed margin rules for short options/etc. https://tlc.thinkorswim.com/centefaq/Portfolio-Margin
- Interactive Brokers [110k] - IBKR offers Portfolio Margin. They have terrible margin relief though due to a house rule that applies a 5 standard deviation stress test based on 30 days of high, low, open, and close data from Bloomberg In Covid - this house rule prevented SPY leverage of more than 2.7x. Outside of extreme moves LETFs are margined very favorably. This house rule prevents good BP reduction on "lottos." Remember they have auto liquidation for margin calls!
- Lightspeed Trading [175k (110k if you use Sterling Vol Trader)] - https://lightspeed.com/risk-and-margin
- Tastyworks [175k] - https://support.tastyworks.com/support/solutions/articles/43000595351-portfolio-margin-house-rules-requirements
- Dash Prime [250k] - https://dashprime.com/
- Fidelity [150k] - https://www.fidelity.com/products/atp/help_10.3/ActiveTraderTools_Balances_Help.html#portfoliomargin
- Charles Schwab - they have it really hidden and not advertised. Youtube on how to enable it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLsuZNy1t4g
- E-Trade [100k] - https://us.etrade.com/knowledge/library/margin/portfolio-margin-rules-behind-leverage
- Lime [$1m+] - https://lime.co/trading/screen-trader-solutions/lime-pro/ What's really interesting about Lime: $5m+ gives 8x intraday BP.
- [100k-500k-1m+] If you have $500k-$1m+ you can get portfolio margin through any "Prime Brokerage" agreement. All prime brokers support PM. Read my post on What's next after Portfolio Margin to learn more about prime brokerage accounts, floor trading, and so on.
- If you have $5m+ you get raw TIMS margin or can self clear for STANS margin.
Prime / Mini-Prime Brokers List ($500k+, or $100k+ w/ advisocross-guarantee)
- Lightspeed (also has Customer-PM) - https://lightspeed.com/institutional-services/prime-brokerage
- Dash Prime (also has Customer-PM) - https://dashprime.com/
- Lime Prime (also has Customer-PM) - https://lime-prime.com/
- Triad Securities - https://triadsecurities.com/prime-brokerage/
- BTIG - https://www.btig.com/products-services/prime-brokerage-fund-services/prime-brokerage/
- M.S Howells & Co. - https://www.mshowells.com/prime-brokerage/
- TD Cowen - https://www.cowen.com/capabilities/markets/prime-brokerage/
- Jefferies Prime Brokerage - https://www.jprime.com/
- StoneX Prime - https://primeservices.stonex.com/prime-brokerage/
- Bank of America Merrill Lynch - ML Prime - https://markets.ml.com/login/mlprime
- Goldman Sachs - https://www.goldmansachs.com/what-we-do/FICC-and-equities/prime-services/index.html
- Interactive Brokers - https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/prime-broker-services.php
- Morgan Stanley Matrix (might also offer PM) - https://www.morganstanley.com/matrixvision/
Sources
FINRA Portfolio Margin FAQFINRA Net Capital Rules
Risk Based Haircuts
The Margin Investor
SEC 1994 Prime Broker Regulations
Joint Back Office Arrangements
TL;DR
Portfolio Margin is a risk based margin system that greatly juices leveraged margin strategies to 6.6x raw delta 1.0 leverage, and insane levels for options.Portfolio Margin allows you to sell naked far OTM options that only take $37.50 per contract on margin, while Reg-T would require $2005 margin for a $100 stock.
$5 / $37.50 bp = 13.333% return on capital.
Any option that is 15% out the money or more gets maximum buying power compared to Reg-T.
Spread the love on as many positions as possible on PM! Use innovative hedges that don't margin well with Reg-T accounts. Try new strategies that are only realistically executed in a portfolio margined account!
2023.05.15 22:03 lbabinz [Amazon] Weekly Video Game Price Drops (May 8 - 15)
2023.05.15 18:15 rgent006 Redditors on the PCT Week 10 (15 MAY 2023)
Happy Monday everyone!!
I have started archiving hikers if I get a few "no updates" in a row*, again, just to keep the list current. If you got off trail (and as such were removed from these posts) but have plans to get back on later and you want to be put back on the list, reach out to me via comment below or please message me directly.
\I understand some of you are posting in arrears or dumping a bunch of updates at once, that's cool, no worries. I got you.*
As always, we appreciate all of your updates from trail and wish you nothing but the absolute best as your embark and continue on your PCT journey. HYOH, LNT, and remember to thank your local Trail Angel.
JOIN THESE UPDATES
If you are hiking the trail this year (Thru or LASH) and would like to be added to these posts, please fill out the survey linked here or comment below and we'll get you added into future updates. These updates will come on a weekly basis and be put out on Mondays.
If for any reason you'd like to be removed from these updates OR if something does not look right, please message me directly.
Thread for hikers to post current trail conditions
PCTA - Most Recent Trail Closure Updates
San Jacinto Update 5/10
The below usernames are clickable links that take you to that hiker's social media page (IG, YT, blog etc.)
ARCHIVE
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
submitted by rgent006 to PacificCrestTrail [link] [comments]
I have started archiving hikers if I get a few "no updates" in a row*, again, just to keep the list current. If you got off trail (and as such were removed from these posts) but have plans to get back on later and you want to be put back on the list, reach out to me via comment below or please message me directly.
\I understand some of you are posting in arrears or dumping a bunch of updates at once, that's cool, no worries. I got you.*
As always, we appreciate all of your updates from trail and wish you nothing but the absolute best as your embark and continue on your PCT journey. HYOH, LNT, and remember to thank your local Trail Angel.
VIBE OF THE WEEK: TRANSMOGRIFYING
*to completely alter the form of*JOIN THESE UPDATES
If you are hiking the trail this year (Thru or LASH) and would like to be added to these posts, please fill out the survey linked here or comment below and we'll get you added into future updates. These updates will come on a weekly basis and be put out on Mondays.
If for any reason you'd like to be removed from these updates OR if something does not look right, please message me directly.
Thread for hikers to post current trail conditions
PCTA - Most Recent Trail Closure Updates
San Jacinto Update 5/10
The below usernames are clickable links that take you to that hiker's social media page (IG, YT, blog etc.)
| Hiker | Trail Name | Start Date | Current Location-ish | Week 9 Update: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| u/Schrodingers-cat-30 | Ditto | MAR 2 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/13: No updated posted |
| u/TrailNicks, Link 2 | Golden | MAR 5 2023 (NOBO) | Tehachapi | 5/13: Double zero'd after San Jac in Tehachapi, headed back NOBO to KMS. Going to make the call on whether or not to enter the sierra once they get there |
| u/TrailHead42 | Trailhead | MAR 10 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/13: returned to trail 5/10. plan is to start at PVC and NOBO to Acton. |
| u/Many_yellow_1623 | Half Pint | MAR 18 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/13: No update posted |
| u/juliozz59, Link 2 | Spread | MAR 20 2023 (NOBO) | past mi 600 | 5/13: 25% of the way done with trail so far, got a trail name! "Spread" |
| u/Thesearereddits | MAR 21 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/13: No update posted | |
| u/emdem55 | Keys | MAR 22 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/13: No update posted |
| u/Beefandsteel | MAR 22 2023 (NOBO) | NOBO to Walker Pass | 5/13: Finished SOBO and flipped back NOBO to Walker Pass | |
| u/jacobburns | MAR 22 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/13: No update posted | |
| u/ThrowAwayTheAT | MAR 22 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/13: No update posted | |
| u/7-legged-octopus | MAR 27 2023 (NOBO) | past mi 500 | 5/13: Double zero'd in Acton "the big 500, cool rocks, wild cucumbers galore, and big fat burn zones" | |
| u/frankiehikes | Tabs | MAR 28 2023 (NOBO) | past mi 600 | 5/13: hit mi 600 |
| u/particularamphibian, Link 2, Link 3 | MAR 28 2023 (NOBO) | past mi 500 | 5/13: "Miles 400-558.5. Snowstorms, new friends, desert superbloom, night trips with glowsticks. Another eventful week on the PCT" | |
| u/m | MAR 28 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/13: No update posted | |
| u/yourgirlbribri | MAR 29 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/13: Hit Hikertown, cleaned up and got a burger | |
| u/Intrepid-Ad-4770, Link 2 | Sweets | MAR 29 2023 (NOBO) | Off Trail! | 5/13: Off trail still, plans to get back on |
| u/Future_Psychology_91 | Dundee on the AT.. on the PCT? | MAR 30 2023 (NOBO) | Agua Dulce | 5/13: bounced some gear ahead, had an unfortunate event happen but trail angel saved the day :) |
| u/Kalmes12345 | MAR 31 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/13: No update posted | |
| u/chroniclesofvanlife, Link 2, Link 3 | Stitches | APR 1 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/13: hitting 20+ mi days, impressive! "'IDEAL', says the sticker on the empty metal tub next to the trickle of water that we’ve been thirsting for after a 20-mile dry stretch" |
| u/nataliethisisnatalie | Bestie | APR 1 2023 (NOBO) | SOBO to SanJac | 5/13: had a tough time in San Gabe's, broke trail for 7 mi, woke up in a snow storm, lots and lots of tears. But ended with margaritas! |
| u/Phantom_dong | APR 5 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/13: No update posted | |
| u/pelostrece | Spanish Inquisition | APR 5 2023 (NOBO) | Not sure | 5/13: Started trail 4/5/23 but not sure if still on? |
| u/UtahHiker69 | Fry Pocket | APR 6 2023 (NOBO) | past Agua Dulce | 5/13: Summitted Baden Powell "Out here having a silly goose time. It's been 35 days since I started. I love this. The People, The Trail, The Life. I love it all. I will forever be grateful that I am doing this. Here's to 4 or 5 more months of this journey" |
| u/shoebinn, Link 2 | APR 7 2023 (NOBO) | past mi 500 | 5/13: making great miles past vasquez rocks, nero in Acton, hit 500 mi mark!! | |
| u/evoncassier | APR 7 2023 (NOBO) | past Agua Dulce | 5/13: had a wonderful and clean 2 days off trail but fell in the mud the minute they got back to the PCT lol | |
| u/RedNi12 | APR 9 2023 (NOBO) | Wrightwood | 5/13: 1 month trail anniversary and 300 miles!! Rewarding themselves with McD's at Cajon Pass :) | |
| u/tomnomnom17 | APR 10 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/13: Hit mi 420 lol nice | |
| u/Beccatravels | Pepper | APR 10 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/13: hiking amongst rockslides and 10 ft snow banks |
