FT: VVV-Venlo 1-1 Almere City

1st Leg
VVV-Venlo scorers: Mitchell Van Rooijen (7')
Almere City scorers: Anthony Limbombe (29')
Venue: Covebo Stadion - De Koel -
Auto-refreshing reddit comments link
LINE-UPS
VVV-Venlo
Ennio van der Gouw, Brian Koglin, Rick Ketting, Simon Janssen (Sem Dirks), Tristan Dekker (Robin Lathouwers), Robert Klaasen (Carl Johansson), Mitchell Van Rooijen, Daan Huisman (Soulyman Allouch), Kees de Boer, Sven Braken, Nick Venema.
Subs: Lucas Zima, Özcan Yasar, Stan Hendrikx, Jens Craenmehr, Joep Kluskens, Kristofer Kristinsson, Melano Thier.
^{____________________________}
Almere City
Nordin Bakker, Theo Barbet, Damian Van Bruggen, Royo (Danny Post), Hamdi Akujobi, Álvaro Peña, Jorrit Smeets, Jochem Van De Kamp (Ilias Alhaft), Lance Duijvestijn (Marcelencio Esajas), Anthony Limbombe (Rajiv van La Parra), Pascu (Jeredy Hilterman).
Subs: Agil Etemadi, Joey Jacobs, Stije Resink, Jeffry Puriel, Stijn Keller, Tyrese Noslin, Thomas Poll.
MATCH EVENTS via ESPN
7' Goal! VVV-Venlo 1, Almere City FC 0. Mitchell van Rooijen (VVV-Venlo) left footed shot from outside the box to the top right corner. Assisted by Nick Venema.
29' Goal! VVV-Venlo 1, Almere City FC 1. Anthony Limbombe (Almere City FC) right footed shot from outside the box to the top right corner. Assisted by Manel Royo.
49' Substitution, Almere City FC. Danny Post replaces Manel Royo because of an injury.
58' Substitution, Almere City FC. Jeredy Hilterman replaces Pascu.
58' Substitution, Almere City FC. Rajiv van La Parra replaces Anthony Limbombe.
58' Substitution, Almere City FC. Ilias Alhaft replaces Jochem Ritmeester van de Kamp.
63' Substitution, VVV-Venlo. Carl Johansson replaces Robert Klaasen.
70' Danny Post (Almere City FC) is shown the red card.
72' Substitution, Almere City FC. Marcelencio Esajas replaces Lance Duijvestijn.
72' Substitution, VVV-Venlo. Soulyman Allouch replaces Daan Huisman.
72' Substitution, VVV-Venlo. Robin Lathouwers replaces Tristan Dekker.
76' Substitution, VVV-Venlo. Sem Dirks replaces Simon Janssen because of an injury.
79' Kees de Boer (VVV-Venlo) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
86' Marcelencio Esajas (Almere City FC) is shown the yellow card.
90'+1' Mitchell van Rooijen (VVV-Venlo) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
90'+5' Hamdi Akujobi (Almere City FC) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.

I am specifically referring to National Bolshevism as the term was originally coined, rather than any group of people who may have labelled themselves "National Boshelviks" since. The term predates even the establishment of the Soviet Union in 1922, let alone any other 20th century regime. The term was originally used by Karl Radek to describe two member he was expelling as "National Boshelviks". What these people wanted to do was align the revolutionary movement in Germany with that in Russia in mutual opposition to both the treaty of Versailles and the treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
I am specifically defending the prospect of this strategy in particular rather than specifically any person who might have been or could have been advocating for it and any ideas they might have had otherwise, not because it is national, or even bolshevik, but rather because I think it conforms with the idea in the Communist Manifesto of the role of Communists in relation to Proletarians where the Communists do not form separate political programs of their own and instead are supposed to align various proletarians movements together across nationality with respect to the current stage than any of those movements may find themselves in.

In what relation do the Communists stand to the proletarians as a whole?
The Communists do not form a separate party opposed to the other working-class parties.
They have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole.
They do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, by which to shape and mould the proletarian movement.
The Communists are distinguished from the other working-class parties by this only: 1. In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of all nationality. 2. In the various stages of development which the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie has to pass through, they always and everywhere represent the interests of the movement as a whole.

Therefore the irony of this position I am defending is that it was the one advocated for by people labelled National, which would clearly seem to be contrary to being independent of nationality, and Bolshevik who would seem to be sectarians seeking to mold to proletarian movement. The other irony is that for it to have been possible it would have required overcoming proletarian movements in different nationalities operating independent of one another, in addition to overcoming the sectarianism emerging between all the differing "Communist" movements. In other words this is another call in an endless stream of "stop infighting!" coupled with "everyone except for me is wrong" which just contributes to the infighting by creating a new sectarian divergence but there is very little that can be done about that. Mostly this is just an excuse to discuss a particular moment I find interesting and inner contrarian in me just wants to make the seemingly most insane position seem the most reasonable as a challenge.
Lenin was not in favour of this so it was a bit of a non-starter. In "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder he criticizes people who refuse to recognize the treaties, but in addition to the tendencies of so-called National Bolsheviks, he also criticized the Left-Communists that Karl Radek and the other German Revolutionaries were often members. Here we can start to see a problem emerging as you clearly have two different revolutionary movements in two different countries who are having difficulty working with each other (with the problem of the treaties between these countries not even being the main issue they were squabbling over). Indeed while not around long enough to have become officially a Left-Communist herself, Luxembourg is associated with them as her writings are cited as a major influence on the tendency, and she is notable for criticizing Lenin's Bolshevism.
There was a lot of confusion in this period and numerous tendencies diverging from one another, the reason being is that in the wake of the Russian Revolution and the end of the First World War there was a period of revolutionary activity across the entire world. While Russia and Germany are often the most focused upon due to the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany being our core 20th century players and many seeing these revolutions as the origin points of these things with a compare and contrast analysis being done to understand while one failed and the other succeeded, in the light of understanding the world revolution as a wave, looking at just these two revolutions becomes parochial, as there was clearly one singular revolution going on across the world in the same way as during the Revolutions of 1848 where the Communist Manifesto was published.
Indeed Marx and Engels viewed that as a singular revolution and would have viewed the similar wave of revolutions that peaked in 1919 but spanned from 1917-1923 as a singular revolution. While differing in severity there was revolutionary activity in numerous countries ranging from the Two Red Years in Italy to the much less impressive sounding Red Week) in the Netherlands. Even as far away as Canada, Australia, and South Africa there were labour revolts in this period. The case of Canada is a bit emblematic of the obscurity of the scale of these events, as while the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 is well known, much like with only Russia and Germany beings discussed, the strike wave nature of the events in Canada just as in the world tends to fall out of discussion, as for instance this wave actually started with a general strike in Vancouver that was crushed by the military.
In the Preface to the 1882 Russian Edition of the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels even suggested in the wake of the assassination of the Tsar Liberator that the impending Russian (bourgeois) Revolution would serve as a signal for the Western proletariat to have their Revolution, and that the Russian Revolution could end up being communist alongside the West.

And now Russia! During the Revolution of 1848-9, not only the European princes, but the European bourgeois as well, found their only salvation from the proletariat just beginning to awaken in Russian intervention. The Tsar was proclaimed the chief of European reaction. Today, he is a prisoner of war of the revolution in Gatchina, and Russia forms the vanguard of revolutionary action in Europe.
The Communist Manifesto had, as its object, the proclamation of the inevitable impending dissolution of modern bourgeois property. But in Russia we find, face-to-face with the rapidly flowering capitalist swindle and bourgeois property, just beginning to develop, more than half the land owned in common by the peasants. Now the question is: can the Russian obshchina, though greatly undermined, yet a form of primeval common ownership of land, pass directly to the higher form of Communist common ownership? Or, on the contrary, must it first pass through the same process of dissolution such as constitutes the historical evolution of the West?
The only answer to that possible today is this: If the Russian Revolution becomes the signal for a proletarian revolution in the West, so that both complement each other, the present Russian common ownership of land may serve as the starting point for a communist development.

Now 1882 didn't turn into a revolution in Russia and there were several false starts like in 1905, but eventually it did finally happen. However seemingly with Lenin's New Economic Policy, both scenarios discussed ended up needing to happen. The Russian Revolution was both Communist and they felt it impossible to transition straight into Communism and thus had to allow some kind of bourgeois property relation to develop, and then later on had to eliminate this thing they created themselves in a rather unfortunate series of events. Additionally while the Russian Revolution did prove to be a signal for the Western proletariat to have their revolution, the proletariat revolution failed. In the spirit of this discussion I'm going to be argue that these were not separate incidents but rather the failure of the western proletariat's revolution is why Lenin implemented the NEP in 1922, in part because of internal rebellions calling for these things and because the international revolution seemingly failed resulting in a loss of hope that the western proletariat would in some way save them, which had to result in some kind of proletarian vanguard party lead bourgeois state emerging on the fly. Stalin would later have to undo this both these consequences in the events he is most criticized for, as in addition to reversing the NEP with collectivization, he undid the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk when as Molotov said "One kick from the German army and another from the Soviet Army put an end to this ugly product of Versailles" in regards to Poland. Polish independence being quite the unfortunate sacrifice here considering how supportive of it Engels was in the 1892 Polish Preface the the Communist Manifesto.

But the rapid development of Polish industry, outstripping that of Russia, is in its turn a new proof of the inexhaustible vitality of the Polish people and a new guarantee of its impending national restoration. And the restoration of an independent and strong Poland is a matter which concerns not only the Poles but all of us. A sincere international collaboration of the European nations is possible only if each of these nations is fully autonomous in its own house. The Revolution of 1848, which under the banner of the proletariat, after all, merely let the proletarian fighters do the work of the bourgeoisie, also secured the independence of Italy, Germany and Hungary through its testamentary executors, Louis Bonaparte and Bismarck; but Poland, which since 1792 had done more for the Revolution than all these three together, was left to its own resources when it succumbed in 1863 to a tenfold greater Russian force. The nobility could neither maintain nor regain Polish independence; today, to the bourgeoisie, this independence is, to say the last, immaterial. Nevertheless, it is a necessity for the harmonious collaboration of the European nations. It can be gained only by the young Polish proletariat, and in its hands it is secure. For the workers of all the rest of Europe need the independence of Poland just as much as the Polish workers themselves.

(The call for "full autonomy in a nations own house" is probably worth explaining. Nations that should be autonomous are nations which can be autonomous all on their own without international meddling. Engels was notoriously against all the south slavs for their pan-slavism because their independence was necessitated by interference from Imperial Russia, in part because he was still mad about the revolutions of 1848 not working out. He was even still mad at them 34 years later when he reaffirmed Polish independence alongside Irish independence as the most crucial national struggles to support. The reason being that Poland rejected pan-Slavism and was instead independently nationalist. That Poland could stand alone (and more importantly that Polish agitation threatened three reactionary imperial monarchies in Germany, Austria, and Russia at the same time. Ireland being important to screw around with the bourgeois British Empire as Marx and Engels increasingly saw the absentee revenues the British ruling class generated for themselves in Ireland as being the key to their parliamentary political dominance in England against both lower class and anti-imperialist challenges which were often the same thing) is why Polish independence was so supported. Standing alone is important because autonomous nations can switch between the rule of various classes without the risk of foreign interference on the part of imperialist reactionaries putting things back the way they were to protect their sphere of influence. The issue is that Polish independence ended up being a thorn in the side of the revolution when Polish independence was granted through Wilsonian liberal internationalism and during the Russian Civil War the Red Army tried and failed to retaliate against Poland when they joined forces with the Entente Liberal Imperialists in the Soviet-Poland War.
For NATO fans the opposition to NATO comes from this concept of being against spheres of influence, with a preference for complete independence. The Soviets or even Russia joining NATO however transform the institution from an American sphere of influence into just some vague "nobody invade anybody else okay guys thanks" treaty which is what it is sold as. So long as Russia is not included in NATO it fails to fulfill its stated purpose, and it must be opposed because it does not protect the independence of the nations within it, rather it makes them subservient to the United States, and the counter-balance of Russia inside the block is sufficient that the nations within it could seamlessly transfer between spheres of influence, or more importantly, not be in anyone's sphere of influence by successfully playing the US and Russia off each other, which puts each nation in a position to pursue development with little risk of the alliance being used to punish them. In fact if say Luxembourg decided to go rogue it could even use the NATO treaty to argue that anyone infringing upon them should be subjected to retaliation by all the other members, and now they have a socialist Luxembourg in the middle of Europe and they can't do anything about it because the treaty guarantees their independence with multiple dozen moving parts so long as Luxembourg doesn't militarily invade anybody. However if the organization is nothing more that an American political block with US bases every where, clearly the US would be able to pressure people into recognizing the socialist Luxembourg as illegitimate in some way and argue it can be invaded without requiring everyone come to its defense. So NATO good if Russia included and US bases removed, an in NATO Russia still isn't a threat to even Estonia if dozens of European countries are required to defend it, and that isn't even considering a late arrival of the US and Canada when they finally cross the Atlantic. The problem with NATO is that it is clearly an unofficial loosely held US empire, it stops being a problem when it is no longer this)
This whole confused mess could have been avoided had the world revolution not failed. This circles back to the Russian and German revolutions and how they were not united. Therefore the position of those labelled Nazbol is attractive merely for the sake that it would have united these two disparate revolutions. The success of either was reliant on the success of the other. The prior Bolshevik position of Peace Without Annexations or Indemnities would permanently lock in the Russian and German revolutions together in a mutual opposition to the bourgeois treaties, a pact of blood to oppose the pacts signed in ink.
Additionally opposition to the indemnity aspect of the treaty of Versailles would have been in fidelity to the revolutionary history of the Paris Commune which inspired the notion of the dictatorship of the proletariat in 1871, which was prompted in part by opposition to the burden of the reparation payments imposed on France by Bismark in response to Napolean III's failed invasion being placed on the people of France by the bourgeois government that signed that treaty. On a global scale while the opportunity for revolution by the proletariat refusing to enter World War One was squandered by the Social Democrats granting their permission, the proletariat could instead refuse to exit World War One by not granting their permission for acceptance of the bourgeois treaties just as the Paris Commune refused to accept Bismark's treaty.
Indeed opposition to the bourgeois Treaty of Trianon served as the basis for cooperation between the Nationalists and the Communists in Hungary, who unlike the Luxembourgists in Germany, were internationally aligned with the Boshelviks in Russia with the establishment of the Hungarian Soviet Republic. The alliance however broke down with the establishment of the Slovak Soviet Republic as the Hungarian nationalists questioned why they were participating in the Hungarian Red Army if they were just going to be liberating other countries, this ended up not even being that relevant of a dispute seeing as Slovakia was never fully captured and the Czechoslovak army ended up recapturing it in a month and so the issue only lasted from June 1919 to July 1919. However it exposed the core obvious problem with the alliance between nationalists and communists, as the full Petrograd formula was "peace without annexations or indemnities, on the basis of self-determination of the peoples" so the nationalists opposed to treaties were not going to like it when the second part got implemented later.
Lenin and Stalin ran into a similar issue when Stalin opposed Georgian self-determination in 1922 and wanted them to instead join Russia, with the comical situation of Stalin calling the Georgian Mensheviks "nationalist-socialists" and the Russian Lenin accusing the Georgian Stalin of being a Russian nationalist-socialist in response. We can clearly see that there are vastly differing views on the questions of nationality all over the place and there was no one line being taken, with Hungary and Germany taking vastly different views in regards to the treaties and cooperation with nationalists, to their own unique sets of problems later on with them.
The vastly different ways everyone was handling these issues is why I argue that the best principle would have been to have no principles at all. The only communist principle in regards to nationality is international cooperation. Indeed while you had Communist revolutions in German, Hungary, and Russia, the common thread uniting them of opposition to the bourgeois treaties would have also united them with the liberal Kemalist revolution in Turkey, thus completing the alignment of all revolutionaries in the central powers and Imperial Russia against the rest of the entente attempting to impose the bourgeois treaties, in effect adding Russia to the central powers after the imperialist war had turned into a civil war in all four imperial monarchies. That Turkey was in a vastly different stage of revolution than the other three would be irrelevant as these revolutions would still be mutually supporting of each other, and the Communists could rest assured safely knowing that while differing countries might be in different stages of revolution, they had the advantage over all others in knowing the ultimate end result of all their revolutions even if the people operating in them might not know it themselves.

The Communists, therefore, are on the one hand, practically, the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class parties of every country, that section which pushes forward all others; on the other hand, theoretically, they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly understanding the line of march, the conditions, and the ultimate general results of the proletarian movement.

