Made in america toby keith lyrics
Rebelution
2012.08.06 19:43 dfort1986 Rebelution
2023.04.01 22:29 PrestigiousDamage773 Do Little people exist? According to Native Americans they do.
Have a good read everyone link to the video https://youtu.be/CN9WGasPih0
Little people in the American West and the Perdo Mountain Mummy
The oral traditions of several Native American tribes, such as the Arapaho, Sioux, Cheyenne, and Crow, contain stories of "little people" who range in height from 20 inches to three feet. Referred to as "tiny people eaters" in some tribes, they were believed to be spirits and healers in others, while some regarded them as magical beings, similar to leprechauns or fairies. These legends were widespread among the indigenous peoples of America long before the arrival of Europeans.
In Wyoming, the Shoshone Indians knew this diminutive race as the Nimerigar, and their legends depicted the little people as attacking the Shoshone with miniature bows and poisoned arrows. Additionally, the Nimerigar reportedly killed their own kind by striking them in the head when they became too unwell to participate actively in their society. While this practice was also part of the legends, it was a regular occurrence for many nomadic Indian tribes.
Despite the widespread belief that these "little people" are purely mythical, several findings suggest otherwise. One of the most notable discoveries was the fully-formed mummy measuring 14 inches in length, known as the Pedro Mountains Mummy. In 1932, two men were prospecting for gold in the San Pedro Mountains approximately 60 miles southwest of Casper, Wyoming when they discovered the mummy.
Despite their efforts to extract gold from a vein in the San Pedro Mountains, Cecil Main and Frank Carr found themselves continually thwarted by rock. In a bid to reach the gold, they resorted to using dynamite to blast a section of the mountainside. This caused a cave to be revealed, which was approximately 15 feet long and 4 feet high, and had been sealed off from the outside world by a thick wall of rock.
Upon entering the cave, the two men were astonished to discover a small, pygmy-like man seated cross-legged on a ledge. The tiny mummy measured only around 6 ½ inches tall in its seated position and was estimated to be 14 inches tall when standing. Its skin was wrinkled and brown, with a low and flat forehead, heavy-lidded eyes, and a wide mouth with thin lips, resembling the face of an elderly man. Despite its small size, the mummy was well-preserved, with visible fingernails on its hands and a dark jelly-like substance covering the top of its head, which remained pliable even after all those years.
Upon discovering the mummy, the two prospectors took it to Casper, Wyoming, and it soon attracted the attention of scientists from all over the country. Initially skeptical that it was a hoax, experts conducted extensive tests on the mummy, suspecting that it may have been a taxidermy creation made from different animal parts. However, they were astounded to find that x-rays revealed a perfectly formed human-like skeleton. The tests also indicated that the mummy had met a violent end, as its spine was damaged, its collarbone was broken, and its skull had been severely fractured by a heavy blow. The soft substance found on the top of the mummy's head was identified as brain tissue and congealed blood. Based on the results of these tests, scientists estimated that the mummy was a fully-grown adult who had died at around 65 years of age. One unusual finding was that the mummy's teeth were unusually pointed, with a full set of canines.
According to some reports, the examinations were carried out by the American Museum of Natural History and certified as genuine by the Anthropology Department of Harvard University. However, other accounts suggest that the mummy was later examined by the University of Wyoming, which concluded that it was the body of a deceased child.
It is worth noting that claims of the discovery of remains or skeletons of small-statured people in North America are often met with skepticism from mainstream archaeologists and anthropologists. Many of these claims lack scientific evidence, and some have been proven to be hoaxes. However, the existence of legends and oral traditions about "little people" in various Native American cultures suggests that there may be some basis in reality for these stories. As with many aspects of pre-Columbian history, the truth may never be fully known.
The story of the Pedro Mountains Mummy is a fascinating and mysterious one. While some believe it to be a hoax or simply a misidentified specimen, the scientific examinations and tests performed on the mummy seem to indicate that it was a genuine, albeit unusual, discovery. The legend of the "little people" is one that has persisted for centuries among Native American tribes, and the discovery of the Pedro Mountains Mummy only adds to the mystery and intrigue surrounding these stories.
submitted by PrestigiousDamage773 to HighStrangeness [link] [comments]
Little people in the American West and the Perdo Mountain Mummy
The oral traditions of several Native American tribes, such as the Arapaho, Sioux, Cheyenne, and Crow, contain stories of "little people" who range in height from 20 inches to three feet. Referred to as "tiny people eaters" in some tribes, they were believed to be spirits and healers in others, while some regarded them as magical beings, similar to leprechauns or fairies. These legends were widespread among the indigenous peoples of America long before the arrival of Europeans.
In Wyoming, the Shoshone Indians knew this diminutive race as the Nimerigar, and their legends depicted the little people as attacking the Shoshone with miniature bows and poisoned arrows. Additionally, the Nimerigar reportedly killed their own kind by striking them in the head when they became too unwell to participate actively in their society. While this practice was also part of the legends, it was a regular occurrence for many nomadic Indian tribes.
Despite the widespread belief that these "little people" are purely mythical, several findings suggest otherwise. One of the most notable discoveries was the fully-formed mummy measuring 14 inches in length, known as the Pedro Mountains Mummy. In 1932, two men were prospecting for gold in the San Pedro Mountains approximately 60 miles southwest of Casper, Wyoming when they discovered the mummy.
Despite their efforts to extract gold from a vein in the San Pedro Mountains, Cecil Main and Frank Carr found themselves continually thwarted by rock. In a bid to reach the gold, they resorted to using dynamite to blast a section of the mountainside. This caused a cave to be revealed, which was approximately 15 feet long and 4 feet high, and had been sealed off from the outside world by a thick wall of rock.
Upon entering the cave, the two men were astonished to discover a small, pygmy-like man seated cross-legged on a ledge. The tiny mummy measured only around 6 ½ inches tall in its seated position and was estimated to be 14 inches tall when standing. Its skin was wrinkled and brown, with a low and flat forehead, heavy-lidded eyes, and a wide mouth with thin lips, resembling the face of an elderly man. Despite its small size, the mummy was well-preserved, with visible fingernails on its hands and a dark jelly-like substance covering the top of its head, which remained pliable even after all those years.
Upon discovering the mummy, the two prospectors took it to Casper, Wyoming, and it soon attracted the attention of scientists from all over the country. Initially skeptical that it was a hoax, experts conducted extensive tests on the mummy, suspecting that it may have been a taxidermy creation made from different animal parts. However, they were astounded to find that x-rays revealed a perfectly formed human-like skeleton. The tests also indicated that the mummy had met a violent end, as its spine was damaged, its collarbone was broken, and its skull had been severely fractured by a heavy blow. The soft substance found on the top of the mummy's head was identified as brain tissue and congealed blood. Based on the results of these tests, scientists estimated that the mummy was a fully-grown adult who had died at around 65 years of age. One unusual finding was that the mummy's teeth were unusually pointed, with a full set of canines.
According to some reports, the examinations were carried out by the American Museum of Natural History and certified as genuine by the Anthropology Department of Harvard University. However, other accounts suggest that the mummy was later examined by the University of Wyoming, which concluded that it was the body of a deceased child.
It is worth noting that claims of the discovery of remains or skeletons of small-statured people in North America are often met with skepticism from mainstream archaeologists and anthropologists. Many of these claims lack scientific evidence, and some have been proven to be hoaxes. However, the existence of legends and oral traditions about "little people" in various Native American cultures suggests that there may be some basis in reality for these stories. As with many aspects of pre-Columbian history, the truth may never be fully known.
The story of the Pedro Mountains Mummy is a fascinating and mysterious one. While some believe it to be a hoax or simply a misidentified specimen, the scientific examinations and tests performed on the mummy seem to indicate that it was a genuine, albeit unusual, discovery. The legend of the "little people" is one that has persisted for centuries among Native American tribes, and the discovery of the Pedro Mountains Mummy only adds to the mystery and intrigue surrounding these stories.
2023.04.01 22:27 JustYourAverageBoyo These stickers have probably been on the case longer than I’ve been alive. Any tips for getting them off easily?
 | Sticker on the front was like that when I bought it btw submitted by JustYourAverageBoyo to gamecollecting [link] [comments] |
2023.04.01 22:23 JohnLawrence40538 My brother asked about archeology today.
I was watching conference today with my family, who all know that I left the church. My little brother asked during one of the talks "if the book of mormon happened in America, why don't archeologists go and try to find those ancient city's the nephites made?" My mother responded with "in central America there are aincent city's just like that, so the archeologists have already found them." She lied. She lied and she knows she did, because I asked the same thing when I told her I was leaving. It sickens me to have to stand idlely by while they knowingly lie to my brother, who just wants to learn. I wish i could tell him
submitted by JohnLawrence40538 to exmormon [link] [comments]
2023.04.01 22:17 Defyingtoitle How I get through it, and how you can too.
Hi. I don't speak much in person but I'm going to try to speak my mind here. BPD people have left me fragmented my entire life, my mom is undiagnosed and as a result, I went through my early childhood living directly through this kind of pain. I got into relationships and close friendships with many BPD people, and because I'm decently attractive and successful I've been a large target for them. I've had people spend more time trying to leverage my life than I've had actually living my life, so let me give you all the tips and tricks I use to skirt through life. I studied this in college to survive, so some descriptions will be more advanced and some will be simpler. Where I could've been incredibly successful as an individual, I have had to abandon my dreams at every turn to not only live but survive. I'm trying to use what I've learned to change the environment you guys live in. I'm tired. Here's what I know. Happy to help fix communication errors - I have to kinda turn off emotions to be able to talk about this stuff so expressions might not be emphasized in full. The great part about dealing with so many BPD people, I've learned to be able to flick the mental switch that turns off emotions as they can. I just have the moral conscious to use it for good instead of personal desires!
It boils down to them being insecure person. You may think this is obvious, but the understanding of insecurity they have is one that you or I may not immediately understand. Take a second to google Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - at some point in the person with BPD's life their Physiological needs were not guaranteed - this creates the stress response they keep for the rest of their life.As the stress response from this is so large and we have such a shoddy understanding of mental health - You will not be dealing with rational behavior EVER. The parts that are "mature" in your eyes have been created that way as a direct result of your childhood insecurities. You are dating the reflection of your home environment, and it is being leveraged by someone who is a reflection of their home environment, not the person standing in front of you today, yesterday, or tomorrow. Your rose-colored glasses are in areas you don't have a full understanding of - and because someone else may have more understanding or a worse "reality" you've grown to trust them (trauma bonding, sometimes done on accident, sometimes on purpose.) - regardless of what you eventually learn to be healthy. These people usually specialize in one very specific niche and dare to stray from it, creating their own demand. You'll notice that people are grasping at straws to be "unique" - for each person creating success, you have another 19 chasing them, copying their personality in hopes the 'archetype' works for them as well. Sometimes the number trying to copy doesn't stop. It scales based on how desperate people are for success, and how successful they think the person they're copying is. Remember that their thoughts have been proven to not be based on reality.
Many people like to think down on people with BPD, and the truth is that they are probably smarter than you or I. They just have so much extra brain space being utilized to help them 'escape' from either real or false fears, that they can't spend this space on progressing themselves or society. Until they outgrow the fear from this environment - it will be expressed ON YOU, the one choosing to interact with them. You may be able to have dates, vacations, and long-standing plans, but when this person gets re-stressed by their childhood insecurities you are GONE. You are no longer the reality they are living in, the sources of stress from their childhood are the reality they ultimately will end up reliving until their problems are fixed. This shows us they have been trying to escape Reality by living disconnected since their childhood. When the reality around them tries to embrace the personality they've made in a disconnected headspace, they can either double down that they have no problems or finally embrace their problems. With time, generations of families, changes in the environment, and personal factors, the problems become weighted and skewed with time to the point they aren't reflected honestly when voiced today. A problem 40 years ago may be expressed through a few unemotional words, if any words at that. I know people who have come to me silent who I've worked with to get them to talk, and they have lived some of the most traumatic shit I've ever heard in my life. They don't know how to bring it up in today's society, which is another post for another time on my end. I'm working on that in the background to give them a place to be heard, yet for YOU, HERE, TODAY:
What does that leave us with? A new resource - one that they can't value for their life. Time.Someone with BPD has to stay constant, and actively engaged, or else their natural fear complex sets in. The level of fear they live in daily EXCEEDS the amount a brain can healthily adapt to daily. Sleeping no longer resets their tolerance - rather degrades their long-standing habits until the stress overwhelms even these foundational ideas. As a result - their attention span is greatly decreased. Where you and I can relax, spend time to ourselves and chill, their attention span is almost negative if anything. They need constant visual input to stimulate their mind - and platforms like TikTok are normalizing this speed of consumption. If you think of TikTok as the end result of mental health problems rather than the source - you can truly see how widespread attention problems are in society. Mental health is being monetized before its being solved, which will evidently lead to it never being solved. Not only how they've been normalized, but how it's starting to affect the lives of others based on one's perspectives and expectations.
I'm tired of fixing their problems for them, it's time for a true understanding that you can step out of their control and spend your time where it's important - yourself. Stop half-assing a relationship that won't be real in a few years, full-ass your relationship with yourself and you'll find better people with time. If each person reading this spent a year loving themselves instead of those around them - you would learn you don't have to tolerate those kinds of people. A year gives you time to not only reflect on your past but work out any bad habits and attempt to unlearn them/relearn good ones. Habits take a few weeks, so even if you have an ungodly list of 20 bad ones, enjoy your year working for yourself instead of someone faking a future with you. Build the future you want, and stop relying on others. They are utilizing your dependency on attention to avoid problems as a crutch - keep your time spent on yourself. They want you to fall into the same trap they have, and will drag you there as a result. They know what you will go through, and having the experience already will know exactly how to leverage you during that time.
You ever wonder why their conversations jump from the past to the future, to the present, all in a circle to get you confused? Their brain doesn't let them sit on the stress of being the problem in the here and now. So they resort to different frames of time in order to rationalize it to themselves. The stress is so overwhelming they don't care if it doesn't make sense to you - they are purely trying to escape it with no regard for others. These people do not need relationships. They need mental health reform. It is not smart to get into relationships knowing there are these bombs waiting out there - with barely even half being able to understand their own problems. Why are we being forced to solve the problems of those who don't have consequences?
In the meantime - try to understand that added political disorganization in the USA is driving the normalization of these people. Soon we are going to lose the generation able to reflect on their challenges and rather have to embrace the lack of reality those with BPD are trying to embrace. You and I can't live at that pace, being on this forum indicate that, so we need to come together to work against this problem. Many people with BPD will weaponize the shitty mental health climate in America - weaponizing false promises or inaction in taking care of themselves. They can tell themselves subconsciously they are the problem, but as the socio-political climate of the nation endorses consistent, rapid interactions, it is easy for these people to escape into new pockets socially. They are consciously choosing to spend their time ignoring their problems at any cost - sometimes even losing their own touch with reality.
To fix this and no longer be influenced we would need to:
Reform the mental health culture - with the current understanding of mental health, these people are scared of embracing their problems for fear that they truly finally lose themselves in the process. They grasp at strings hoping to make it day to day, so taking faith in a system with notoriously bad experiences will only accelerate the problems from their perspective. They know that giving in to the current half-assed mental health industry (that may or may not beprofit-driven) may certainly end their life faster than they could themselves. BPD is the attempt of control a life that would otherwise be lost to the environmental and socio-political pressures around them.