| u/jesshikes | APR 11 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/13: No update posted | |
| u/DrWolffe | Scrambles | APR 11 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/13: Been on trail a month! Hit Cajon Pass, Vasquez Rocks, hiked above the clouds |
| u/mikenikey | Water Taxi | APR 12 2023 (NOBO) | past Baden Powell | 5/13: averaging 20 mi days, $2 tacos in Big Bear, McD's, pizza at Silverwood Lake. Heading to summit of Baden Powell |
| u/woodsbearoutdoors | APR 14 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/14: no update posted | |
| u/pollyf | APR 14 2023 (NOBO) | Doing laundry | 5/14: doing laundry | |
| u/hallroosevelt, Link 2 | APR 15 2023 (NOBO) | past mi 400 | 5/15: zero'd at home and glad to be back on trail out of the snow. Stopped at Cajon Pass McD's | |
| u/Bullish_bear000 | APR 19 2023 (NOBO) | San Gorgonio | 5/15: posting a week behind, got off trail for a wedding, crossed Whitewater River and loving the sound of nature | |
| u/esahr | Guidebook | APR 19 2023 (NOBO) | Idyllwild | 5/15: "crossed some fun icy spots, got bit in the eye by some bug, hiked 23 miles in one day to set up a Taco Tuesday/$5 margs night, and am sitting in some hotel while my clothes stain the bathtub with dirt. I'm having the time of my life." |
| u/Just_karo | Flamethrower | APR 20 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/15: No update posted |
| u/charles1503, Link 2, Link 3 | APR 21 2023 (NOBO) | past Big Bear | 5/15: pushing 20 mi days past SanGorg and zero'd in Big Bear. Got back on trail with the help of McD's | |
| u/B2Pats | Marine | APR 23 2023 (NOBO) | Big Bear | 5/15: tackled SanJac and taking a well deserved zero in Big Bear, shopped too hard at Walmart |
| u/FishingFrank, Link 2 | Papa Roja | APR 26 2023 (NOBO) | past SanJac | 5/15: past SanJac, posting in arrears. Hope to have a better idea next week |
| u/Havasu-Hiker23, u/Havasu-hiker | Stix | APR 26 2023 (NOBO) | past mi 250 | 5/15: walking in memory and peace for all those who have left this world |
| u/MoonMoonMoonMooon | APR 27 2023 (NOBO - Section) | Big Bear | 5/15: outside of Big Bear | |
| u/hejkathinka, Link 2 | APR 28 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/15: No update posted | |
| u/Mschoee | MAY 1 2023 (NOBO) | SanJac | 5/15: getting their ass kicked PCT style | |
| u/loombisaurus | Daisy | MAY 1 2023 (NOBO) | Hikertown | 5/15: Hit Hikertown with their beautiful hiking companion (Husky dog) |
| u/MoogyzHikez, u/environmental-pop-11 | MAY 4 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/15: Hit Eagle Rock and 100mi mark! | |
| u/sharkdork | MAY 5 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/15: #UmbrellaGang | |
| u/Kristi_Tho | MAY 6 2023 (NOBO) | past 100 mi | 5/15: past 100 mi mark! Nero'd in Ranchita | |
| u/jkeller52 | MAY 10 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/15: Terminus pic posted! | |
| u/kinn0n14 | MAY 13 2023 (NOBO) | No update posted | 5/15: No update from trail | |
| u/dgerken81 | Hot Pink | MAY 13 2023 (NOBO) | On Trail! | 5/14: 26 mi day 1, crushed it. Attempting a 96 day thru |
| u/spiderwinder23 | MAY 15 2023 (NOBO) | starts today | 5/15: "Day 0: 0.5miles hiked to and from the trailhead from CLEEF camp after busing there from San Diego" | |
| u/niccolojoe | MAY 18 2023 (NOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/packfullofgoldbars | MAY 20 2023 (NOBO - Section) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/bbqbaconsandwich | MAY 22 2023 (NOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/Big_Bad_Panda | Tinman | MAY 25 2023 (NOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | |
| u/brick_50 | MAY 25 2023 (NOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/margot380, Link 2 | JUL 2 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/jocheeseburger11 | Early Bird | JUL 7 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | |
| u/lilmisscactus | JUL 8 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/Agreeable_Ad_5423 | JUL 10 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/Sea_counter8398 | JUL 18 2023 (SOBO) | Not Yet On Trail | ||
| u/canthinkofone9 | Sweet Rinn | JUL 26 2023 (SOBO - Section) | Not Yet On Trail |
Week 1
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Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
2023.05.14 04:02 Kazevenikov Cryptid Chronicle - Chapter 28
A special thanks to u/bluefishcake for the wonderful original story and sandbox to play in.
A special thanks to my editors LordHenry7898, RandomTinkerer, Swimming_Good_8507, and CatsInTrenchcoats
And a big thanks to the authors and their stories that inspired me to tell my own in this universe. RandomTinkerer (City Slickers and Hayseeds), Punnynfunny (Denied Operations), CompassWithHat (Top Lasgun), CarCU131 (The Cook), and Rhion-618 (Just One Drop)
Hy’shq’e Ay Si’am (Thank you noble friends)
Chapter 28: From Tiny Seeds…
“What a beautiful mess.” That was the only thing that Rhaxiid had said to him when the distraught human stormed off to goddess knew where, but the look he’d been given by his old friend had spoken entire volumes. Akil’eas had covered as best he could, and while Kalai had nearly thrown herself at the impertinent officer, the good Colonel had helped him transition the guests to the next dance after taking the woman aside. Once everything had been settled and the party put back on track, he’d asked Kalai to step up to play hostess while he volunteered to go look for the barbarian.
It served its purpose. She could be the face of the family and network with the movers and shakers in this region who had connections back on Shil. It would give her the leg up she would need as she prepared to enter society. It also meant that he could separate his daughter from the human. He’d played the ‘man-card’ with his daughter and the ladies, while he’d played the ‘host-card’ with Rhaxiid. To the rest, he was going to find and coax the poor man back with assurances that the officer would be reprimanded for her breach of etiquette in the dance.
Akil’eas had used the excuse to go to his private lab, where Dr. Sel’wa had bowed out at the beginning of the party to prepare the samples. Long familiarity had bred efficiency, and when Akil’eas had entered the lab, Sel’wa had presented him with the pill.
“It’s a three stage swarm. The first is the virus delivery and liver monitoring set. Once he reaches Stage One, the monitoring swarm will trigger the second stage and provoke an immune response while suppressing the viral load with the current generation of treatments. Once the virus load has hit the suppression threshold, the third stage will deliver the antibodies from Subject 3239-CA and trigger replication in the host…but doctor, this will only work if he is actually related to the original host! And only if he carries the same genetic markers! If you’re not one hundred percent sure, this treatment will not work, and I’m not sure if we can make another batch of antibodies! The original sample is so degraded!”
Akil’eas nodded and took the pill and a placebo in a case with him. He shoved the problem of how to get the savage to take the pill to the side as he searched for whatever corner it may have crawled into. The resultant hurried search through the house for wherever the savage was hiding left him in a state of near panic as the seconds felt like hours. As he was on his way to the south wing, he glanced out at the Atrium and sighted his quarry.
The human was in one of the little private alcoves hidden by the Wampam tree and the King’s Hedge Roses. Akil’eas hurried down the stairs and as he passed through the kitchens, he was struck by an idea that could solve his problems.
Andy sat cradling his head, fighting to regain his composure. He’d broken, here of all places, and humiliated himself and his patrons, and all he could feel was shame. These purple bitches were all the same, but he couldn’t let go and be pleasant for even one evening. The scene replayed itself in his mind over and over again, from Char’dania to Ms. Mor’lanan.
“I’m just a fucking token Indian-”
“I wouldn’t exactly say that. Unique, certainly, but not a token.”
Andy looked up to see Kalai’s father holding two low stemmed, wide brimmed glasses in one hand, and a black frosted imitation of a wine bottle in the other. There was a look of unease on the man’s face and an unsteadiness in his stance.
“Please, don’t rise on my account.” Andy hadn’t realized he was halfway to rising from his seat as the doctor shook his head. “I came to offer my sincere apologies as a host, and I beg you accept them, along with a peace offering.”
Andy blinked a few times in confusion as he returned to his seat. The man smiled wanly as he set the glasses and the bottle on the side table that sat between Andy and an empty seat in the alcove.
Andy swallowed once and nodded as the man opened the bottle and left it to breathe. “I believe it is I that owes you an apology, sir. I have not behaved as a good guest, nor have my actions reflected well on my patrons, nor on you as host.” Andy opted for formality, though it came out more stilted than he’d meant it to.
“The insult is borne by you, Mr. Shelokset, you did not give it,” Dr. He’osforos stopped and gave Andy a look that he couldn’t interpret. “Take it from an old socialite, you held up rather well, considering the circumstances.”
“You are too kind, your grace.”
The man inclined his head and sat down next to Andy. A silence, neither comfortable nor uncomfortable, fell for a moment. “My daughter seems quite taken with you…”
Andy let the statement hang unfinished while he considered his response to her father. “Kalai…that is Lady He’osforos…is a friend, your grace. She’s considerate, kind, and courageous. In the short time I’ve known her, she’s been a perfect lady to me and my people.”
“Hmm…that is high praise.” The doctor seemed satisfied with that answer before he poured a small amount of the burgundy liquor into a glass to taste it. “My daughter is… precious to me. She’s all I have left.”
Andy let his eyes fall to the ground, and he felt a wave of sorrow for the man wash over him. “I’ve heard of your loss, your grace. I can only offer you my sincerest condolences for your wives and child.”
When Andy looked back up at the sudden silence, afraid he’d said something wrong, it was to see a look of pain on the Duke’s face. He seemed far away, as though his soul had gone wandering. Andy waited for what felt like an eternity before He’osforos spoke again. “It’s an old wound, but one that has never healed.” His voice was pained, and he suddenly seemed a bit frail. “It wasn’t just my wives and my daughter, it was the majority of our family, on all sides.”
“A bioterror attack, I’ve been told.” Andy sat back up straight as his host poured out two glasses and set the bottle down.