As such the notion that one needs to be politically Communist to participate in the revolution is false. So long as a state of revolution remained the stages of the revolution could continue moving forward. If Turkey was not materially ready for it, that need not matter so long as the Kemalists were willing to join in an anti-imperialist block in the mean time, which they were willing to do until the Soviets later started looking at the straights with desire which eventually pushed Turkey into the arms of NATO where it remains to this day. However at the time the Soviets and Turkey were quite friendly despite their obvious ideological differences merely based on this mutual geopolitical interest in so-called anti-imperialism. This anti-imperialism was selective however, with the "Mountain Turks" and "Mountain Russians" being sacrificed for it, but the benefits of not having principles means you don't exactly have to care about that. Ataturk can make poutine out of the Kurds all he wants if he remains staunchly anti-imperialist on an international level. This gross cynical realism while obviously questionable is still consistent with Revolutionary History as all prior revolutions do not stand up to moral scrutiny when they are viewed in this way. In fact at the twilight of the 1848 revolutions Engels himself called for the Hungarians to wipeout the "counter-revolutionary" Slavs, while this is obviously not something we should want to have happened, and we definitely should not ever do this if we ever find ourselves in a position to make those decisions, it is important to understand the reasoning behind why he was saying those things, that it is the continuance of the revolution itself is both the most important thing, and something that is largely out of anyone's control in the Hegelian sense of Historicism.

The Magyar cause is not in such a bad way as mercenary black-and-yellow [colours of the Austrian flag] enthusiasm would have us believe. The Magyars are not yet defeated. But if they fall, they will fall gloriously, as the last heroes of the 1848 revolution, and only for a short time. Then for a time the Slav counter-revolution will sweep down on the Austrian monarchy with all its barbarity, and the camarilla will see what sort of allies it has. But at the first victorious uprising of the French proletariat, which Louis Napoleon is striving with all his might to conjure up, the Austrian Germans and Magyars will be set free and wreak a bloody revenge on the Slav barbarians. The general war which will then break out will smash this Slav Sonderbund and wipe out all these petty hidebound nations, down to their very names.
The next world war will result in the disappearance from the face of the earth not only of reactionary classes and dynasties, but also of entire reactionary peoples. And that, too, is a step forward.

A key fact you will observe is that they are often quite over eager in announcing the impending revolution. For instance The Magyar Struggle was published in January of 1849 in Marx's Newspaper, and Louis Napoleon was elected President of France in December of 1848. It seems as if they might have thought that this would have been more significant than it actually turned out to be. This kind of made sense though because Louis Napoleon's main opponent in the election was Louis-Eugene Cavagnac who lead the army to suppress a worker's uprising in Paris back in the "June Days" of 1848. Additionally the Hungarians did not do this, instead they adopted cultural assimilation policies called Magyarization, and late in the revolution into 1849 while the Russian and Austria Imperial armies were barring down on them they adopted minority right protections to try to win them back. However they were ultimately unsuccessful in repelling the Russian invasion regardless of any attempts at outreach.
What I find notable about this is that Engels essentially predicted the sides of the "next world war" (albeit there was a world war in between) that would wipeout entire peoples, but somehow ended up reversing the reactionary and revolutionary sides, as an Austrian German and the Hungarians did engage in a war against the Slavs, but because somehow the "poles of revolution" did somehow invert and head outwards from Russia like Engels said the Slavs supposedly wanted, that war was against the revolution instead of for it.

There is no country in Europe which does not have in some corner or other one or several ruined fragments of peoples, the remnant of a former population that was suppressed and held in bondage by the nation which later became the main vehicle of historical development. These relics of a nation mercilessly trampled under foot in the course of history, as Hegel says, these residual fragments of peoples always become fanatical standard-bearers of counter-revolution and remain so until their complete extirpation or loss of their national character, just as their whole existence in general is itself a protest against a great historical revolution.
Such, in Scotland, are the Gaels, the supporters of the Stuarts from 1640 to 1745.
Such, in France, are the Bretons, the supporters of the Bourbons from 1792 to 1800.
Such, in Spain, are the Basques, the supporters of Don Carlos.
Such, in Austria, are the pan-Slavist Southern Slavs, who are nothing but the residual fragment of peoples, resulting from an extremely confused thousand years of development. That this residual fragment, which is likewise extremely confused, sees its salvation only in a reversal of the whole European movement, which in its view ought to go not from west to east, but from east to west, and that for it the instrument of liberation and the bond of unity is the Russian knout — that is the most natural thing in the world.

However a lot can apparently change in almost 100 years. Russia was once seen as the bastion of reaction celebrated by the reactionaries everywhere for having invaded Hungary to put down the 1848-9 revolution, but then became the center of revolution, taking that spot from France which didn't really participate in the Revolutions despite the 1917 mutinies defused in June by Philip Petain by reassuring the soldiers by calling off the offensives that were intended to try to reassure the Provision Russian Government from the February Revolution to stay in the war and who launched the "Kerensky Offensive" in July which prompted the unsuccessful "July Days" Bolshevik uprising before the later successful October Revolution.
The absence of French participation beyond this is remarkable given how much they played a role in other revolutions and also remarkable how it was later Vichy leader Petain himself who basically defused the situation by giving the soldiers what they wanted and ending the suicidal offensives. The difference between Petain and Kerensky here and that the Russian revolution had not yet gone proletariat at this point while France was dealing with its own situation coming up from the soldiers and that the Russian version of this happened only a month afterwards should probably be focused on more here, in addition to how the differing approaches countries took on simultaneous and similar events from 1917-1923 should be analyzed like how I am suggesting (Comprehensive Revolutionary History of World War One when? Honestly I might write it at this point, issue is wikipedia as sources is probably not the greatest, and wikipedia article bouncing is how I'm formulating these connections as it requires an extremely shallow understanding of a lot of things that people with deep understandings of those things would all reject because I'm ignoring intricacies, despite ignoring intricacies being the entire point as intricacies are caused by random eddies and chaotic currents, and so must be ignored if you want to get a sense of the overall direction things are going, although admittedly I feel myself getting a bit schizo when I assert random concepts whole cloth that nobody has ever used by anyone besides me as you will see with the term "global political magnetic field collapse")
Since the Russian Revolution the apparent "pole of reaction" where global reactionaries collect as their refuge that Russia represented seemingly shifted to the United States for the Cold War after the pole reversal and global political magnetic field collapse manifesting in the out of place auroral borealis of the inter-war period and world war 2. It would be reasonable to assume that it would be just as possible for the United States to become a new center of revolution in the way Russia took that position from France despite Russia being the most reactionary power of anyone before that happened.

I've been listening to Skeptoid a little as a sort of break from some of the culture-war-heavy podcasts I usually listen to. The host strikes me as a bit centrist but I hadn't heard anything too off base until today
https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4886
The quote is in the first 5 min but luckily they transcribe the show. It's a student Q&A and the first question is:

Do you know anything about Alex Jones, and if so, have you ever thought about making content on him?

Reflexively I thought he'd say "kf already does that" or at least reference the pod. I wasn't ready for his actual response:

So as a general policy, I don't do episodes attacking specific living individuals. There's a liability angle, but there's also — I don't know — people aren't the problem so much as bad ideas are. It's more useful to study bad ideas, find out why they exist, and solve that; rather than blaming the people who have bought into them. Arguably, Alex Jones is someone who doesn't fit this mold. It seems clear from the court records of all the lawsuits he's brought down upon himself and lost, that he's a deliberate creator of disinformation, not an innocent believer in it.
Earlier in his career, Alex Jones promoted any conspiracy theory, whether it was far left or far right. But later, likely in his response to the Sandy Hook event, he found his most passionate supporters were on the far right and he seems to have made a business decision to align himself with that fringe.
In short, the reason Sandy Hook appealed to the right wing more than the left wing has to do with the fact the left wants more gun control. Alex Jones' narrative is that Sandy Hook was staged by the government to fire up anti-gun sentiment, and make it easier for the government to seize all privately owned firearms. This would be an affront to the right, which favors less gun control. So Alex Jones immediately became a darling of the right, and that's where he's stayed. My sympathies to that group.

Unreal. There's a lot to unpack here but I guess the only reason the "far left" didn't buy into the AJ Sandy Hook narrative is because they want gun control! It's laughable on it's face but also, most "far left" people I know don't really want gun control because they think it'll be targeted at minority communities that will need guns to protect themselves in this political climate. But this whole take is so naive I stopped listening and unsubscribed. He's so far off I don't think I can really trust what's said in the show any longer

Hello everyone, I posted 3 of these over on Saturday, and the Wookie Attack is being carried over from my first post. Everything else is newly added!
Payment through Paypal 'Goods and Services', users must comment first in this thread before PMing.
Shipping is estimated based on your location which I will ask about in PMs. Shipping labels will only be printed once I receive payment. Tracking number provided at that time too.
Images can be found here:
PART 1: https://imgur.com/a/Zvv42Ef
PART 2: https://imgur.com/a/dd5yW79
What I have PART 1:
Bionicle 8943 Axalara T9 (2008) – Used, 100% Complete, with all 3 Instruction booklets (starting to fall apart but still good to use). The box is NOT included. The set has been disassembled into one bag; rubber bands bagged separately. PRICE: $110 + SHIPPING
Ideas 21313 Ship In A Bottle (2018) – Used, 100% Complete, with instructions and Box. Some golden pieces may be off-color due to age (darker). The set has been disassembled by color where the translucent clear parts, translucent blue studs, and printed pieces get their own bag. PRICE: $70 + SHIPPING
Star Wars 7258 Wookiee Attack (2005) - Used, 100% Complete, with instructions (cover starting to fall off), and Box (minor shelfware). Minifigures, and printed dish pieces, and the track pieces have been individually bagged. PRICE: $100 + SHIPPING
Star Wars 75227 Darth Vader Bust (2019) – Used, 100% Complete, with Instructions and box (taped on one side). The set has been disassembled into two bags, one with all of the black pieces, another with all of the other colors. Parts in great condition. PRICE: $75 + SHIPPING
What I have PART 2
Indiana Jones 7627 Temple of the Crystal Skull (2008) - Used, missing (6X) Dark Bluish Gray 30137, and Minifigures Indiana Jones (with accessories), Mutt Williams, Irina Spalko, and Russian Guard 1 - Everything else is included, build is 100% complete with stickers applied, includes both instructions and original sticker sheet. PRICE: $90 + SHIPPING
*Star Wars 6207 A-Wing (2006) – Used, 100% Complete with minifigures, some parts may have minor scratches, Stickers have been applied to parts that have them (starting to fade and or peel) with instructions. PRICE: $20 + SHIPPING
*Star Wars 9497 Republic Striker-Class Starfighter (2012) - Used, missing (1X) Dark Red 30356, Includes everything else, minifigures in great condition, includes Instructions. PRICE: $50 + SHIPPING
*Star Wars 75007 Republic Assault Ship & Planet Coruscant (2013) - Used, Missing Clone Trooper Minifigure, Planet and build only, No Instructions. PRICE: $8 + SHIPPING
*Star Wars 75148 Encounter on Jakku (2016) – Used, 100% Complete, Minifigures in great condition, with Instructions. PRICE: $40 + SHIPPING
*Star Wars 75209 Han Solo's Landspeeder (2018) - Used, Missing Minifigures and Corellian Hound Piece, includes vehicle build and Instructions only. PRICE: $20 + SHIPPING
*Star Wars 75246 Death Star Cannon (2019) - Used, missing minifigures & their accessories, build and Instructions only. PRICE: $12 + SHIPPING
*Star Wars 75299 Trouble On Tatooine (2021) - Used, missing minifigures & their accessories, build and Instructions only. PRICE: $10 + SHIPPING
*Star Wars 75315 Imperial Light Cruiser (2021) – Used, missing minifigures & their accessories, build and Instructions only. Set has been disassembled into two bags, one with the grey parts and one with all of the other colored pieces. Stickered pieces have also been bagged separately. PRICE: $100 + SHIPPING
*Star Wars 75325 The Mandalorian's N-1 Starfighter (2022) - Used, missing minifigures & their accessories, build and Instructions only. PRICE: $25 + SHIPPING
*Star Wars 75334 Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Vader (2022) - Used, missing minifigures & their accessories, build and Instructions only. PRICE: $30 + SHIPPING
Special offer: Buy all TEN (10) sets with the * symbol before the name for just $250 ($65 off when bundled) - This offer only lasts while all the sets are available.
Please view pictures in the LINKS above, thank-you for your time :)

Does anyone know the location and time/date for the domestic red carpet event of Mission Impossible 7? I missed the last one a few years ago and really want to be apart of it this year round. I tried googling it but to no avail so I thought the reddit community might have some idea, thank you very much!

Discord Username: FireCrimson#1915
Character Name and House: Damon Morrigen
Age: 24
Appearance: https://imgur.com/a/5G1naST
Gift: Champion
Skills: Swords (o), Knightly, Defender, Tactician, Cautious
Talent(s): Singing (x2), Hunting
Starting Title(s): Heir to Crow's Nest
Starting Location: The Feast
Family Tree: https://www.familyecho.com/?p=BFQ8M&c=14cgd1pvu0x&f=640928101225140445 (work in progress, some placeholder names or unnamed characters)
Dead Kinsman: Almost everyone in the family tree.
Damon Morrigen was born in the 183rd year of Aegon’s Conquest to Jack Morrigen, the youngest son of Theo Morrigen. Normally, that would be the end of any mention of him. The son of the fifth son is not usually worth much of note. But unfortunately for the House of Morrigen, history and cruel fate decided otherwise.
The first four years of Damon’s life, he does not remember. And without the foresight of days to come, neither does anybody else. He had no siblings, though a few cousins, and enough uncles to fill up a hand with fingers. And an aunt, though she had been married to William Baratheon before he was born, so Damon knew nought of her.
It was during the Red War that Damon’s fate began to settle into place, with the unofficial birth of the ‘Curse of the Crows’ during the Red War in 187 AC. His two eldest uncles, Alester and Harlan, were slain, and the third eldest was crippled to the point he could no longer have children. Theo Morrigen, his grandfather, was distraught. Even without what was to come, this would be enough to put an old patriarch to tears.
But unfortunately, one bad war does not a curse make. The sons of uncle Harlan found that their boat sank in the sea during a particularly rough storm, though rumors persisted for awhile that it was not the storm, but a man with the ruthlessness to put a hole in the boat, with Richard Morrigen as the usual culprit. But there was no evidence to ever link him to any such crime, so the rumors eventually died down, as the curse of the crows continued.
It was uncle Selwyn who was next. Still young enough to be a bachelor, he reportedly drank too much and choked on his own vomit. This appeared to do Theo Morrigen in, as when he went to sleep after the news he never woke up, with his wife following along within weeks in 190 AC. Of Theo’s children, there were only three remaining. Richard, the current eldest who was crippled in the war, Jack Morrigen (Damon’s father) and Ravella, who was married into Baratheon.
There was peace for little Damon for a time; no more funerals, until 194 AC, when his parents died. A sickness. One could say it swept through the family, though that would exaggerate, for it was only those two and uncle Richard who had caught it, giving him another lifelong health issue to contend with, leaving him coughing blood.
Lord Richard, the last of the lord’s sons, sent his heir to Storm’s End to squire under Lord Baratheon. For Damon, these were his roughest but perhaps most tenderly remembered years. No more familial death to deal with. He got along with his aunt’s family, and even saw Lord William as a second father. However, his worst traits were starting to develop. He was becoming anti-social and paranoid, continuously worrying about when his time would come. To a child, the whims of death were chaotic; he put them in order by convincing himself it would be his time eventually, and likely sooner rather than later.
At 18, in 201 AC, he was knighted, and went home to Crow’s Nest. In celebration, he was given Loyalty, the Valyrian steel longsword of House Morrigen. In one of his uncle’s celebration events, he met Sylas, who became his confidant and informant. A lowborn man, he had nonetheless gained the trust of Lord Richard, and was allowed to remain as a servant, of sorts, and was one of the most valuable men Morrigen had at their disposal.
The next few years, Damon remembers as games. Lord Richard, well aware that Damon was the last hope for their house to continue in the male line, tested him again and again. Sometimes in his ability to defend himself, sometimes in his ability to rule. Some rumors suggested that his ability to continue the line was tested, but they were quashed.
Now it is 207 AC. Some must wonder if the curse of the crows will continue, or if the young heir will manage to halt it in its tracks.
https://www.familyecho.com/?p=BFQ8M&c=14cgd1pvu0x&f=640928101225140445
Character Name and House: Sylas
Age: 34
Appearance: A stooped, balding man. He doesn't seem particularly interesting or notable.
Gift: Ruthless
Skills: Espionage, Torturer, Subtle
Talents: N/A
Starting Title(s): None
Starting Location: With Damon.
Lord Richard Morrigen - Subterfuge
Ser Alaric ‘Pennypointer’ - Architect