Stop having a god complex around relationships. Our brain's understanding of emotions really excels around 25 years old, up to that point you are still growing and past that point, it is maintenance mode instead of growth. While you're meant to be growing uninfluenced, you've been spoon-fed the idea of a family sometimes even before you are fully emotionally mature. You are then going out and finding other emotionally immature people who then further complicate your own problems. well before you can even wrap your head around the complex emotions ongoing, you now have to deal with someone else's childhood insecurities haunting your thoughts the rest of your life. If you are younger than 25 - work on understanding yourself and your emotions. If you are older than 25 - work on not only understanding this but also how its going to interact with others. Base your actions on your body, instead of the fucked up expectations others have around us. Trust yourself for once, its a nice feeling :)
Remember, the BPD person wants you to feel isolated and alone. You are not alone. Someone is always out there, working for you, looking after you. We are almost done with dealing with these people, tough it out a little longer as you've done for years and you'll see the fruits of your labors soon. Where everyone else is focusing on their own lives, jobs, health, and money, you should know that you have someone fighting alongside you the entire time.
submitted by Defyingtoitle to BPDlovedones [link] [comments]
It boils down to them being insecure person. You may think this is obvious, but the understanding of insecurity they have is one that you or I may not immediately understand. Take a second to google Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - at some point in the person with BPD's life their Physiological needs were not guaranteed - this creates the stress response they keep for the rest of their life.As the stress response from this is so large and we have such a shoddy understanding of mental health - You will not be dealing with rational behavior EVER. The parts that are "mature" in your eyes have been created that way as a direct result of your childhood insecurities. You are dating the reflection of your home environment, and it is being leveraged by someone who is a reflection of their home environment, not the person standing in front of you today, yesterday, or tomorrow. Your rose-colored glasses are in areas you don't have a full understanding of - and because someone else may have more understanding or a worse "reality" you've grown to trust them (trauma bonding, sometimes done on accident, sometimes on purpose.) - regardless of what you eventually learn to be healthy. These people usually specialize in one very specific niche and dare to stray from it, creating their own demand. You'll notice that people are grasping at straws to be "unique" - for each person creating success, you have another 19 chasing them, copying their personality in hopes the 'archetype' works for them as well. Sometimes the number trying to copy doesn't stop. It scales based on how desperate people are for success, and how successful they think the person they're copying is. Remember that their thoughts have been proven to not be based on reality.
Many people like to think down on people with BPD, and the truth is that they are probably smarter than you or I. They just have so much extra brain space being utilized to help them 'escape' from either real or false fears, that they can't spend this space on progressing themselves or society. Until they outgrow the fear from this environment - it will be expressed ON YOU, the one choosing to interact with them. You may be able to have dates, vacations, and long-standing plans, but when this person gets re-stressed by their childhood insecurities you are GONE. You are no longer the reality they are living in, the sources of stress from their childhood are the reality they ultimately will end up reliving until their problems are fixed. This shows us they have been trying to escape Reality by living disconnected since their childhood. When the reality around them tries to embrace the personality they've made in a disconnected headspace, they can either double down that they have no problems or finally embrace their problems. With time, generations of families, changes in the environment, and personal factors, the problems become weighted and skewed with time to the point they aren't reflected honestly when voiced today. A problem 40 years ago may be expressed through a few unemotional words, if any words at that. I know people who have come to me silent who I've worked with to get them to talk, and they have lived some of the most traumatic shit I've ever heard in my life. They don't know how to bring it up in today's society, which is another post for another time on my end. I'm working on that in the background to give them a place to be heard, yet for YOU, HERE, TODAY:
What does that leave us with? A new resource - one that they can't value for their life. Time.Someone with BPD has to stay constant, and actively engaged, or else their natural fear complex sets in. The level of fear they live in daily EXCEEDS the amount a brain can healthily adapt to daily. Sleeping no longer resets their tolerance - rather degrades their long-standing habits until the stress overwhelms even these foundational ideas. As a result - their attention span is greatly decreased. Where you and I can relax, spend time to ourselves and chill, their attention span is almost negative if anything. They need constant visual input to stimulate their mind - and platforms like TikTok are normalizing this speed of consumption. If you think of TikTok as the end result of mental health problems rather than the source - you can truly see how widespread attention problems are in society. Mental health is being monetized before its being solved, which will evidently lead to it never being solved. Not only how they've been normalized, but how it's starting to affect the lives of others based on one's perspectives and expectations.
I'm tired of fixing their problems for them, it's time for a true understanding that you can step out of their control and spend your time where it's important - yourself. Stop half-assing a relationship that won't be real in a few years, full-ass your relationship with yourself and you'll find better people with time. If each person reading this spent a year loving themselves instead of those around them - you would learn you don't have to tolerate those kinds of people. A year gives you time to not only reflect on your past but work out any bad habits and attempt to unlearn them/relearn good ones. Habits take a few weeks, so even if you have an ungodly list of 20 bad ones, enjoy your year working for yourself instead of someone faking a future with you. Build the future you want, and stop relying on others. They are utilizing your dependency on attention to avoid problems as a crutch - keep your time spent on yourself. They want you to fall into the same trap they have, and will drag you there as a result. They know what you will go through, and having the experience already will know exactly how to leverage you during that time.
You ever wonder why their conversations jump from the past to the future, to the present, all in a circle to get you confused? Their brain doesn't let them sit on the stress of being the problem in the here and now. So they resort to different frames of time in order to rationalize it to themselves. The stress is so overwhelming they don't care if it doesn't make sense to you - they are purely trying to escape it with no regard for others. These people do not need relationships. They need mental health reform. It is not smart to get into relationships knowing there are these bombs waiting out there - with barely even half being able to understand their own problems. Why are we being forced to solve the problems of those who don't have consequences?
In the meantime - try to understand that added political disorganization in the USA is driving the normalization of these people. Soon we are going to lose the generation able to reflect on their challenges and rather have to embrace the lack of reality those with BPD are trying to embrace. You and I can't live at that pace, being on this forum indicate that, so we need to come together to work against this problem. Many people with BPD will weaponize the shitty mental health climate in America - weaponizing false promises or inaction in taking care of themselves. They can tell themselves subconsciously they are the problem, but as the socio-political climate of the nation endorses consistent, rapid interactions, it is easy for these people to escape into new pockets socially. They are consciously choosing to spend their time ignoring their problems at any cost - sometimes even losing their own touch with reality.
To fix this and no longer be influenced we would need to:
Reform the mental health culture - with the current understanding of mental health, these people are scared of embracing their problems for fear that they truly finally lose themselves in the process. They grasp at strings hoping to make it day to day, so taking faith in a system with notoriously bad experiences will only accelerate the problems from their perspective. They know that giving in to the current half-assed mental health industry (that may or may not beprofit-driven) may certainly end their life faster than they could themselves. BPD is the attempt of control a life that would otherwise be lost to the environmental and socio-political pressures around them.
Stop having a god complex around relationships. Our brain's understanding of emotions really excels around 25 years old, up to that point you are still growing and past that point, it is maintenance mode instead of growth. While you're meant to be growing uninfluenced, you've been spoon-fed the idea of a family sometimes even before you are fully emotionally mature. You are then going out and finding other emotionally immature people who then further complicate your own problems. well before you can even wrap your head around the complex emotions ongoing, you now have to deal with someone else's childhood insecurities haunting your thoughts the rest of your life. If you are younger than 25 - work on understanding yourself and your emotions. If you are older than 25 - work on not only understanding this but also how its going to interact with others. Base your actions on your body, instead of the fucked up expectations others have around us. Trust yourself for once, its a nice feeling :)
Remember, the BPD person wants you to feel isolated and alone. You are not alone. Someone is always out there, working for you, looking after you. We are almost done with dealing with these people, tough it out a little longer as you've done for years and you'll see the fruits of your labors soon. Where everyone else is focusing on their own lives, jobs, health, and money, you should know that you have someone fighting alongside you the entire time.
2023.04.01 22:10 tastetherainbeau Kai (EXO) - 3rd Mini Album 'Rover' (Two Weeks Later)
What are your thoughts on Kai's latest release now that you've had time to digest it? What are the standout tracks? How has your opinion changed since release? What are your thoughts on the sales numbers and chart positions? How did the release stack up to your expectations?
This post was not made exactly two weeks later, but all figures are as of two weeks later unless otherwise specified.
I choose which albums to make Two Weeks Later posts based on level of engagement in the original album discussion thread. If you see I haven't covered a particular album and would like me to make a Two Weeks Later post for it, feel free to request it
Album Discussion Thread
Did not chart in top 100 of daily digital charts (but is rising on Melon Daily)
Did not chart in top 100 of daily digital charts
Did not chart in top 100 of daily digital charts
Did not chart in top 100 of daily digital charts
Did not chart in top 100 of daily digital charts
Did not chart in top 100 of daily digital charts
submitted by tastetherainbeau to kpop [link] [comments]
This post was not made exactly two weeks later, but all figures are as of two weeks later unless otherwise specified.
I choose which albums to make Two Weeks Later posts based on level of engagement in the original album discussion thread. If you see I haven't covered a particular album and would like me to make a Two Weeks Later post for it, feel free to request it
Overview
| Artist | Kai (EXO) | |
| Title | Rover | |
| Type | 3rd Mini Album | |
| Released | Monday, March 13, 2023 |
Album Discussion Thread
Poll: Which track is your favorite?
Physical Sales
| Album Sales | Total |
|---|---|
| Hanteo | 222,843 |
| Circle Chart | 1st Week Rank | 1st Week Count | 2nd Week Rank | 2nd Week Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Album Chart | #1 Regular, #9 SMC | 214,212 | #21 Regular, #54 SMC | 9,000 |
| Retail Album Chart | #1 Regular, #5 SMC | 135,572 | #4 Regular, #45 SMC | 16,338 |
Digital Charts
(N/A indicates song charted outside the available data. For streaming sites that means outside of the top 100)01. Rover:
| Circle Chart | 1st Week Rank | 1st Week Count | 2nd Week Rank | 2nd Week Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digital | #23 | 7,825,431 | #191 | 2,133,952 |
| Download | #1 | - | #38 | - |
| BGM | #76 | - | N/A | - |
| Charts | Peak Rank (Realtime) |
|---|---|
| Bugs | #6 |
02. Black Mirror:
| Circle Chart | 1st Week Rank | 1st Week Count | 2nd Week Rank | 2nd Week Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Download | #88 | - | N/A | - |
| Charts | Peak Rank (Realtime) |
|---|---|
| Bugs | #16 |
03. Slidin':
| Circle Chart | 1st Week Rank | 1st Week Count | 2nd Week Rank | 2nd Week Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Download | #91 | - | N/A | - |
| Charts | Peak Rank (Realtime) |
|---|---|
| Bugs | #22 |
04. Bomba:
| Circle Chart | 1st Week Rank | 1st Week Count | 2nd Week Rank | 2nd Week Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Download | #86 | - | N/A | - |
| Charts | Peak Rank (Realtime) |
|---|---|
| Bugs | #30 |
05. Say You Love Me:
| Circle Chart | 1st Week Rank | 1st Week Count | 2nd Week Rank | 2nd Week Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Download | #90 | - | N/A | - |
| Charts | Peak Rank (Realtime) |
|---|---|
| Bugs | #19 |
06. Sinner:
| Circle Chart | 1st Week Rank | 1st Week Count | 2nd Week Rank | 2nd Week Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Download | #96 | - | N/A | - |
| Charts | Peak Rank (Realtime) |
|---|---|
| Bugs | #26 |
Album Credits & Streaming
Listen on Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music
| Track | Lyrics by | Composed by | Arranged by |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01. Rover / Audio | Park Tae Won | Cristian Tarcea, DARA, Valentina Nikova, YNGA, Young Chance, Gabriel Brandes | Cristian Tarcea, IMLAY |
| 02. Black Mirror | Mia (153/Joombas) | John “JBL8ZE” Eley, Jordan Dollar, Castle | John “JBL8ZE” Eley, Jordan Dollar, Castle |
| 03. Slidin' | Lee Yeon Ji (PNP) | Talay Riley, Steve “Tave” Octave | Talay Riley |
| 04. Bomba | RGB (lalala studio), Kim Soo Min (ARTiffect) | Sam Klempner, Michael Matosic, Jake Torrey | Sam Klempner |
| 05. Say You Love Me | danke (lalala studio) | Vinny 'Vinnyforgood' Verdi, Michael 'Trupopgod' Jiminez, Miguel Jiminez, Dominique Logan, Darius Logan | Vinny 'Vinnyforgood' Verdi, Michael 'Trupopgod' Jiminez |
| 06. Sinner | Hwang Yubin (VERYGOODS) | Koen van de Wardt, Ruben Pol | Koen van de Wardt, Ruben Pol |
Information Sources:
Circle figures: circlechart.co.kr Hanteo sales: hanteochart.com Daily and realtime peaks: 가이섬.com Two weeks later realtime graphs: kpopchart.kr Album credits: album discussion thread / Melon2023.04.01 22:08 mtglozwof Respect Zote the Mighty, Invincible, Fearless, Sensual, Mysterious, Enchanting, Vigorous, Diligent, Overwhelming, Gorgeous, Passionate, Terrifying, Beautiful, and Powerful (Hollow Knight)
Zote the Mighty
"Always win your battles."Theme Music
Instrumental, Lyrical
Zote is Invincible, Fearless, Sensual, Mysterious, Enchanting, Vigorous, Diligent, Overwhelming, Gorgeous, Passionate, Terrifying, Beautiful, and Powerful. He arrived from a distant land where he underwent a dark past, despite it all though Zote persevered. He saved many lives, grew stronger, and became a champion recognized throughout Hallownest in his short visit.
Strength
- Shakes the colosseum of fools when he slams on his cage
- Has killed hundreds and could kill the Knight if he wanted
- Defeats his enemies through sheer strength
- Beats all of his foes in one hit
- Does the most damage of any boss in the game, five times more than Nightmare King Grimm, The Radiance, and the Pure Vessel
- Makes deadly shockwaves when he jumps
Speed/Mobility
Durability
- Takes numerous hits from the Knight, and they are unable to kill him completely
- Withstands the jaws of the Vengefly King
Skill
- Is the deadliest predator in the world
- Doesn't feel fear
- Succeeds in everything he tries
- Made his own sword out of shellwood, making his ability to kill with it more impressive
- Chooses not to dream, rendering him immune to the Radiance's infection
- Can clone himself many times over, though the clones don't seem to possess the same skill
- Can teleport high into the air to fall down with a shockwave
- Can extend his neck and shoot deadly projectiles from his mouth
- Drains SOUL from the Knight by existing
- Can grow to massive size
2023.04.01 22:08 _TheAppointedHour_ Attempt
A man demands chastity in himself and others, most of all from the being he loves; a woman wants the man with most experience and sensuality, not virtue. Woman has no comprehension of paragons. On the contrary, it is well known that a woman is most ready to fly to the arms of the man with the widest reputation for being a Don Juan. Woman requires man to be sexual, because she only gains existence through his sexuality. Women have no sense of a man's love, as a superior phenomenon, they only perceive that side of him which unceasingly desires and appropriates the object of his affections, and men who have none or very little of the instinct of brutality developed in them have no influence on them. As for the higher, platonic love of man, they do not want it; it flatters and pleases them, but it has no significance for them, and if the homage on bended knees lasts too long, Beatrice becomes just as impatient as Messalina. In coitus lies woman's greatest humiliation, in love her supremest exaltation. Since woman desires coitus and not love, she proves that she wishes to be humiliated and not worshipped. The ultimate opponent of the emancipation of women is woman. It is not because sexual union is voluptuous, not because it is the typical example of all the pleasures of the lower life, that it is immoral. Asceticism, which would regard pleasure in itself as immoral, is itself immoral, inasmuch as it attributes immorality to an action because of the external consequences of it, not because of immorality in the thing itself; it is the imposition of an alien, not an inherent law. A man may seek pleasure, he may strive to make his life easier and more pleasant; but he must not sacrifice a moral law. Asceticism attempts to make man moral by self-repression and will give him credit and praise for morality simply because he has denied himself certain things. Asceticism must be rejected from the point of view of ethics and of psychology inasmuch as it makes virtue the effect of a cause, and not the thing itself. Asceticism is a dangerous although attractive guide ; since pleasure is one of the chief things that beguile men from the higher path, it is easy to suppose that its mere abandonment is meritorious. In itself, however, pleasure is neither moral nor immoral. It is only when the desire for pleasure conquers the desire for worthiness that a human being has fallen. Coitus is immoral because there is no man who does not use woman at such times as a means to an end; for whom pleasure does not, in his own as well as her being, during that time represent the value of mankind. During coitus a man forgets all about everything, he forgets the woman; she has no longer a psychic but only a physical existence for him. He either desires a child by her or the satisfaction of his own passion; in neither case does he use her as an end in herself, but for an outside cause. This and this alone makes coitus immoral. There is no doubt that woman is the missionary of sexual union, and that she looks upon herself, as on everything else, merely as a means to its ends. She wants a man to satisfy her passion or to obtain children; she is willing to be used by man as a tool, as a thing, as an object, to be treated as his property, to be changed and modelled according to his good pleasure. But we should not allow ourselves to be used by others as means to an end.