“Yes.” the man took a shuddering breath. “An Alliance bio-weapon in the hands of Roaches. Cerulean Pox to be specific. The terrorists detonated two of their bombs in the Ancient Quarter and…well, both my daughters contracted it immediately, and from them it spread to the rest of the family. I was working with a few doctoral candidates in a secure lab when they locked us in. By the time they let us out… I’d… I’d lost…”
Andy took the offered glass and stared down at the burgundy liquid. It had a spicy bouquet that he couldn’t place, but he raised it all the same, “To family. May they live forever in the mansions of our memory.”
Andy had taken the glass he’d offered him, but before He’osforos could say or do anything else, the human had raised his glass and invoked Memory, of all things. It means nothing, these creatures have no understanding of matters of faith. “To La’rala, Su’lenia, and Gadea. Gone, but never forgotten.”
As He’osforos raised his glass, the human spoke again. “May their memory be eternal.”
He’osforos nearly choked on the six year old Oborodo. To hear those words, the healing refrain of the Dirge of Krek, spouted by a faithless creature like a human was impossible. “That…that’s a prayer, a Shil’vati prayer from Krek! How could you know this?”
“It’s also a Christian prayer, your grace. One that I’ve found… comforting when…” Andy trailed off before covering his loss of reserve with a sip from the glass.
“To think… that Memory of all things…” Akil’eas’ mind whirled at the implications, but he shoved them back. A broken clock is right twice a day, as these humans say. “But what about when the memories become too painful, Mr. Shelokset? That is a question I have wrestled with for quite some time. My people have an answer to that question… Do yours?” Here is the test. Are you, like the rest of them, afraid to shoulder the memories? Or do you have the capacity to stand astride the River Of Time?
“When memories become too much… When they allow the past to intrude on the present… I’ve heard it called nostalgia. The pain of an old wound, your grace.” Andy took another pull from his drink. He drank a bit longer than was polite, but that didn’t matter to Akil’eas as he listened intently. The human, that is the boy, had a weight in his voice that Akil’eas knew all too well from having borne the same weight himself for so long. “I lost almost everything, your grace, and all I have left are memories. My own, and the memories that were handed down to me. Good, mixed with bad.”
Akil’eas closed his eyes and fought as his own memories threatened to intrude on the present. “But what to do about them? What do you do when the pain of the past threatens to overwhelm your present and tear down your future?”
“Learn to live with that pain… Make peace with it, I guess… but some days are harder than others. I don’t think I’m all that… Well, my people haven’t had the best track record with handling painful memories.”
There was a sudden tenseness in Andy that he recognized as a tell from a patient who didn’t want to admit to something. “May I ask? As a medical professional with all confidentiality guaranteed, of course." Akil'eas tried coaxing the answer from Andy.
“Substance abuse. Alcohol, drugs… Anything to numb the pain. Pain beyond just… just our bodies, although we had that too…” Akil’eas had two simultaneous observations as Andy spoke. The human was speaking about himself, obviously, but the subtle involuntary movement of the hands to his arms and the slight flinch when he described pain. Long dormant training from his residency in pediatrics kicked in, and Akil’eas felt something snap inside him. This boy was abused. “...a pain and emptiness of the soul. An amputated spirit.” Andy’s words lanced straight into Akil’eas’ heart.
“Nostalgia…amputation…those are apt descriptions.” Something started to stir in Akil’eas as he stared at Andy. “I hope you won’t think it rude of me to offer you more Oborodo, Mr. Shelokset? It’s been one of my escapes when those old wounds become nigh unbearable.” Akil’eas picked up the bottle and offered to top off Andy’s glass again, seeing as he was low. The case with the two pills in his coat jostled slightly, calling his mind back to his objective.
“I can stand another round, though if you don’t mind, I’d offer a toast to the memory of Mom and Dad.” Andy lifted his glass again after Akil’eas had replenished it. “To them, to all my cousins and family now gone up the hill…and to those who’re still lost, but will return.”
“May their memory be eternal,” Akil’eas intoned as he raised his glass and drank with Andy. There was a moment of silence as the human stared off into space, leaving Akil’eas there with his own swirling thoughts. Curiosity and concern compelled him to break the silence. “May I ask how?”
Andy seemed to come back to himself and turned to look at Akil’eas. Those eyes, those were the same eyes he’d seen in both his dreams and his nightmares when the memories of that little feral human and the cure it possessed haunted him. “Most of my family was killed in a single day. My parents died when dad’s Aircraft Carrier was sunk at Pearl, and all of my aunts, uncles, cousins were killed in the orbital strikes and the resultant firestorm.” The boy drained the glass and set it aside. “I, um…I helped my grandma bury them before they took us away.”
A lump formed in Akil’eas’ throat as memories of burying his own family rose to meet Andy’s words. “Goddess… I had no idea… but you said some survived?” Akil’eas asked somberly, hoping for something good, something to hold on to against the tide of nostalgia the two of them seemed to be adrift in. The pills were utterly forgotten.
“There were four of us. My paternal grandparents… and my older brother.”
Akil’eas’ breath caught in his chest. “Older… brother?” His heart began to race, and he looked at Andy with the appraising eye of a doctor, searching for and finding the similarities, while adding the effect of time as best he could.
“Yes, my brother-”
“Konstantin?” Akil’eas didn’t wait as the name fell from his lips before the human could say it. The effect was immediate.
“You…you know my brother?” The human stared at him, wide eyed and tense. Like Akil’eas had slapped him in the face.
“Konstantin Shelokset? Guardian named Wiley-”
“Grandpa Wiley, yes! You know them? Do you know where they are? If they’re alive? Please! Please tell me!” The boy was on his feet now, and he was pleading as he stood over Akil’eas.
Dr. He’osforos looked up into Andy’s eyes, and something inside him rose up and rebelled against all good sense and logic. This is no barbarian, no savage. Here is a person, a child, lost and alone. A child who was forced to bury his own family before being carted away to be beaten and abused. Empathy, that emotion he’d worked so hard to kill in himself to do what he’d had to do to save the last of his family, his last daughter, stirred. That old, almost vestigial piece of his soul tried to resurrect itself in him as he stared up at the desperate boy begging to hear news of the family that had lived. NO! That is not a person! That is a base creature! A test subject and a means to an end to save your-
The stench of death threatened to overwhelm him, even through his rebreather. Akil’eas was suddenly back in his home, seeing everything through the face shield of the hazmat suit. He could barely see through the tears, unable to wipe them away. Behind him lay both of his wives in their Navy parade blues. The crisp uniforms were stained by the sores on their bodies and their hands had already turned black. They lay on the bed with the door bolted and locked from the inside, and sheets had been stuffed in the cracks of the door. They’d known they were sick, and had tried to keep it contained, dying together. Akil’eas tried to compartmentalize his grief as he ran to his daughters’ rooms. Perhaps they’d succeeded and stopped the rest of the family from contracting the Pox. He found the door to Gadea’s room open and fear threatened to stop him from confirming what he suspected he’d find. Akil’eas tried to steel himself as he turned the corner, but his heart shattered then and there to see his lifeless father, cradling the body of Akil’eas’ daughter Gadea. Their faces were magenta and marred with weeping sores.
He stood transfixed as he saw the bodies of his Kho-mother, their servants, and all the rest gathered together in the room. They’d all gone together and he began to despair. From the other side of the bed he heard a groan, and clambered over the bodies of his family to see Kalai on the ground, sick but alive. Fatherly instinct overrode his grief and Akil’eas ran to her. She was sick, he could see, but miraculously in the early stages of infection. There was still hope, maybe, if he could get her to the hospital he could requisition the emergency treatment his team had been working on. It would give her a fighting chance, but he’d have to move quickly. If she passed the threshold, there would be nothing he could do. Akil’eas scooped his little girl up and sprinted back to the transport. Panic and desperation to save Kalai gave him strength and endurance beyond the point of exhaustion. “Krek, Lord of Death and Memory, turn thy face away from my daughter! Spare this one and take what you will from me! Spare her, I beg you!”
She stirred in his arms and grasped at his suit. “Papa? Where’re my mamas? Where’s Gadea? Please, I want my mamas! I want my sister!”
“Please! Duke He’osforos, I’m begging you, tell me Konstantin and Grampa Wiley are alive! Tell me you know where he is! Where is my Grandfather? Please! Where is my brother?” Akil’eas felt himself return suddenly to the present at the boy’s pleading tone.
That voice inside his head, the one he’d used to kill the voice in his heart, that allowed him to do what he’d had to do, fell silent. Try as he might, Akil’eas could not look at Andy without seeing his daughter Kalai. There but for the grace of Hele and the forbearance of Krek is my child.
“I…I don’t know if they are currently alive, but I treated your brother some eight local years ago.” Akil’eas stood up and sidestepped the young man. He deliberately turned his back on Andy as he pulled the case with the pills out to look at it. What have I become? A sense of deep shame and disgust in himself threatened to overwhelm him as he shoved them back into his pocket, unopened.
“Eight years? He… He would have been-”
“Eleven or twelve.” Akil’eas turned and poured himself a full glass and drained it to steady himself. The spices of the Oborodo burned his mouth and throat, and he coughed slightly to clear his palate of the stinging. “I remember him, because he’d been brought to me badly malnourished and sick. I treated him, and he attacked me…nearly taking my life.” The voice in his head muttered against the gale force screaming of the voice in his heart. If you tell him the truth, he will finish what his brother started and condemn Kalai to death. Tell him what he needs to know and no more!
“Why would he do that?” Andy’s voice was incredulous and Akil’eas turned to face him.
“It… might have been the fact that the Interior was present, and were looking to arrest him. He escaped-”
“THAT’S MY BROTHER! Ts’uh un’stommish uh’ti’uh’qai’es!” The sudden burst of joy and the barbaric language made Akil’eas nearly jump out of his skin. Andy twisted in joy before turning back to see how badly he’d scared Akil’eas. “Forgive me, but… I will make what restitution I must on his behalf for any pain he caused you, of course… but he’s ALIVE! I knew it!” Andy’s joy was infectious, and Akil’eas couldn’t help but smile awkwardly at the strange happy dance the boy was doing as he celebrated the news.
“Eight years ago, yes, and the Interior’s been looking for him ever since. I know the officer who wanted him quite well. There’s a warrant out for his arrest still-”
“Maybe that’s why he hasn’t come home! Kay Tee and Grandpa won’t risk ol’ Scarface kicking our door in.” Akil’eas felt the need to be pragmatic and remind Andy that it had been eight years ago, and that Si’catreese had assured him that she would eventually find Konstantin. She’d not had the evidence, but she suspected that his Shil’vati guardians had hidden him away somewhere. Andy’s statement, however, brought a measure of hope he’d not felt in a long time.