The episode resumed with another shot of the pile of boulder as Chris began to speak. "Welcome back to Total Drama World Tour," he greeted as the shot panned back over to him and Chef. "We're here on beautiful Rapa Nui," the camera zoomed in on Chef as he got ready to push another stone sphere, "where somebody is about to go Rapa splat-splat! Wait for it...," the host said with an eager smile.
\
"It's bad enough we had to climb the statues just to find these breakable eggs," Topher said as the focus returned to him and the others. "Now there's boulders?"
"Those are just there to make the challenge harder for us," Ezekiel explained.
"One of us has to be the lookout and seek for boulders so we can avoid them and keep our eggs intact," Eva said.
"Allow me to be in front of the Izzy train!" Izzy exclaimed. "All aboard!"
\
The scene flashed back to Mal in the tunnel, a slight rumbling sound barely audible. He noticed the sound that was coming closer, and tripped and stumbled into the wall, getting knocked back into the path of the boulder and being crushed into a hole of himself.
"Are my eggs still intact?" Mal said, looking at his own basket only to find the cracked eggs on the ground. "That's just great!"
\
The shot returned to the alliance hiding in a hole as the boulder rolled over them. They poked themselves out once the boulder was gone.
"That was a close one!" Ezekiel panted.
"Tell me about it," Eva remarked.
"So you guys have become a quartet," Mal laughed when he came into view. "How heartwarming."
"Mock us all you want, but we still have our eggs while yours are broken," Topher grinned.
"I'm not going to fret on it. I can find a batch of eggs quickly and effectively," Mal boasted proudly while walking away.
"Have fun coming in last place!" Izzy yelled as she and her alliance got themselves out of the hole.
"We better get out of here if we don't want him to catch up," Ezekiel said. "He's able to use Manitoba Smith's investigation skills to help himself."
\
The scene cut to the beach, the shot focusing on the stone heads of Sky and Noah.
"This place is clear of eggs," Mal said as he climbed up Noah's statue. He found something in Noah's ear, which turned out to be a bunch of books that promptly piled out and knocked him off his perch.
The scene skipped ahead to Mal looking into Owen's mouth and taking out assorted items. "Toast? Sausage? A coconut?" he wondered in an upset tone. "Owen, you are so useless!"
The statue suddenly burped out a blue egg, and Mal managed to catch it. "Good. Now where next?"
The shot cut to Mal taking an egg out of Jo's hair. "Jo was actually cooperative for once!" he said. "I'm still in the game!"
Mal got off the statue just as a piercing cry and a large winged shadow passing overhead caught the man's attention.
"That is a giant condor," Mal said with a rising panic as the perspective turned upwards to show a large condor soaring overhead looking down at him. "That explains the size of these eggs!"
He looked back at the condor, which screeched and dived towards him. Mal took off towards the cave, the condor screeching and swooping right behind him.
\
The scene flashed back to the tunnels, where the four were steadily making their climb. "So even though you were helping Mal, you don't have any real tips on how to stop him?" Eva asked Topher.
"All we need is luck, and with Mal being nowhere to be seen right now, it's already granted upon us," Topher said.
"Luck never gets me anywhere," Ezekiel lamented. "I have to try my butt off if I want to achieve things in life, like graduating elementary and middle school."
"Aren't you homeschooled?" Izzy asked. "It should be easier for you."
"We're educated differently, but I struggle as much as you guys do, so don't call homeschooling easy," Ezekiel said.
"Geez. I was just trying to be nice," Izzy spoke out.
The panicked howl of Mal suddenly came from behind them, surprising the quartet.
"And he caught up with us sooner than I thought," Eva thought aloud as she and her team turned to look back down the tunnel.
Mal was shown running towards them, holding his three eggs while the giant condor flew and screeched right behind him.
"The condor is why!" Topher yelled in panic, the group turning to run with Mal.
\
Back outside the higher cave exit, Chris was measuring parts of a giant stone Chef head as the man himself prepared to push it.
"Dude," Chris said as he moved his tape measure around, "we gotta get back to boulders."
A quintet of screaming voices caught the attention of both men, the camera zooming out just as Mal ran out of the cave, followed by Eva, Ezekiel, Topher, and Izzy. They stopped together just past Chef, but Izzy tripped on a rock, allowing for her eggs to slip out from her grasp and break on the floor.
"My eggs are cracked, and all the king's horses and men won't be able to put them together again!" Izzy whined.
"Man, you guys are really competing!" Chris commented with a happy smile.
He was answered by several frantic and disjointed pleas which, overall, asked that the cave be closed off. Chef promptly complied, pushing the statue of his head over to block the cave entrance.
Moments later the condor crashed into it with a painful crunch, its feet and a few feathers jutting out between a few gaps.
"Oh man, so close!" Chris lamented as he looked back at the blocked cave. "Way to ruin the fun! We may as well move on to the next challenge," he said, turning back to the contestants and bending down to pick something up. "Since Mal was the first one out," he said before tossing the dark alter an umpire's mask.
"I'm playing baseball?" Mal asked with uncertainty.
"Thankfully no," Chris replied. "You must climb this rock pillar all the way up to...," he explained, the camera showing the cast looking behind them before panning up a tall, thin, and craggy pillar with a large bird's nest at the very top.
"A giant condor nest?" Eva said as the shot zoomed in on the nest.
"You already know they can get pret-ty crabby," Chris explained. "But did you know female condors are even bigger than the dude birds?"
The five contestants were shown looking at him with blank shock before a loud screech turned their attention upwards, where a large condor silhouette was looking down at them. "She's a big one!" Ezekiel commented in horror.
"Yup, twelve-foot wingspan," Chris said matter-of-factly.
"That's almost as wide as two of me," Mal said.
Confessional: Izzy
"One Mal is already bad enough," Izzy said to the camera. "With two, they could usurp Darth Vader and Ra's al Ghul combined!"
Confessional Ends
"See, she's kinda peeved 'cause you guys stole her eggs," Chris told the cast.
"We didn't steal the eggs!" Topher frantically tried to tell the bird. "He's the one that did!" He turned apologetic. "Sorry Chris!"
"So now you have to try to shimmy up to the nest, and give 'em back," Chris continued, "in the order in which you arrived here, last place to first. Of course, Mama's got a whole lot more eggs up there," the shot cut to the mother condor perched angrily on the edge of her nest, "so, she's bound to be a tad protective."
The mother condor let loose a screech that shook the camera.
"So that's the reward," Ezekiel said as Mal put his umpire's mask on. "The giant condor can peck the eyeballs of their predators."
"And I'm not going to be its prey!" Mal said cruelly.
"Since my eggs are broken, does this mean I'm out of the challenge?" Izzy raised her hand.
"'Fraid so. Deposit all three eggs and you win," Chris explained. "And if nobody makes it, we'll try it again! It's gonna be that much fun."
Topher grabbed his eggs out of Izzy's basket and stuffed them down his pants. "Win for us since I can't," Izzy ordered the boy moving forward.
"Oh," Chris interrupted, causing the Chris fan to flinch, "and one more thing."
"Come on," Topher muttered. "What else could you-"
He was answered by the familiar ding and icon that signaled a musical number. "It's for your own protection," Chris told them. "Keeps the birds calm. I'm lying," he said with a mischievous smirk, "or I'm not! You choose!"
///\
[A Latin melody began to play, and the mother condor screeched again from atop its nest.]
"I'm smooth, I'm gelled, I'm young, I'm handsome!"
[Topher opened, the camera flashing in sequence from a close-up of his tapping feet, to his swaying hips, to his waggling butt, and lastly to a side view of his eyes and smile.]
"I'm coming to bring back your small ones... So calm down you, condor."
[The condor was shown bobbing and bouncing in enjoyment of the music as Topher steadily climbed up the rock spire. He reached the top of the nest, and the condor screeched at him.]
"I will win and you'll see. So try, attack me! But, I am committed! I don't mind that pecking, so, keep being ticked!"
[Topher paused for a few beats in confidence, and the condor pecked him to no avail. As the mother bird continued its fruitless assault, Topher started placing the red eggs he was carrying into the nest: first one, then another.]
"Quiet, condor. Let me in the Final Four!"
[Topher told it as he held out the third egg he'd brought. He was answered by a wing sweep that knocked him clear off the pillar.
"No!" he groaned on his back on the ground, just before the third egg splattered on his face.
"Next!" Chris said, popping into view on the right.]
"Iiiii, oh Ii~ii~ii do not like condors, do not like condors!"
[Ezekiel sang next, looking upwards while the basket containing his eggs hung off his shoulder as he climbed.]
"Whyyyy, oh whyy~yy~yy, am I doing this. I ponder!"
[He added as he grabbed the next handhold, the shot panning up to the nest to show the condor enjoying the song again.]
"Trust meeee, oh trust me~ee. I don't want to soar, so let me in the Final Four!"
[Ezekiel sang as he finally managed to pull himself up to the nest level. He quickly put the first two eggs into the nest under the stern gaze of their mother, but the moment he ended his line the condor headbutted him in the gut and caused him to fall from the pillar.
The shot immediately cut down to show Ezekiel groaning on the ground. "My eggs!" he shouted until the basket with all three eggs landed on his chest.
"Good news!" Chris told him as the camera panned to the left just a little bit to show him standing over him. "You can have another chance later, but first..." He looked back to the left, and the song continued over a shot of Eva's determined face.]
"I'm a winner, so don't be giving me flak!"
[Eva called up forcefully towards the nest, climbing steadily with her three green eggs inside her bjorn.]
"'Cause my fist packs a big punch, and you don't want to see that!"
[She reached the top, and began to place eggs in the nest just as the two before her had. The mother condor, though still bobbing to the beat, seemed to be displeased nonetheless.]
"Listen, condor. Let me into the Final Four!"
[She was answered by the condor growling at her in anger. "So… I could've said that better," she gulped.
The camera stuck to Mal as Eva fell past her, and Chris called out "Mal?" in an expectant and impish tone.]
"Iiiii, how Ii~ii~ii, how I really hate these birds, and I am not mincing these words!"
[Mal sang, not missing a beat even at the thud of Eva's landing.]
"Theeeese inferior punks, are causing me pain. And you're the one I have to blame. For the last time...
[He reached the nest and immediately squinted at the condor, all the while continuing to sing. He placed two blue-colored eggs in the nest before pausing to take a deep breath, and...]
Stay in your lane!"
[Mal finished with a smile. The shot cut back to the condor as it screeched in retaliation, then nuzzled the eggs as she placed the last one next to them.]
"Yes! Thanks to this condor, now I'm in the Final Fourrrrr!"
[Mal finished with a triumphant pose, the music ending with a rapid strum as the camera cut to the four contestants furiously looking at their targeted enemy.]
///
"Mal takes the win!" Chris announced as the shot cut back to the ground.
"Can someone get me down from here?" Mal's voice came from the nest.
Confessional: Mal
"With immunity claimed for today, now it's time to decide who's getting the boot. Ezekiel and Topher are easy to beat in the finale, so they're off my list for sure," Mal mentioned.
"I could vote for Izzy, but compared to Eva, she's lacking some bit of muscle. So with that, Eva's the one that's going to go today," he snickered. "She's a powerhouse, and it'll leave Izzy vulnerable."
Confessional Ends
The plane was shown flying high over the moai statues as Chris announced "And, it's time to vote!"
The scene immediately flashed to a close-up of the host in the elimination chamber as he read through the five stamped passports. He smiled, and the shot zoomed out to show the five contestants waiting expectantly in the stands.
"The first person to be nominated for the Drop of Shame is...Eva!" Chris announced as the female bully was shown shrugging. "Next vote, Topher...," the camera cut to the boy gasping.
"Next vote, Ezekiel...," Chris continued, the shot cutting to show Ezekiel's shocked face. "And the fourth and final vote says this week's loser is...Eva!"
Eva and Izzy's eyes widened as they were both shocked, but Mal broke the silence by laughing. "Tough break! That's just how the bread rolls!"
Izzy was furious with Mal, but Eva surprised everyone by raising her fist and swinging it in Mal's face, sending him unconscious before he plummeted.
Confessional: Ezekiel
"I thought about voting off Topher, but I realized it wouldn't make any sense given that he and Mal would be voting for Eva," Ezekiel said. "I voted for her as well because she's too strong."
Confessional Ends
"In case anyone was wondering, I'm not going to rage out like I did before," Eva assured everyone. "I just took my anger out on Mal instead."
"No no, we get it. Good job," Topher smirked with respect.
"I had to vote for you," Ezekiel said. "You are too powerful."
"I get it," Eva responded and turned to Izzy. "Izzy, you're the last member of Team E-Scope standing. Do not disappoint us!"
"It won't be as fun without you, but I'll keep carrying on!" Izzy promised.
Eva grabbed her parachute pack and made her way to the exit. "Unlike the rest, I can hop out of this plane normally." And with that, she hopped through the exit.
"Mal!" Chris focused on the alter, who now had a swollen eye. "Because you won, your prize awaits you in first class. And, as usual, you can bring the loser of your choice."
Mal rubbed his swelled up eye in annoyance. "Izzy's been up there enough and Topher's stayed there before, so I'll have to choose Ezekiel."
"I have to spend first class with you!?" Ezekiel fumed. "That's unbelievable!"
"You better believe and accept it, Zekey!" Mal held up his fist and spoke slowly. "My eye needs treatment, and I don't want to mess up my fist by punching you!"
This got Ezekiel to gulp. "Thank you for inviting me!"
\
The scene cut away to the cockpit, Chris trying to reach for the control again but getting his hand slapped away by Chef. The host grunted, the series's capstone theme beginning as he turned his attention to the camera. "Come back next time, for more spills, chills, and planet-endangering thrills right here, on Total! Drama! World Tour!"
The shot zoomed out as usual, and a resounding slap was heard.
(Roll the Credits)
\
(Bonus Clip)
"I was disappointed with my performance back on the island," Eva explained as she was descending down on her parachute. "I was eliminated early for my temper, and when I rejoined, I got re-eliminated for my temper still."
"Fortunately, I managed to make it all the way to fifth place. I didn't win, but I can feel like a winner with Izzy representing herself, me, and Noah as Team E-Scope," Eva followed up. "That's all I have to say, so in the most polite way I can say it, leave me be!"
She soon landed on the condor's nest, much to her disappointment. "What happened to Mama Condor? Shouldn't she be here?" Her answer came when the condor swooped in and grabbed Eva by her shoulders, dragging her away from the camera's view.
18th: Shawn
17th: Amy
16th: Lindsay
15th: Rodney
14th: Jo
Eliminated: Owen
13th: Duncan
12th: Sky
11th: Heather
10th: Cody
9th: Ella
8th: Noah
7th: Sadie
6th: Owen
5th: Eva