Kundry appealed often to Parsifal's compassion for her yearnings: but here we see the weakness of sympathetic morality, which attempts to grant every desire of those around, however wrong such wishes may be. Ethics and morality based on sympathy are equally absurd, since they make the "ought" dependent on the "will" (whether it be the will of oneself, or of others, or of society, it is all the same,) instead of making the "will" dependent on the "ought"; they take as a standard of morality concrete cases of human history, concrete cases of human happiness, concrete moments in life instead of the idea.
But the question is: how ought man to treat woman? As she herself desires to be treated or as the moral idea would dictate ? If he is going to treat her as she wishes, he must have intercourse with her, for she desires it; he must beat her, for she likes to be hurt; he must hypnotise her, since she wishes to be hypnotised; he must prove to her by his attentions how little he thinks of himself, for she likes compliments, and has no desire to be respected for herself. If he is going to treat her as the moral idea demands, he must try to see in her the concept of mankind and endeavour to respect her. Even although woman is only a function of man, a function he can degrade or raise at will, and women do not wish to be more or anything else than what man makes them, it is no more a moral arrangement than the suttee of Indian widows, which, even though it be voluntary and insisted upon by them, is none the less terrible barbarity. The emancipation of woman is analogous to the emancipation of Jews and negroes. Undoubtedly the principal reason why these people have been treated as slaves and inferiors is to be found in their servile dispositions; their desire for freedom is not nearly so strong as that of the Indo-Germans. And even although the whites in America at the present day find it necessary to keep themselves quite aloof from the negro population because they make such a bad use of their freedom, yet in the war of the Northern States against the Federals, which resulted in the freedom of the slaves, right was entirely on the side of the emancipators. Although the humanity of Jews, negroes, and still more of women, is weighed down by many immoral impulses; although in these cases there is so much more to fight against than in the case of Aryan men, still we must try to respect mankind, and to venerate the idea of humanity (by which I do not mean the human community, but the being, man, the soul as part of the spiritual world). No matter how degraded a criminal may be, no one ought to arrogate to himself the functions of the law; no man has the right to lynch such an offender. The problem of woman and the problem of the Jews are absolutely identical with the problem of slavery, and they must be solved in the same way. No one should be oppressed, even if the oppression is of such a kind as to be unfelt as such. The animals about a house are not "slaves," because they have no freedom in the proper sense of the word which could be taken away. But woman has a faint idea of her incapacity, a last remnant, however weak, of the free intelligible ego, simply because there is no such thing as an absolute woman. Women are human beings, and must be treated as such, even if they themselves do not wish it. Woman and man have the same rights. That is not to say that women ought to have an equal share in political affairs. From the utilitarian standpoint such a concession, certainly at present and probably always, would be most undesirable; in New Zealand, where, on ethical principles, women have been enfranchised, the worst results have followed. As children, imbeciles and criminals would be justly prevented from taking any part in public affairs even if they were numerically equal or in the majority; woman must in the same way be kept from having a share in anything which concerns the public welfare, as it is much to be feared that the mere effect of female influence would be harmful. Just as the results of science do not depend on whether all men accept them or not, so justice and injustice can be dealt out to the woman, although she is unable to distinguish between them, and she need not be afraid that injury will be done her, as justice and not might will be the deciding factor in her treatment. But justice is always the same whether for man or woman. No one has a right to forbid things to a woman because they are "unwomanly". Woman must be looked upon as an individual and as if she were a free individual, not as one of a species, not as a sort of creation from the various wants of man's nature; even though woman herself may never prove worthy of such a lofty view.
Thus this book may be considered as the greatest honour ever paid to women. Nothing but the most moral relation towards women should be possible for men; there should be neither sexuality nor love, for both make woman the means to an end, but only the attempt to understand her.
Most men theoretically respect women, but practically they thoroughly despise them; according to my ideas this method should be reversed. It is impossible to think highly of women, but it does not follow that we are to despise them for ever. • It seems to me that if we look the facts of the case in the face there are only two possible courses open for women: either to pretend to accept man's ideas, and to think that they believe what is really opposed to their whole, unchanged nature, to assume a horror of immorality (as if they were moral themselves), of sexuality (as if they desired platonic love); or to openly admit that they are wrapped up in husband and children, without being conscious of all that such an admission implies, of the shamelessness and self-immolation of it. Unconscious hypocrisy, or cynical identification with their natural instincts; nothing else seems possible for woman. But it is neither agreement nor disagreement with, but rather the denial and overcoming of her womanishness that a woman should aim at. If a woman really were to wish, for instance, for man's chastity, it would mean that she had conquered the woman in her, it would mean that pairing was no longer of supreme importance to her and that her aim was no longer to further it. But here is the trouble: such pretensions must not be accepted as genuine, even although here and there they are actually put forward. For a woman who longed for man's purity is, apart from her hysteria, so stupid and so incapable of truthfulness that she is unable to perceive that she is in this way negating herself, making herself absolutely worthless, without existence! It is difficult to decide which is preferable: the unlimited hypocrisy which can appropriate the thing that is most foreign to it, i.e., the ascetic ideal, or the ingenuous admiration for the reformed rake, the complacent devotion to him. The principal problem of the woman question lies in the fact that in each case woman's one desire is to put all responsibility on man, and in this it is identical with the problem of mankind. Friedrich Nietzsche says in one of his books : "To underestimate the real difficulties of the man and woman problem, to fail to admit the abysmal antagonism and the inevitable nature of the constant strain between the two, to dream of equal rights, education, responsibilities and duties, is the mark of the superficial observer, and any thinker who has been found shallow in these difficult places—shallow by nature—should be looked upon as untrustworthy, as a useless and treacherous guide; he will, no doubt, be one of those who 'briefly deal with' all the real problems of life, death and eternity—who never gets to the bottom of things. But the man who is not superficial, who has depth of thought as well as of purpose, the depth which not only makes him desire right but endows him with determination and strength to do right, must always look on woman from the oriental standpoint:—as a possession, as private property, as something born to serve and be dependent on him—he must see the marvellous reasonableness of the Asiatic instinct of superiority over women, as the Greeks of old saw it, those worthy successors and disciples of the Eastern school. It was an attitude towards woman which, as is well known, from Homer's time till that of Pericles, grew with the growth of culture, and increased in strength step by step, and gradually became quite oriental. What a necessary, logical, desirable growth for mankind! if we could only attain to it ourselves!" The great individualist is here thinking in the terms of social ethics, and the autonomy of his moral doctrine is overshadowed by the ideas of caste, groups, and divisions. And so, for the benefit of society, to preserve the place of men, he would place woman in subjection, so that the voice of the wish for emancipation could no longer be heard, and so that we might be freed from the false and foolish cry of the existing advocates of women's rights, advocates who have no suspicion of the real source of woman bondage. But I quoted Nietzsche, not to convict him of want of logic, but to lead to the point that the solution of the problem of humanity is bound up with the solution of the woman problem. If any one should think it a high-flown idea that man should respect woman as an entity, a real existence, and not use her merely as a means to an end, that he should recognise in her the same rights and the same duties (those of building up one's own moral personality) as his own, then he must reflect that man cannot solve the ethical problem in his own case, if he continues to lower the idea of humanity in the women by using her simply for his own purposes. Coitus is the price man has to pay to women, under the Asiatic system, for their oppression. And although it is true that women may be more than content with such recompence for the worst form of slavery, man has no right to take part in such conduct, simply because he also is morally damaged by it. Even technically the problem of humanity is not soluble for man alone; he has to consider woman even if he only wishes to redeem himself; he must endeavour to get her to abandon her immoral designs on him. Women must really and truly and spontaneously relinquish coitus. That undoubtedly means that woman, as woman, must disappear, and until that has come to pass there is no possibility of establishing the kingdom of God on earth. Pythagoras, Plato, Christianity (as opposed to Judaism), Tertullian, Swift, Wagner, Ibsen, all these have urged the freedom of woman, not the emancipation of woman from man, but rather the emancipation of woman from pherself. ... Now for the first time, looking at the woman question as the most important problem of mankind, the demand for the sexual abstinence on the part of both sexes is put forward with good reason. To seek to ground this claim on the prejudicial effects on the health following sexual intercourse would be absurd, for any one with knowledge of the physical frame could upset such a theory at all points; to found it on the immorality of passion would also be wrong, because that would introduce a heteronomous motive into ethics. St. Augustine, however, must certainly have been aware, when he advocated chastity for all mankind, that the objection raised to it would be that in such a case the whole human race would quickly disappear from the face of the earth. This extraordinary apprehension, the worst part of which appears to be the thought that the race would be exterminated, shows not only the greatest unbelief in individual immortality and eternal life for moral well-doers; it is not only most irreligious, but it proves at the same time the cowardice of man and his incapacity to live an individual life. To any one who thinks thus, the earth can only mean the turmoil and press of those on it; death must seem less terrible to such a man than isolation. If the immortal, moral part of his personality were really vigorous, he would have courage to look this result in the face; he would not fear the death of the body, nor attempt to substitute the miserable certainty of the continuation of the race for his lack of faith in the eternal life of the soul. The rejection of sexuality is merely the death of the physical life, to put in its place the full development of the spiritual life. Hence it follows that it cannot be a moral duty to provide for the continuance of the race. This common argument appears to me to be so extraordinarily false that I am almost ashamed to meet it. Yet at the risk of making myself ridiculous I must ask if any one ever consummated coitus to avoid the great danger of letting the human race die out, if he failed in his duty ? And would it not follow that any man who prefers chastity would be open to the charge of immoral conduct ? Every form of fecundity is loathsome, and no one who is honest with himself feels bound to provide for the continuity of the human race. And what we do not realise to be a duty, is not a duty. On the contrary, it is immoral to procreate a human being for any secondary reason, to bring a being into the limitations of humanity, the conditions made for him by his parentage; the fundamental reason why the possible freedom and spontaneity of a human being is limited is that he was begotten in such an immoral fashion. That the human race should persist is of no interest whatever to reason; he who would perpetuate humanity would perpetuate the problem and the guilt, the only problem and the only guilt. The only true goal is divinity and the union of humanity with the Godhead; that is the real choice between good and evil, between existence and negation The moral sanction that has been invented for coitus, in supposing that there is an ideal attitude to the act in which only the propagation of the race is thought of, is no sufficient defence. There is no such imperative in the mind of man; it is merely an ingenious defence of a desire. As for the sexual union in which the production of children is prevented, there is no possible justification. • As for the sexual union in which the production of children is prevented, there is no possible justification. Sexual union has no place in the idea of mankind, not because ascetism is a duty, but because in it woman becomes the object, the cause, and man does what he will with her, looks upon her merely as a "thing," not as a living human being with an inner, psychic, existence. And so man despises woman the moment coitus is over, and the woman knows that she is despised, even although a few minutes before she thought herself adored. The only thing to be respected in man is the idea of mankind; this disparagement of woman (and himself), induced by coitus, is the surest proof that it is opposed to that idea of mankind. Any one who is ignorant of what this Kantian "idea of mankind" means, may perhaps understand it when he thinks of his sisters, his mother, his female relatives; it concerns them all: for our own sakes, then, woman ought to be treated as human, respected and not degraded, all sexuality implying degradation. But man can only respect woman when she herself ceases to wish to be object and material for man; if there is any question of emancipation it should be the emancipation from the prostitute element. It has never until now been made clear where the bondage of woman lies; it is in the sovereign, all too welcome power wielded on them by the Phallus. There can be no doubt that the men who have really desired the emancipation of women are the men who are not very sexual, who have no great craving for love, who are not very profound, but who are men of noble and spiritual minds. I am not going to try to palliate the erotic motives of man, nor to represent his antipathy to the "emancipated woman" as being in any sense less than it is; it is much easier to go with the majority, than, as Kant did, to climb, painfully and slowly, to the heights of isolation.
• A woman who had really given up her sexual self, who wished to be at peace would be no longer "woman." She would have ceased to be "woman," she would have received the inward and spiritual sign as well as the outward form of regeneration. Can such a thing be? There is no absolute woman, but even so to say "Yes" to the above question is like giving one's assent to a miracle. Emancipation will not make woman happier; it will not ensure her salvation, and it is a long road which leads to God. No being in the transition stage between freedom and slavery can be happy. But will woman choose to abandon slavery in order to become unhappy? The question is not merely if it be possible for woman to become moral. It is this: is it possible for woman really to wish to realise the problem of existence, the conception of guilt? Can she really desire freedom? This can happen only by her being penetrated by an ideal, brought to the guiding star. It can happen only if the categorical imperative were to become active in woman; only if woman can place herself in relation to the moral idea, the idea of humanity. In that way only can there be an emancipation of woman.
submitted by _TheAppointedHour_ to u/_TheAppointedHour_ [link] [comments]
Kundry appealed often to Parsifal's compassion for her yearnings: but here we see the weakness of sympathetic morality, which attempts to grant every desire of those around, however wrong such wishes may be. Ethics and morality based on sympathy are equally absurd, since they make the "ought" dependent on the "will" (whether it be the will of oneself, or of others, or of society, it is all the same,) instead of making the "will" dependent on the "ought"; they take as a standard of morality concrete cases of human history, concrete cases of human happiness, concrete moments in life instead of the idea.
But the question is: how ought man to treat woman? As she herself desires to be treated or as the moral idea would dictate ? If he is going to treat her as she wishes, he must have intercourse with her, for she desires it; he must beat her, for she likes to be hurt; he must hypnotise her, since she wishes to be hypnotised; he must prove to her by his attentions how little he thinks of himself, for she likes compliments, and has no desire to be respected for herself. If he is going to treat her as the moral idea demands, he must try to see in her the concept of mankind and endeavour to respect her. Even although woman is only a function of man, a function he can degrade or raise at will, and women do not wish to be more or anything else than what man makes them, it is no more a moral arrangement than the suttee of Indian widows, which, even though it be voluntary and insisted upon by them, is none the less terrible barbarity. The emancipation of woman is analogous to the emancipation of Jews and negroes. Undoubtedly the principal reason why these people have been treated as slaves and inferiors is to be found in their servile dispositions; their desire for freedom is not nearly so strong as that of the Indo-Germans. And even although the whites in America at the present day find it necessary to keep themselves quite aloof from the negro population because they make such a bad use of their freedom, yet in the war of the Northern States against the Federals, which resulted in the freedom of the slaves, right was entirely on the side of the emancipators. Although the humanity of Jews, negroes, and still more of women, is weighed down by many immoral impulses; although in these cases there is so much more to fight against than in the case of Aryan men, still we must try to respect mankind, and to venerate the idea of humanity (by which I do not mean the human community, but the being, man, the soul as part of the spiritual world). No matter how degraded a criminal may be, no one ought to arrogate to himself the functions of the law; no man has the right to lynch such an offender. The problem of woman and the problem of the Jews are absolutely identical with the problem of slavery, and they must be solved in the same way. No one should be oppressed, even if the oppression is of such a kind as to be unfelt as such. The animals about a house are not "slaves," because they have no freedom in the proper sense of the word which could be taken away. But woman has a faint idea of her incapacity, a last remnant, however weak, of the free intelligible ego, simply because there is no such thing as an absolute woman. Women are human beings, and must be treated as such, even if they themselves do not wish it. Woman and man have the same rights. That is not to say that women ought to have an equal share in political affairs. From the utilitarian standpoint such a concession, certainly at present and probably always, would be most undesirable; in New Zealand, where, on ethical principles, women have been enfranchised, the worst results have followed. As children, imbeciles and criminals would be justly prevented from taking any part in public affairs even if they were numerically equal or in the majority; woman must in the same way be kept from having a share in anything which concerns the public welfare, as it is much to be feared that the mere effect of female influence would be harmful. Just as the results of science do not depend on whether all men accept them or not, so justice and injustice can be dealt out to the woman, although she is unable to distinguish between them, and she need not be afraid that injury will be done her, as justice and not might will be the deciding factor in her treatment. But justice is always the same whether for man or woman. No one has a right to forbid things to a woman because they are "unwomanly". Woman must be looked upon as an individual and as if she were a free individual, not as one of a species, not as a sort of creation from the various wants of man's nature; even though woman herself may never prove worthy of such a lofty view.
Thus this book may be considered as the greatest honour ever paid to women. Nothing but the most moral relation towards women should be possible for men; there should be neither sexuality nor love, for both make woman the means to an end, but only the attempt to understand her.