“Do you mean to say… your brother would come home… if he’s still alive-”
“I know he’s still alive! He must be! I can’t believe it! You know him, and you treated him!”
“You think he’d come home if… the Interior was no longer looking for him?”
“It’s the only explanation! It must be!” Andy crowed happily, before looking around and suddenly seeming to go shy. “Doctor… Your grace… I tell you this in confidence, but… my brother and my grandfather are part of the Resistance. I’ve been trying to find them and get them out so they can come home. You see, they monitor those warrants and the movements of the Interior and-”
Akil’eas held up his hand to stop Andy from continuing, “Mr. Shelokset, I…as it turns out, I may be able to repay you after all. You see, I know the Agent who issued the warrant for your brother. If your brother still lives, and if he is still associated with that organization, then perhaps a subtle invitation home can be arranged.”
“You… What do you mean?” Akil’eas couldn’t help the pang in his heart as he saw the hope written all over the boy’s face.
“I mean, that if the only thing keeping your family separated is an Interior Warrant, then if it were to go away…” Akil’eas spoke guardedly, calculating what it would cost him to have Si’catreese pull the warrant.
Andy stood there and stared at Akil’eas in shock for two heartbeats before throwing himself tearfully at him. Akil’eas was wrapped up and pulled into the air by the now sobbing human.
“You have no idea what this means to me. To my people! You may have just saved us, your grace!”
“I’ve done nothing yet, young man!” Akil’eas squeaked before Andy placed him back on the ground. The boy stood there, awkwardly while He’osforos adjusted his suit and tamed the one or two loose strands of hair that had fallen loose. “But this…I feel that…well I…” Akil’eas felt himself at a loss for words as he watched the play of hope and anticipation play out over Andy’s face. “For saving my daughter, and for bringing her home…Losing your loved ones is a fate I’d not wish on even my worst enemy. That kind of loss…it can…it will…”
“Twist you, bend, or even break you,” the boy finished what Akil’eas could not bring himself to confess. Looking in his eyes, he saw that the young man knew and understood.
“I’m sorry that you understand that so well. I offer my own sincere condolences for the loss of your family, and for what you have had to endure.” Akil’eas replaced the cap on the Oborodo and made a show of tidying up their area. He turned to fix Andy with a soulful look before speaking. “Andrei, would you honor me by returning? The lieutenant will be punished, and she will bother you no more. Please?” He gestured to the main entrance of the atrium and canted his head, expectantly.
—----
Andy stepped off the back porch with Sitry as they took a stroll down the path to the lakeside. She’d been hovering ever since he’d returned with Dr. He’osforos, with only a few minutes to himself at the dinner table, sitting between Aftasia and Sakalbi. He didn’t mind it really, her general demeanor toward everyone else that tried to approach him did wonders for keeping people away. Besides that, Andy was happy.
He felt like a huge crushing weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Now it all made sense! If the Interior was actively hunting him and knew that Grandpa Wiley was his guardian? No wonder they’d stayed away with no contact. A small part of Andy spoke out against the doctor having the ability to quash an Interior Warrant, but the man was a Duke, and Andy had saved his daughter, Kalai. With the way the Resistance fought and evaded the colonizers, they had to have spies in the Interior and the Marines. They’d know, and once attention was focused elsewhere? They’d make their quiet way back in their own time when Scarface wouldn’t be looking. Now he wouldn’t have to be any kind of leader to anybody. No more sleepless nights or sitting in the front. He could fade into the background with his hero brother and grandfather taking the responsibility. No more would he feel compelled to represent the Shelokset name whenever they went out on raids, or protest the governess and whatever new moronic edict she’d made.
He’d do a year, just one, working for the Vaidas, and then he’d quit. He’d be able to fade into obscurity as just another young man, another tumulh, in the wings with a quiet life. He’d introduce the Vaidas to the right people who could tell them what to do, and be done.
A bottle of Jack Daniels…no, not Jack. This calls for a celebration. I’ll go get some thousand-credit-a-bottle of bourbon…no, TWO bottles…and kill one for the warrant, and save the second to share with grandpa and Kay Tee. The Orca Sheloksets are coming home!
“Andy? Are you alright? You look like you’re on the verge of tears.” Sitry had brought the both of them to a stop. The moonrise over the Cascades and the fading light of evening reflecting off Mt. Rainier to the southeast and made the whole vista like one of those cheap postcards in the tourist areas.
“Wha…oh, no, I um…I’m actually really happy.” Andy mentally slapped himself as he pulled his thoughts back into the here and now.
Sitry scoffed in disbelief. “Happy? After that bitch-”
“That bitch has been chasing me for years now, and it isn’t sex she’s after, Sitry. She wants me to join the Marines because she thinks that the rest of the young people of the tribe’ll see me do it and join too.” Andy patted her arm that was linked with his, and he walked off the path to a little seating area under a gazebo.
“That’s…wow. That’s stupid!” Sitry trotted alongside him as he took a seat on a bench and leaned back. “They wouldn't, would they?”
“No! No they wouldn’t…at least I hope not,” Andy shifted slightly as Sitry took a seat next to him and not so subtly batted her eyelashes at him. “No offense, Sitry, but we kinda hate the Imperium.” Fuck, why did I say that? The happy feeling fled and in its place a palling started to fall.
“So…why work with us? I mean, I’m grateful, and my parents love you…you’re like the First Bloom to them right now…but…” Sitry didn’t seem put out in the slightest, but she did shoot him a concerned look over her shoulder.
Andy took a steadying breath and decided to be truthful. “I guess I’m just tired. Tired of watching my home change for the worse, tired of fighting, tired of being scared, tired of being angry…tired of people thinking I’m something I’m not. I’m not sexy, I’m not a leader, I’m not a savage, and I’m not a…I’m not an expert on anything.”
Sitry twitched her tail, cocked an ear, and shot him a disbelieving smirk. “So what is it you want? How should I think of you?” Andy couldn’t help but appreciate how pretty she was. Her long dark red hair fell in cascades down her back and contrasted perfectly with her green dress.
Andy gulped a bit, suddenly feeling warm despite the breeze. “I don’t know…I guess I just want to be…I don’t want to be the me everyone wants me to be. I guess I just don’t want to be where I’m at anymore.” Andy couldn’t help but think about all the pressure his grandmother put on him to step up and be a Clan Chief. The pressure the other tumulhs put on him to step up alongside the Elders, leading and advising the Clans. The pressure of trying to keep the hopes of the Exiles alive and bring them all home. It all terrified him, because what if he failed? He didn’t even want to think about it.
“Do…do you hate me?” Sitry’s voice was small and vulnerable, and Andy suddenly saw that she’d taken his meaning very differently.
“No, no I don’t hate you! You…” Andy quickly stammered. You’re fucking gorgeous and I don’t know what to do or say around you because I don’t want to be a creep, but I just keep coming off as this broken loser to you! “I guess I’m just…I never thought I’d be friends with a hwun’eetum.” DAMN IT, YOU COWARD!!!
“A friend?” She perked back up at that and got a dreamy look in her eyes. “Well after only knowing you for a few days, I can work with that. Maybe we could be something more before I go back home to Shil?” She twisted around to give him a look over her shoulders and batted her eyelashes at him again. Those big silver gray eyes flashed playfully and her noticeably red lips quirked up in a smile.
AAAAGGGGHHHH! “Maybe? Who knows, but I think Kalai and your parents…not to mention your brother would have something to say about that.” Andy could only pray that he sounded calm and collected in the face of Sitry’s advances. The incident the other day had left him with very embarrassing thoughts, and now here she was again, leaning closer and closer into his personal space. A part of him deep down wanted to reciprocate, but it felt like a hundred reasons jumbled in his head for why he shouldn’t.
“Mmm…maybe…” She retreated back to her side of the bench, but with a satisfied smile instead of a pout. “But I promise you this, handsome, if that Cambrian lumberjack gets near you again I’m kicking her stupid tusks down her stupid throat.”
Andy laughed heartily and the tension snapped, letting him return to that feeling of happiness again. “You know? I’d love to see someone put that hog-faced stalker in her place.”
“Consider it done, laddie, though I hope ye won’t tar th’ whole lotta us with th’ same brush.” The new voice with that hated Cambrian accent nearly made Andy jump out of his skin. Turning around, he saw Colonel Pic’tia standing behind them, outside the gazebo. Andy felt like a suddenly wet cat as the large woman made her way quickly around and stood before him with a bow. “I came te make an apology on behalf o’ me officer. I dinnae know she were harassin’ ye, but I’ll be keepin’ a clear eye on ‘er from now on. Ye have me word onnit.”
Andy instinctively inclined his head, while Sitry was clearly sizing up the woman and making calculations. “Thank you, Colonel, I’m appreciative.” Andy was pleased that his voice betrayed none of his emotions.
“I mus’ say, It’s a right bonnie place ye’ve got here. Reminds me o’ te Eastern Lowlands. Green an’ rainy like…Enough te make a woman miss home.” The Colonel turned and took a sweeping look at the vista around them, sighing appreciatively.
“Well, Seattle isn’t ours, hasn’t been for two Occupations.” Andy quipped with a look at Sitry.
“I know, laddie…an’ me and me lassies can relate, funnily enough. Still, home is home, and just because some Empress plants Her flag dinnae mean it stopped bein’ yers, ev’n if it’s only true in th’ stories ye tell.” The Colonel turned and smiled back down at Andy and Sitry.
“May God bless and keep the Empress-” Andy started.
“Far, far away from all o’ us. Goddess fer Queen an’ Cambria!” The Colonel finished with a flourish. Andy’s jaw nearly hit the floor and he felt his heart nearly stop in shock. The cheeky smile she flashed at the both of them got even bigger. “Yer not th’ only one’s been shit on by th’ Empress. We do wha’ we can fer our people and hope ye do a bit more good than bad in th’ process.”
Andy had no words as he continued to stare up at the big woman who guffawed at the horrified look on Sitry’s face.
“Right, I dinnae wan’ te overstay me welcome, an’ iffin ye have any more trouble with Char’dania, ye have my express permission te boop her ‘er right inna snoot. Only leave a poor lassie her tusks fer her dignity? There’s noone smart wan’s te get inna kickin’ match with an Erbian lass protectin’ her boyo. Ye ‘ave as good a night as ye can git, now!” The saucy wink she gave Sitry turned the bunnygirl nearly as red as her hair and Colonel Pic’tia sauntered out of the gazebo, off along the lakeside, whistling a tune.