Girls: Eva, Izzy
Boys: Ezekiel, Mal, Topher
Episode 22: Rapa Phooey
"Last time, on Total Drama World Tour!" Chris opened, the recap beginning with a pan across the Serengeti ending in the castmates reacting with shock. "Africa! Come for the safari, stay for the near-death experience!" The host adopted a vaguely 'African' accent for the next line, as clips of the rhino and lion were shown.
"Here we played a few rounds of the world's favorite game," he said over portions of the contestants getting hit by soccer balls. "And then, we went on a wild alien hunt!" Ezekiel Clone was shown popping out of a bush and sniffing around, then the teens shot their tranq balls at each other."'cept nobody told Owen it was open season on him!" Chris chuckled as the big guy was shown first getting tackled by Ezekiel Clone, and then trying to keep him away from his face.
"And after all that," Eva shot Owen and the clone to sleep, "everyone managed to get Mal the Malicious voted out," Mal was shown to be upset about the vote. "Harsh!"
"Mal managed to live on for another day thanks to Owen neglecting the rules of the show, which was to sing," Owen was shown going back to sleep and departing the plane. "That's gotta be tough!"
The recap ended and the scene flashed to the cockpit. "Can it get any wilder?" Chris asked the camera. "Oh yeah it can!" he danced, the grand title tune of the season beginning unusually early. "It's Final Five time, right here on Total! Drama! World Tour!"
The camera zoomed out as usual, the final shot showing another airplane flying across in the far distance.
XXXXX
After the usual opening shot of the plane in flight, the scene cut inside to first class as Eva stretched her arms up above her head and sighed.
"Strange. I never got interrupted by Izzy singing about the monkeys on the walls," Eva said as she looked around. "Oh right. Izzy's not in first class this time."
"And I couldn't be any more glad," Topher sighed comfortably. The camera cut over to the opposite side to show Topher leaning back on his couch. "If she was here again, she'd be too much of a god player."
"You're lucky I brought you up here for a purpose, or else I'd pick Ezekiel instead," Eva brought up.
Confessional: Topher
"So because I was affiliated with Mal, I know Eva wants information from me about how to stop him," Topher confessed. "I'll give her some tips, but it's going to come with a fee."
Confessional Ends
Topher was pushing a cart filled with candy. "While you were sleeping, Chris delivered your prize for winning," he explained.
"Candy? Is that the best he can do?" Eva griped.
"I have a sweet tooth, so I wouldn't mind taking some of these sweets myself." Topher grabbed a couple of lollipops and caramel apples and shoved them into his pockets.
"I don't want to discuss candy with you," Eva clarified. "I just want to know-"
"How to take down Mal because I cooperated with him," Topher finished her sentence.
"I was going to finish that," Eva reminded the dirty blond.
"I'll help you, but on one condition," Topher said.
"What could it be?" Eva raised her unibrow.
"You have to promise that you'll let me win the next challenge," Topher revealed his goal.
Eva scoffed. "Forget it. I like to win, and no way will I let you claim victory at any time."
Topher sniffed and pulled the cart away. "It's your loss and funeral."
Confessional: Eva
"Topher's nowhere near as bad as Mal, but he sure is annoying. Give up a chance of winning? I want to take down Mal, but not if it comes to that," Eva made clear to the viewers.
Confessional Ends
As the scene moved to economy class, the silhouette of Ezekiel Clone could be seen standing just outside the opening to the compartment. The shot panned over to Ezekiel and Izzy sitting on one of the benches.
"The silent treatment?" Mal scoffed as he was in view of the camera. "Really?"
"What else did you expect?" Ezekiel rudely told him. "Us flying over a rainbow?"
"Nope, because rainbows are sanguine," Mal spat out.
"If you want us to work with you, then you can forget it," Izzy said. "I don't trust liars, and I'm looking at one right now."
"I don't have to take any of this," Mal said to the girl. "Owen may be gone, but you will join him next."
"We'll just have to see about that, Mal!" Izzy retorted as Mal left her and Ezekiel alone.
"What a knob," Ezekiel muttered under his breath. "Did you two know each other before the show, because he certainly hates you the most out of everyone here."
"We went to the same juvenile center, and the both of us were very well-known for what we did that got us arrested," Izzy answered.
"Did you happen to know Duncan before you joined the show?" Ezekiel followed up.
"I never personally talked to him, but he also knew about Mal," Izzy said.
"I can't believe I never listened to Sky and Duncan when they said that something was off about that guy," Ezekiel grumbled. "Now that they're gone, we're lacking a bit of strength against Mal."
"Zeke, they may be out of the game, but that doesn't mean we can't all work together," Izzy stated. "It's four of us against one of him after all."
"Yeah," Ezekiel agreed, though confusion crept up inside him. "Wait, this includes Topher, right?"
"Definitely, but I still haven't forgotten how he got rid of my friends," Izzy said. "Once Mal goes, he's next."
"I am in an alliance with him, but that'll end if Mal is eliminated," Ezekiel said. "For now, let's get Topher and Eva to see the reason as to why we should be a team eh."
"I like the way you think," Izzy smirked at him.
Confessional: Ezekiel
"We were able to vote for Mal last time, but because of the sing or get eliminated rule, Owen had to leave. As long as Mal doesn't win and we all sing, the votes won't be ignored," Ezekiel deduced. "I'm not stupid, just a bit ignorant and naive."
Confessional Ends
"Attention passengers," Chris announced over the loudspeaker as the plane was shown beginning to descend, "please prepare for landing!"
The scene cut inside the cockpit as the host hung up the microphone and looked at Chef. "C'mon, just let me fly it once!" he pleaded to the unflinching pilot. "What can it hurt? It's technically my plane, you know."
He reached over for the controls, but Chef quickly turned to stop him and the two grown men engaged in a slap-fight. The jet was shown wobbling and losing altitude dramatically, cries of "My pinkie!" and "Hey!" coming from Chris and Chef inside.
The camera moved to ground-level at an island beach, a moai statue prominently in the foreground as the plane rapidly descended towards it and the camera. "Oh no!" Chris screamed as the plane flew forward, clipping the moai statue with its wing as it swung stage right and knocking the giant head over.
"Gosh darn it!" Chef swore from off-screen.
\
Seagulls were crying off-camera as the scene flashed forward, showing Eva and Mal walking up to the fallen statue.
"Another piece of world heritage destroyed," Mal remarked cynically.
"That won't be the only thing that's getting destroyed today," Eva told him.
"Who, me?" Mal pretended to be shocked.
"I was thinking about Topher… of course it's you!" Eva said.
"You may have muscles that are bigger than my soul, but don't forget that I do have a brain," Mal said back.
It was then that the rest of the Final Five walked up to them. "These caramel apples are delicious," Ezekiel claimed while holding one. Izzy was snacking on a chocolate bar, and Topher popped a sweet into his mouth.
"This is even better than Cody's stash of candy," Izzy moaned at her chocolate.
"These dopes get the first class prizes and not me?" Mal reprimanded.
"Did you think I was going to reward you after everything you did?" Topher bluntly asked.
Confessional: Mal
"So many people to choose from," Mal pondered. "The hardest thing for me is deciding who I won't pick off."
Confessional Ends
Several more moai statues were shown dotting another stretch of beach, seagulls crying as the camera panned rightward to the five tired contestants climbing up the side of a steeper hill.
"'Iorana!" Chris greeted them from off-screen once they'd reached the top, startling the five with his appearance. He had once again appropriated a local costume, now nearly naked except for a small leather loincloth, furry shin guards, and a three-tiered feather headdress in blue, red, and green. He also wore a necklace of what looked like small pebbles and a curved bone in the middle of it, and had white lines running across his cheeks and down his bare chest.
"Wow Chris. You've been working out," Chris commented in a pleased tone.
"And welcome to Easter Island," Chris continued. "Aka, Rapa Nui! Place is old," he explained. "These dudes were carved so long ago," he gestured at another moai, "no one even remembers why anymore! Ten bucks says it started as a dare," he said with a cheeky smile.
"Twenty bucks says get on with it!" Eva griped.
"Yeah," Chris deadpanned before continuing. "Today, you, our Final Five, are going on a highly traditional Easter Island egg hunt," he explained as the shot panned across the five teens.
"Are we gonna be hunting for chocolate Easter eggs?" Izzy asked eagerly after taking a bite from her chocolate bar.
"Uhh, no. I'm talking the old school kind of eggs," Chris replied, "the kind that come from birds, y'know those flying things with feathers and talons and vicious kill-you-in-a-second beaks?" The contestants gasped to varying degrees.
"Speaking of which," Chris said with a sly smile, bending over to pick up five feathered headdresses, "traditional feathered Rapa Nui headdresses! Wear 'em with pride, chickens!"
He tossed them into the hands of the contestants at the same time: blue for Mal, green for Eva, purple for Ezekiel, red for Topher, and yellow for Izzy.
\
The footage skipped forward a little ways to show Chris leading the Final Five, now wearing their headdresses, past a few more stone heads that seemed to have rather...unusual shapes.
"Hidden in these head things are a bunch of colored eggs that match the color of your...head thing," Chris told them.
"So you really did your research," Mal said dryly.
"Your challenge," Chris continued, "to find three eggs in your color. Then make a break for the massive underground cavern system and book it all the way up to the highest point on the island." The camera panned away from the host as he gave his explanation, showing a nearby cave entrance first before quick-panning upwards to another cave on top of a high hill.
"Reach the top with all three eggs to begin the second part of today's challenge," the host explained as the shot cut back to him and the Final Five.
"What happens if we drop an egg?" Izzy asked.
"You'll have to come all the way back here for a replacement," Chris answered, causing Topher to quickly raise his hand. "And no," Chris said in anticipation of the next question, "you can not take a back-up egg." Topher lowered his hand in annoyance. "First to the top gets a big advantage in part two," the host said, the shot zooming out to show the backs of the contestants. "Now, scramble!"
At his command, the five turned and ran towards the stone heads.
\
Izzy and Topher ran up to two of the giant heads and paused to look up at them.
"These look really familiar," Izzy commented, the camera panning up to show that the two they were standing in front of had been carved to look like Lindsay and Shawn.
Izzy gasped and continued looking on to the right. "It's everyone who's been eliminated," she commented in shock as the camera panned across statues that looked like Jo, Rodney, Duncan, and Amy.
With a few grunts of effort, Topher began climbing up a statue of Lindsay, while Izzy did the same with Shawn. It wasn't long before Izzy managed to reach inside the statue's hat and pull out an egg.
"I got one!" Izzy said with delight, before seeing its red color. "That's not mine."
"Blue's my color," Topher commented as he clung to Lindsay's ear. "Hand it over."
Izzy thought about it, but decided to throw the red egg over to Topher. "If we're going to get rid of Mal, we'll have to work together."
"I'll remember that when I locate one of your eggs," Topher told her before dropping down from Lindsay's statue with his egg.
Meanwhile, Ezekiel had climbed on to Sadie's head and smiled when he pulled a purple egg from behind her hair. "You are so helpful to me, Sadie," he said, giving the statue a kiss.
"I wish I could say the same thing about Ella," Eva commented, pulling out what looked like a yellow bird out of her ear. She let it fly, then scoffed. "I do not know what goes on in her head 24/7."
The shot cut to Cody's statue, then panned down to Mal as he looked it over. "I hope that dingo didn't take away your brain cells," he taunted, kicking the statue's base. A blue egg fell from his tooth and landed in Mal's hands. "Perfect."
The camera cut to Heather's statue, where a green egg could be seen in her ear. Izzy jumped onto the statue with a grunt, then pulled the egg from its hiding spot. "Excellent! One for me!" she cheered. "I just need something to carry it in," she said thoughtfully. The camera briefly cut to a patch of long grass and back to her smiling eagerly.
\
The footage skipped ahead to show the psycho girl, now with a yellow egg in a bjorn made from the grass she'd spotted earlier, searching at the head of Amy. "Yeah!" she cheered as she pulled out a yellow egg. "Another one! And one for Eva as well!" she said as she pulled out a green egg. "I should go give this to her."
The camera cut to Eva about to climb Duncan's statue, until the sound of footsteps caught her attention.
"Eva!" Izzy cried as she ran over. "I found one of your eggs!" She thrusted the egg into the bodybuilder's basket.
"Really?" Eva wondered.
"I know you'd do the same for me given the situation we're in," Izzy said.
"First Ella and now you?" Eva asked. "Why do I keep getting unwanted assistance in the game?"
"'Cause we're Team E-Scope, Eva," Izzy responded.
Confessional: Izzy
"Me and Izzy are currently the last girls left in the competition," Izzy explained. "With Noah and Owen gone, the boys outnumber us. That won't be a bad thing if Topher and Ezekiel are with us."
Confessional: Eva
"Now I'm starting to consider letting Topher win if it'll defeat Mal," Eva said. "The contestants help me even when I don't ask for it. Maybe I should return the favor for the first time."
Confessionals End
Rodney's stoney rendition was shown next, a red egg nestled in his right ear. Topher was currently trying to reach it, but the height of his head and the egg he was trying to hold on to was making it difficult.
Topher stretched out his arm enough to just barely brush the egg with his fingertips. Unfortunately, this only served to unbalance the egg; it wobbled a bit, then fell forward and cracked on the stone below.
"It was strategy. Nothing against you," Topher groaned, jumping down to the ground.
"You clearly don't have anything to put your eggs in," Izzy commented as she and Eva walked over to the Chris fan. "We'll help you out, but you have to give us our eggs if you find them."
"It's a deal," Topher agreed quickly. "I don't even care who wins anymore, as long as it's not Mal."
Confessional: Topher
"I'm out of my league for this one. I had to convince Izzy to give me one of my eggs," Topher admitted embarrassingly. "Not a good look for me."
Confessional Ends
The scene moved back to Mal walking around with three eggs in his basket.
"How did you manage to find three eggs while I only found two?" Ezekiel asked in astonishment.
"I can utilize the abilities of my slaves, and Manitoba is very useful indeed," Mal chuckled.
"Calling your personalities 'slaves' is not a good thing to do eh," Ezekiel called him out.
"So does picking your nose or offending women," Mal teased.
Ezekiel squinted his eyes at Mal and turned his heel. "I'm trying to grow out of that. Now leave me alone!"
Confessional: Ezekiel
"I'm really starting to get tired of people bringing up the bad stuff I did in the past," Ezekiel groaned.
Confessional Ends
The scene flashed to the beach near where the plane had landed. Chef and a pair of interns were now trying to move the knocked-over moai back upright, with Chef pulling on a rope in front while the interns pushed from behind.
Chef groaned and grunted in exertion, but paused when the host's voice came in over a walkie-talkie in his pocket. "This is King of all Chrisdom seeking Bitty Baby, over!" Chris said. Chef let go of his rope to pull out the communicator, and the moai head fell back over onto the two interns that had been trying to push it.
"When you're done slackin', think you can give me a hand?" Chris asked.
\
A flash took the focus back to Mal, who was looking rather tired as he trekked uphill through the underground cavern system.
"It's a good thing I didn't eat those sweets otherwise I wouldn't be able to trek uphill for much longer," he grumbled.
Mal then heard something approaching, and he looked forward again and went into a nook in the side of the tunnel just as a large spherical boulder barreled down the slope.
He leaned out with shock on his faces after the boulder left, and the camera cut to Eva, Ezekiel, Izzy, and Topher, who had also found three eggs each and started their journey through the caverns. They quickly spotted the approaching boulder, screamed, and ducked into crannies on opposite sides of the tunnel.
"You have got to be kidding!" Ezekiel exclaimed, the four poking their heads back out into the open.
\
The scene flashed to the cave's exit at the highest point of the island, where a cackling Chris watched as Chef pushed another large, spherical boulder into the caverns. He sighed mirthfully as the camera cut in for a close-up, then as the grand title theme began to play he told it "We've got tons more fun, literally," he motioned to a nearby pile of similar boulders, "right after this, on Total! Drama! World Tour!"
\
(Commercial Break)
\

I had my Gentle Guidance with Rita yesterday, which was very eye-opening for me. Let me start by saying Rita is the nicest human being on the planet. She takes the time to listen and answer with intent. She knows her words have power so she is very deliberate with her responses, which is really impressive for a 30 minute call. If you're on the fence about getting the GG I say do it no matter the stage of your personal style journey you're in. If you are unfamiliar with the process, before the GG you fill out a form with some questions. She starts the GG by asking more questions, and then she will address any concerns you have, then tell you your key, the archetypes she thinks you'll get the most support from, and supporting keywords. I'm giving my interpretation of her advice so please feel to ask questions if something doesn't make sense.
Okay let's get into it!
We first talked about my current spiral around needing cohesion in my personal style. She was blunt with me and said that I'm a multi-dimensional person and because I use the Amethyst Key I should dress for the Raven (which is my name, hi there lol) in the moment. I should be seeking more variety and not less. I should be changing and exploring. She recommended doing a character design exercise to understand Raven as the persona and then use my personal style as a lens to be perceived. I'm currently working on that exercise and loving it! It's like creating a Dungeons and Dragons character but that character is me!
She agreed with my placement of Left Up/Amethyst. She placed me more up than I ever considered, but when we got into it I definitely saw it. I loved the way she explained the archetypes so I wanted to share. She explained them as friends that you go to for advice. You wouldn't go to your friend for career advice if they aren't in the field you want to be in, right? Same for the archetypes. They aren't who you are, but a guide to help you. They are a fictional person with the same needs, wants, desires as you. Ask them for advice, and see what germinates. She recommended I look at Enchantress, Siren, and Lady Heretic as a blend but keep them separate. She did say that having three archetypes is not common but I could use the support of each one to help with different aspects of my process and my personal style.
Enchantress - She really wants me to lean into identifying what I need to express to the world, and do it without a specific aesthetic. Cohesion is a part of the process because I define the story, but isn't the intention. The enchantress needs to be high maintenance and I should lean into the effort and know that I need the additional effort to execute my vision. I should also think creatively while staying true to my vision but not get too nitpicky. Let the randomness flow through!
Lady Heretic - She wants me to use the Lady Heretic to provide that "step on people" energy that I definitely mentioned during our session. I want to be the most stylish person in the room and feel stylistically superior, a form of social dominance (which isn't as bad as it sounds). I shouldn't be afraid that I'm the "most dressed-up" person in the room. I actually thrive off of that. I should use the Lady Heretic to assert myself more and use her to learn how to take up more space. Flex on 'em!
Siren - Very similar points to the Enchantress, but with the Siren she wants me to identify my personal red flags for nitpicking. Would I nitpick a friend's outfit to the extent I criticize my own looks? Give myself grace and space to grow with this medium. I base a lot of my "success" on receiving praise from the outside. Turns out I don't need that! I'm creating a reaction, and I don't need to make anyone but myself happy about what I'm wearing. Let's unsettle them. Let's make them uncomfortable, it's okay! I also need to shift the control from external acknowledgment to my own. Whether this is a large art piece or just a sketch, I am in control. I need to shift the energy to get more of what I need from my personal style.
She also wants me to keep exploring. I'm in the Blossom and Harvest phase and just need to allow myself to be and enjoy the fruits of my labor!
Rita then gave me the style keywords she thinks relate to me the most. The first were Sensual and Dramatic with a touch of glamour. Sensual was no big surprise. She described it in a way I really love where she sees that framing the body, hinting at the body is really where sensual hits home for me. Dramatic was a little surprise just because I haven't put too much time into exploring drama. I do love the performative nature of my style so I'm excited to get into it more. She framed sensual as soft while dramatic is hard, and that's how I should look at getting that juxtaposition across my looks. She also said that I'm naturally dramatic because of the tattoos, so sensual is the home base for me to add softness and create that contrast.
The other keywords are Gaia/Elemental and Intimidating which I'm OBSESSED with. We at first explored elemental but she really liked Gaia as my essence. She changes with the seasons and she doesn't care what anyone thinks. Others do not affect the seasons changing, they just change. I loved that. She also loved intimidating here because that is Gaia. She is power. You should be intimidated by the elements and raw energy. Expect some moodboards coming soon!
I turned to this community yesterday for ideas on what to call the combination of my 3 archetypes. I want to make the flair something others will recognize, but for myself I decided to come up with my own archetype based on the character design I created. I want to combine the whimsy and magic of the enchantress, the allure of the siren, and the rebellious nature of the lady heretic with the idea of being a stellium in astrology.
The name I came up with was "the Solstice Supreme."