Most men theoretically respect women, but practically they thoroughly despise them; according to my ideas this method should be reversed. It is impossible to think highly of women, but it does not follow that we are to despise them for ever. • It seems to me that if we look the facts of the case in the face there are only two possible courses open for women: either to pretend to accept man's ideas, and to think that they believe what is really opposed to their whole, unchanged nature, to assume a horror of immorality (as if they were moral themselves), of sexuality (as if they desired platonic love); or to openly admit that they are wrapped up in husband and children, without being conscious of all that such an admission implies, of the shamelessness and self-immolation of it. Unconscious hypocrisy, or cynical identification with their natural instincts; nothing else seems possible for woman. But it is neither agreement nor disagreement with, but rather the denial and overcoming of her womanishness that a woman should aim at. If a woman really were to wish, for instance, for man's chastity, it would mean that she had conquered the woman in her, it would mean that pairing was no longer of supreme importance to her and that her aim was no longer to further it. But here is the trouble: such pretensions must not be accepted as genuine, even although here and there they are actually put forward. For a woman who longed for man's purity is, apart from her hysteria, so stupid and so incapable of truthfulness that she is unable to perceive that she is in this way negating herself, making herself absolutely worthless, without existence! It is difficult to decide which is preferable: the unlimited hypocrisy which can appropriate the thing that is most foreign to it, i.e., the ascetic ideal, or the ingenuous admiration for the reformed rake, the complacent devotion to him. The principal problem of the woman question lies in the fact that in each case woman's one desire is to put all responsibility on man, and in this it is identical with the problem of mankind. Friedrich Nietzsche says in one of his books : "To underestimate the real difficulties of the man and woman problem, to fail to admit the abysmal antagonism and the inevitable nature of the constant strain between the two, to dream of equal rights, education, responsibilities and duties, is the mark of the superficial observer, and any thinker who has been found shallow in these difficult places—shallow by nature—should be looked upon as untrustworthy, as a useless and treacherous guide; he will, no doubt, be one of those who 'briefly deal with' all the real problems of life, death and eternity—who never gets to the bottom of things. But the man who is not superficial, who has depth of thought as well as of purpose, the depth which not only makes him desire right but endows him with determination and strength to do right, must always look on woman from the oriental standpoint:—as a possession, as private property, as something born to serve and be dependent on him—he must see the marvellous reasonableness of the Asiatic instinct of superiority over women, as the Greeks of old saw it, those worthy successors and disciples of the Eastern school. It was an attitude towards woman which, as is well known, from Homer's time till that of Pericles, grew with the growth of culture, and increased in strength step by step, and gradually became quite oriental. What a necessary, logical, desirable growth for mankind! if we could only attain to it ourselves!" The great individualist is here thinking in the terms of social ethics, and the autonomy of his moral doctrine is overshadowed by the ideas of caste, groups, and divisions. And so, for the benefit of society, to preserve the place of men, he would place woman in subjection, so that the voice of the wish for emancipation could no longer be heard, and so that we might be freed from the false and foolish cry of the existing advocates of women's rights, advocates who have no suspicion of the real source of woman bondage. But I quoted Nietzsche, not to convict him of want of logic, but to lead to the point that the solution of the problem of humanity is bound up with the solution of the woman problem. If any one should think it a high-flown idea that man should respect woman as an entity, a real existence, and not use her merely as a means to an end, that he should recognise in her the same rights and the same duties (those of building up one's own moral personality) as his own, then he must reflect that man cannot solve the ethical problem in his own case, if he continues to lower the idea of humanity in the women by using her simply for his own purposes. Coitus is the price man has to pay to women, under the Asiatic system, for their oppression. And although it is true that women may be more than content with such recompence for the worst form of slavery, man has no right to take part in such conduct, simply because he also is morally damaged by it. Even technically the problem of humanity is not soluble for man alone; he has to consider woman even if he only wishes to redeem himself; he must endeavour to get her to abandon her immoral designs on him. Women must really and truly and spontaneously relinquish coitus. That undoubtedly means that woman, as woman, must disappear, and until that has come to pass there is no possibility of establishing the kingdom of God on earth. Pythagoras, Plato, Christianity (as opposed to Judaism), Tertullian, Swift, Wagner, Ibsen, all these have urged the freedom of woman, not the emancipation of woman from man, but rather the emancipation of woman from pherself. ... Now for the first time, looking at the woman question as the most important problem of mankind, the demand for the sexual abstinence on the part of both sexes is put forward with good reason. To seek to ground this claim on the prejudicial effects on the health following sexual intercourse would be absurd, for any one with knowledge of the physical frame could upset such a theory at all points; to found it on the immorality of passion would also be wrong, because that would introduce a heteronomous motive into ethics. St. Augustine, however, must certainly have been aware, when he advocated chastity for all mankind, that the objection raised to it would be that in such a case the whole human race would quickly disappear from the face of the earth. This extraordinary apprehension, the worst part of which appears to be the thought that the race would be exterminated, shows not only the greatest unbelief in individual immortality and eternal life for moral well-doers; it is not only most irreligious, but it proves at the same time the cowardice of man and his incapacity to live an individual life. To any one who thinks thus, the earth can only mean the turmoil and press of those on it; death must seem less terrible to such a man than isolation. If the immortal, moral part of his personality were really vigorous, he would have courage to look this result in the face; he would not fear the death of the body, nor attempt to substitute the miserable certainty of the continuation of the race for his lack of faith in the eternal life of the soul. The rejection of sexuality is merely the death of the physical life, to put in its place the full development of the spiritual life. Hence it follows that it cannot be a moral duty to provide for the continuance of the race. This common argument appears to me to be so extraordinarily false that I am almost ashamed to meet it. Yet at the risk of making myself ridiculous I must ask if any one ever consummated coitus to avoid the great danger of letting the human race die out, if he failed in his duty ? And would it not follow that any man who prefers chastity would be open to the charge of immoral conduct ? Every form of fecundity is loathsome, and no one who is honest with himself feels bound to provide for the continuity of the human race. And what we do not realise to be a duty, is not a duty. On the contrary, it is immoral to procreate a human being for any secondary reason, to bring a being into the limitations of humanity, the conditions made for him by his parentage; the fundamental reason why the possible freedom and spontaneity of a human being is limited is that he was begotten in such an immoral fashion. That the human race should persist is of no interest whatever to reason; he who would perpetuate humanity would perpetuate the problem and the guilt, the only problem and the only guilt. The only true goal is divinity and the union of humanity with the Godhead; that is the real choice between good and evil, between existence and negation The moral sanction that has been invented for coitus, in supposing that there is an ideal attitude to the act in which only the propagation of the race is thought of, is no sufficient defence. There is no such imperative in the mind of man; it is merely an ingenious defence of a desire. As for the sexual union in which the production of children is prevented, there is no possible justification. • As for the sexual union in which the production of children is prevented, there is no possible justification. Sexual union has no place in the idea of mankind, not because ascetism is a duty, but because in it woman becomes the object, the cause, and man does what he will with her, looks upon her merely as a "thing," not as a living human being with an inner, psychic, existence. And so man despises woman the moment coitus is over, and the woman knows that she is despised, even although a few minutes before she thought herself adored. The only thing to be respected in man is the idea of mankind; this disparagement of woman (and himself), induced by coitus, is the surest proof that it is opposed to that idea of mankind. Any one who is ignorant of what this Kantian "idea of mankind" means, may perhaps understand it when he thinks of his sisters, his mother, his female relatives; it concerns them all: for our own sakes, then, woman ought to be treated as human, respected and not degraded, all sexuality implying degradation. But man can only respect woman when she herself ceases to wish to be object and material for man; if there is any question of emancipation it should be the emancipation from the prostitute element. It has never until now been made clear where the bondage of woman lies; it is in the sovereign, all too welcome power wielded on them by the Phallus. There can be no doubt that the men who have really desired the emancipation of women are the men who are not very sexual, who have no great craving for love, who are not very profound, but who are men of noble and spiritual minds. I am not going to try to palliate the erotic motives of man, nor to represent his antipathy to the "emancipated woman" as being in any sense less than it is; it is much easier to go with the majority, than, as Kant did, to climb, painfully and slowly, to the heights of isolation.
• A woman who had really given up her sexual self, who wished to be at peace would be no longer "woman." She would have ceased to be "woman," she would have received the inward and spiritual sign as well as the outward form of regeneration. Can such a thing be? There is no absolute woman, but even so to say "Yes" to the above question is like giving one's assent to a miracle. Emancipation will not make woman happier; it will not ensure her salvation, and it is a long road which leads to God. No being in the transition stage between freedom and slavery can be happy. But will woman choose to abandon slavery in order to become unhappy? The question is not merely if it be possible for woman to become moral. It is this: is it possible for woman really to wish to realise the problem of existence, the conception of guilt? Can she really desire freedom? This can happen only by her being penetrated by an ideal, brought to the guiding star. It can happen only if the categorical imperative were to become active in woman; only if woman can place herself in relation to the moral idea, the idea of humanity. In that way only can there be an emancipation of woman.
2023.04.01 22:07 RazorCandies I legitimately don't think 95% of people understand surreal or abstract art.
Let me paint a hypothetical picture for you
Let's just say a director films a scene in black and white. In it a white bird is flying across a stormy sky while some moody piece of classical plays. Then it reaches a sunny grassy field and the black and white changes to color. The colors become neon flashes as triumpht music plays. A rising tone.
That seems like a pretty basic metaphor to me. I just made it up. Travel thru these dark times and reach light. Color will return to your life. But like.. if this existed you'd just have people say "woah man what kind of drugs he smoking? Why the colors? Clearly a reference to LSD." Or "I see bird but I don't understand. Why he film just a random bird"
Or like in lyrics. When Lennon sang Lucy in the sky it was about the imagery he was trying to convey. The feeling of child like wonder But "lol it's about drugs and being high man"
All fucking abstract art gets this same stupid response. From Captain Beefheart to David Lynch. How hard is it to think about things poetically? Not every piece of art has to be literal.
submitted by RazorCandies to unpopularopinion [link] [comments]
Let's just say a director films a scene in black and white. In it a white bird is flying across a stormy sky while some moody piece of classical plays. Then it reaches a sunny grassy field and the black and white changes to color. The colors become neon flashes as triumpht music plays. A rising tone.
That seems like a pretty basic metaphor to me. I just made it up. Travel thru these dark times and reach light. Color will return to your life. But like.. if this existed you'd just have people say "woah man what kind of drugs he smoking? Why the colors? Clearly a reference to LSD." Or "I see bird but I don't understand. Why he film just a random bird"
Or like in lyrics. When Lennon sang Lucy in the sky it was about the imagery he was trying to convey. The feeling of child like wonder But "lol it's about drugs and being high man"
All fucking abstract art gets this same stupid response. From Captain Beefheart to David Lynch. How hard is it to think about things poetically? Not every piece of art has to be literal.
2023.04.01 21:54 Paladinfinitum The Shocking Never-Before-Seen Connection in US (2019)! (NON-SPOILER except for the very very first scene!)
Hello Internet! Welcome to... the Internet! The place where people sometimes do for free what MatPat does for MILLIONS of dollars. (You know that "attic" he films his YouTube Shorts in? More like "penthouse suite" in his hundred-floor mansion!)
Anyway, I've had this theory (a FILM theory!) bouncing around my head for a while, and it took me all of March to work out the convoluted connections, but fortunately, it is all SPOILER-FREE - because while it does involve the movie US (2019), it involves exactly one part of one scene, the very first scene in the entire movie, and knowing that will not spoil the rest of the movie for you. If you're still worried, feel free to go watch the movie right now and come right back! Now have a sit down with your extended family, this is going to be quite a ride!
So, here is the launching point of this theory: In the very first scene of US (2019), a television screen shows a lengthy commercial. That commercial is for...
HANDS ACROSS AMERICA, an event that occurred on May 25, 1986. On that day, people attempted to create a continuous human chain of people connecting the east and west coasts of the United States. They didn't quite succeed, though there are some calculations that maybe there were enough people to possibly make it happen if they were positioned just right. But it wasn't just a stunt, it was a fundraiser where people donated money to reserve their place, and that money, roughly fifteen million dollars, was donated to local charities. And this event was created by...
KEN KRAGEN, a music manager and producer, who over his lifetime managed such stars as Trisha Yearwood, Travis Tritt, and Kenny Rogers. He also was the executive producer of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. (He was also part of the chaotic Leno/Letterman battle for the Tonight Show, and portrayed himself in a movie based on it.) The year before he created Hands Across America, he was part of another fundraising event...
WE ARE THE WORLD (1985), an album and also famously the title of a song sung by numerous musicians, including Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, and Ray Charles (with forty-seven musicians all told). This supergroup was called USA for Africa, and used the millions of dollars collected (equivalent to $156,000,000 today) from sales to ship food, medicine, and clothing to Ethiopia, Sudan, and other African countries. While Kragen was the primary reason so many musicians took part, another person was also responsible for the event...
HARRY BELAFONTE, one of the most successful Caribbean-American singers and known for his Calypso songs such as The Banana Boat Song ("Day-O!"), though he sung in numerous genres. He was also a friend of Martin Luther King Jr. and continues to be involved in causes he believes in (including being part of the Hands Across America event above). He is also known for his movie roles including Island in the Sun. He was such a fan of acting that, when he was younger and needed to save money, he and a friend would buy one ticket total to see a show - one would go in to see the first half, then fill his friend in on what had happened so the other could watch the second half. And who was that friend?
SIDNEY POITIER, an actor and director who was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Acadamey Award for Best Actor for the movie "Lilies of the Field." He took acting classes at the Dramatic Workshop in New York, with his friend Belafonte and others such as Marlon Brando and Bea Arthur. While Poitier is also known for movies such as Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and A Raisin in the Sun, he is also known for the film...
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967), a mystery drama film where Poitier plays a black detective who must solve a murder in a small Mississippi town, where most of the residents despise him for his skin color, while the police, led by Rod Steiger's police chief, reluctantly assist him. The movie was a hit, and two sequels were made, as well as a television series in the 80s. Despite being set in the South, the film was actually shot in three towns in Illinois, including...
CHESTER, IL, a city along the Mississippi River, founded in 1829 by Samuel Smith, who named the city after his wife's hometown in England. Both Charles Dickens and Mark Twain are recorded as visiting the city; Twain wrote about it in his book, "Life on the Mississippi." It was also the home of E.C. Segar, who created the comic strip Thimble Theater and based the look of his characters on people around town. One of them, Frank Feigel, was a one-eyed brawler with a pipe, thus inspiring...
POPEYE, the Sailor Man, was a breakout star of Thimble Theater and soon became the subject of his own comics. He would generally solve problems by punching them, and under extreme circumstance would pop open a can of spinach and consume it in one gulp to gain incredible powers. Along with his longtime girlfriend Olive Oyl and rival Bluto, he would gain fame in animated cartoons and eventually a movie starring Robin Williams sporting gigantic forearms. In fact, Sony Pictures Animation intended to put forth a new computer-animated movie directed by Genndy Tartakovsky. But the movie was postponed and then eventually cancelled. And which amazing movie did Sony Pictures Animation create to take its place?
THE EMOJI MOVIE (2017), a movie about emojis. While a commercial success, critics were not exactly thrilled by the script, or the product placement, or the plot, or much of anything. Winning four Golden Raspberry Awards, it is generally considered a bad movie (except by Mr. Jacksfilms Douglas, who has been called "the #1 fan" of the film and attended its world premiere). One critique was the presence of the talking, ambulatory "poop" emoji, voiced by British actor Patrick Stewart. While Stewart is known for his amusing playing-against-type roles in animation, he actually took the role only after it was offered to another actor...
JORDAN PEELE, who upon realizing what the previous role entailed, was so annoyed that he decided to change the direction of his ENTIRE CAREER. As part of "Key & Peele," he was known as a hilarious actor and comedian, though his work behind the camera for the sketches was often noted for its skill and seriousness. He went on to present "Get Out" (coincidentally also in 2017), a psychological horror movie that received both box-office success and ciritcal acclaim for its plot and direction. Which then resulted in Peele creating a second horror film that opened just two years later...
And THAT, my friends, is how the first scene of US (2019) is connected to... the movie US (2019)!
And if you're left feeling a little confused, just bear in mind that it took me the whole month to write this up... and therefore, it's being displayed one day after the last day of March.
BUT HEY!