Andy felt as embarrassed as Sitry looked. “So…should we go back to the party?” he ventured, suddenly not really able to look her in the eye.
“Yes, I think that would be…yes,” she seemed to dither about offering her arm to him, so he did it for her. He suppressed a laugh as she seemed to go even redder as she took him by the arm and began leading him back to the house.
Just as they reached the back porch, Sitry stopped and seemed to nearly hop from foot to foot. “Um, so Andy, I was wondering if…well I…you…oh fuck it!”
Andy stopped and looked down at her in confusion. “Sitry wha-umph!” She’d jumped up and kissed him, not deeply or well, but she’d done it. She put her hands on his chest and stood on her tiptoes to reach up and plant her lips on his.
Andy froze as everything short circuited in his brain and body. She held herself perfectly still, still mashing her lips against his for what seemed like an eternity before she lowered herself down. She stared into his eyes, and he saw fear written all over her face. “I…I’m sorry, but I…I just-mmph-ow!”
He’d wrapped her in his arms and pulled her back into him to kiss her back. Only when he had, he’d been slightly off the mark and they’d clicked their front teeth together. The both of them recoiled, clutching their faces and rubbing their smarting teeth.
How could I have fucked that up! Son of a rat fucked sperm-burping gutter-
Sitry began laughing, light and giddy, almost like a machine gun until she snorted twice and hiccuped. “By the Sacred Grove, Andy…you are…perfect!”
“Wait…what?” Andy felt the floor fall out from under him as he rubbed the last of that tooth on tooth feeling away. He was so embarrassed, but for some reason, the urge to flee wasn’t there.
“Can we try that again?” Sitry’s voice grew husky and she stepped back in, laying her hands on his shoulders. Her eyes fluttered at him as she got closer and closer.
“Kissing?” Andy asked, finding his arms wrapping around her again.
“You taking me!” she growled with a feral smile and a twitch of her ears.
The door banging and something or someone slamming into it caused her to jump with a squeak of surprise. When she did, she had nowhere to go but up and forward, right into Andy. There was a thunk and for a moment Andy saw the cosmos as stars danced in his vision and they fell backward into the bushes.
“No, no, NO! I don’t give a damn! You are paid to keep tabs on any humans that they’re scouting and inform me before they make an offer!” Andy lay on the ground, flat on his back with Sitry laying on top of him, completely dazed. The voice of a Shil’vati woman that seemed familiar hissed and spat from the other side of the bushes, out of sight. “This is gross incompetence on your part, is this what I pay you for? Now I don’t care how, but you will give me everything you have on him and anyone that he has connections with.”
Sitry started to stir with a groan, and Andy quickly covered her mouth and shushed her quietly. “They’re fucking savages living in fucking wooden huts! Threaten them, then dangle more money than they’ve ever seen! It’s how you can get any greedy little creature to do what you want.”
Sitry, having got the message, went stock still and looked up at Andy. He could see the goose-egg forming on her forehead, while it felt like he had gotten a black eye. “Fucking useless incompetents!” The voice cursed before the sound of storming feet and a slamming door signaled the owner’s retreat.
“I think that maybe we should go back a different way,” Sitry mumbled, exploring her new lump as Andy helped her to push off him to her feet.
“Perhaps after we get some ice?” Andy replied gingerly, poking at his sore eye as she offered him a hand to pull him up.
Dr. He’osforos stood in the entryway, watching the last of his guests take their leave. All in all, the soiree had been a success, even with the little unexpected drama. Or perhaps a success in part because of it. Kalai was fussing over Andrei as the Vaidas were preparing to leave. She had attached herself to him for the whole evening while making snide comments about poor Sitry after the two had come back from their little walk after supper; a bit filthy and sporting a bruise and a bump respectively.
She was saying her farewells to the Vaidas, who were returning to their hotel with Andrei, while she had elected to stay here with him.
“Doctor, is it done? None of the instruments have recorded any data at all.” Dr. Sel’wa appeared at his left shoulder, muttering only loud enough for Akil’eas to hear.
Akil’eas frowned as he pulled the pill case out of his pocket and rattled it once for his aide. “Recover the samples and the swarms.”
The poor man sputtered incoherently for a moment before swiping the case from his hand. “What happened? Was there no opportunity? Is the subject not related to the original-?”
“Andrei is Konstantin’s younger brother, and would therefore be a perfect incubator…but I couldn’t do it. Andrei is…he is…it’s not right.” Again, the memory of young Kalai in his arms, magenta as he cradled her to him in the hazmat suit jumped in his mind when he thought about Andrei.
Dr. Sel’wa scoffed, “That has never stopped you before, doctor-”
“Perhaps it should have.” Akil’eas turned to look at him and saw that same iron determination that had been his refuge for so many years, and suddenly doubt began to creep into his mind.
“Doctor He’osforos…Akil’eas! We are this close to replicating the key treatment that will give us both cure and vaccine against Cerulean Pox!” Dr. Sel’wa put his hand on Akil’eas’ shoulder and squeezed, pleading with him. He had also lost family in the Virus Bombing, and had dedicated himself in their vendetta against the virus that had robbed them and so many others of their families. “Billions of lives hang in the balance! Your own daughter’s life hangs in the balance!”
Akil’eas stared at the man and the voice in his mind came slithering back. The whispers in the depths of his mind were so clear against the storm inside his heart. So many years he’d relied on that voice to keep him going. Thousands of experiments. Tens of thousands of man hours. Your daughter is there, alive, because of what you’ve done.
Akil’eas closed his eyes and turned to walk back into his home. Andrei is a servant of Krek! Here is proof positive that he has a soul! That these humans are not savages, nor are they base animals-
A soul? One sympathetic human does not redeem the whole race. They’re just as guilty as the Roaches and the Alliance! Their history is soaked in the blood of their own kind, and given half a chance, they would certainly unleash weapons of mass destruction on us. They have no qualms about using atomics specifically on men and children, nor have they shied away from medical experimentation on themselves in far less ethical and noble pursuits!
Akil’eas stopped in the hallway and put out a hand to steady himself against a door frame. His chest felt heavy with the two voices roiling back and forth inside his mind. His rational mind and his conscience fought bitterly, leaving him short of breath and nearly shaking.
I’ve laid my course. It’s too late to change it now. If I didn’t balk when I joined Purity Control, then I certainly can’t balk now. For my daughter…for Gadea. For La’rala and Su’lenia. For my father, my mothers, and all the rest. I couldn’t save them, but I CAN save Kalai. I’m already lost, and my hands are already red and blue with blood, what’s a few more drops if it means my daughter is saved?
He straightened and steadied himself. His mind reasserted itself and he could again see clearly. “Dr. Sel’wa, you are right. I’ve come this far…I must see this through.” Akil’eas didn’t need to turn around to know the man was behind him, hovering.
“You’re saving lives, doctor. You’re saving Kalai’s life. What’s one more human weighed against the billions of Shil’vati who will be saved?” Akil’eas turned to look the man in the eye. There was relief on the man’s face.
“I think…I think I need to take a week or two off. Spend time with Kalai while she’s here.” Akil’eas looked back towards the front entrance, and could see Kalai standing there, waving and watching what he assumed was the Vaidas driving away. “Yes, a nice little vacation. I’ll take her sailing, just the two of us.”
“An excellent idea, doctor. It will help refocus you.”
Dr. Sel’wa retreated quickly back to their lab and left Akil’eas there, watching his daughter and thinking of the possibilities she’d have when she no longer needed to fear for her life. He would save her, and she would carry the He’osforos name and legacy forward. She would live, have children, and pass the traditions and memories of her mothers and her mothers’ mothers down. He would ensure that none of his loves would suffer the final death of being forgotten.
Even if I long for that death for all that I’ve done.
submitted by Kazevenikov to Sexyspacebabes [link] [comments]
A special thanks to my editors LordHenry7898, RandomTinkerer, Swimming_Good_8507, and CatsInTrenchcoats
And a big thanks to the authors and their stories that inspired me to tell my own in this universe. RandomTinkerer (City Slickers and Hayseeds), Punnynfunny (Denied Operations), CompassWithHat (Top Lasgun), CarCU131 (The Cook), and Rhion-618 (Just One Drop)
Hy’shq’e Ay Si’am (Thank you noble friends)
Chapter 28: From Tiny Seeds…
“What a beautiful mess.” That was the only thing that Rhaxiid had said to him when the distraught human stormed off to goddess knew where, but the look he’d been given by his old friend had spoken entire volumes. Akil’eas had covered as best he could, and while Kalai had nearly thrown herself at the impertinent officer, the good Colonel had helped him transition the guests to the next dance after taking the woman aside. Once everything had been settled and the party put back on track, he’d asked Kalai to step up to play hostess while he volunteered to go look for the barbarian.
It served its purpose. She could be the face of the family and network with the movers and shakers in this region who had connections back on Shil. It would give her the leg up she would need as she prepared to enter society. It also meant that he could separate his daughter from the human. He’d played the ‘man-card’ with his daughter and the ladies, while he’d played the ‘host-card’ with Rhaxiid. To the rest, he was going to find and coax the poor man back with assurances that the officer would be reprimanded for her breach of etiquette in the dance.
Akil’eas had used the excuse to go to his private lab, where Dr. Sel’wa had bowed out at the beginning of the party to prepare the samples. Long familiarity had bred efficiency, and when Akil’eas had entered the lab, Sel’wa had presented him with the pill.
“It’s a three stage swarm. The first is the virus delivery and liver monitoring set. Once he reaches Stage One, the monitoring swarm will trigger the second stage and provoke an immune response while suppressing the viral load with the current generation of treatments. Once the virus load has hit the suppression threshold, the third stage will deliver the antibodies from Subject 3239-CA and trigger replication in the host…but doctor, this will only work if he is actually related to the original host! And only if he carries the same genetic markers! If you’re not one hundred percent sure, this treatment will not work, and I’m not sure if we can make another batch of antibodies! The original sample is so degraded!”
Akil’eas nodded and took the pill and a placebo in a case with him. He shoved the problem of how to get the savage to take the pill to the side as he searched for whatever corner it may have crawled into. The resultant hurried search through the house for wherever the savage was hiding left him in a state of near panic as the seconds felt like hours. As he was on his way to the south wing, he glanced out at the Atrium and sighted his quarry.