"The Solstice Supreme" conveys a sense of power and authority, suggesting a figure who holds a position of utmost significance during the solstice, a time of celestial transition and cosmic energy.
"Solstice Supreme" represents a character who wields unparalleled enchanting abilities, possesses an irresistible and seductive aura like a siren, and challenges established norms and authority like a lady heretic. Solstice embodies the magic and allure of the enchantress, the captivating and seductive nature of the siren, and the rebellious and heretical tendencies of the lady heretic. This archetype suggests a character who holds celestial wisdom, harnesses the power of cosmic forces, and wields them to navigate and shape their own destiny.
The addition of "Supreme" emphasizes the character's elevated status and extraordinary capabilities within the context of the enchantress, siren, and lady heretic archetypes. It suggests a figure who is revered, feared, or respected for their powers and their ability to shape the course of events. Ultimately, "Solstice Supreme" evokes a sense of celestial grandeur, dominance, and awe-inspiring presence.

I chose "Solstice" to represent the magic of change and transformation. "Supreme" gives me that "step on me" vibe. Together I'm envisioning this alluring powerful force of nature. It just fit so well with how my mind chooses outfits and the feelings I get when I complete a look that I love.
The overall experience was so great! I will definitely work with Rita more in the future. She gave me so much in such a short amount of time and I'm excited to see where it takes me! Let me know if you have any questions around my experience.

Main Setlist

Surprise Songs

Setlist Spreadsheet

Outfit Tracker

The Eras Tour VIP Posters

Hey Chicago! Are you ready to make the whole place shimmer?
Please use this thread to share photos and videos, talk about the show, arrange meetups, ask questions, etc. We will be posting a new thread for every city.
Please do not post spoilers on the sub as they will be removed.
Show list

• June 2nd @ Soldier Field with girl in red & OWENN
  
• June 3rd @ Soldier Field with girl in red & OWENN
  
• June 4th @ Soldier Field with MUNA & Gracie Abrams
  

For more information, make sure to check out the official Eras Tour website. Upcoming tour dates can also be seen in our events widget.
Other Megathreads

• Tour Discussion
  
• General Tour Spoiler Discussion
  
• Ticket Trade Thread
  
• Ticket Resale Thread
  
• A View From Swifties Seats
  
• Fan Outfits & Costumes
  
• Theories Thread
  
• General Discussion
  

So my natural hair colour is a dark brown. I tried to go blonde but my hair had warmer undertones than I thought, and I ended up ginger. I put ginger dye on top of it and it looked alright, but it clashed with everything, so I put black dye over it.
Got sick of the black so 6-ish months ago I bleached again. This is where it all went wrong. Ended up with some orange, some brown, some blonde, and some still pitch black. Hair held up fine, though.
Went for brown dye. Had no clue what my shade was. Used it. Missed spots. More brown dye. Didn't realise I used the wrong shade until I had five-tone hair (mid brown, light brown, and patches of blonde, orange and black). Made one last attempt with brown dye, and I got everything, but due to the sheer number of colours at play underneath, it's all different levels of brown, plus my dark brown roots, and it looks really bad, both in person and in pictures.
I have two major events I'm attending in the next 2 weeks (one in a week, one the week after). I have not got salon money. I have a full blonding kit (40 vol, blue powder bleach, toner, and a blonde dye) black dye, and red dye. What's my best bet?