THAT'S JUST A THEORY!
AN APRIL FOOL'S THEORY!
THANKS FOR READING!
(Source is Wikipedia, the most trustworthy of all sources ever. The only stretch is connecting the demise of Popeye to the rise of the Emoji Movie. I can point to this YouTube video by Midnight's Edge (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPsmXytKkdg) that specifies it wasn't a direct cause-and-effect, but happened pretty much at the same time, so it's just enough of a correlation.)
submitted by Paladinfinitum to GameTheorists [link] [comments]
Anyway, I've had this theory (a FILM theory!) bouncing around my head for a while, and it took me all of March to work out the convoluted connections, but fortunately, it is all SPOILER-FREE - because while it does involve the movie US (2019), it involves exactly one part of one scene, the very first scene in the entire movie, and knowing that will not spoil the rest of the movie for you. If you're still worried, feel free to go watch the movie right now and come right back! Now have a sit down with your extended family, this is going to be quite a ride!
So, here is the launching point of this theory: In the very first scene of US (2019), a television screen shows a lengthy commercial. That commercial is for...
HANDS ACROSS AMERICA, an event that occurred on May 25, 1986. On that day, people attempted to create a continuous human chain of people connecting the east and west coasts of the United States. They didn't quite succeed, though there are some calculations that maybe there were enough people to possibly make it happen if they were positioned just right. But it wasn't just a stunt, it was a fundraiser where people donated money to reserve their place, and that money, roughly fifteen million dollars, was donated to local charities. And this event was created by...
KEN KRAGEN, a music manager and producer, who over his lifetime managed such stars as Trisha Yearwood, Travis Tritt, and Kenny Rogers. He also was the executive producer of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. (He was also part of the chaotic Leno/Letterman battle for the Tonight Show, and portrayed himself in a movie based on it.) The year before he created Hands Across America, he was part of another fundraising event...
WE ARE THE WORLD (1985), an album and also famously the title of a song sung by numerous musicians, including Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, and Ray Charles (with forty-seven musicians all told). This supergroup was called USA for Africa, and used the millions of dollars collected (equivalent to $156,000,000 today) from sales to ship food, medicine, and clothing to Ethiopia, Sudan, and other African countries. While Kragen was the primary reason so many musicians took part, another person was also responsible for the event...
HARRY BELAFONTE, one of the most successful Caribbean-American singers and known for his Calypso songs such as The Banana Boat Song ("Day-O!"), though he sung in numerous genres. He was also a friend of Martin Luther King Jr. and continues to be involved in causes he believes in (including being part of the Hands Across America event above). He is also known for his movie roles including Island in the Sun. He was such a fan of acting that, when he was younger and needed to save money, he and a friend would buy one ticket total to see a show - one would go in to see the first half, then fill his friend in on what had happened so the other could watch the second half. And who was that friend?
SIDNEY POITIER, an actor and director who was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Acadamey Award for Best Actor for the movie "Lilies of the Field." He took acting classes at the Dramatic Workshop in New York, with his friend Belafonte and others such as Marlon Brando and Bea Arthur. While Poitier is also known for movies such as Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and A Raisin in the Sun, he is also known for the film...
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967), a mystery drama film where Poitier plays a black detective who must solve a murder in a small Mississippi town, where most of the residents despise him for his skin color, while the police, led by Rod Steiger's police chief, reluctantly assist him. The movie was a hit, and two sequels were made, as well as a television series in the 80s. Despite being set in the South, the film was actually shot in three towns in Illinois, including...
CHESTER, IL, a city along the Mississippi River, founded in 1829 by Samuel Smith, who named the city after his wife's hometown in England. Both Charles Dickens and Mark Twain are recorded as visiting the city; Twain wrote about it in his book, "Life on the Mississippi." It was also the home of E.C. Segar, who created the comic strip Thimble Theater and based the look of his characters on people around town. One of them, Frank Feigel, was a one-eyed brawler with a pipe, thus inspiring...
POPEYE, the Sailor Man, was a breakout star of Thimble Theater and soon became the subject of his own comics. He would generally solve problems by punching them, and under extreme circumstance would pop open a can of spinach and consume it in one gulp to gain incredible powers. Along with his longtime girlfriend Olive Oyl and rival Bluto, he would gain fame in animated cartoons and eventually a movie starring Robin Williams sporting gigantic forearms. In fact, Sony Pictures Animation intended to put forth a new computer-animated movie directed by Genndy Tartakovsky. But the movie was postponed and then eventually cancelled. And which amazing movie did Sony Pictures Animation create to take its place?
THE EMOJI MOVIE (2017), a movie about emojis. While a commercial success, critics were not exactly thrilled by the script, or the product placement, or the plot, or much of anything. Winning four Golden Raspberry Awards, it is generally considered a bad movie (except by Mr. Jacksfilms Douglas, who has been called "the #1 fan" of the film and attended its world premiere). One critique was the presence of the talking, ambulatory "poop" emoji, voiced by British actor Patrick Stewart. While Stewart is known for his amusing playing-against-type roles in animation, he actually took the role only after it was offered to another actor...
JORDAN PEELE, who upon realizing what the previous role entailed, was so annoyed that he decided to change the direction of his ENTIRE CAREER. As part of "Key & Peele," he was known as a hilarious actor and comedian, though his work behind the camera for the sketches was often noted for its skill and seriousness. He went on to present "Get Out" (coincidentally also in 2017), a psychological horror movie that received both box-office success and ciritcal acclaim for its plot and direction. Which then resulted in Peele creating a second horror film that opened just two years later...
And THAT, my friends, is how the first scene of US (2019) is connected to... the movie US (2019)!
And if you're left feeling a little confused, just bear in mind that it took me the whole month to write this up... and therefore, it's being displayed one day after the last day of March.
BUT HEY!
THAT'S JUST A THEORY!
AN APRIL FOOL'S THEORY!
THANKS FOR READING!
(Source is Wikipedia, the most trustworthy of all sources ever. The only stretch is connecting the demise of Popeye to the rise of the Emoji Movie. I can point to this YouTube video by Midnight's Edge (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPsmXytKkdg) that specifies it wasn't a direct cause-and-effect, but happened pretty much at the same time, so it's just enough of a correlation.)
2023.04.01 21:46 Capital-Ant2812 Hello can you tell me what y'all think of this
I was writing this story and thinking of turning it into a webtoon. Can you tell me what you think.
My mom finally caved in. “Fine, make sure you’re prepared and take the train to school. Make sure you’re careful and follow all instructions!”
“Don’t worry mom,” I grumbled. “It's not like any of us have superpowers anyway.”
I finished my food, grabbed everything I needed and rushed out the door.
Living here is expensive but it sure is amazing if you can succeed.
Even if the world was almost destroyed 250 years ago we sure were able to come a long way in that time. It was great enough that me and Thomas’ parents would try so hard to be able to live here.
At first glance it was beautiful like a dream. Sector 3 was one of the best Districts except 1 and 2.
It buzzed with life with people on their way to work and wherever they needed to go. Cars hovered over the ground at speeds of 20 to 30 miles per hour.They made a sort of buzzing noise that was music to my ears. The smells of food cooking in fancy restaurants attacked my nostrils hoping to draw my attention and buy their food. Good thing I had a hearty breakfast because I don’t think I could afford any of them right now. Teenagers like me hung out with their hoverboards doing all types of tricks that could easily backfire in a nearby park. They had neon colored hair, mohawks along with other choices in fashion that my school and I just don’t agree with. Other businesses such as hospitals, hair salons, movie theaters also seemed to attract crowds like a magnet. I even passed by the hospital my mom worked at. It was a huge dark skyscraper with a spacious parking lot with its name Healing Haven Hospital in bright colored letters at the top.
Sector 3 was a great place to live if you could afford it. Although If you looked hard enough you noticed the people that failed to make ends meet. In the slums people slept in man made houses of trash and boxes. Others smoked and did drugs which was kind of illegal. Either they weren’t caught or the soldiers didn’t care enough to check. Children wearing dirty rags who were so skinny you could count their ribs rummaged through trash and fought over any spoils. It wasn’t fair that this greedy government would place laws and taxes that would force them to suffer this horrible fate. I need money whether or not it's legal as long as it can keep my family fed and happy.
15 minutes after I left the house I finally reached the train station. I got off my hoverboard and got in line and thankfully it wasn’t that long. When I reached the doors, I almost had a heart attack. Guarding the door where two sentinels armed to the teeth carrying large guns and dressed in their signature white bulletproof armor.
“Pay up please,” the one on the right said as he stretched out his hand. He held a device that would collect the money you need to take to ride the train.
“Okay,” I agreed with a nervous voice.
I took out my own phone and paid. I was able to get a seat on the train I was keeping all to myself with no troubles.
After we started moving I finally was able to let myself relax. I thought I was this close to being arrested before I could do anything illegal today.
Sentinels are usually stationed in places such as banks and homes of important people like governors. But this is the first time I’ve seen them deployed at a train station. I remember when I wanted to be one when I was a kid and go to District 2 to make lots of money but my parents made me give up that dream. District 2 specializes in military and security. That was where soldiers trained and lived. Higher Ups also had access to a luxurious life in a fancy mansion and more money than what they actually needed. This is where the hovercrafts that soared the sky providing surveillance were built and maintained. Where Epizon’s forces that would protect our country from its threats could prepare for any possibility. Prepare for what I always ask. Most of the world has been destroyed. Africa has never shown any hostility to us. No, they’re just here to enforce this tyrannical government and eliminate any that may possess abilities.
I grabbed my headphones from my backpack and played my favorite songs. At least I can enjoy the view.
It was like I was flying as the train soared through the sky on a railway that snaked throughout the city. Never actually touching since the train was connected through powerful electromagnets saving both energy and money. The city looked even more impressive when you had a bird’s eye view.
Couples and families enjoyed picnics on tables at the Liberty State Park. People walked in and out of the Interpretive Center where history from about 300 years was taught. It still had memorials dedicated to remembering events like what happened centuries ago at 9/11. Now there’s a huge memorial dedicated to those who fought to save us from the Enhanced. It's still so hard to believe that people with super powers exist. I’ve learned about them in history class but they seem so unreal. I’ve never seen somebody shoot fire or fly so either the military is really good at their job or this is all made up.
District 3 of the great utopia Epizon. Named after the Greek word for survivor. When the continents Australia, Europe, South America, and Asia were destroyed in World War Three. By the Enhanced who gained powers that almost destroyed the world. Thankfully, the remnants of North America were able to stand up and defeat all the Enhanced people and create the amazing paradise we live in.
It sounds so unreal it has to be propaganda to control the Sectors.
We flew over the Hudson River Walkway. It was my favorite view on the train ride because I loved the way sunlight would reflect off the pristine turquoise waters. It's a shame we don’t really get to swim or fish though. That’s probably for the best.
The rest of the train ride went fast and before I knew it I was at my stop. I grabbed my hoverboard and raced to school because the Victor can’t be late.
While this District has its downsides it could really get a lot worse from here. However, District 1 was the real paradise. It was where the most important people with the most standing lived. The President, his wife, and other high ranking government officials lived there. In enormous mansions separated by acres where all the other people who enforced laws and taxes that made it difficult for my parents to live and provide for us.
But District 3 was the best place where people who are more fortunate like me could live. As long as you were skilled enough and worked hard enough. My mom was a somewhat prominent doctor at one of the biggest hospitals in this District. District 3 specializes in a lot of fields but the one it specializes in is medical science. Medicine, prosthetics, you can get the best of them from here. And my dad was vice president at a company that released some of the best virtual reality games. Entertainment is just as important as health in Epizon. Which meant I sometimes received popular games before everyone else. I remember so many times my parents and I would play together exploring outer space, fighting monsters. My parents are so cool, right?
You’d think that our life would be a little more luxurious and it was. Unfortunately, the selfish government increased taxes and fees from school started to pile up. As the victor in sophomore year I was exempt from those rules as long as I remained Victor. But my parents have yet to completely finish paying all those debts.
It's dangerous to get lost in your thoughts when you’re traveling 3 feet off the ground at 15 miles per hour on a hoverboard because you might end up running into a moving car. Thankfully, I managed to stop just in time.
“So, the Victor almost crashes to a fatal stop. It would be sad, you know. I’d hate for my best friend to die like that.”
I knew that voice.
I turned around and noticed that mischievous grin with sharp teeth I was so familiar with. With his strong red eyes and messy black hair he could’ve been a criminal. Well he technically should be but we’re too smart to get caught.
“Thomas, how’re you?” I asked as I got off my hoverboard.
“Oh, nothing, just waiting for you,” he replied. “I knew you’d show up here to catch the levitrain.”
He gave me a hug and somehow managed to pick me up and spin me around like something a kid would ask their parents to do.
“How’re you doing my best friend? Did you actually get a huge extravagant meal because I just did. My mom just got paid and she didn’t save a single epi.”
“Yeah, I actually did and so I can actually keep my breakfast and not throw up let me down.”
“Sure!”
“How’re you so strong anyway? I know you work out but are you seriously that strong. Don’t tell me you actually have super strength.”
“I hope I don’t. Life sucks as is but it would get even worse if I suddenly awakened superpowers.”
I feel the same. It’s rough but we can make it better.
“Fistbump!”
We always managed to read each other’s minds.
“Are you ready for these physicals?” I asked.
“I’m so sick of those things,” he replied. “Oh, it’s time for us to cross.”
We both got on our hoverboards and raced towards school.
“Don’t worry about it, you're strong and you’re pretty muscular,” I assured him. “But, I hope you’re not strong enough to throw a car or something.”
“Don’t worry about it, I've already tried. Nah, I’m kidding.”
“So, are we doing that job today,” Thomas asked with a mischievous grin.
“You know it,” I said.
CHAPTER 2
Now you have to admit our school was pretty impressive.
First of all, it was gigantic. It sort of resembled a castle but really high tech in blue, red, and white colors. In the middle FutureTech was printed in red and blue and was highlighted in white. The dorms were on the left side. And the rest of the other facilities and equipment was in the other half. This was FutureTech, a place which was probably the best school a student could ask for. Less than 20% of those who apply here make the cut. And the majority of them were rich kids who could afford to pay the tuition. Me and Thomas barely made it and it was really tough. But we both worked hard and eventually I became the Victor. One of the perks of being a Victor that must’ve been in place for people like us was that the Victor could choose anyone who didn’t have as much money as the others to be their second in command. They would be exempt from the tuition and other crazy rules. Did you know you have to pay a security fee after a year?
Crazy.
But those only applied if the other guy had good grades and a clean track record. But only as long as I’m the Victor and if either of us do anything that breaks the rules we’ll both be kicked out. Talk about pressure.
But this was the best place to learn anything really. Law, business, art, engineering and other sciences. And it could all be done here.
The school had defenses in place to protect the lives of students and staff. An electromagnetic barrier surrounded the entire establishment. Stretching out a few acres across outside the building. If you wanted to get in you had to get through the one gate in the front. At the gate there were security cameras, x-rays, and 10 armed Sentinels just for extra security. The security was just as intense inside making it nearly impossible to do anything that violated the rules. They didn’t waste a single epi.
“Man, the security of this place is unnerving as always,” Thomas complained.
“It never fails to show me just how out of place we are.”
“Of course the security is advanced. The children of really important people receive education here. This helps them make sure they aren’t kidnapped. I do agree it's unnerving but at least it’s secure. Besides you and I both deserve to be here”
We walked through the sliding doors and saw just how beautiful the school was inside.
The place was illuminated by golden lights. Robots made clunky noises while drones wizzed over my head. I could barely hear myself think over the voices of other students. Girls argued over petty things like their hairstyles and whose boyfriend was better. While boys competed to see who’s stronger or more handsome. Rainbow colors flashed from the lab to the right. Future doctors practiced their skills on mannequins in the lab at the left.
“Hey, look, it's the Victor!”
Soon, the whole school had their eyes on me.
Girls and boys waved and applauded. Even the ones on the second floor whooped and jumped around. Not everyone felt the same though. Some students snickered and sneered while others glared with hatred and jealousy. Even when you work hard to be at the top not everyone will appreciate it.
“You’re popular,” Thomas remarked.
“Too bad not everyone is a fan. You still got the ladies cheering for you. You think you could give them a good word about me?” Thomas joked.
“You know that’s not how it is. We’re on different levels in society. I lose my title as Victor and I fade into the background.”