The human was in one of the little private alcoves hidden by the Wampam tree and the King’s Hedge Roses. Akil’eas hurried down the stairs and as he passed through the kitchens, he was struck by an idea that could solve his problems.
“I’m just a fucking token Indian-”
“I wouldn’t exactly say that. Unique, certainly, but not a token.”
Andy looked up to see Kalai’s father holding two low stemmed, wide brimmed glasses in one hand, and a black frosted imitation of a wine bottle in the other. There was a look of unease on the man’s face and an unsteadiness in his stance.
“Please, don’t rise on my account.” Andy hadn’t realized he was halfway to rising from his seat as the doctor shook his head. “I came to offer my sincere apologies as a host, and I beg you accept them, along with a peace offering.”
Andy blinked a few times in confusion as he returned to his seat. The man smiled wanly as he set the glasses and the bottle on the side table that sat between Andy and an empty seat in the alcove.
Andy swallowed once and nodded as the man opened the bottle and left it to breathe. “I believe it is I that owes you an apology, sir. I have not behaved as a good guest, nor have my actions reflected well on my patrons, nor on you as host.” Andy opted for formality, though it came out more stilted than he’d meant it to.
“The insult is borne by you, Mr. Shelokset, you did not give it,” Dr. He’osforos stopped and gave Andy a look that he couldn’t interpret. “Take it from an old socialite, you held up rather well, considering the circumstances.”
“You are too kind, your grace.”
The man inclined his head and sat down next to Andy. A silence, neither comfortable nor uncomfortable, fell for a moment. “My daughter seems quite taken with you…”
Andy let the statement hang unfinished while he considered his response to her father. “Kalai…that is Lady He’osforos…is a friend, your grace. She’s considerate, kind, and courageous. In the short time I’ve known her, she’s been a perfect lady to me and my people.”
“Hmm…that is high praise.” The doctor seemed satisfied with that answer before he poured a small amount of the burgundy liquor into a glass to taste it. “My daughter is… precious to me. She’s all I have left.”
Andy let his eyes fall to the ground, and he felt a wave of sorrow for the man wash over him. “I’ve heard of your loss, your grace. I can only offer you my sincerest condolences for your wives and child.”
When Andy looked back up at the sudden silence, afraid he’d said something wrong, it was to see a look of pain on the Duke’s face. He seemed far away, as though his soul had gone wandering. Andy waited for what felt like an eternity before He’osforos spoke again. “It’s an old wound, but one that has never healed.” His voice was pained, and he suddenly seemed a bit frail. “It wasn’t just my wives and my daughter, it was the majority of our family, on all sides.”
“A bioterror attack, I’ve been told.” Andy sat back up straight as his host poured out two glasses and set the bottle down.
“Yes.” the man took a shuddering breath. “An Alliance bio-weapon in the hands of Roaches. Cerulean Pox to be specific. The terrorists detonated two of their bombs in the Ancient Quarter and…well, both my daughters contracted it immediately, and from them it spread to the rest of the family. I was working with a few doctoral candidates in a secure lab when they locked us in. By the time they let us out… I’d… I’d lost…”
Andy took the offered glass and stared down at the burgundy liquid. It had a spicy bouquet that he couldn’t place, but he raised it all the same, “To family. May they live forever in the mansions of our memory.”
As He’osforos raised his glass, the human spoke again. “May their memory be eternal.”
He’osforos nearly choked on the six year old Oborodo. To hear those words, the healing refrain of the Dirge of Krek, spouted by a faithless creature like a human was impossible. “That…that’s a prayer, a Shil’vati prayer from Krek! How could you know this?”
“It’s also a Christian prayer, your grace. One that I’ve found… comforting when…” Andy trailed off before covering his loss of reserve with a sip from the glass.
“To think… that Memory of all things…” Akil’eas’ mind whirled at the implications, but he shoved them back. A broken clock is right twice a day, as these humans say. “But what about when the memories become too painful, Mr. Shelokset? That is a question I have wrestled with for quite some time. My people have an answer to that question… Do yours?” Here is the test. Are you, like the rest of them, afraid to shoulder the memories? Or do you have the capacity to stand astride the River Of Time?
“When memories become too much… When they allow the past to intrude on the present… I’ve heard it called nostalgia. The pain of an old wound, your grace.” Andy took another pull from his drink. He drank a bit longer than was polite, but that didn’t matter to Akil’eas as he listened intently. The human, that is the boy, had a weight in his voice that Akil’eas knew all too well from having borne the same weight himself for so long. “I lost almost everything, your grace, and all I have left are memories. My own, and the memories that were handed down to me. Good, mixed with bad.”
Akil’eas closed his eyes and fought as his own memories threatened to intrude on the present. “But what to do about them? What do you do when the pain of the past threatens to overwhelm your present and tear down your future?”
“Learn to live with that pain… Make peace with it, I guess… but some days are harder than others. I don’t think I’m all that… Well, my people haven’t had the best track record with handling painful memories.”
There was a sudden tenseness in Andy that he recognized as a tell from a patient who didn’t want to admit to something. “May I ask? As a medical professional with all confidentiality guaranteed, of course." Akil'eas tried coaxing the answer from Andy.
“Substance abuse. Alcohol, drugs… Anything to numb the pain. Pain beyond just… just our bodies, although we had that too…” Akil’eas had two simultaneous observations as Andy spoke. The human was speaking about himself, obviously, but the subtle involuntary movement of the hands to his arms and the slight flinch when he described pain. Long dormant training from his residency in pediatrics kicked in, and Akil’eas felt something snap inside him. This boy was abused. “...a pain and emptiness of the soul. An amputated spirit.” Andy’s words lanced straight into Akil’eas’ heart.
“Nostalgia…amputation…those are apt descriptions.” Something started to stir in Akil’eas as he stared at Andy. “I hope you won’t think it rude of me to offer you more Oborodo, Mr. Shelokset? It’s been one of my escapes when those old wounds become nigh unbearable.” Akil’eas picked up the bottle and offered to top off Andy’s glass again, seeing as he was low. The case with the two pills in his coat jostled slightly, calling his mind back to his objective.
“I can stand another round, though if you don’t mind, I’d offer a toast to the memory of Mom and Dad.” Andy lifted his glass again after Akil’eas had replenished it. “To them, to all my cousins and family now gone up the hill…and to those who’re still lost, but will return.”
“May their memory be eternal,” Akil’eas intoned as he raised his glass and drank with Andy. There was a moment of silence as the human stared off into space, leaving Akil’eas there with his own swirling thoughts. Curiosity and concern compelled him to break the silence. “May I ask how?”
Andy seemed to come back to himself and turned to look at Akil’eas. Those eyes, those were the same eyes he’d seen in both his dreams and his nightmares when the memories of that little feral human and the cure it possessed haunted him. “Most of my family was killed in a single day. My parents died when dad’s Aircraft Carrier was sunk at Pearl, and all of my aunts, uncles, cousins were killed in the orbital strikes and the resultant firestorm.” The boy drained the glass and set it aside. “I, um…I helped my grandma bury them before they took us away.”
A lump formed in Akil’eas’ throat as memories of burying his own family rose to meet Andy’s words. “Goddess… I had no idea… but you said some survived?” Akil’eas asked somberly, hoping for something good, something to hold on to against the tide of nostalgia the two of them seemed to be adrift in. The pills were utterly forgotten.
“There were four of us. My paternal grandparents… and my older brother.”
Akil’eas’ breath caught in his chest. “Older… brother?” His heart began to race, and he looked at Andy with the appraising eye of a doctor, searching for and finding the similarities, while adding the effect of time as best he could.
“Yes, my brother-”
“Konstantin?” Akil’eas didn’t wait as the name fell from his lips before the human could say it. The effect was immediate.
“You…you know my brother?” The human stared at him, wide eyed and tense. Like Akil’eas had slapped him in the face.
“Konstantin Shelokset? Guardian named Wiley-”
“Grandpa Wiley, yes! You know them? Do you know where they are? If they’re alive? Please! Please tell me!” The boy was on his feet now, and he was pleading as he stood over Akil’eas.
Dr. He’osforos looked up into Andy’s eyes, and something inside him rose up and rebelled against all good sense and logic. This is no barbarian, no savage. Here is a person, a child, lost and alone. A child who was forced to bury his own family before being carted away to be beaten and abused. Empathy, that emotion he’d worked so hard to kill in himself to do what he’d had to do to save the last of his family, his last daughter, stirred. That old, almost vestigial piece of his soul tried to resurrect itself in him as he stared up at the desperate boy begging to hear news of the family that had lived. NO! That is not a person! That is a base creature! A test subject and a means to an end to save your-
The stench of death threatened to overwhelm him, even through his rebreather. Akil’eas was suddenly back in his home, seeing everything through the face shield of the hazmat suit. He could barely see through the tears, unable to wipe them away. Behind him lay both of his wives in their Navy parade blues. The crisp uniforms were stained by the sores on their bodies and their hands had already turned black. They lay on the bed with the door bolted and locked from the inside, and sheets had been stuffed in the cracks of the door. They’d known they were sick, and had tried to keep it contained, dying together. Akil’eas tried to compartmentalize his grief as he ran to his daughters’ rooms. Perhaps they’d succeeded and stopped the rest of the family from contracting the Pox. He found the door to Gadea’s room open and fear threatened to stop him from confirming what he suspected he’d find. Akil’eas tried to steel himself as he turned the corner, but his heart shattered then and there to see his lifeless father, cradling the body of Akil’eas’ daughter Gadea. Their faces were magenta and marred with weeping sores.
He stood transfixed as he saw the bodies of his Kho-mother, their servants, and all the rest gathered together in the room. They’d all gone together and he began to despair. From the other side of the bed he heard a groan, and clambered over the bodies of his family to see Kalai on the ground, sick but alive. Fatherly instinct overrode his grief and Akil’eas ran to her. She was sick, he could see, but miraculously in the early stages of infection. There was still hope, maybe, if he could get her to the hospital he could requisition the emergency treatment his team had been working on. It would give her a fighting chance, but he’d have to move quickly. If she passed the threshold, there would be nothing he could do. Akil’eas scooped his little girl up and sprinted back to the transport. Panic and desperation to save Kalai gave him strength and endurance beyond the point of exhaustion. “Krek, Lord of Death and Memory, turn thy face away from my daughter! Spare this one and take what you will from me! Spare her, I beg you!”