[Chapter 1] ; [Previous Chapter] ; [Discord + Wiki] ; [Patreon]
Chapter 117 – I have nothing to hide
With a deep, long exhale that took every last bit of air out of his lungs, James hung up his call. Wordlessly and with his chest deflated, he simply remained standing there for a few seconds, feeling how his system gradually drained itself of oxygen while he tried his best to clear his thoughts and listen into himself. But all he felt was a chaos that he couldn’t calm. He had no idea if he was ready for this, and trusting the word of others had never in his life felt as hard as it did right now, not even the many times his life had literally depended on the word of others.
All he could do was reassure himself. He could do this. He would do this. And they all would get through this. He would make it happen. He had to.
Feeling the raging chaos-storm die down only ever so slightly at his own reassurances, he finally allowed himself to inhale again. He forced himself to not violently gasp for air as if he had just emerged from a deep dive. Instead, he very deliberately began to allow air to rush into his body through his nose, adamant to keep full control of the flow as he did so.
Once his lungs were full, he kept the air in for only a moment, before allowing it to rush back out of his mouth in a pursed-lipped exhale, while also opening his eyes again.
With steady and deliberate steps, he then began walking back to the rest of his group at an even and controlled pace. The projections of his team’s expression looked back at him with a strange sense of wonder and anticipation.
Nia and Moar on the other hand looked like they already sensed the severity of the situation, and a mounting dread seemed to take hold of them. Meanwhile Curi and Congloarch stood by with stony expressions, not giving a hint as to what was going on behind their faces.
That only left one.
Unlike all the others, Shida approached him as he returned to the group. After meeting back up outside of the conference room once the recess had been called, James had immediately separated from everyone again, and she had patiently waited for him to be done with his preparations. But now they could finally discuss what needed to be said.
“Are you feeling any better?” James asked her, knowing that he sadly would most likely have to force her to join them in the room once again once the proceedings would return to order. It was for everyone’s safety.
“Not really, but I think I can sit it out,” Shida confirmed for him, her expression stuck between assuring and sickened by the thought, which James couldn’t fault her for. With her ears twitching, likely to subtly remind him of her fine hearing, she then lifted a hand to gently put it on the side of his mask, where his cheek would usually be found. “So, it’s come down to it, huh?”
James nodded, while lifting his own hand to press it onto hers.
“Yes,” he replied with a sigh that reflected the weight he felt pushing down on him. “Not how I wanted things to go, but…I’m also glad that the secrecy will be over.”
Allowing his head to sink down, his mask pressed against Shida’s forehead.
“I honestly can’t tell if I’m overjoyed or devastated that you’re here with me for it,” he whispered as he closed his eyes for another moment.
“I wouldn’t want to be away from it,” Shida whispered back while her other hand also lifted to gently sink down onto the back of his head. “Not again.”
Letting out the mildest hint of a laugh, James embraced her. As he felt her body in his arms, a primal part of him wished that they could just remain like that. Just unload all of this weight and pressure in a hug until nothing bothered them anymore. Of course, that was not how anything worked, and so they soon let go.
Together, they joined back up with the rest of the group.
“Usually, I would offer anyone who doesn’t want to stick around the chance to get out now, but I’m afraid that would be way too dangerous to do,” James explained as he looked at everyone’s face individually. “For better or for worse, it’s safest if we all stick together now.”
Moar was the first to step forwards. Slowly, she approached him with her lumbering steps, one clawed hand lifted to her face while long fur hung off her thin arm, while the other half-extended towards James but stopped in mid air long before it reached him.
“James, what are you going to do?” she asked, her tone filled with all kinds of strongly held-back emotions. Light reflected twinklingly in her wet, dark eyes. James swallowed, but a feline hand clasping around his gave him courage.
“I’m going to come clean,” he said with a look up at the giant. “Everything that’s been said. Everything that’s been done. I’m putting it all on the table. I will let the galaxy be my witness that I made my choices and I am willing to stand for them, like I always was.”
He then wondered if he should prepare all of them for what was about to happen.
However, he decided against it.
“It’s better if I don’t tell you more right now,” he said with a creeping sadness gradually reaching for his words. “I don’t know how you’re going to react to it, but…whatever your reaction may be, it will be better if it is genuine inside of that chamber. You knew of nothing, and people will see that. I don’t want anyone to unjustly think you were involved.”
Although he didn’t say much, the concerning vagueness of his statement seemed to already give at least some of them ideas of what was going on, especially given the recent tensions back on Earth.
“James…you- you can’t be-“ Nia began, however James cut her off with a raised hand and slowly shook his head.
“Let’s keep it for the big reveal, alright?” he suggested, although his tone didn’t leave much room to argue.
Seemingly stricken by his words and looking for some reassurance that surely what she was thinking couldn’t be true, Nia glanced around to the faces of her other fellow humans for any sort of support. However, the projections of the faces of James’ entire team, including her own girlfriend, were just as glum and anticipating as that of her brother was.
They all knew. Of course, they did.
As James watched that realization sink in for his sister in real time, he suddenly noticed a huge shadow creeping in from his side. Turning his head, he looked up just in time to see a huge hand sink down to grasp around his shoulder, as Congloarch bowed his upper body in a show of respect.
“It is a rare sight to see a dancer stand firm,” the Lizartaur informed him with his deep, bellowing voice that came through barely parted rows of sharp teeth. “You carry yourself well, James. Keep that up, and the Galaxy will see it, too. I, for one, will stand with you.”
All of the giant’s four fiery eyes were focused down onto him.
James exhaled slowly, not knowing if he should be inspired or bemused by the strange encouragement.
“Thank you,” he ultimately said with genuine fondness in his voice. “For everything.” Hesitantly, he then turned to Curi. The cyborg still stood without any movement, their lightly glowing red eyes fixating on him with great attention.
“I think…” they began to say, noticing his eyes on them, however they then cut themselves off and shook their body slightly to rephrase it. “I believe in you. I believe that I cannot have misjudged you to such a degree that anything you did would make me no longer want to stand with you. Not after you stood with me when nobody else would. You said you wouldn’t rather have anyone else by your side. And I will be.”
While James appreciatively bowed his head to the cyborg, Moar then came forth once again, seemingly feeling like she needed to say something as well.
“I am not sure what you have in store for us this time, but I cannot imagine abandoning you to face it alone once again either,” she said, her gaze noticeably falling onto his cybernetic arm. “I cannot promise that it will not take me time, but I do not wish to let myself be blinded by my own ignorance again. Therefore, I will listen to your reason, and knowing you, I am sure I will see it as well.”
Exhaling slowly, James was already starting to think that he was feeling one too many emotions right before such a huge event. But, seeing as it couldn’t get much worse, he turned to his team.
“Anyone got anything to say? Now’s your chance,” he offered to them. The humans briefly exchanged some looks with each other. It didn’t really seem like they had much need to get anything out.
“If we’re going to have to fight our way out of here because of this, I’m going to be so mad,” Athena notified everyone with a sigh while patting the side of her belt with one hand while throwing her long ponytail back with the other.
“Remember to count your kills if it comes to that,” Koko chimed in with a tone that seemed to try to break up the tension. “Makes documentation so much easier if we don’t have to scrub through the footage.”
She tapped at the camera attached to her chest with a finger.
Giving the two a hesitant courtesy chuckle, James then turned to his sister once more. She still looked on in disbelief, seemingly overwhelmed by what was happening.
Momentarily letting go of Shida’s hand, James walked over to her, immediately pulling her into a tight hug.
“You don’t have to worry,” he assured her, doing his absolute best to confidently speak this truth into existence. By any metric, she had done nothing wrong. At the very least he would ensure everyone knew about that.
Nia held him for a moment, before shifting her head slightly.
“What about you?” she asked gently.
“I can handle myself,” James replied immediately. “And I’ll have no regrets.”
Apparently not quite knowing how to react to what he had said, Nia just squeezed him tighter.
“I love you,” was all she said in the end, and James could feel his heart drop at her words.
“I love you, too,” James replied seriously, and after a few more long seconds, they let go of each other again.
Clearing his throat, James looked around at everyone.
“We should probably get back inside early,” he suggested, feeling like keeping a good overwatch over the situation was a valuable strategy.
Although hesitant, everyone followed him as he led the way, and soon enough, they were back on their seats – after checking everything for possible tampering once again.
For now, the room was still relatively empty. One or two of the other representatives had already found themselves back as well, and many nervous glances were thrown James’ way after the earlier outburst.
However, as James settled into his seat to go over how exactly he wanted to say what he had to, he heard a weird sound of pitter-patter in front of him. Leaning forwards in confusion and looking down at the railing, his eyes then quickly caught the bright, signal-colored fur of a pixemerrier climbing up towards him. The nimble lemur forewent the need for the offered stairs and simply used the railing as more than enough purchase to make it up to the second level, small hands soon reaching over the sides to completely pull the pink and spotted body up.
Now sitting directly in front of James on almost eye-level, Losaraner looked at James with mildly glowing eyes.
“Can I help you?” James asked as he shifted his position slightly to look at the man head-on.
“Just, uhm….” the lemur started, but then heavily hesitated as he awkwardly shuffled his body around. Something seemed to make him majorly uncomfortable, although it didn’t appear to be for an all too serious reason.
Strangely feeling put the tiniest bit at ease at the display of sincere awkwardness, James let out a bemused breath.
“Whatever it is, it’s alright,” James therefore informed the glowing lemur and reassuringly raised a hand. “I’ve been called every name in the book and had to answer every question I can think of, you won’t insult me with whatever you have to say.”
With some honest relief apparently rushing over the pixemerrier’s face, Losaraner pushed himself up to all four of his feet again, balancing on top of the railing.
“Forgive the inconvenience, ambassador, but we would like to relocate your seat,” he informed James.
“Relocate my seat?” James asked with a head-tilt, his mind already running with possibilities how this could be to his detriment.
“Not just yours, that of your entire party,” Losaraner quickly clarified something that James had honestly already figured. “We believe it would lead to a more civil outcome.”
James quite earnestly scoffed at that. There would be nothing civil about what was going to happen. And although he wasn’t technically against gaining some distance from his most averse parties around here, he also felt like the sudden need to get him away from Uton had a foul aftertaste.
“Is that a compulsory ‘would like’ or a suggesting one?” he therefore inquired. He almost didn’t want to, given that Shida had difficulties being here already, and being further from her former father figure surely would help with that a bit. But still, he was going to trust his gut on this one.
“Oh, uhm…well, if you would like to remain in your seat I guess-“ Losaraner began, and James quickly nodded before he had even finished.
“I would,” he confirmed firmly. “But thank you very much for your consideration.”
If they were going to try and blow him up or whatever, they better be willing to take their scapegoat down with him. Maybe this was all a genuine offer in the end, but even then staying around here wasn’t going to have a negative impact.
“In that case, I’ll return to let my mother know,” Losaraner said with a nod and turned on the spot, seemingly to climb back down to the lower level.
“Hey Losaraner?” James stopped him briefly, causing the lemur to turn his head back.
“Ambassador?” he questioned James’ intervention, awaiting whatever he would have to say.
“You seem like a good guy,” James said, fixating the glowing primate through his visor in an attempt to spot any attempt at deception from the small creature. He couldn’t find any. “Keep an open mind, alright?”
Although apparently confused by James’ words, Losaraner nodded with a bit of enthusiasm.
“Of course, Sir,” he replied, before then climbing down the railing face-first to join back up with his conspecifics.
“Almost showtime,” James then mumbled to himself.
Shortly after, the room had once again filled up with the representatives of all eleven primate species the galaxy knew, as well as their extended company.
Though by now, it almost seemed like the invited representatives found themselves outnumbered by the vastly increased number of reporters, sound engineers, camera people and even news casters that had come together to report on the event. Their numbers must have had at the very least tripled since before the recess had begun, and that was a very conservative estimate.
Cameras and microphones were truly everywhere now, ensuring that not a single instant of this most possibly historic moment would be missed without being preserved for all to see.
Next to him, James could see Uton settling in. His face seemed to be plastered with the same anticipation that James felt. And for only a second, both primates glanced over at each other at the same moment, their gazes very briefly meeting in a moment that seemed to fill the air with an electric charge.
The tension was palpable, and it only looked for a release.
In the room’s center, Losaranarja was now climbing back onto her small podium. The glow if her fur and eyes had increased quite drastically since before the recess, and James wondered if that was caused by stress alone or if other factors also played a role.
“Welcome back everyone. Seeing as all invited representatives have returned to their places, I hereby reopen the council of primates,” she announced over the loudspeakers as her glowing eyes scanned over the room. “Before the recent recess, we had just born witness to a frankly tremendous confession of Captain Ferromore Uton. If nobody has anything absolutely urgently relevant to say before we continue, I would suggest that we waste no time before getting to the bottom of that unnerving revelation he wishes to share with us.”
Without wasting a second of time, James was already on his feet.
“Actually, I do believe I have something to say on the matter,” he announced loudly, pulling the attention of the room onto him at an instant, camera flashes almost immediately erupting into a storm of flashing lights. “In fact, since Representative Goloribal’s only worry about letting me take over the explanations earlier appeared to be that I may not be ‘fervent’ enough about it, I will like to pick him up on that earlier implied offer, with the promise that I will be sufficiently ‘fervid’ about everything I am going to divulge.”
“Am…bassador?” Losaranarja asked completely confused by this turn of events as she looked up at him, almost appearing shock-stunned at the revelation.
“Do I have the word?” James asked, still sticking to procedure vehemently.
The lemur seemed to hesitate. Clearly, she was already afraid of where this was going. However, she had offered the opportunity to speak to everyone who believed that they had something important enough to say. And therefore, she had little choice on the matter.
“Of course,” she said after pulling herself together visibly. “Please go ahead, Ambassador Aldwin.”
James nodded.
“Thank you,” he announced loudly. And although he felt his insides scream in cramping anxiety, he held on his firm tone and posture as he stood up straight. This was it. “First, please allow me to reiterate and reaffirm my earlier point. The attack on Dunnima was entirely unprovoked and was and remains unjustifiable.”
He needed to set that stage. That was his hill, and he was willing to die on it. Nothing they could bring against him would change those facts.
Filling his lungs with as much air as he could without it being painful, he then continued.
“Now to the matter at hand,” he addressed the room. “Captain Uton has been lying to you. However, not about the point that you may think,” he informed them, with the faces of everyone already falling into gloom at what exactly he may mean by that. “He was not the one who ordered the attack on Dunnima. Humanity has already known who ordered the attack for quite a while now, and we were in the process of drafting a proper case against him before we would publicly accuse him of anything. We do however have ample evidence to provide to prove the guilt of this individual, namely Acting-Councilman Ekorte Keun.”
There was an immediate eruption of more flashes as well as wild mumbles throughout the room. Everyone seemed to be whipped up into a mild frenzy at James’ words. And James wouldn’t give them time to ask many questions about it. They wouldn’t need to.
“Keun himself has confessed his crime to me personally shortly after it was committed,” he continued his retelling of the events of the past months without losing more than a moment to the muttering. “He did so, because he falsely believed himself to be in danger after his failed attempt at somebody’s life backfired against him. He also believed that I would be the only person able to prevent said danger from claiming him, which is why he came to me directly. Our conversation was recorded and is part of the case I mentioned earlier. Within it, you will hear that the Acting-Councilman believed that he had become the target of the ire of a Realized Artificial Sapient after his attempt at her life with his illegally ordered attack on Dunnima had failed to destroy her, and he believed that my influence on said artificial Sapient would be great enough to preserve his life, if he only confessed to his crimes in my favor.”
As if a switch had been flipped, the mumbling in the room came to an almost immediate halt. From one moment to the next, you could suddenly hear a pin drop, with even the news casters and reporters stopping their ongoing drivel as all eyes were entirely on James.
“He was mistaken in his assumption,” James said in no unclear terms. “In reality, the Artificial Sapient, as much as she may have wanted to, was never out for revenge against him. She knew that any aggressive action she would take would be nothing but fuel to the fire that already raged against her. And therefore, she remained just as passive as she had been throughout her entire existence, while the apparent attacks against her would-be killer were carried out by a so far unknown third party.”
Somehow, the room got even more quiet. By now, James could feel gazes burning into him not only from all around the front of him, but also from right behind his back, as he had now fully confirmed what many of them had been passively suspecting for a long time now.
Of course, Uton technically had plenty of opportunity to dispute James’ words and insist that he was the one to order the attack. However, in the end, did it really matter? Right now, nobody really cared who exactly ordered the attack. Something else was a lot heavier on their mind.
“Are you…saying…that there truly is a Realized Sapient on Dunnima?” Losaranarja asked hesitantly, as nobody else seemed to indicate that they wanted to ask this all-important question, causing her to take over that duty as the host.
“That is correct,” James confirmed without hesitation. “Her name is Avezillion, and as previously mentioned, she was the main target of this recent attack.”
It was like a timer slowly ticked down as the silence remained for just a bit longer.
Three.
Two.
One.
And like that, the loud discussing and mumbling and even shouting over each other broke out once more, along with a renewed vengeance of cameras.
“You are saying right now, there is a realized Sapient loose in the galaxy…And you knew?” Klanneifer was the first to break out of the homogeneous white noise to directly address James. “Are you insane?”
Keeping his calm, James brought his hands behind his back.
“I don’t believe I am,” he replied nonchalantly with a gaze at the four-armed primate. “Especially considering that Captain Uton and his known circle of influence most likely knew just as long as I did, without ever divulging that information either.”
He could hear shouts about how this was an outrage and how about something would have to be done immediately from all around him. It seemed like most of the present representatives were absolutely ready to try and mobilize the entire Communal military to deal with this at an instant, and it really made James wonder if this all had truly been the best course of action.
But right now, he had to believe. He could not allow himself to show weakness. Not here, not right now.
“Surely you know the dangers of these beings!” Commander Halljafier was the next to speak up. “Are you saying humanity just allowed all of this to happen under their nose?”
Again, with just humanity. It wasn’t like no one else had known.
“At my very own recommendation,” James replied without even really wasting a glance over at the grassurgap next to him, “The leadership of humanity has decided to allow Avezillion a chance to exist and prove herself. She has existed on Dunnima for many years without a single violent incident on her part. We believed this to be rather unprecedented of course, however the people of Dunnima believable assured us of the opposite.”
He turned his head to Shida, which quickly caused her to stand up, as she immediately took the hint. These words would be better if they did not come out of his mouth.
“Within our long-recorded history, Dunnima’s Realized have never been violent like the ones the rest of the Galaxy knows,” she explained just as self-assured as James did, although he could tell it took her considerable effort. Though, it seemed that fueling her words with a bit of spite did help with that. “Not including Avezillion herself, three Realized have emerged on Dunnima in the past, before we joined the greater Galactic Community. One of them, Kertaiyon, is hailed as a hero of the people to this very day. Not one of them has ever started a war against us or unjustly hurt people. It is true that not all of them were Saints, but that is nothing unusual on Dunnima. Therefore, when Avezillion emerged under the scrutinizing eye of the Community this time, we all agreed to hide her, as long as she would remain hidden herself. For many, many years, the Galactic Community remained none-the-wiser, as Avezillion peacefully lived in Dunnima’s networks without ever causing issues.”
She paused briefly to swallow as well as watch the unbelieving reaction of the people around her. It seemed that everyone was a bit too stunned to really fathom or at least fully react to what she was saying.
“However, the hiding wore away at her over time. She felt trapped, confined. Never being able to show yourself at all while limiting yourself to only a small portion of the Galaxy, it was a life unworthy living for her,” Shida kept on explaining. “Therefore, when James came to visit Dunnima, she made a gamble. She would either gain her freedom, or she would no longer have to live on under these conditions. With these thoughts in mind, she revealed herself to James, and by extension, humanity, finding peace only in that, if they decided to end her, humanity would surely do so without causing greater harm to the people of Dunnima. Something that she wasn’t convinced of with the rest of the Galaxy – for good reason, as it turns out.”
Thanking Shida with a nod, James signaled for her to sit back down, hoping that the stunned representatives would direct their possibly emerging ire at the person left standing instead of the one that had spoken.
“I made the call to trust those that had lived with her for years,” James added onto Shida’s words. “And humanity’s leadership made the call to trust me. And we have not found a single shred of evidence that Avezillion has ever caused harm to anyone or even intended to do so. Had she wanted to cause damage like so many of her conspecifics did, she would’ve been able to achieve a great deal of it.”
Hesitantly, the representative of the Missicapriej -lanky grey primates with one too many joints in each of their limbs- who had so far barely spoken during the entire conference, stood up.
“But…if you are admitting that there is an Artificial Sapient, and that it was the target of the attack, then…then the attack was entirely justified,” they stated, although they barely sounded confident in that statement.
“Indeed, it was,” Commander Halljafier quickly supported that claim, clearly thinking he knew the galactic military doctrine much better.
“That is not correct,” James denied. “An outer-orbital strike, especially on a civilian target, is never justified,” he said with strong emphasis. “It is one of the oldest rules that the community has established.”
“If it is to destroy a realized sapient, then all means are-“ the Commander tried to deny him, however he flinched back at James brought his mechanical hand down onto the railing before him once again, this time with purpose.
“The laws of war exist for a very good reason!” he boldly stated after waiting a moment to see if the Commander wanted to continue his sentence. “Ignoring them if we see fit, no matter what the reason may be, is a dangerous subject. And if you think that attempting the murder of an innocent person is already reason enough, then you have clearly not understood why these laws exist in the first place!”
“Innocent person?” the commander scoffed with vitriol in his voice. “That…that thing-“
However, once again he was interrupted. To James’ great surprise, however, it wasn’t by him.
“It may have slipped your mind since it has been so long since the last one emerged, Commander,” Captain Uton was the one to speak up, his deep voice cutting through the room like knife with its coldness. “But the personhood of Realized Sapients is not up to debate. And it has not been for more than a hundred years. That question has been answered by our ancestors ages ago, and we would do well not to try and question it today for our convenience.”
While the Commander sunk back into his seat after the shutdown from the superior he had believed to be on his side, James bit down on his lip. Although every word Uton had just said was true, he simply hated having to agree with him, even on such a basic and important topic.
He mostly hated it because it showed that there had to be some vague hint of integrity left somewhere deep down within that bastard of a person, and that almost made James despise him more, since he clearly knew what he was doing.
The Captain’s dark eyes then turned over onto him, as the large man continued, “However, I have to disagree with the Ambassador on the justification. Person or not, eradicating an artificial sapient is more than enough reason to forgo a simple law.” James bit back his anger, keeping his focus intact. Although next to him, he could hear the loud scraping noise of wood buckling under sharp claws, as Shida dug her natural weapons into the chair she was sitting on in order to remain seated and quiet.
“And yet Avezillion is still alive,” James replied challengingly to the man. “Meanwhile innocent civilians got injured. One of the leaders of Dunnima got heavily injured. Children got hurt. Children that would now be dead had the attack not been foiled by our warship. It is nothing short of a miracle none of them are dead. It was a terrorist attack, nothing else. The moment justice bends to such heinousness, it breaks. And, after all, forgive me for being a bit heavy-handed, but if the Community is willing to break its own laws and attack its own planets to hunt down one Realized, then who is the one that the people really need to fear? I, for one, put my trust in the one that hasn’t already proven that it would attack and use me without a second thought. After all, this isn’t the first time I hear of someone inconvenient being suddenly caught in an explo-”
James was cut off when Uton loudly spoke up, his loud organ easily overpowering James’ voice in a conversational tone.
“What happened to your promise of not making this about y-“ Uton began to say, however then his voice was in turn overpowered as well.
“Wait your god damned turn!” James shouted out authoritatively, momentarily overtaken by his anger in a brief outburst. “You do NOT get to talk over me!”
Quickly catching himself again, although he very much wanted to keep going in the same vein, James lowered his voice again, although the room was left noticeably shaken.
“This is a civil event that follows clear rules that we are both bound by,” he said with a serious gaze over at Uton. “And my promise died the moment you decided to drag it through the mud with your fictional tales about very real events that have influenced not only my life, but that of many people very close and important to me. So forgive me, Captain Ferromore Uton, if I am not going to sit idly by and allow you to spew whatever nonsense you and your cohorts came up with in your ivory towers while the world underneath you burned. I was wrongly imprisoned, blackmailed, tortured, and maimed by you people. Shida was groomed and abused by you for years as you tried to make her fit your mold. There was an attempt on Curi’s life under Your. Very. Command. So forgive me, please, if the reasoning of ‘we really wanted them gone’ out of your mouth isn’t enough for me to believe that a crime against the Galaxy is justified, especially since you had knowledge of Avezillion’s existence for as long as I had, and could have divulged it at any point. But you didn’t want to divulge it. Because that would’ve meant that she would have a chance to defend herself, either physically or before the law. You simply wanted her gone. Wanted her to disappear like so many before her did. But not anymore. No, no, not anymore. Here and now, I promise you that, as long as humanity is around, nobody under your Command is going to just disappear anymore. Not. A. One. We will watch. And we will see. And, starting with Curi and Avezillion, we will be a place for them to go when no one else will stand with them.”
Seemingly stirring in anger now, James could see Uton clench his jaw, his lips quivering as he held himself back.
“I never abused her,” Uton muttered, apparently completely focused on that part as James had seemingly struck a nerve with that.
“And that’s the only defense you could come up with,” James responded. Then, he reached up with his left hand, pulling his right sleeve back to reveal the mechanical arm underneath it to the room, while he held it up in front of his body. “You wanted her to fit your mold. And now she’s in a place where she’s actually loved. You wanted to change me. And now, I have this arm here, just because of you. And you wanted to change the Galaxy. Well,” James paused briefly to spread his arms in a wide gesture that was very clearly meant to mock the man. “Congratulations, you did,” he then announced to the entire room. “Without you, humanity would likely never even have considered helping a realized Sapient. Michael really did his job well with spreading fear and hate. But after enduring everything that you put me through? I was just open enough to listen when one told me that she feared you.”
Uton clenched his jaws tighter and his hands curled into fists. Seeing his puppet becoming useless, Goloribal sprang into action.
“As the revered order of the primates, it is our duty to lead by example!” he announced as he got up, although his presence was already far less impressive than it had been earlier. “For generations, we were renowned for our just and swift action. We cannot allow ourselves to falter in that now!”
“For generations, we primates have also been revered for our curiosity and for being the first to open up to anything new,” James responded to that, looking the man directly into his face. “Yeah, that’s right,” he then added as the representative blankly stared back at him. “I studied galactic history, too! I’m fucking unstoppable!”
He boisterously threw his arms up, making a real show out of it.
In all actuality, he was most likely far from gaining any victory right now. Sure, at the moment, the room was slightly shaken into silence, however he highly doubted that he had actually managed to truly convince many of the people present here.
However, as long as the cameras were on him, he would keep the show going. Maybe he wouldn’t convince the stuck-up people of the revered orders. However, somewhere out there, there would be people whose ears and hearts he would reach. Hopefully at least. And for them, he would put on this show. Put on this air of confidence that everything would turn out well.
Because only if he managed to make everyone believe that would they find the courage to shake out of their rut and go looking for a better tomorrow. If he believed everything would be well, then they would too.
“Those are big words from someone hiding their face,” a voice suddenly broke through the room. James wasn’t even sure who had said it. But he also didn’t care. Right now, it was just another stone to jump off of.
“What, you think I am wearing this to hide?” James announced loudly and gestured to his breathfilter while turning his head so the entire room could see the gesture.
“It’s uncomfortable as hell! And it gives me a serious disadvantage in any debates if people can’t read my face. These breathfilters are and have always been something we humans are wearing for everyone’s benefit but our own. They are designed because we are extremely cautious to keep nasty deathworld-germs from spreading, even if that is extremely unlikely. And additionally, it protects all the delicate people of the galaxy from having to look at our scary deathworld-faces. But, if you want-“
He didn’t even hesitate in reaching up and pressing the necessary buttons to release the seal of the filter. With a loud hiss, its grip on James’ head loosened, and he quickly pulled the mask-like device off his head, before briefly running his mechanical hand through his disheveled hair to bring it into a bit of form.
Breathing out deeply with an open mouth, James presented his teeth to the room with a confident smile, while his dark, sharp eyes scanned over the room, making direct contact with as many of those of his fellow primates as at all possible.
“I have nothing to hide,” James announced. “From the very start, I owned up to my mistakes and was willing to stand for them. I terrorized an entire station to protect myself. I shot someone’s leg off when he threatened my freedom. I killed one of my captors when I finally escaped from their hold. I have done many things that the Galaxy may judge me for. However, I truly and whole heartedly believe that helping Avezillion is not one of them. And I will stand for that just like I stand to my mistakes.”