“Besides, you're smart and strong. Try hard enough and you could get a girlfriend. Just don’t let anyone catch on to our extracurricular activities.”
“Look at that smug smile on his face,” a voice rang out.
“It must be nice to be the Victor's lap dog. I could use that so explain why it is getting wasted on that idiot.”
“ He thinks he’s so strong and mighty just because of that stupid pin. Wait till I get my hands on it, fool.”
“He should watch out. It’d be unfortunate if an accident were to happen. No one would miss some commoners who couldn’t support themselves without that Victor title.”
“Who is that?” Thomas demanded.
“If I find out who they are they won’t have to worry about creating any accident.”
“Chill out Thomas. None of them have the guts or smarts to try anything. Besides, together there’s nothing they can do to either of us.”
“You’re right. We have brains and muscles,” he said as he flexed his arms.
I don’t blame some of them though. Kids who weren’t super wealthy but still made it could use the privileges I got from this title. There were also the selfish rich kids who had more money than they really needed. But I couldn't bear to see someone work hard to achieve something they couldn’t. It makes me so sick sometimes. Our parents do our best just to put a roof over our heads and pay taxes. But I became Victor and that’s a problem. I apologize but I’m not giving it up anytime soon.
“ So what’s first on Victor's schedule?”
“First, we have History class. Then, I have to give a report on quantum physics. Then we have lunch right before the physicals.”
“Well, while you’re doing your fancy report on quantum psychics I’m doing one on the state of this Sector. There’s so many children and families without homes. If I simply beg them nothing will happen. I’ll convince them why they should lend money and support to those who really deserve it. They can train adults to help reinforce the Walls. Add them to the military. Children can also be useful for things. Think about all the new medications they could try by using sick children. They could also put extremely smart children to work in engineering. Even the government can’t ignore the potential of children if given the right environment.”
Good old Thomas is always thinking of ways to help those in need. He takes every advantage and tool he can if it means he can improve the lives of his mother’s and others. More reason for me to fight to stay the Victor.
“Thomas, I have a question.”
“What is it?” he asked.
“Let’s say if you can do what you plan. What if some of those who you’re helping have powers?”
Thomas' face darkened as he stopped his stride.
I hate to do this to him but what if some of those he’s trying to help are Enhanced. People who have done nothing wrong superpowers or not don’t deserve to be hurt out of fear and hatred. Especially if it was because my best friend was only trying to genuinely help.
“I’m not sure. I can already imagine what the government would do if they got their hands on Enhanced people. But if I can only help people with no powers who actually need it. Am I wrong to try even if it could hurt others?”
Thomas’ statement really made me think. The government will hunt those with powers without question. But if he can help the others is that really so wrong? If only we could get the power and authority to change Epizon for the better. A place where rich or poor, normal or superpowered don’t matter. The only thing that you’ll be judged on is your character.
But I guess we’ve got to help our families and graduate first.
“Let’s go Thomas. We can both think about that later. But first let’s catch an elevator to the third floor and learn more history. YAY!!”
“Ok! I’ll race you!”
In 5 minutes we made it to History class before we could’ve been marked late. Seriously, why does Mr. Rodrigo’s class has to be all the way at the end of the hallway.
We took our seats in the front with Thomas right behind me and got ready.
Mr. Rodrigo was an intimidating man. He was 6ft 6 inches tall. He had an even more muscular body than Thomas and his platinum blonde hair was as tidy as always. But the most frightening part was his silver right arm prosthetic which I swore could punch through steel. No student turned in work late in this class. We had a Veteran soldier, not some pushover.
“Today, in class we’ll be discussing World War Three and what led to it 250 years ago!” Mr Rodrigo announced.
The projector in front turned on into an educational video to teach us about the history of Epizon.
This is how the story went. Over 250 years the Earth was a beautiful place. All the major continents and countries were still thriving and Epizon was known as North America. It was a place where all races were equal. And people could enjoy nature and the same standards of living. No one went hungry and people could afford anything they could ever want. Yeah right.
However, this peace and prosperity was interrupted when the Chosen rebelled. When the greatest scientists of North America were able to give selected people superpowers to make sure peace could continue to prosper. However, the Chosen got drunk on their new powers. They betrayed our country and killed those who gave them their powers to make sure no one could fight against them. After taking full control of our country they waged war on the rest of the world, Starting World War Three. However, other major world powers also developed their own Chosen. In the next 10 years Asia, South America, Europe, and Australia were completely destroyed.
However, our country’s usurpers had almost destroyed themselves in the war. While they grew complacent with their powers we built up our resources in secret. When they attempted to heal their wounds we launched a counter strike against them. Using whatever tactics it took from air strikes, snipings, and more. A major part was thanks to a specially created poison that could weaken those with powers and even kill them. We finally won over them and took our country back. To celebrate we named our country Epizon and split it into 20 Sectors. The most crucial people in the war effort against the former Chosen were elected to be governors, secretaries with the President on top. With their descendants guiding Epizon to greatness and equality centuries later.
What a load of bull.
This country isn’t fair or equal at all! My parents struggle just to pay stupid bills! I go on these stupid jobs just to make sure me and my best friend's family don’t have to sleep on the streets. The horrible fate of those who couldn’t make it haunts me everytime I go around the city. One doesn’t even have a fair chance of becoming a politician if they aren't related to one.
I got so mad I snapped my pen in half. A waste of a perfectly good pen.
“Mark, are you good?” Thomas whispered.
“Yes, I’m fine. Sorry just lost my temper-”
A metal fist slammed into my table.
“Mr. Mark, is there a reason why you and your friend are interrupting class. Do you perhaps feel that as the Victor you have nothing to learn from this topic.”
The rest of the class snickered and snorted.
“Actually no Thomas and I were comparing the earliest of Epizon to now to highlight just how much our country has grown. I apologize if we interrupted your class.”
“Oh really. Well since you already know this class backwards and forwards you can teach the class. In fact, you can educate them on the Bloody River Incident. Consider this a test. And I do hope you know your facts. After all, I was the only survivor of that horrible massacre ”
The Bloody River Incident was a catastrophe where 1,000 died. I only learned about it last year because whenever the aftermath turned on the news my parents removed it.
“I’d love to educate our class on Epizon’s history, Mr. Rodrigo.”
Three years ago the Sentinels launched an attack on a refugee camp of Enhanced in Sector 4. Unfortunately, the battalion of 1,000 Sentinels was all wiped out. It got its title for the color the Hudson River turned when the blood of fallen soldiers mixed in. The security for schools, banks, and other “important” places increased. Of course they never bothered with things like public transportation until recently.
“Anytime this year,” Mr. Rodrigo complained.
Why did I have to get a pop quiz today?
Chapter 3
“Finally, we get to go to lunch,” Thomas cheered.
“Did you bring anything today?”
“I was super lucky today. My mom made this huge spread so I’ve got some leftover pancakes, bacon and some eggs. What about you?”
“Oh nothing so special. My mom was still at work so I gathered up some things and made lasagna.”
“Your mom’s super awesome lasagna,” I wondered.
“I’ll share some with you if you share with me,” he said.
Thanks to the insulated lunch box Thomas’ food was still warm. The aroma of all the wonderful spices gave me delight.
“Sure. One of the special privileges I get to enjoy is your mom’s lasagna. After all the school lunch is too expensive and while it may be high class food. It still pales in comparison to homemade food made with love.”
“Isn’t that right? So Mark, what do you want to do once you graduate? We can’t be criminals forever.”
“I was thinking about starting a company using our inventions. I’ve been talking to my dad about it and if I can remain the Victor until I graduate. It will be a great sales pitch especially if we can improve our projects. Even Epizon can’t deny geniuses who can make their country even greater.”
“You’re right. How did your Dad like our skeleton key?”
“He wasn’t fond of it at all. He said he didn’t want us to use our intellect to make weapons. Instead, we should work with my mom to find ways we can help people. For example, my mom’s a neurosurgeon. Sentinels who’ve suffered grievous injuries in training exercises will be looking for someone who can really fix them. Paralysis, loss of motor control, even the prosthetics they use sometimes malfunction.”
I took out my laptop and typed a few buttons. In three minutes I pulled a sort of research paper I made in my spare time.
“I’ve heard that some nervous systems are unable to handle the stress of handling new prostheses. And the more prosthesis they implant the more the increase in side effects. Some soldiers sign up for weaponized implants to improve their combat powers. I heard they can even copy some powers like pyrokinesis or super strength.”
“That’s crazy. Anyways I’m hungry. Let's discuss this after lunch.”
We’ll need all the energy we can get.
We split the food both ways and chowed down.
Thomas took out a mini speaker and started playing rock music. Before we knew it we started using the forks and spoons we had as music instruments. We tapped and beat to the music. But we calmed down a little when we received glares. We can’t be looking foolish.
The cafeteria was big enough to carry two hovercrafts. It had gold chandeliers and pristine white walls. Tables ranging for 1, for 2, and 4 were scattered out. Robots taking orders, collecting checks, and bringing food raced around on high tech wheels. The air was packed with aromas from dishes prepared by some of the best chefs in Epizon. However, what I despised the most wasn’t the high cost of food that made me avoid relying on school lunch. But the snot nosed rich kids who went out of their way to bring their own fancy dresses and suits just for the cafeteria. I mean are you serious? And the school allowed them to do it as long as it was just for lunch. I pitied the other kids who stood out because they weren’t in the position to waste the few good clothes they had. I certainly could agree with that. These kids would dance, sing loud and do whatever else that was annoying.
On our table just for two that was far away from the majority we ate our lunch in peace.
“Your mom’s lasagna is just as good as it’s always been Thomas. I could never quite recreate it even when you gave me the recipe.”
“Of course you couldn’t. It’s a secret skill that can only be learned by my bloodline.”
HAAH! HAAH!! HAAH!!!
Would it be too much to ask if we could just laugh like this forever.
“I see you’re enjoying yourself Victor.”
Someone just had to ruin the fun.
I heard the tip tapping of shoes from right behind me. One girl, two boys.
“I hate this guy. Why’d he even come to this school? He should have just been homeschooled in his nice mansion in Sector 1.”
“Come on, commoner. You should be grateful to be blessed for me to come to you. Your lap dog should feel grateful too.”
“This guy,” Thomas growled.
He grabbed a chair and sat right in the middle of us. His lackeys stayed right behind him.
The aggressor was the son of the President, the most powerful man in Epizon. He was tall for 15 6ft 3 inches. His white skin had no freckle, zit, or pimple in sight. His red eyes went well with the red highlights in his hair. Usually dying your hair isn’t allowed but when you’re the President’s son you get to break a few rules.
His two lackeys are Merle, daughter of Sector 4’s Governor, and Sector 3’s Secretary Charles.
“Jason. It’s time for us to eat lunch. What would you like to order?” Merle asked.
“Knowing Jason he’s going to order whatever’s the most expensive thing on the menu,” Charles answered.
“That’s right I Jason Powers sit at the top of Epizon. I come from a line of great people like secretaries, governors, generals, and revolutionary scientists. Someone of my standing deserves nothing less than the best.”
“Very well, I shall place your order now.”
Jason pointed at me.
“But what are you eating Victor? What’s on your plate? Pancakes,eggs,lasagna. I won’t allow someone as esteemed as the Victor to eat from such a shabby diet. At this school you’re one of the only people at this school at my level. Maybe I should order the second most expensive thing on this menu.”
“Ok!”
“What-” both Thomas and him exclaimed.
“If possible, can I take it to go?”
Look I’m not passing up free high class food even if I don’t like the guy that’s offering.
“Guess I’ll order it then. I’ll take something to get Waiter-bot!”
In response a nearby Waiter-bot rushed over.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Thomas whispered.
“Look, I'm not turning down free food. Maybe I’ll give it to my parents.”
“And what about your third string?”, he addressed Thomas.
Thomas jumped out of his seat and looked like he was about to start a fight. Thankfully, his smart to know that’s a bad idea.
“Considering you’re the lowest person here. Should I buy you the fifth most expensive dish? Or did that restaurant your mom owns mean you don’t need it. It used to be so high-class you know but ever since Father placed those taxes you haven’t been doing so well. You’re still successful, sure but your mom must be struggling to run it.”
Thomas was about to raise his fist but I quickly smacked it down.
“He’ll take it and thanks for your kind consideration.”
“If you need anything, here's my card. I may take pity on you.”
In 20 minutes the Waiterbots brought our food after Jason and his lackeys left.
We had Massaman curry, wagyu beef, Japanese sushi and other delicacies.
“WHY! Why would you accept that he’s mocking us!”
“But he’s giving us free food Thomas,” I leaned in to whisper.
“We literally do all these illegal side jobs that could get us and our families in danger if we’re found out. So we can provide for them. You think I’m passing up free food.”
Thomas' expression finally relaxed.
“You’re right it’s like you said free food is free food.”
The loudspeakers in the cafeteria shouted out loud:
“Will the Victor please come down to the basement prepared for the assessment.”
Voices from the crowd erupted.
“So, the Victor is going first?”
“I’m glad it’s not me.”
“What if he has powers? What if the Sentinels can’t bring him down?” We can’t leave until the assessments are over.”
“I hope he doesn’t come back. Then, I can be the Victor.”
“You think it’s going to be you. It’s going to be me.”
Why did it have to be me first? I wish these kids would shut up, they're making it worse.
“What are these brats talking about? Half of these brats couldn’t hope to be as good as you or me for that matter so they shouldn’t get their hopes up. The only thing stopping Jason from being Victor is you so there’s that.”
Thomas is always there to cheer me up.
“Well, I’ll put this food in our lockers so we can eat them after school. That’s if I actually see you again.”
“Yeah, yeah I hope you can’t shoot fire or fly too because then I’d be in trouble.”
“HAAH!! HAAH!! HAAH!!”
“Don’t do your best Mark, I'll see you later.”
After changing into my gym clothes I was escorted by 4 sentinels to the basement. It was only accessible by a special elevator built for that purpose alone. After what was probably 4 whole minutes with people who were ready to fill me up with lead. We finally arrived at the basement.
The Basement was where the annual assessment to discover if a student possessed super powers.
You see Enhanced have this sort of bioelectric aura that they emit that couldn’t be recognized using the human senses. They can only only be recognized using incredibly advanced technology. if an Enhanced got enough experience with their abilities, they could hide their bioelectric aura from machines too. However, this aura is linked to their powers and are stronger when they are used or the individual is under extreme stress. So the government came up with an idea.
To set up a school system where students can be monitored and powered people can be identified. With Sentinels there to take them down. And that is why every kid in Epizon has to go to some kind of school or get an annual check up. It’s so they can kill powered people when they’re young.
Could this society be more wrong? It saddens me to know that it could.
We finally stopped and the doors opened wide open.
“Keep walking?” the Sentinel to my right demanded.
Guess it’s time to get this over with.
We arrived at the Vault. It looked just like some high tech bank but instead of keeping people out. It was made to make sure they couldn’t escape. With automatic machine guns on the walls, Sentinels, and 12 foot thick walls of high grade steel it wasn’t going to be easy to escape. And in the case of an incident the elevator upstairs would be locked. Leaving you trapped under bedrock unless you could teleport or had some other useful power for that situation.
One Sentinel walked over to the Vault's white doors and demanded entry.
“Open, Sentinel 1706!”
With a click and clank the doors started to open slowly.
It finally sank in just how nervous I was. I was just as nervous as last year. I’ve seen kids that took the physicals never returning. As if they never even existed. My heart started to race and I could feel the sweat crawling down my face.
Please don’t tell me I’m an Enhanced person. I don’t need superpowers. I just need to graduate and start an awesome company. Hanging out with Thomas and helping our families. That's all I want to do! I just want to be normal like everyone else.
“Relax, you’re hyperventilating. You’re the Victor , you should be calm and composed. I mean don’t give us a reason to suspect you before the assessment even starts.”
Crap, I let them see me weak.
“Of course not, I'm just planning this out that’s all.”
However, my focus was ruined by ominous threats.
“Let’s kill those kids.”
“They’ll all pay for what they’ve done.”
“The sins of the parents shall be held accountable by their children.”
“Let the Revolution begin!”
Hey, what are those voices? They just started flooding in my head.
I looked around but I couldn’t find any culprits. I’m sure none of those voices belonged to a Sentinel. No Sentinel would dare to harm a student here without approval. So where was that coming from?