She stirred in his arms and grasped at his suit. “Papa? Where’re my mamas? Where’s Gadea? Please, I want my mamas! I want my sister!”
“Please! Duke He’osforos, I’m begging you, tell me Konstantin and Grampa Wiley are alive! Tell me you know where he is! Where is my Grandfather? Please! Where is my brother?” Akil’eas felt himself return suddenly to the present at the boy’s pleading tone.
That voice inside his head, the one he’d used to kill the voice in his heart, that allowed him to do what he’d had to do, fell silent. Try as he might, Akil’eas could not look at Andy without seeing his daughter Kalai. There but for the grace of Hele and the forbearance of Krek is my child.
“I…I don’t know if they are currently alive, but I treated your brother some eight local years ago.” Akil’eas stood up and sidestepped the young man. He deliberately turned his back on Andy as he pulled the case with the pills out to look at it. What have I become? A sense of deep shame and disgust in himself threatened to overwhelm him as he shoved them back into his pocket, unopened.
“Eight years? He… He would have been-”
“Eleven or twelve.” Akil’eas turned and poured himself a full glass and drained it to steady himself. The spices of the Oborodo burned his mouth and throat, and he coughed slightly to clear his palate of the stinging. “I remember him, because he’d been brought to me badly malnourished and sick. I treated him, and he attacked me…nearly taking my life.” The voice in his head muttered against the gale force screaming of the voice in his heart. If you tell him the truth, he will finish what his brother started and condemn Kalai to death. Tell him what he needs to know and no more!
“Why would he do that?” Andy’s voice was incredulous and Akil’eas turned to face him.
“It… might have been the fact that the Interior was present, and were looking to arrest him. He escaped-”
“THAT’S MY BROTHER! Ts’uh un’stommish uh’ti’uh’qai’es!” The sudden burst of joy and the barbaric language made Akil’eas nearly jump out of his skin. Andy twisted in joy before turning back to see how badly he’d scared Akil’eas. “Forgive me, but… I will make what restitution I must on his behalf for any pain he caused you, of course… but he’s ALIVE! I knew it!” Andy’s joy was infectious, and Akil’eas couldn’t help but smile awkwardly at the strange happy dance the boy was doing as he celebrated the news.
“Eight years ago, yes, and the Interior’s been looking for him ever since. I know the officer who wanted him quite well. There’s a warrant out for his arrest still-”
“Maybe that’s why he hasn’t come home! Kay Tee and Grandpa won’t risk ol’ Scarface kicking our door in.” Akil’eas felt the need to be pragmatic and remind Andy that it had been eight years ago, and that Si’catreese had assured him that she would eventually find Konstantin. She’d not had the evidence, but she suspected that his Shil’vati guardians had hidden him away somewhere. Andy’s statement, however, brought a measure of hope he’d not felt in a long time.
“Do you mean to say… your brother would come home… if he’s still alive-”
“I know he’s still alive! He must be! I can’t believe it! You know him, and you treated him!”
“You think he’d come home if… the Interior was no longer looking for him?”
“It’s the only explanation! It must be!” Andy crowed happily, before looking around and suddenly seeming to go shy. “Doctor… Your grace… I tell you this in confidence, but… my brother and my grandfather are part of the Resistance. I’ve been trying to find them and get them out so they can come home. You see, they monitor those warrants and the movements of the Interior and-”
Akil’eas held up his hand to stop Andy from continuing, “Mr. Shelokset, I…as it turns out, I may be able to repay you after all. You see, I know the Agent who issued the warrant for your brother. If your brother still lives, and if he is still associated with that organization, then perhaps a subtle invitation home can be arranged.”
“You… What do you mean?” Akil’eas couldn’t help the pang in his heart as he saw the hope written all over the boy’s face.
“I mean, that if the only thing keeping your family separated is an Interior Warrant, then if it were to go away…” Akil’eas spoke guardedly, calculating what it would cost him to have Si’catreese pull the warrant.
Andy stood there and stared at Akil’eas in shock for two heartbeats before throwing himself tearfully at him. Akil’eas was wrapped up and pulled into the air by the now sobbing human.
“You have no idea what this means to me. To my people! You may have just saved us, your grace!”
“I’ve done nothing yet, young man!” Akil’eas squeaked before Andy placed him back on the ground. The boy stood there, awkwardly while He’osforos adjusted his suit and tamed the one or two loose strands of hair that had fallen loose. “But this…I feel that…well I…” Akil’eas felt himself at a loss for words as he watched the play of hope and anticipation play out over Andy’s face. “For saving my daughter, and for bringing her home…Losing your loved ones is a fate I’d not wish on even my worst enemy. That kind of loss…it can…it will…”
“Twist you, bend, or even break you,” the boy finished what Akil’eas could not bring himself to confess. Looking in his eyes, he saw that the young man knew and understood.
“I’m sorry that you understand that so well. I offer my own sincere condolences for the loss of your family, and for what you have had to endure.” Akil’eas replaced the cap on the Oborodo and made a show of tidying up their area. He turned to fix Andy with a soulful look before speaking. “Andrei, would you honor me by returning? The lieutenant will be punished, and she will bother you no more. Please?” He gestured to the main entrance of the atrium and canted his head, expectantly.
—----
Andy stepped off the back porch with Sitry as they took a stroll down the path to the lakeside. She’d been hovering ever since he’d returned with Dr. He’osforos, with only a few minutes to himself at the dinner table, sitting between Aftasia and Sakalbi. He didn’t mind it really, her general demeanor toward everyone else that tried to approach him did wonders for keeping people away. Besides that, Andy was happy.
He felt like a huge crushing weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Now it all made sense! If the Interior was actively hunting him and knew that Grandpa Wiley was his guardian? No wonder they’d stayed away with no contact. A small part of Andy spoke out against the doctor having the ability to quash an Interior Warrant, but the man was a Duke, and Andy had saved his daughter, Kalai. With the way the Resistance fought and evaded the colonizers, they had to have spies in the Interior and the Marines. They’d know, and once attention was focused elsewhere? They’d make their quiet way back in their own time when Scarface wouldn’t be looking. Now he wouldn’t have to be any kind of leader to anybody. No more sleepless nights or sitting in the front. He could fade into the background with his hero brother and grandfather taking the responsibility. No more would he feel compelled to represent the Shelokset name whenever they went out on raids, or protest the governess and whatever new moronic edict she’d made.
He’d do a year, just one, working for the Vaidas, and then he’d quit. He’d be able to fade into obscurity as just another young man, another tumulh, in the wings with a quiet life. He’d introduce the Vaidas to the right people who could tell them what to do, and be done.
A bottle of Jack Daniels…no, not Jack. This calls for a celebration. I’ll go get some thousand-credit-a-bottle of bourbon…no, TWO bottles…and kill one for the warrant, and save the second to share with grandpa and Kay Tee. The Orca Sheloksets are coming home!
“Andy? Are you alright? You look like you’re on the verge of tears.” Sitry had brought the both of them to a stop. The moonrise over the Cascades and the fading light of evening reflecting off Mt. Rainier to the southeast and made the whole vista like one of those cheap postcards in the tourist areas.
“Wha…oh, no, I um…I’m actually really happy.” Andy mentally slapped himself as he pulled his thoughts back into the here and now.
Sitry scoffed in disbelief. “Happy? After that bitch-”
“That bitch has been chasing me for years now, and it isn’t sex she’s after, Sitry. She wants me to join the Marines because she thinks that the rest of the young people of the tribe’ll see me do it and join too.” Andy patted her arm that was linked with his, and he walked off the path to a little seating area under a gazebo.
“That’s…wow. That’s stupid!” Sitry trotted alongside him as he took a seat on a bench and leaned back. “They wouldn't, would they?”
“No! No they wouldn’t…at least I hope not,” Andy shifted slightly as Sitry took a seat next to him and not so subtly batted her eyelashes at him. “No offense, Sitry, but we kinda hate the Imperium.” Fuck, why did I say that? The happy feeling fled and in its place a palling started to fall.
“So…why work with us? I mean, I’m grateful, and my parents love you…you’re like the First Bloom to them right now…but…” Sitry didn’t seem put out in the slightest, but she did shoot him a concerned look over her shoulder.
Andy took a steadying breath and decided to be truthful. “I guess I’m just tired. Tired of watching my home change for the worse, tired of fighting, tired of being scared, tired of being angry…tired of people thinking I’m something I’m not. I’m not sexy, I’m not a leader, I’m not a savage, and I’m not a…I’m not an expert on anything.”
Sitry twitched her tail, cocked an ear, and shot him a disbelieving smirk. “So what is it you want? How should I think of you?” Andy couldn’t help but appreciate how pretty she was. Her long dark red hair fell in cascades down her back and contrasted perfectly with her green dress.
Andy gulped a bit, suddenly feeling warm despite the breeze. “I don’t know…I guess I just want to be…I don’t want to be the me everyone wants me to be. I guess I just don’t want to be where I’m at anymore.” Andy couldn’t help but think about all the pressure his grandmother put on him to step up and be a Clan Chief. The pressure the other tumulhs put on him to step up alongside the Elders, leading and advising the Clans. The pressure of trying to keep the hopes of the Exiles alive and bring them all home. It all terrified him, because what if he failed? He didn’t even want to think about it.
“Do…do you hate me?” Sitry’s voice was small and vulnerable, and Andy suddenly saw that she’d taken his meaning very differently.
“No, no I don’t hate you! You…” Andy quickly stammered. You’re fucking gorgeous and I don’t know what to do or say around you because I don’t want to be a creep, but I just keep coming off as this broken loser to you! “I guess I’m just…I never thought I’d be friends with a hwun’eetum.” DAMN IT, YOU COWARD!!!
“A friend?” She perked back up at that and got a dreamy look in her eyes. “Well after only knowing you for a few days, I can work with that. Maybe we could be something more before I go back home to Shil?” She twisted around to give him a look over her shoulders and batted her eyelashes at him again. Those big silver gray eyes flashed playfully and her noticeably red lips quirked up in a smile.
AAAAGGGGHHHH! “Maybe? Who knows, but I think Kalai and your parents…not to mention your brother would have something to say about that.” Andy could only pray that he sounded calm and collected in the face of Sitry’s advances. The incident the other day had left him with very embarrassing thoughts, and now here she was again, leaning closer and closer into his personal space. A part of him deep down wanted to reciprocate, but it felt like a hundred reasons jumbled in his head for why he shouldn’t.