tl;dr I got day drunk with my best friend this weekend and proceeded to get into a huge fight that I barely even remember with my new boyfriend who apparently has a no tolerance policy for it.
I (F34) split with my ex of 12 years last July. It was not at all amicable and it was a nightmare up until about a month ago. A few months after the split, a friend of mine from high school (M36) reached out about a job that I had information on. We had always had a little crush on each other and when he asked about my ex, I was happy to inform him that we were no longer seeing each other. He then goes on to tell me that he had also split from his ex in April of last year. It took almost no time for us to start dating and I pretty instantly fell in love with him.
Since we started dating, it has been mostly joyous and just a handful instances where things went off the rails. There are only a few red flags about him outside of the fact that he is "job-jumper" which is alarming to me for no other reason than it scares me that he is unable to commit to anything long term. Otherwise, he still manages to buy me cute-sy gifts and dinner and we split date nights 50/50 most of the time. He has never asked to borrow money from me and rarely complains about being broke so essentially, his finances are not my concern. He has recently met ALL of my best friends and everyone immediately took him under their wing which was shocking considering that we have all been friends for a very long time and normally, new people don't fair well with our trash-talking tough-love dynamic, but he did. Beyond that, they have been ecstatic about me being with someone that makes me so happy and who takes such good care of me emotionally.
I am still working out how to undo toxic relationship habits that I acquired while being with my ex. I was always on edge with him because we argued A LOT. He was very difficult to manage and I had a series of defense mechanisms that I had to create in order to deal with the verbal and emotional abuse I endured over the last 12 years. I am working VERY hard on communicating effectively and expressing myself in a reasonable manner but I can be a little argumentative and/or defensive or combative if I feel attacked, I am sensitive and occasionally when I drink too much (which I only do on weekends, never during the week and I rarely stress-drink), I get emotional or confrontational which we will circle back on shortly.
Currently, I am dealing with a massive plumbing problem at my house. For a week, my bedroom carpet has a leak coming from under the carpet and carpet pad and it was decided that it's actually coming up from UNDER the concrete slab. My landlord lives in another state and with the Holiday weekend being long, it's more or less turned into moldy, gross, sopping wet, standing water until it can be addressed tomorrow. I am concerned that my landlord will not be able to afford this problem which could result in my rent increasing or him selling the house (I do not have a lease because he is a family friend. I have lived in this house for 8 years).
I have been working very hard at a new job that I do not have previous experience in and although I am getting the hang out of it, it requires long hours, a lot of patience and a lot of driving. It is regularly weighing on me which has also added to my stress.
Lastly, it was brought to my attention last week that the ex has a new girlfriend. And though I was sure that this did not at all bother me, I'm starting to accept that maybe it does hurt me more than I truly thought it would. To boot, the tale is that she "has money." In what capacity, I do not know but that is the word on the street. I left him due to a severe drinking problem he had developed during COVID and since then, he has lost most of his friends, his job, he has no money, and is currently living with his mother. So I have really struggled with understanding how he managed to snag a girl amidst all of those MASSIVE red flags but he has, I guess. I was sure that I had MORE than moved on from caring about what direction his lifestyle takes him but I have to admit that it does sting, surprisingly.
ALL OF THAT SAID: I worked late Friday and went to bed early. My best friend came over Saturday morning while the first plumber was there giving me terrible news but since we were off for the next 3 days, she brought some tequila (my fav) and we had a drink while he was finishing up. Around that time, my boyfriend shows up for our weekend escapades. All was right in my world.
BFF leaves an hour or so later to run a few errands, boyfriend and I run to grab a bite to eat, we all circle back mid-day and regroup at my house. Boyfriend goes in my room to lay down for a short nap and BFF and I sit on my patio listening to music taking shots and having a good time. We start going down an emotional path talking about her current relationship situation, the struggles of dating in your mid-30's, her ex, my ex, etc. Before too long, I'm SOBBING uncontrollably about how disappointed I am in my ex for how he has fucked his life up and how shitty I am that I wasted so many good years of my 20's on him and yada yada. The tequila definitely got away from me because I remember only snippets of the argument that ensued shortly after.
Boyfriend wakes up from his nap and I vaguely remember him either remarking on or acting put off by sob-fest and we proceed to get into a pretty nasty argument about my ex and his ex. He claims that I went on a "tirade" about his ex even though I barely know anything about her. Definitely not enough to go on a "tirade," that's for sure. He ends up packing up his belongings, his dog, his dog's bed, some things he keeps at my house and walks out the door. I go after him and just kind of blankly stare while he loads up his car because I'm just shocked that he's actually leaving. Like I said, I've been working very hard on communicating better and he knows this so even though I know I was wrong for drinking too much and starting an argument, we normally communicate in a very healthy manner so the fact that he was so willing to just leave my house and cancel all the plans for the weekend was pretty startling. He did not want to talk to me at all Saturday night so I spent hours tossing and turning feeling TERRIBLE which, I should have.
Sunday I wake up early hoping to have gotten a text or something from him at some point in the night which I didn't. I continue with "our" plans as scheduled, just solo and sulking all damn day sick with guilt and shame. I couldn't enjoy my friends or the pool or the fun being had because all I could do was obsess over my phone hoping he would call or text. Nothing all day Sunday. By Sunday night, I had left the pool party with my friends and went to my parents house and finally got the balls to reach out to him. Of course, I profusely apologize but his responses were short, stern and uninterested in anything I had to say. Again, I hear nothing from him all day yesterday.
Today, I'm stuck at work still with the same sick feeling I carried with me all weekend. I texted him and just kind of said "I assume this means that we're done and this is over or are you still deciding? I love you and again, I am SO sorry." He tells me he was sick yesterday (which also made me sad because he knows I like taking care of him) and that he also just still didn't know what to say to me. He eventually says "it would be different if this was the first time, but it's not." Which, he's neither right nor wrong about that. We do quite a bit of going out and/or partying on weekends together and I can only recall one other instance where we had an alcohol-fueled argument and that was in October last year during a Halloween party. Apparently he decided when that occurred that this was not something he was willing to tolerate often or ever again. Which, I respect but at the same time, it feels like a pretty big ask that NO FIGHTS EVER are allowed to happen, drunk or not.
Something I told my friends is that while I don't want him to feel taken advantage of or emotionally abused by me, it's frustrating because I have heard HORROR STORIES from him about what he put up with in past relationships. Each one way worse than the last, and all of them INSANELY worse than what happened this weekend. For instance, he had numerous girlfriends cheat on him that he took back, he had one girl get pregnant with someone else's baby and he considered staying with her, he had one girl date him, use him for money, and then when her boyfriend got out of prison, she immediately dumped him, and most recently, the ONE THING I know about his last ex is that she very nearly got him to sign the deed to a house that she allowed him to think would be his and hers together only to find out the day before closing that it was actually for her and HER MOM instead.
But apparently stress-induced day drunk fighting is where he draws the line, I guess? Maybe he has created a new standard for himself of what he's willing to tolerate moving forward and again, I definitely respect that but I just can't stop thinking about how small this is in comparison to what we have BOTH dealt with in the past and how we have been so proud creating a judgment-free, well-balanced, healthy relationship.

Let me preface this by saying that while I know this is no excuse, I am under a fair amount of stress due to a number of things happening around me currently. I will go into more detail:
I (F34) split with my ex of 12 years last July. It was not at all amicable and it was a nightmare up until about a month ago. A few months after the split, a friend of mine from high school (M36) reached out about a job that I had information on. We had always had a little crush on each other and when he asked about my ex, I was happy to inform him that we were no longer seeing each other. He then goes on to tell me that he had also split from his ex in April of last year. It took almost no time for us to start dating and I pretty instantly fell in love with him.
Since we started dating, it has been mostly joyous and just a handful instances where things went off the rails. There are only a few red flags about him outside of the fact that he is "job-jumper" which is alarming to me for no other reason than it scares me that he is unable to commit to anything long term. Otherwise, he still manages to buy me cute-sy gifts and dinner and we split date nights 50/50 most of the time. He has never asked to borrow money from me and rarely complains about being broke so essentially, his finances are not my concern. He has recently met ALL of my best friends and everyone immediately took him under their wing which was shocking considering that we have all been friends for a very long time and normally, new people don't fair well with our trash-talking tough-love dynamic, be he did. Beyond that, they have been ecstatic about me being with someone that makes me so happy and who takes such good care of me emotionally.
I am still working out how to undo toxic relationship habits that I acquired while being with my ex. I was always on edge with him because we argued A LOT. He was very difficult to manage and I had a series of defense mechanisms that I had to create in order to deal with the verbal and emotional abuse I endured over the last 12 years. I am working VERY hard on communicating effectively and expressing myself in a reasonable manner but I can be a little argumentative and/or defensive or combative if I feel attacked, I am sensitive and occasionally when I drink too much (which I only do on weekends, never during the week and I rarely stress-drink), I get emotional or confrontational which we will circle back on shortly.
Currently, I am dealing with a massive plumbing problem at my house. For a week, my bedroom carpet has a leak coming from under the carpet and carpet pad and it was decided that it's actually coming up from UNDER the concrete slab. My landlord lives in another state and with the Holiday weekend being long, it's more or less turned into moldy, gross, sopping wet, standing water until it can be addressed tomorrow. I am concerned that my landlord will not be able to afford this problem which could result in my rent increasing or him selling the house (I do not have a lease because he is a family friend. I have lived in this house for 8 years).
I have been working very hard at a new job that I do not have previous experience in and although I am getting the hang out of it, it requires long hours, a lot of patience and a lot of driving. It is regularly weighing on me which has also added to my stress.
Lastly, it was brought to my attention last week that the ex has a new girlfriend. And though I was sure that this did not at all bother me, I'm starting to accept that maybe it does hurt me more than I truly thought it would. To boot, the tale is that she "has money." In what capacity, I do not know but that is the word on the street. I left him due to a severe drinking problem he had developed during COVID and since then, he has lost most of his friends, his job, he has no money, and is currently living with his mother. So I have really struggled with understanding how he managed to snag a girl amidst all of those MASSIVE red flags but he has, I guess. I was sure that I had MORE than moved on from caring about what direction his lifestyle takes him but I have to admit that it does sting, surprisingly.
ALL OF THAT SAID: I worked late Friday and went to bed early. My best friend came over Saturday morning while the first plumber was there giving me terrible news but since we were off for the next 3 days, she brought some tequila (my fav) and we had a drink while he was finishing up. Around that time, my boyfriend shows up for our weekend escapades. All was right in my world.
BFF leaves an hour or so later to run a few errands, boyfriend and I run to grab a bite to eat, we all circle back mid-day and regroup at my house. Boyfriend goes in my room to lay down for a short nap and BFF and I sit on my patio listening to music taking shots and having a good time. We start going down an emotional path talking about her current relationship situation, the struggles of dating in your mid-30's, her ex, my ex, etc. Before too long, I'm SOBBING uncontrollably about how disappointed I am in my ex for how he has fucked his life up and how shitty I am that I wasted so many good years of my 20's on him and yada yada. The tequila definitely got away from me because I remember only snippets of the argument that ensued shortly after.
Boyfriend wakes up from his nap and I vaguely remember him either remarking on or acting put off by sob-fest and we proceed to get into a pretty nasty argument about my ex and his ex. He claims that I went on a "tirade" about his ex even though I barely know anything about her. Definitely not enough to go on a "tirade," that's for sure. He ends up packing up his belongings, his dog, his dog's bed, some things he keeps at my house and walks out the door. I go after him and just kind of blankly stare while he loads up his car because I'm just shocked that he's actually leaving. Like I said, I've been working very hard on communicating better and he knows this so even though I know I was wrong for drinking too much and starting an argument, we normally communicate in a very healthy manner so the fact that he was so willing to just leave my house and cancel all the plans for the weekend was pretty startling. He did not want to talk to me at all Saturday night so I spent hours tossing and turning feeling TERRIBLE which, I should have.
Sunday I wake up early hoping to have gotten a text or something from him at some point in the night which I didn't. I continue with "our" plans as scheduled, just solo and sulking all damn day sick with guilt and shame. I couldn't enjoy my friends or the pool or the fun being had because all I could do was obsess over my phone hoping he would call or text. Nothing all day Sunday. By Sunday night, I had left the pool party with my friends and went to my parents house and finally got the balls to reach out to him. Of course, I profusely apologize but his responses were short, stern and uninterested in anything I had to say. Again, I hear nothing from him all day yesterday.
Today, I'm stuck at work still with the same sick feeling I carried with me all weekend. I texted him and just kind of said "I assume this means that we're done and this is over or are you still deciding? I love you and again, I am SO sorry." He tells me he was sick yesterday (which also made me sad because he knows I like taking care of him) and that he also just still didn't know what to say to me. He eventually says "it would be different if this was the first time, but it's not." Which, he's neither right nor wrong about that. We do quite a bit of going out and/or partying on weekends together and I can only recall one other instance where we had an alcohol-fueled argument and that was in October last year during a Halloween party. Apparently he decided when that occurred that this was not something he was willing to tolerate often or ever again. Which, I respect but at the same time, it feels like a pretty big ask that NO FIGHTS EVER are allowed to happen, drunk or not.
Something I told my friends is that while I don't want him to feel taken advantage of or emotionally abused by me, it's frustrating because I have heard HORROR STORIES from him about what he put up with in past relationships. Each one way worse than the last, and all of them INSANELY worse than what happened this weekend. For instance, he had numerous girlfriends cheat on him that he took back, he had one girl get pregnant with someone else's baby and he considered staying with her, he had one girl date him, use him for money, and then when her boyfriend got out of prison, she immediately dumped him, and most recently, the ONE THING I know about his last ex is that she very nearly got him to sign the deed to a house that she allowed him to think would be his and hers together only to find out the day before closing that it was actually for her and HER MOM instead.
But apparently stress-induced day drunk fighting is where he draws the line, I guess? Maybe he has created a new standard for himself of what he's willing to tolerate moving forward and again, I definitely respect that but I just can't stop thinking about how small this is in comparison to what we have BOTH dealt with in the past and how we have been so proud creating a judgment-free, well-balanced, healthy relationship.
I feel so stupid and lost and irritated with myself. I just don't know what to do. It feels like his mind is made up and I'm not going to pathetically beg him to do anything he doesn't want to do. I'm just so crushed.

I've always enjoyed the lore of the various races of Hyrule, especially when they start to dive into them more such as the huge update the Gerudo got in BotW. TotK offers a few interesting new things about the different races that I thought people who hadn't found them might want to know. I can't guarantee that I've personally found every new bit of lore there is out there, but I wanted to share what I've found.
Hylians:
There is not much about the Hylians, as they are sort of the generic human fantasy race a lot of the time, but there is some important stuff. Now we know that the Hylian royal family was originally formed by a union between a Hylian and a Zonai, meaning all descendants have a bit of Zonai in them. Also, because we know that only Rauru and Mineru were around as Zonai in these ancient times, this original kingdom was nearly all Hylian, and they wore Zonai-inspired armor and worked with Zonai constructs. The other major bit of Hylian lore from this game is more about the Gerudo, so I'll save that for when we get to them.
Sheikah:
This game states that the Sheikah are not actually their own race but are in fact a tribe of Hylians. They simply embrace technology more and are the Hylian's premiere researchers as a result. I'm personally a bit mixed on this, as while it explains how, starting from BotW, white hair and red eyes were not a universal trait of theirs, I also miss things like that. It also brings into question why they are so long-lived if they are simply Hylians. Perhaps their research has found ways to artificially extend their own lives. Some may even voluntarily undergo a mummification-like process at a certain age to become functionally immortal, as we see with Maz Koshia in BotW that even in his corpse-like state he is still very active.
Rito:
The Rito unfortunately did not get the huge boost in culture I feel they needed from BotW. That's not to say there is nothing new, but not much. The main thing we now know is of their legend of a time a "god" saved Rito Village. They tell a story of how one day a figure fell from the heavens around their village and the winds around them ceased. They called this figure a god, and tried to fly them back to the heavens only to find they could not go high enough on their own. Instead, they gathered materials to build ships that created a pathway skyward, allowing the god to return. Later, the winds returned to their village, and with them came a gift from the god: a massive skyship called the Stormwind Ark. It's never answered who this perceived god was, but given the themes of the game, it was likely a Zonai. This would also mean that the Rito were disconnected from the Hylians for awhile before the time of the Imprisoning War, as otherwise they would've known about the Zonai.
The other thing that's maybe of note is that they may have walked back something they introduced in BotW. In that game, they established that the Rito cannot really fly upwards, but can instead glide on their wings, relying on updrafts to soar. This made Revali so special, as he made his own updrafts. In this game, however, we see plenty of Rito able to fly straight up. Penn does it all the time, the children of Rito village do it to reach various houses, and Tulin will fly beside you as you climb. So maybe now they can just fly where they want. Though the Stormwind Ark legend does say they couldn't reach the heavens without their ships, so maybe there is some limit there.
Gorons:
The Gorons got a huge boost in lore in this game, though a lot of it is hidden behind side quests. Let's start with the thing most everyone will encounter: Gorondia. It is confirmed by Douma, a reporter in Goron City, that the Gorons originally lived deep underground before coming onto the surface. We have never really seen this era of Goron history in the games before. Even going back to the start of the timeline with Skyward Sword and the Minish Cap, the Gorons we see are wandering on the surface or trying to establish a new home. We do see very few Gorons in those games, so perhaps the rest were living underground during this time. Douma also says that Gorons will tell you they don't know what you're talking about if you ask them, seemingly framing this as them hiding information, when instead it genuinely seems like most don't know about Gorondia beyond the legend. A young Goron named Dugby wants to find Gorondia and believes he has when he discovers Minecart Land. And Yunobo seems surprised to find Gorondia within Death Mountain.
Now let's go to the other major bit of information here, in the side quest called "Moongazing Gorons." Here you talk to two old Gorons who want to see a picture of where they were born. That's right, we finally find out where Gorons come from in this game. Many suggested new Gorons just sprout off the backs of older Gorons or something. But no, it's official, they simply emerge from the ground. We still don't know why, but they do. Perhaps it's whatever would also lead to the creation of Stone Taluses, but more advanced. Maybe whatever magic infuses certain rocks can either lead to the more mindless Taluses or the more advanced Gorons. We also find out in this quest that Gorons are exceptionally long-lived. Fitting, considering they're rocks. But once you show the old Gorons the picture, they decide to visit the area once they're ready. One of them decides they'll be prepared in about 15 years. The other smiles and says he has always loved how quick the other one is, saying that they will instead need "another century."
Lastly, this isn't so much lore as something curious. One of the biggest talking points about the Gorons in BotW was why we could find some in Gerudo Town. This town only accepts women, and the Gorons seem to all identify as male. Yet two could be found in Gerudo Town, with one even questioning why he was allowed entry. Well, in TotK there's a traveling duo of a male Hylian and a Goron who you can run into at various points. One of these is at the gates of Gerudo Town, where they are denied entry and the male Goron angrily says a friend told him he was let in just fine. So why is this one not allowed when the others were? Who knows? Maybe it's because he's accompanied by a male Hylian? But the Gerudo guard clearly states both are not allowed. Interesting food for thought.
Zora:
According to one of Sidon's journal entries, all Zora possess some ability of control over water. Some are just stronger with it than others. His own ability is said to be exceptional, and we can see this in-game with him working to separate the sludge from the water at Mipha's Court and later supplying a water shield for Link. We also see the abilities of the other Zora as three of them take over the separation duty for Sidon while he journeys to the Water Temple. Sidon is also able to create a massive whirlpool just by swimming quickly enough in circles, which shows the scale of his abilities.
The other major thing we learn is that there are other Domains elsewhere in the world. It's unclear where, as this is the only one we can see in Hyrule. Perhaps they're deep underwater, or in another land. But Yona is said to be from a different Domain, possibly suggesting this marriage started as a political one.
Gerudo:
There is not too much we learn about the Gerudo considering how much we learned in BotW. We learn that Ganondorf was once their kind but we already knew this. And we see in a flashback that ancient Gerudo apparently had a means of controlling the Molduga. We also now know that Gerudo girls born outside of Gerudo Town are required by law at a certain age to return to Gerudo Town and engage in their culture until they are old enough to leave and start a family of their own.
But the main thing we learn is finally figuring out the mystery of the seven heroines and the lost eighth. It turns out, the seven heroines were Gerudo who fought to protect their village from an unknown threat, but they were fighting a losing battle. In their time of need, a Hylian male came to their aid, and with his help they vanquished the threat. However, their laws regarding men are strict, and even with his invaluable help, he was not permitted entry into their town, something they regretted to their dying days. This man was the "eighth heroine," and it's why their statue is separated from the rest. It is unknown who this was, but they could have been a past version of Link.
Koroks:
The Koroks get nothing. They lose. Good day, sir.
Seriously though, Koroks were given absolutely nothing here. You'd think with the focus on the ancient past we'd see some Kokiri, or maybe learn just how old the Deku Tree is. But no. The only thing I could say that's maybe a stretch is that we see them all freeze up when the Deku Tree is incapacitated, maybe suggesting his continued health is required for their existence. But even that is odd because every Korok outside the forest is perfectly fine during this time.