“Hey, who was that? Are you playing some kind of game?” I asked.
“What are you talking about, kid. Don’t try anything, follow the rules, and you’ll be fine.”
“BUT!!”
The final part of the Vaults wall barely opened before I heard a deafening boom.
The ground started shaking and the ceiling began to collapse.
“Did something happen upstairs,” a Sentinel asked.
“What the hell is going on?”
My question was answered by a ginormous explosion.
Would it be a good idea to start the webtoon with how the world was destroyed. Like it's normal and boom everything's destroyed. Continents have fallen, North America was a wasteland, and 250 years ago Mark and his friend are on the run from gangsters on their way to school.
submitted by Capital-Ant2812 to writers [link] [comments]
My mom finally caved in. “Fine, make sure you’re prepared and take the train to school. Make sure you’re careful and follow all instructions!”
“Don’t worry mom,” I grumbled. “It's not like any of us have superpowers anyway.”
I finished my food, grabbed everything I needed and rushed out the door.
Living here is expensive but it sure is amazing if you can succeed.
Even if the world was almost destroyed 250 years ago we sure were able to come a long way in that time. It was great enough that me and Thomas’ parents would try so hard to be able to live here.
At first glance it was beautiful like a dream. Sector 3 was one of the best Districts except 1 and 2.
It buzzed with life with people on their way to work and wherever they needed to go. Cars hovered over the ground at speeds of 20 to 30 miles per hour.They made a sort of buzzing noise that was music to my ears. The smells of food cooking in fancy restaurants attacked my nostrils hoping to draw my attention and buy their food. Good thing I had a hearty breakfast because I don’t think I could afford any of them right now. Teenagers like me hung out with their hoverboards doing all types of tricks that could easily backfire in a nearby park. They had neon colored hair, mohawks along with other choices in fashion that my school and I just don’t agree with. Other businesses such as hospitals, hair salons, movie theaters also seemed to attract crowds like a magnet. I even passed by the hospital my mom worked at. It was a huge dark skyscraper with a spacious parking lot with its name Healing Haven Hospital in bright colored letters at the top.
Sector 3 was a great place to live if you could afford it. Although If you looked hard enough you noticed the people that failed to make ends meet. In the slums people slept in man made houses of trash and boxes. Others smoked and did drugs which was kind of illegal. Either they weren’t caught or the soldiers didn’t care enough to check. Children wearing dirty rags who were so skinny you could count their ribs rummaged through trash and fought over any spoils. It wasn’t fair that this greedy government would place laws and taxes that would force them to suffer this horrible fate. I need money whether or not it's legal as long as it can keep my family fed and happy.
15 minutes after I left the house I finally reached the train station. I got off my hoverboard and got in line and thankfully it wasn’t that long. When I reached the doors, I almost had a heart attack. Guarding the door where two sentinels armed to the teeth carrying large guns and dressed in their signature white bulletproof armor.
“Pay up please,” the one on the right said as he stretched out his hand. He held a device that would collect the money you need to take to ride the train.
“Okay,” I agreed with a nervous voice.
I took out my own phone and paid. I was able to get a seat on the train I was keeping all to myself with no troubles.
After we started moving I finally was able to let myself relax. I thought I was this close to being arrested before I could do anything illegal today.
Sentinels are usually stationed in places such as banks and homes of important people like governors. But this is the first time I’ve seen them deployed at a train station. I remember when I wanted to be one when I was a kid and go to District 2 to make lots of money but my parents made me give up that dream. District 2 specializes in military and security. That was where soldiers trained and lived. Higher Ups also had access to a luxurious life in a fancy mansion and more money than what they actually needed. This is where the hovercrafts that soared the sky providing surveillance were built and maintained. Where Epizon’s forces that would protect our country from its threats could prepare for any possibility. Prepare for what I always ask. Most of the world has been destroyed. Africa has never shown any hostility to us. No, they’re just here to enforce this tyrannical government and eliminate any that may possess abilities.
I grabbed my headphones from my backpack and played my favorite songs. At least I can enjoy the view.
It was like I was flying as the train soared through the sky on a railway that snaked throughout the city. Never actually touching since the train was connected through powerful electromagnets saving both energy and money. The city looked even more impressive when you had a bird’s eye view.
Couples and families enjoyed picnics on tables at the Liberty State Park. People walked in and out of the Interpretive Center where history from about 300 years was taught. It still had memorials dedicated to remembering events like what happened centuries ago at 9/11. Now there’s a huge memorial dedicated to those who fought to save us from the Enhanced. It's still so hard to believe that people with super powers exist. I’ve learned about them in history class but they seem so unreal. I’ve never seen somebody shoot fire or fly so either the military is really good at their job or this is all made up.
District 3 of the great utopia Epizon. Named after the Greek word for survivor. When the continents Australia, Europe, South America, and Asia were destroyed in World War Three. By the Enhanced who gained powers that almost destroyed the world. Thankfully, the remnants of North America were able to stand up and defeat all the Enhanced people and create the amazing paradise we live in.
It sounds so unreal it has to be propaganda to control the Sectors.
We flew over the Hudson River Walkway. It was my favorite view on the train ride because I loved the way sunlight would reflect off the pristine turquoise waters. It's a shame we don’t really get to swim or fish though. That’s probably for the best.
The rest of the train ride went fast and before I knew it I was at my stop. I grabbed my hoverboard and raced to school because the Victor can’t be late.
While this District has its downsides it could really get a lot worse from here. However, District 1 was the real paradise. It was where the most important people with the most standing lived. The President, his wife, and other high ranking government officials lived there. In enormous mansions separated by acres where all the other people who enforced laws and taxes that made it difficult for my parents to live and provide for us.
But District 3 was the best place where people who are more fortunate like me could live. As long as you were skilled enough and worked hard enough. My mom was a somewhat prominent doctor at one of the biggest hospitals in this District. District 3 specializes in a lot of fields but the one it specializes in is medical science. Medicine, prosthetics, you can get the best of them from here. And my dad was vice president at a company that released some of the best virtual reality games. Entertainment is just as important as health in Epizon. Which meant I sometimes received popular games before everyone else. I remember so many times my parents and I would play together exploring outer space, fighting monsters. My parents are so cool, right?
You’d think that our life would be a little more luxurious and it was. Unfortunately, the selfish government increased taxes and fees from school started to pile up. As the victor in sophomore year I was exempt from those rules as long as I remained Victor. But my parents have yet to completely finish paying all those debts.
It's dangerous to get lost in your thoughts when you’re traveling 3 feet off the ground at 15 miles per hour on a hoverboard because you might end up running into a moving car. Thankfully, I managed to stop just in time.
“So, the Victor almost crashes to a fatal stop. It would be sad, you know. I’d hate for my best friend to die like that.”
I knew that voice.
I turned around and noticed that mischievous grin with sharp teeth I was so familiar with. With his strong red eyes and messy black hair he could’ve been a criminal. Well he technically should be but we’re too smart to get caught.
“Thomas, how’re you?” I asked as I got off my hoverboard.
“Oh, nothing, just waiting for you,” he replied. “I knew you’d show up here to catch the levitrain.”
He gave me a hug and somehow managed to pick me up and spin me around like something a kid would ask their parents to do.
“How’re you doing my best friend? Did you actually get a huge extravagant meal because I just did. My mom just got paid and she didn’t save a single epi.”
“Yeah, I actually did and so I can actually keep my breakfast and not throw up let me down.”
“Sure!”
“How’re you so strong anyway? I know you work out but are you seriously that strong. Don’t tell me you actually have super strength.”
“I hope I don’t. Life sucks as is but it would get even worse if I suddenly awakened superpowers.”
I feel the same. It’s rough but we can make it better.
“Fistbump!”
We always managed to read each other’s minds.
“Are you ready for these physicals?” I asked.
“I’m so sick of those things,” he replied. “Oh, it’s time for us to cross.”
We both got on our hoverboards and raced towards school.
“Don’t worry about it, you're strong and you’re pretty muscular,” I assured him. “But, I hope you’re not strong enough to throw a car or something.”
“Don’t worry about it, I've already tried. Nah, I’m kidding.”
“So, are we doing that job today,” Thomas asked with a mischievous grin.
“You know it,” I said.
CHAPTER 2
Now you have to admit our school was pretty impressive.
First of all, it was gigantic. It sort of resembled a castle but really high tech in blue, red, and white colors. In the middle FutureTech was printed in red and blue and was highlighted in white. The dorms were on the left side. And the rest of the other facilities and equipment was in the other half. This was FutureTech, a place which was probably the best school a student could ask for. Less than 20% of those who apply here make the cut. And the majority of them were rich kids who could afford to pay the tuition. Me and Thomas barely made it and it was really tough. But we both worked hard and eventually I became the Victor. One of the perks of being a Victor that must’ve been in place for people like us was that the Victor could choose anyone who didn’t have as much money as the others to be their second in command. They would be exempt from the tuition and other crazy rules. Did you know you have to pay a security fee after a year?
Crazy.
But those only applied if the other guy had good grades and a clean track record. But only as long as I’m the Victor and if either of us do anything that breaks the rules we’ll both be kicked out. Talk about pressure.
But this was the best place to learn anything really. Law, business, art, engineering and other sciences. And it could all be done here.
The school had defenses in place to protect the lives of students and staff. An electromagnetic barrier surrounded the entire establishment. Stretching out a few acres across outside the building. If you wanted to get in you had to get through the one gate in the front. At the gate there were security cameras, x-rays, and 10 armed Sentinels just for extra security. The security was just as intense inside making it nearly impossible to do anything that violated the rules. They didn’t waste a single epi.
“Man, the security of this place is unnerving as always,” Thomas complained.
“It never fails to show me just how out of place we are.”
“Of course the security is advanced. The children of really important people receive education here. This helps them make sure they aren’t kidnapped. I do agree it's unnerving but at least it’s secure. Besides you and I both deserve to be here”
We walked through the sliding doors and saw just how beautiful the school was inside.
The place was illuminated by golden lights. Robots made clunky noises while drones wizzed over my head. I could barely hear myself think over the voices of other students. Girls argued over petty things like their hairstyles and whose boyfriend was better. While boys competed to see who’s stronger or more handsome. Rainbow colors flashed from the lab to the right. Future doctors practiced their skills on mannequins in the lab at the left.
“Hey, look, it's the Victor!”
Soon, the whole school had their eyes on me.
Girls and boys waved and applauded. Even the ones on the second floor whooped and jumped around. Not everyone felt the same though. Some students snickered and sneered while others glared with hatred and jealousy. Even when you work hard to be at the top not everyone will appreciate it.
“You’re popular,” Thomas remarked.
“Too bad not everyone is a fan. You still got the ladies cheering for you. You think you could give them a good word about me?” Thomas joked.
“You know that’s not how it is. We’re on different levels in society. I lose my title as Victor and I fade into the background.”
“Besides, you're smart and strong. Try hard enough and you could get a girlfriend. Just don’t let anyone catch on to our extracurricular activities.”
“Look at that smug smile on his face,” a voice rang out.
“It must be nice to be the Victor's lap dog. I could use that so explain why it is getting wasted on that idiot.”
“ He thinks he’s so strong and mighty just because of that stupid pin. Wait till I get my hands on it, fool.”
“He should watch out. It’d be unfortunate if an accident were to happen. No one would miss some commoners who couldn’t support themselves without that Victor title.”
“Who is that?” Thomas demanded.
“If I find out who they are they won’t have to worry about creating any accident.”
“Chill out Thomas. None of them have the guts or smarts to try anything. Besides, together there’s nothing they can do to either of us.”
“You’re right. We have brains and muscles,” he said as he flexed his arms.
I don’t blame some of them though. Kids who weren’t super wealthy but still made it could use the privileges I got from this title. There were also the selfish rich kids who had more money than they really needed. But I couldn't bear to see someone work hard to achieve something they couldn’t. It makes me so sick sometimes. Our parents do our best just to put a roof over our heads and pay taxes. But I became Victor and that’s a problem. I apologize but I’m not giving it up anytime soon.
“ So what’s first on Victor's schedule?”
“First, we have History class. Then, I have to give a report on quantum physics. Then we have lunch right before the physicals.”
“Well, while you’re doing your fancy report on quantum psychics I’m doing one on the state of this Sector. There’s so many children and families without homes. If I simply beg them nothing will happen. I’ll convince them why they should lend money and support to those who really deserve it. They can train adults to help reinforce the Walls. Add them to the military. Children can also be useful for things. Think about all the new medications they could try by using sick children. They could also put extremely smart children to work in engineering. Even the government can’t ignore the potential of children if given the right environment.”
Good old Thomas is always thinking of ways to help those in need. He takes every advantage and tool he can if it means he can improve the lives of his mother’s and others. More reason for me to fight to stay the Victor.
“Thomas, I have a question.”
“What is it?” he asked.
“Let’s say if you can do what you plan. What if some of those who you’re helping have powers?”
Thomas' face darkened as he stopped his stride.
I hate to do this to him but what if some of those he’s trying to help are Enhanced. People who have done nothing wrong superpowers or not don’t deserve to be hurt out of fear and hatred. Especially if it was because my best friend was only trying to genuinely help.
“I’m not sure. I can already imagine what the government would do if they got their hands on Enhanced people. But if I can only help people with no powers who actually need it. Am I wrong to try even if it could hurt others?”
Thomas’ statement really made me think. The government will hunt those with powers without question. But if he can help the others is that really so wrong? If only we could get the power and authority to change Epizon for the better. A place where rich or poor, normal or superpowered don’t matter. The only thing that you’ll be judged on is your character.
But I guess we’ve got to help our families and graduate first.
“Let’s go Thomas. We can both think about that later. But first let’s catch an elevator to the third floor and learn more history. YAY!!”
“Ok! I’ll race you!”
In 5 minutes we made it to History class before we could’ve been marked late. Seriously, why does Mr. Rodrigo’s class has to be all the way at the end of the hallway.
We took our seats in the front with Thomas right behind me and got ready.
Mr. Rodrigo was an intimidating man. He was 6ft 6 inches tall. He had an even more muscular body than Thomas and his platinum blonde hair was as tidy as always. But the most frightening part was his silver right arm prosthetic which I swore could punch through steel. No student turned in work late in this class. We had a Veteran soldier, not some pushover.
“Today, in class we’ll be discussing World War Three and what led to it 250 years ago!” Mr Rodrigo announced.
The projector in front turned on into an educational video to teach us about the history of Epizon.
This is how the story went. Over 250 years the Earth was a beautiful place. All the major continents and countries were still thriving and Epizon was known as North America. It was a place where all races were equal. And people could enjoy nature and the same standards of living. No one went hungry and people could afford anything they could ever want. Yeah right.
However, this peace and prosperity was interrupted when the Chosen rebelled. When the greatest scientists of North America were able to give selected people superpowers to make sure peace could continue to prosper. However, the Chosen got drunk on their new powers. They betrayed our country and killed those who gave them their powers to make sure no one could fight against them. After taking full control of our country they waged war on the rest of the world, Starting World War Three. However, other major world powers also developed their own Chosen. In the next 10 years Asia, South America, Europe, and Australia were completely destroyed.
However, our country’s usurpers had almost destroyed themselves in the war. While they grew complacent with their powers we built up our resources in secret. When they attempted to heal their wounds we launched a counter strike against them. Using whatever tactics it took from air strikes, snipings, and more. A major part was thanks to a specially created poison that could weaken those with powers and even kill them. We finally won over them and took our country back. To celebrate we named our country Epizon and split it into 20 Sectors. The most crucial people in the war effort against the former Chosen were elected to be governors, secretaries with the President on top. With their descendants guiding Epizon to greatness and equality centuries later.
What a load of bull.
This country isn’t fair or equal at all! My parents struggle just to pay stupid bills! I go on these stupid jobs just to make sure me and my best friend's family don’t have to sleep on the streets. The horrible fate of those who couldn’t make it haunts me everytime I go around the city. One doesn’t even have a fair chance of becoming a politician if they aren't related to one.
I got so mad I snapped my pen in half. A waste of a perfectly good pen.
“Mark, are you good?” Thomas whispered.
“Yes, I’m fine. Sorry just lost my temper-”
A metal fist slammed into my table.
“Mr. Mark, is there a reason why you and your friend are interrupting class. Do you perhaps feel that as the Victor you have nothing to learn from this topic.”
The rest of the class snickered and snorted.