“Mmm…maybe…” She retreated back to her side of the bench, but with a satisfied smile instead of a pout. “But I promise you this, handsome, if that Cambrian lumberjack gets near you again I’m kicking her stupid tusks down her stupid throat.”
Andy laughed heartily and the tension snapped, letting him return to that feeling of happiness again. “You know? I’d love to see someone put that hog-faced stalker in her place.”
“Consider it done, laddie, though I hope ye won’t tar th’ whole lotta us with th’ same brush.” The new voice with that hated Cambrian accent nearly made Andy jump out of his skin. Turning around, he saw Colonel Pic’tia standing behind them, outside the gazebo. Andy felt like a suddenly wet cat as the large woman made her way quickly around and stood before him with a bow. “I came te make an apology on behalf o’ me officer. I dinnae know she were harassin’ ye, but I’ll be keepin’ a clear eye on ‘er from now on. Ye have me word onnit.”
Andy instinctively inclined his head, while Sitry was clearly sizing up the woman and making calculations. “Thank you, Colonel, I’m appreciative.” Andy was pleased that his voice betrayed none of his emotions.
“I mus’ say, It’s a right bonnie place ye’ve got here. Reminds me o’ te Eastern Lowlands. Green an’ rainy like…Enough te make a woman miss home.” The Colonel turned and took a sweeping look at the vista around them, sighing appreciatively.
“Well, Seattle isn’t ours, hasn’t been for two Occupations.” Andy quipped with a look at Sitry.
“I know, laddie…an’ me and me lassies can relate, funnily enough. Still, home is home, and just because some Empress plants Her flag dinnae mean it stopped bein’ yers, ev’n if it’s only true in th’ stories ye tell.” The Colonel turned and smiled back down at Andy and Sitry.
“May God bless and keep the Empress-” Andy started.
“Far, far away from all o’ us. Goddess fer Queen an’ Cambria!” The Colonel finished with a flourish. Andy’s jaw nearly hit the floor and he felt his heart nearly stop in shock. The cheeky smile she flashed at the both of them got even bigger. “Yer not th’ only one’s been shit on by th’ Empress. We do wha’ we can fer our people and hope ye do a bit more good than bad in th’ process.”
Andy had no words as he continued to stare up at the big woman who guffawed at the horrified look on Sitry’s face.
“Right, I dinnae wan’ te overstay me welcome, an’ iffin ye have any more trouble with Char’dania, ye have my express permission te boop her ‘er right inna snoot. Only leave a poor lassie her tusks fer her dignity? There’s noone smart wan’s te get inna kickin’ match with an Erbian lass protectin’ her boyo. Ye ‘ave as good a night as ye can git, now!” The saucy wink she gave Sitry turned the bunnygirl nearly as red as her hair and Colonel Pic’tia sauntered out of the gazebo, off along the lakeside, whistling a tune.
Andy felt as embarrassed as Sitry looked. “So…should we go back to the party?” he ventured, suddenly not really able to look her in the eye.
“Yes, I think that would be…yes,” she seemed to dither about offering her arm to him, so he did it for her. He suppressed a laugh as she seemed to go even redder as she took him by the arm and began leading him back to the house.
Just as they reached the back porch, Sitry stopped and seemed to nearly hop from foot to foot. “Um, so Andy, I was wondering if…well I…you…oh fuck it!”
Andy stopped and looked down at her in confusion. “Sitry wha-umph!” She’d jumped up and kissed him, not deeply or well, but she’d done it. She put her hands on his chest and stood on her tiptoes to reach up and plant her lips on his.
Andy froze as everything short circuited in his brain and body. She held herself perfectly still, still mashing her lips against his for what seemed like an eternity before she lowered herself down. She stared into his eyes, and he saw fear written all over her face. “I…I’m sorry, but I…I just-mmph-ow!”
He’d wrapped her in his arms and pulled her back into him to kiss her back. Only when he had, he’d been slightly off the mark and they’d clicked their front teeth together. The both of them recoiled, clutching their faces and rubbing their smarting teeth.
How could I have fucked that up! Son of a rat fucked sperm-burping gutter-
Sitry began laughing, light and giddy, almost like a machine gun until she snorted twice and hiccuped. “By the Sacred Grove, Andy…you are…perfect!”
“Wait…what?” Andy felt the floor fall out from under him as he rubbed the last of that tooth on tooth feeling away. He was so embarrassed, but for some reason, the urge to flee wasn’t there.
“Can we try that again?” Sitry’s voice grew husky and she stepped back in, laying her hands on his shoulders. Her eyes fluttered at him as she got closer and closer.
“Kissing?” Andy asked, finding his arms wrapping around her again.
“You taking me!” she growled with a feral smile and a twitch of her ears.
The door banging and something or someone slamming into it caused her to jump with a squeak of surprise. When she did, she had nowhere to go but up and forward, right into Andy. There was a thunk and for a moment Andy saw the cosmos as stars danced in his vision and they fell backward into the bushes.
“No, no, NO! I don’t give a damn! You are paid to keep tabs on any humans that they’re scouting and inform me before they make an offer!” Andy lay on the ground, flat on his back with Sitry laying on top of him, completely dazed. The voice of a Shil’vati woman that seemed familiar hissed and spat from the other side of the bushes, out of sight. “This is gross incompetence on your part, is this what I pay you for? Now I don’t care how, but you will give me everything you have on him and anyone that he has connections with.”
Sitry started to stir with a groan, and Andy quickly covered her mouth and shushed her quietly. “They’re fucking savages living in fucking wooden huts! Threaten them, then dangle more money than they’ve ever seen! It’s how you can get any greedy little creature to do what you want.”
Sitry, having got the message, went stock still and looked up at Andy. He could see the goose-egg forming on her forehead, while it felt like he had gotten a black eye. “Fucking useless incompetents!” The voice cursed before the sound of storming feet and a slamming door signaled the owner’s retreat.
“I think that maybe we should go back a different way,” Sitry mumbled, exploring her new lump as Andy helped her to push off him to her feet.
“Perhaps after we get some ice?” Andy replied gingerly, poking at his sore eye as she offered him a hand to pull him up.
She was saying her farewells to the Vaidas, who were returning to their hotel with Andrei, while she had elected to stay here with him.
“Doctor, is it done? None of the instruments have recorded any data at all.” Dr. Sel’wa appeared at his left shoulder, muttering only loud enough for Akil’eas to hear.
Akil’eas frowned as he pulled the pill case out of his pocket and rattled it once for his aide. “Recover the samples and the swarms.”
The poor man sputtered incoherently for a moment before swiping the case from his hand. “What happened? Was there no opportunity? Is the subject not related to the original-?”
“Andrei is Konstantin’s younger brother, and would therefore be a perfect incubator…but I couldn’t do it. Andrei is…he is…it’s not right.” Again, the memory of young Kalai in his arms, magenta as he cradled her to him in the hazmat suit jumped in his mind when he thought about Andrei.
Dr. Sel’wa scoffed, “That has never stopped you before, doctor-”
“Perhaps it should have.” Akil’eas turned to look at him and saw that same iron determination that had been his refuge for so many years, and suddenly doubt began to creep into his mind.
“Doctor He’osforos…Akil’eas! We are this close to replicating the key treatment that will give us both cure and vaccine against Cerulean Pox!” Dr. Sel’wa put his hand on Akil’eas’ shoulder and squeezed, pleading with him. He had also lost family in the Virus Bombing, and had dedicated himself in their vendetta against the virus that had robbed them and so many others of their families. “Billions of lives hang in the balance! Your own daughter’s life hangs in the balance!”
Akil’eas stared at the man and the voice in his mind came slithering back. The whispers in the depths of his mind were so clear against the storm inside his heart. So many years he’d relied on that voice to keep him going. Thousands of experiments. Tens of thousands of man hours. Your daughter is there, alive, because of what you’ve done.
Akil’eas closed his eyes and turned to walk back into his home. Andrei is a servant of Krek! Here is proof positive that he has a soul! That these humans are not savages, nor are they base animals-
A soul? One sympathetic human does not redeem the whole race. They’re just as guilty as the Roaches and the Alliance! Their history is soaked in the blood of their own kind, and given half a chance, they would certainly unleash weapons of mass destruction on us. They have no qualms about using atomics specifically on men and children, nor have they shied away from medical experimentation on themselves in far less ethical and noble pursuits!
Akil’eas stopped in the hallway and put out a hand to steady himself against a door frame. His chest felt heavy with the two voices roiling back and forth inside his mind. His rational mind and his conscience fought bitterly, leaving him short of breath and nearly shaking.
I’ve laid my course. It’s too late to change it now. If I didn’t balk when I joined Purity Control, then I certainly can’t balk now. For my daughter…for Gadea. For La’rala and Su’lenia. For my father, my mothers, and all the rest. I couldn’t save them, but I CAN save Kalai. I’m already lost, and my hands are already red and blue with blood, what’s a few more drops if it means my daughter is saved?
He straightened and steadied himself. His mind reasserted itself and he could again see clearly. “Dr. Sel’wa, you are right. I’ve come this far…I must see this through.” Akil’eas didn’t need to turn around to know the man was behind him, hovering.
“You’re saving lives, doctor. You’re saving Kalai’s life. What’s one more human weighed against the billions of Shil’vati who will be saved?” Akil’eas turned to look the man in the eye. There was relief on the man’s face.
“I think…I think I need to take a week or two off. Spend time with Kalai while she’s here.” Akil’eas looked back towards the front entrance, and could see Kalai standing there, waving and watching what he assumed was the Vaidas driving away. “Yes, a nice little vacation. I’ll take her sailing, just the two of us.”
“An excellent idea, doctor. It will help refocus you.”
Dr. Sel’wa retreated quickly back to their lab and left Akil’eas there, watching his daughter and thinking of the possibilities she’d have when she no longer needed to fear for her life. He would save her, and she would carry the He’osforos name and legacy forward. She would live, have children, and pass the traditions and memories of her mothers and her mothers’ mothers down. He would ensure that none of his loves would suffer the final death of being forgotten.
Even if I long for that death for all that I’ve done.
2023.05.13 22:00 SanDiegoLibreBot Road closures today
 | submitted by SanDiegoLibreBot to SanDiegoLibre [link] [comments] |
2023.05.13 17:28 ArraTonks Road closures today
| | Had to go out this morning and got stuck in this clusterf*ck. submitted by ArraTonks to sandiego [link] [comments] Be safe out there or stay home🙂 |