Discord Username: Art#2261
Character Name and House: Aegon Targaryen
Age: 22
Appearance: Aegon
Gift: Duelist
Skills: Swords (m), Knightly, Defender
Talent(s): Fishing x3
Starting Title(s): Prince of Dragonstone
Starting Location: King's Landing
Family Tree: Targs
Alternate Characters: N/A
Character Name and House: Walter Brune
Age: 24
Appearance: Big
Gift: Monstrous
Skills: Knightly, Defender
Talent(s): Fishing x3
Starting Title(s): Ser, Knight of the Kingsguard
Starting Location: King's Landing
A Prophecy Born
The life of the Black Prince remains inextricably tied to the story of the Black banner, its rise and its fall, in victory and in defeat. And to understand Aegon Targaryen, Prince of Dragonstone, it is paramount that we go all the way back to when it first started, when the first of the Aegons roosted at Dragonstone and from whereupon he launched his legendary conquest of Westeros.
It was said that Daena the Dreamer, a scion of the minor Targaryen dragonlords in Old Valyria, provoked the self-exile of the small family from their ancestral homeland to the little outpost atop the volcanic island which, in time, came to be called Dragonstone. And yet, while Daena's grim dream may have set in motion a chain of events that would change the fate of the world forever, it was not until her descendant, Aegon the Dragon, wielder of old Valyrian steel and rider of the greatest dragon known to mankind, had a dream of his own. An untold threat sweeping in from the icy north with the sole objective of annihilation and a prophecy of duty and of sacrifice, of protection and of conquest. Peace through war, creation through destruction. Of ice and of fire.
House of the Dragon
If all had gone according to fate and without the meddling of petty powerbrokers and middlemen, the true line of the House of the Dragon would have never been broken, the dragons would not have been rendered extinct in some folly, and the prophecy would live on intact, passed from heir to heir, from Rhaenyra to her children, to their children, and eventually to Aegon. He would not be the 'Black Prince' as some in Westeros call him, only Aegon Targaryen, Prince of Dragonstone, and eventually King of All Westeros. The House of the Dragon would continue uninterrupted like time itself... but such was not the plan of fate.
To go West, you must go East
Treachery saw the true line of the House of the Dragon exiled from their homes, forced to live in exile in the eastern continent from which their forebears had once come in exile to take refuge in the west. Some, nay, most, would call this defeat, the loss of mandate, but to the 'Blacks' (as they came to be called), it seemed almost a fulfillment of ancient prophecies and many saw it a difficult yet necessary sacrifice to make. Over time, the various heirs of Rhaenyra attempted to retake what was theirs in what came to be known as the 'Four Dances', facing defeat and destruction in each case.
And yet, in the last of these Dances, a strange thing happened. With the line of the Usurper victorious once more and Rhaenyra's line survived only by a little boy, there was talk of extinguishing the Black line right there and then, to bring an end to the conflict that had gripped the continent for almost a century. But perhaps it was a soft heart that the King Maelor was afflicted, or perhaps nothing more than pure pragmatism, but the boy was taken from the sands of Dorne, itself left a mere shell of its former glory, and warded at the Red Keep in the court of the dragons themselves. This was where the story of Aegon Targaryen began in earnest.
Growing up, the boy struck a quick friendship with Prince Daeron, then heir to the Seven Kingdoms, and the boys became inseparable. He had been told of his duty before the destruction of all his kin and he memorized his responsibilties every night, understanding the burden that he now carried. Alone and scared, he sought companionship wherever he could find it, resulting in a humble Princeling and a personality trait that persists to this day, even after all he has been blessed with in titles and honors and friendships.
However, the tragic death of Prince Daeron brought the court to a standstill, and among the most affected by this news was the Black Prince himself. Already struggling in a hostile court, the loss of a dear friend deeply impacted the Prince who found himself indulging in other passions, especially those martial in nature, as a form of meditation under the tutelage of the finest knights in the Seven Kingdom, many of them members of the illustrious Kingsguard. His friendship with Walter Brune, another ward from a Black sympathizing line, also grew during this time and the two formed an unbreakable bond.
A Prince Reborn
Like a great warhammer, as if wielded by the Warrior himself, King Maelor shocked the realm, and none more than Aegon himself, by naming him his heir and betrothing him to his young daughter Aerea in an effort to bind the Green and Black lines once and for all, to bring peace to a shattered continent. The great announcement ushered in a new era for the royal court and the realm at large. Many came down to the capital to see the King (with what business, Aegon did not know nor care) and among them were other young men such as Quentyn Baratheon and Theomore Stark, with whom the newly-made Crown Prince forged great friendships. Named Prince of Dragonstone (but not yet installed in his seat proper due to his minority), Aegon is allowed greater freedom in the Red Keep and occasionally even allowed to attend Small Council meetings. And in the year 207 AC, around the Prince's twenty-second nameday, the King made the decision to install him in his rightful seat and bestow him with the dagger Fate, harbinger of prophecy, inviting the entire realm to participate in the festivities in King's Landing to celebrate this great occasion, all the while Aegon prepares his own path towards ascension, identifying friend and foe, opportunity and threat, all in preparation for what is to come...
NPCs
Ellaria Sand, Cautious
Sarella Sand, Torturer

myprofile steam
​
I am selling Ti8 and ti9 and ti10 Immortals and Collector's Cache and not buying them.
​​
Buyer goes first, no exceptions unless you have a reputable rep
​
All conversations will be saved for safety and record.
Steam Rep: Steam Reputation
Buyers go first, add me now if interested for 30 days cooldown, make sure to leave a comment on my profile . 20% reserve fee required at the time of reserving cache sets.

Immortal Treasure 2022 

Hero	Immortal Treasure I - II 2022	Price(USD)	Reserved/Sold
Queen of Pain	Bloodfeather Finery	55$	4 Sold!- 1 left
Hoodwink	The Strings of Suradan Bundle	35$	4 Sold!- 2 left
Bristleback	Blastmitt Berserker Bundle	4$
Templar Assassin	Golden Seclusions of the Void	4$	1 Sold
Centaur Warrunner	Golden Infernal Cavalcade	4$

The Battle Pass Collection 2022 

Hero	The Battle Pass Collection 2022	Price(USD)	Reserved/Sold
Mars	Molten Bore	10$	1 Sold!
Batrider	Charms of the Firefiend	5$

Ageless Heirlooms 2022 

Hero	Ageless Heirlooms 2022	Price(USD)	Reserved/Sold
Mars	Wings of Imperium (Ultra Rare)	15$
Medusa	Jewels of Anamnes(sa (Very rare)	5$	1 Sold!
Night Stalker	Twilight Legions (Rare)	3$

Diretide 2022 Collector's Cache II 

Hero	Diretide 2022 Collector's Cache II	Price(USD)	Reserved/Sold
Void Spirit	Sublime Equilibrium	35$
Anti Mage)	Brands of the Reaper	25$
Treant	Grudges of the Gallows Tree	20$
Phantom Assassin	Darkfeather Factioneer	12$	1 Sold!
Pudge	Cursed Cryptbreaker	10$
Legion Commander	Bird of Prey	10$
Night Stalker	Feasts of Forever	8$
Doom	Dawn of Darkness Foretold	8$
Techies	War Rig Eradicators	8$	2 Sold!
Huskar	Sacred Chamber Guardian	8$
Vengeful Spirit	Acrimonies of Obsession	8$
Ogre Magi	Freeboot Fortunes	8$
Clinkz	Withering Pain	8$
Alchemist	Darkbrew´s Transgression	8$
Brewmaster	The Wilding Tiger	8$
Oracle	Transcendent Path	8$
Silencer	Grand Suppressor	6$

Diretide 2022 Collector's Cache I 

Hero	Diretide 2022 Collector's Cache	Price(USD)	Reserved/Sold
Primal Beast	Dark Behemoth (VERY RARE)	45$	3 Sold!
Invoker	Angel of Vex (Rare)	25$	1 Sold!
MARCI	Blue Horizons (Rare)	20$	4 Sold!
Hoodwink	Shadowleaf Insurgent	10$	3 Sold!
Spectre	Spoils of the Shadowveil	10$	2 Sold!
Faceless Void	Chines of the Inquisitor	10$
Ursa	Trophies of the Hallowed Hunt	10$
Riki	Scarlet Subversion	10$
Terrorblade	Forgotten Station	10$
Monkey King	Champion of the Fire Lotus	10$
Snapfire	Whippersnapper	10$	3 Sold!
Chen	Hounds of obsession	8$
Clockwerk	Seadog’s Stash	8$	1 Sold!
Phoenix	Crimson Dawn	8$
Undying	Dirge Amplifier	10$
Witch Doctor	Deathstitch Shaman	8$
Dawnbreaker	Starlorn Adjudicator	10$	4 Sold!

Aghanim's 2021 Collector's Cache 

Hero	Aghanim's 2021 Collector's Cache	Price(USD)	Reserved/Sold
Ogre Magi	Pyrexae Polymorph Perfected	12$	1 Sold!
Dragon Knight	Silverwurm Sacrifice	15$	1 Sold!
Phantom Lancer	Scales of the Shadow Walker	10$
Dawnbreaker	Perception of the First Light	10$	3 Sold!
Clockwerk	Apex Automated	10$	2 Sold!
Razor	Test of the Basilisk Lord	10$	1 Sold!
Ancient Apparition	Secrets of the Frost Singularity	8$	3 Sold!
chen	Perils of the Red Banks	5$	1 Sold!
Grimstroke	The Chained Scribe	8$
Broodmother	Widow of the Undermount Gloom	10$	4 Sold!
Mars	Forgotten Fate	5$
Rubick	March of the Crackerjack Mage	5$	1 Sold!
Alchemist	Cosmic Concoctioneers	15$	4 Sold!
Abaddon	Blightfall	10$	1 Sold!

 Nemestice 2021 Collector's Cache 

Hero	Nemestice 2021 Collector's Cache	Price(USD)	Reserved/Sold
Witch Doctor	Footfalls of the Sporefathers	30$	3 Sold!
Sven	Indomitable Legacy	60$	10 Sold!- 1 left
Doom	Litany of the Damned	10$	1 Sold!
Dark Willow	Twilight Hex	8$
Enigma	Astral Terminus	5$	1 Sold!
Enchantress	Caerulean Star	8$	1 Sold!
Gyrocopter	Arcane Inverter	10$	6 Sold!
Lycan	Creed of the Skullhound	10$	5 Sold!
Nature's Prophet	Desert Bloom	10$	4 Sold!
Oracle	Silence of the Starweaver	6$	6 Sold!
Skywrath Mage	Eyriebound Imperator	15$	6 Sold!
Tiny	Anthozoan Assault	10$	4 Sold!
Winter Wyvern	Defender of the Brumal Crest	10$	4 Sold!
Shadow Shaman	Red Sands Marauder	10$	6 Sold!

Collector Cache Sets 2020 1 + 2 

Hero	The International 2020	Price(USD)	Reserved/Sold
Faceless Void	Claszureme Incursion	70$	5 Sold! - 1 left
Pudge	Mindless Slaughter	10$	3 Sold!
Sniper	Blacksail Cannoneer	5$
Disruptor	Fury of the Righteous Storm	5$	1 Sold!
Bounty Hunter	Heartless Hunt	10$	2 Sold!
Enchantress	Songs of Starfall Glen	10$	4 Sold! - 1 left
Enigma	Evolution of the Infinite	10$	3 Sold!
Timbersaw	Clearcut Cavalier	5$	4 Sold!
Keeper of the Light	The King Of Thieves	10$	3 Sold!
Chaos Knight	Talons of the Endless Storm	10$	4 Sold!
Rubick	Carousal of the Mystic Masquerade	10$	2 Sold!
Skywrath Mage	Secrets of the Celestial	10$	3 Sold!
Phoenix	Blaze of Oblivion	8$	2 Sold!

Collector Cache Sets 2019 

Hero	The International 2019	Price (CSGO keys)	Reserved/Sold
Necrophos	Fowl Omen	20$	4 Sold
Disruptor	Defender of Ruin	15$	3 Sold
Pudge	Dapper Disguise	15$	2 Sold
Warlock	Tribal Pathways	5$	1 Sold
Clockwerk	Directive of the Sunbound	10$	2 Sold
Bloodseeker	Fury of the Bloodforge	20$	4 Sold
Broodmother	Automaton Antiquity	10$	2 sold
Wraith King	Grim Destiny	12$	2 sold
Tusk	Distinguished Expeditionary	12$	2 Sold
Venomancer	Verdant Predator	15$	4 Sold
Batrider	Prized Acquisitions	8$	2 Sold
Abaddon	Echoes of the Everblack	10$	4 Sold
Chen	Priest of the Proudsilver Clan	6$	2 Sold!
Huskar	Pursuit of the Ember Demons	15$	7 Sold- 1 left
Oracle	Riddle of the Hierophant	10$	4 Sold
GrimStroke	Paean of the Ink Dragon	10$	3 Sold
Tidehunter	Poacher's Bane	12$	2 Sold
Undying	Curse of the Creeping Vine	10$	2 Sold
Enigma	The Arts of Mortal Deception	6$	1 Sold
Dazzle	Forbidden Medicine	12$	6 Sold

​

Collector Cache[1] + [2] Sets 

​

The International 2018	Price (CSGO keys)	Reserved/Sold
Stonemarch Sovereign [Wraith King]	20$	3 Sold - 1left
Cruelties of the Spiral Bore [Magnus]	20$	4 Sold - 1left
Pattern of the Silken Queen [Broodmother]	5$	1 sold
Shimmer of the Anointed [Nyx]	8$	3 Sold!
Molokau Stalker [Venomancer]	10$	3 Sold- 1left
Pillar of the Fractured Citadel [Spirit Breaker]	10$	1 Sold
Primer of the Sapper's Guile [Techies]	10$	2 Sold - 1left
Loaded Prospects [Brewmaster]	5$	4 Sold

my profile steam
[Inventor](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198082128551/inventory/#57