“Actually no Thomas and I were comparing the earliest of Epizon to now to highlight just how much our country has grown. I apologize if we interrupted your class.”
“Oh really. Well since you already know this class backwards and forwards you can teach the class. In fact, you can educate them on the Bloody River Incident. Consider this a test. And I do hope you know your facts. After all, I was the only survivor of that horrible massacre ”
The Bloody River Incident was a catastrophe where 1,000 died. I only learned about it last year because whenever the aftermath turned on the news my parents removed it.
“I’d love to educate our class on Epizon’s history, Mr. Rodrigo.”
Three years ago the Sentinels launched an attack on a refugee camp of Enhanced in Sector 4. Unfortunately, the battalion of 1,000 Sentinels was all wiped out. It got its title for the color the Hudson River turned when the blood of fallen soldiers mixed in. The security for schools, banks, and other “important” places increased. Of course they never bothered with things like public transportation until recently.
“Anytime this year,” Mr. Rodrigo complained.
Why did I have to get a pop quiz today?
Chapter 3
“Finally, we get to go to lunch,” Thomas cheered.
“Did you bring anything today?”
“I was super lucky today. My mom made this huge spread so I’ve got some leftover pancakes, bacon and some eggs. What about you?”
“Oh nothing so special. My mom was still at work so I gathered up some things and made lasagna.”
“Your mom’s super awesome lasagna,” I wondered.
“I’ll share some with you if you share with me,” he said.
Thanks to the insulated lunch box Thomas’ food was still warm. The aroma of all the wonderful spices gave me delight.
“Sure. One of the special privileges I get to enjoy is your mom’s lasagna. After all the school lunch is too expensive and while it may be high class food. It still pales in comparison to homemade food made with love.”
“Isn’t that right? So Mark, what do you want to do once you graduate? We can’t be criminals forever.”
“I was thinking about starting a company using our inventions. I’ve been talking to my dad about it and if I can remain the Victor until I graduate. It will be a great sales pitch especially if we can improve our projects. Even Epizon can’t deny geniuses who can make their country even greater.”
“You’re right. How did your Dad like our skeleton key?”
“He wasn’t fond of it at all. He said he didn’t want us to use our intellect to make weapons. Instead, we should work with my mom to find ways we can help people. For example, my mom’s a neurosurgeon. Sentinels who’ve suffered grievous injuries in training exercises will be looking for someone who can really fix them. Paralysis, loss of motor control, even the prosthetics they use sometimes malfunction.”
I took out my laptop and typed a few buttons. In three minutes I pulled a sort of research paper I made in my spare time.
“I’ve heard that some nervous systems are unable to handle the stress of handling new prostheses. And the more prosthesis they implant the more the increase in side effects. Some soldiers sign up for weaponized implants to improve their combat powers. I heard they can even copy some powers like pyrokinesis or super strength.”
“That’s crazy. Anyways I’m hungry. Let's discuss this after lunch.”
We’ll need all the energy we can get.
We split the food both ways and chowed down.
Thomas took out a mini speaker and started playing rock music. Before we knew it we started using the forks and spoons we had as music instruments. We tapped and beat to the music. But we calmed down a little when we received glares. We can’t be looking foolish.
The cafeteria was big enough to carry two hovercrafts. It had gold chandeliers and pristine white walls. Tables ranging for 1, for 2, and 4 were scattered out. Robots taking orders, collecting checks, and bringing food raced around on high tech wheels. The air was packed with aromas from dishes prepared by some of the best chefs in Epizon. However, what I despised the most wasn’t the high cost of food that made me avoid relying on school lunch. But the snot nosed rich kids who went out of their way to bring their own fancy dresses and suits just for the cafeteria. I mean are you serious? And the school allowed them to do it as long as it was just for lunch. I pitied the other kids who stood out because they weren’t in the position to waste the few good clothes they had. I certainly could agree with that. These kids would dance, sing loud and do whatever else that was annoying.
On our table just for two that was far away from the majority we ate our lunch in peace.
“Your mom’s lasagna is just as good as it’s always been Thomas. I could never quite recreate it even when you gave me the recipe.”
“Of course you couldn’t. It’s a secret skill that can only be learned by my bloodline.”
HAAH! HAAH!! HAAH!!!
Would it be too much to ask if we could just laugh like this forever.
“I see you’re enjoying yourself Victor.”
Someone just had to ruin the fun.
I heard the tip tapping of shoes from right behind me. One girl, two boys.
“I hate this guy. Why’d he even come to this school? He should have just been homeschooled in his nice mansion in Sector 1.”
“Come on, commoner. You should be grateful to be blessed for me to come to you. Your lap dog should feel grateful too.”
“This guy,” Thomas growled.
He grabbed a chair and sat right in the middle of us. His lackeys stayed right behind him.
The aggressor was the son of the President, the most powerful man in Epizon. He was tall for 15 6ft 3 inches. His white skin had no freckle, zit, or pimple in sight. His red eyes went well with the red highlights in his hair. Usually dying your hair isn’t allowed but when you’re the President’s son you get to break a few rules.
His two lackeys are Merle, daughter of Sector 4’s Governor, and Sector 3’s Secretary Charles.
“Jason. It’s time for us to eat lunch. What would you like to order?” Merle asked.
“Knowing Jason he’s going to order whatever’s the most expensive thing on the menu,” Charles answered.
“That’s right I Jason Powers sit at the top of Epizon. I come from a line of great people like secretaries, governors, generals, and revolutionary scientists. Someone of my standing deserves nothing less than the best.”
“Very well, I shall place your order now.”
Jason pointed at me.
“But what are you eating Victor? What’s on your plate? Pancakes,eggs,lasagna. I won’t allow someone as esteemed as the Victor to eat from such a shabby diet. At this school you’re one of the only people at this school at my level. Maybe I should order the second most expensive thing on this menu.”
“Ok!”
“What-” both Thomas and him exclaimed.
“If possible, can I take it to go?”
Look I’m not passing up free high class food even if I don’t like the guy that’s offering.
“Guess I’ll order it then. I’ll take something to get Waiter-bot!”
In response a nearby Waiter-bot rushed over.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Thomas whispered.
“Look, I'm not turning down free food. Maybe I’ll give it to my parents.”
“And what about your third string?”, he addressed Thomas.
Thomas jumped out of his seat and looked like he was about to start a fight. Thankfully, his smart to know that’s a bad idea.
“Considering you’re the lowest person here. Should I buy you the fifth most expensive dish? Or did that restaurant your mom owns mean you don’t need it. It used to be so high-class you know but ever since Father placed those taxes you haven’t been doing so well. You’re still successful, sure but your mom must be struggling to run it.”
Thomas was about to raise his fist but I quickly smacked it down.
“He’ll take it and thanks for your kind consideration.”
“If you need anything, here's my card. I may take pity on you.”
In 20 minutes the Waiterbots brought our food after Jason and his lackeys left.
We had Massaman curry, wagyu beef, Japanese sushi and other delicacies.
“WHY! Why would you accept that he’s mocking us!”
“But he’s giving us free food Thomas,” I leaned in to whisper.
“We literally do all these illegal side jobs that could get us and our families in danger if we’re found out. So we can provide for them. You think I’m passing up free food.”
Thomas' expression finally relaxed.
“You’re right it’s like you said free food is free food.”
The loudspeakers in the cafeteria shouted out loud:
“Will the Victor please come down to the basement prepared for the assessment.”
Voices from the crowd erupted.
“So, the Victor is going first?”
“I’m glad it’s not me.”
“What if he has powers? What if the Sentinels can’t bring him down?” We can’t leave until the assessments are over.”
“I hope he doesn’t come back. Then, I can be the Victor.”
“You think it’s going to be you. It’s going to be me.”
Why did it have to be me first? I wish these kids would shut up, they're making it worse.
“What are these brats talking about? Half of these brats couldn’t hope to be as good as you or me for that matter so they shouldn’t get their hopes up. The only thing stopping Jason from being Victor is you so there’s that.”
Thomas is always there to cheer me up.
“Well, I’ll put this food in our lockers so we can eat them after school. That’s if I actually see you again.”
“Yeah, yeah I hope you can’t shoot fire or fly too because then I’d be in trouble.”
“HAAH!! HAAH!! HAAH!!”
“Don’t do your best Mark, I'll see you later.”
After changing into my gym clothes I was escorted by 4 sentinels to the basement. It was only accessible by a special elevator built for that purpose alone. After what was probably 4 whole minutes with people who were ready to fill me up with lead. We finally arrived at the basement.
The Basement was where the annual assessment to discover if a student possessed super powers.
You see Enhanced have this sort of bioelectric aura that they emit that couldn’t be recognized using the human senses. They can only only be recognized using incredibly advanced technology. if an Enhanced got enough experience with their abilities, they could hide their bioelectric aura from machines too. However, this aura is linked to their powers and are stronger when they are used or the individual is under extreme stress. So the government came up with an idea.
To set up a school system where students can be monitored and powered people can be identified. With Sentinels there to take them down. And that is why every kid in Epizon has to go to some kind of school or get an annual check up. It’s so they can kill powered people when they’re young.
Could this society be more wrong? It saddens me to know that it could.
We finally stopped and the doors opened wide open.
“Keep walking?” the Sentinel to my right demanded.
Guess it’s time to get this over with.
We arrived at the Vault. It looked just like some high tech bank but instead of keeping people out. It was made to make sure they couldn’t escape. With automatic machine guns on the walls, Sentinels, and 12 foot thick walls of high grade steel it wasn’t going to be easy to escape. And in the case of an incident the elevator upstairs would be locked. Leaving you trapped under bedrock unless you could teleport or had some other useful power for that situation.
One Sentinel walked over to the Vault's white doors and demanded entry.
“Open, Sentinel 1706!”
With a click and clank the doors started to open slowly.
It finally sank in just how nervous I was. I was just as nervous as last year. I’ve seen kids that took the physicals never returning. As if they never even existed. My heart started to race and I could feel the sweat crawling down my face.
Please don’t tell me I’m an Enhanced person. I don’t need superpowers. I just need to graduate and start an awesome company. Hanging out with Thomas and helping our families. That's all I want to do! I just want to be normal like everyone else.
“Relax, you’re hyperventilating. You’re the Victor , you should be calm and composed. I mean don’t give us a reason to suspect you before the assessment even starts.”
Crap, I let them see me weak.
“Of course not, I'm just planning this out that’s all.”
However, my focus was ruined by ominous threats.
“Let’s kill those kids.”
“They’ll all pay for what they’ve done.”
“The sins of the parents shall be held accountable by their children.”
“Let the Revolution begin!”
Hey, what are those voices? They just started flooding in my head.
I looked around but I couldn’t find any culprits. I’m sure none of those voices belonged to a Sentinel. No Sentinel would dare to harm a student here without approval. So where was that coming from?
“Hey, who was that? Are you playing some kind of game?” I asked.
“What are you talking about, kid. Don’t try anything, follow the rules, and you’ll be fine.”
“BUT!!”
The final part of the Vaults wall barely opened before I heard a deafening boom.
The ground started shaking and the ceiling began to collapse.
“Did something happen upstairs,” a Sentinel asked.
“What the hell is going on?”
My question was answered by a ginormous explosion.
Would it be a good idea to start the webtoon with how the world was destroyed. Like it's normal and boom everything's destroyed. Continents have fallen, North America was a wasteland, and 250 years ago Mark and his friend are on the run from gangsters on their way to school.
2023.04.01 21:40 why2009 AEW Double Or Nothing 2023 PPV!!!
Promotion All Elite Wrestling
Date May 28, 2023
City Paradise, Nevada
Venue T-Mobile Arena
AEW Trio's World
Ricky Starks, Darby Allen, Jungle Boy Jack Perry vs House Of Black (c)
(25:00)
AEW World Tag
FTR vs The Gunn Club (c)
(13:00)
AEW TBS
Jade Cargill (c) vs Ruby Soho/Saraya Knight
(11:00)
AEW International
Sammy Guevara vs Orange Cassidy (c)
(16:00)
AEW FTW
Scorpio Sky vs Hook (c)
(12:00)
Monster vs Giant
Wardlow vs Lance Archer
(11:00)
AEW TNT
Samoa Joe vs Power House Hobbs (c)
(12:00)
AEW Debut
Switch Blade Jay White vs Jeff Hardy
(16:00)
Casino Chip Ladder
PAC vs Keith Lee vs Bryan Danielson vs Max Caster vs Dustin Rhodes vs Christian Cage *Returns a "Tweener" vs Sting
(18:00)
AEW Women's World/ "Unification of Interim/Official"
Thunder Rosa vs Jamie Hayter (c) ala *Moxley squashing Punk on Dynamite circa August 2022 * "Toni Storm assisted as well, officially dis solving her pairing with Thunder Rosa"
(6:00)
AEW Women's World Made Impromptu by Toni Storm "Cashing in her rightful Rematch"
Toni Storm vs Jamie Hayter (c)
(15:00)
AEW World Last Chance Elimination Open Challenge
Hangman Adam Page5th eliminated vs Kenny Omega3rd eliminated vs CM Punk1st eliminated vs Jon Moxley4th eliminated vs Chris Jericho2nd eliminated vs MJF (c)
(25:00)
Eliminations:
CM Punk by Jon Moxley at 5:00
Chris Jericho by Jon Moxley at 10:00
Kenny Omega by Hangman Adam Page at 13:00
Jon Moxley by MJF at 16:00
Hangman Adam Page by MJF/Jeff Jarrett whom interferes to assist MJF in retaining at 25:00
submitted by why2009 to fantasybooking [link] [comments]
Date May 28, 2023
City Paradise, Nevada
Venue T-Mobile Arena
AEW Trio's World
Ricky Starks, Darby Allen, Jungle Boy Jack Perry vs House Of Black (c)
(25:00)
AEW World Tag
FTR vs The Gunn Club (c)
(13:00)
AEW TBS
Jade Cargill (c) vs Ruby Soho/Saraya Knight
(11:00)
AEW International
Sammy Guevara vs Orange Cassidy (c)
(16:00)
AEW FTW
Scorpio Sky vs Hook (c)
(12:00)
Monster vs Giant
Wardlow vs Lance Archer
(11:00)
AEW TNT
Samoa Joe vs Power House Hobbs (c)
(12:00)
AEW Debut
Switch Blade Jay White vs Jeff Hardy
(16:00)
Casino Chip Ladder
PAC vs Keith Lee vs Bryan Danielson vs Max Caster vs Dustin Rhodes vs Christian Cage *Returns a "Tweener" vs Sting
(18:00)
AEW Women's World/ "Unification of Interim/Official"
Thunder Rosa vs Jamie Hayter (c) ala *Moxley squashing Punk on Dynamite circa August 2022 * "Toni Storm assisted as well, officially dis solving her pairing with Thunder Rosa"
(6:00)
AEW Women's World Made Impromptu by Toni Storm "Cashing in her rightful Rematch"
Toni Storm vs Jamie Hayter (c)
(15:00)
AEW World Last Chance Elimination Open Challenge
(25:00)
Eliminations:
CM Punk by Jon Moxley at 5:00
Chris Jericho by Jon Moxley at 10:00
Kenny Omega by Hangman Adam Page at 13:00
Jon Moxley by MJF at 16:00
Hangman Adam Page by MJF/Jeff Jarrett whom interferes to assist MJF in retaining at 25:00
2023.04.01 21:38 REALCellWaters Some Posts (04 01 2023) - 2
Post 01:
Those psychopaths and sexual sadists INTENTIONALLY gave me the HIV scare. I have no doubt. I am so angry, upset, and don't know what to do.
Post 02:
They took somebody who is clean, practically a virgin, and metaphorically raped me. They made me feel HIV positive. If what they did is not a crime, it should be, I say it again, and again, and again. It's true. I just don't know what to do. I was metaphorically raped.
Post 03:
I don't know why I think everybody finds the HIV scare, me being involuntarily celibate, and my suffering "hot" and "sexy." Maybe most people are aren't psychopathic monsters like my parents are and they empathize with metaphoric "Elizabeth Smart" and "Anne Frank."
Post 04:
Maybe the people I'm surrounded by are monsters who find my suffering "hot" and "sexy", but in reality most people are good. It's not projection of intent. My parents really were getting sadistic sexual pleasure from my suffering. Without a doubt. It's not me projecting it.
Post 05:
Is everybody a psychopathic monster and sexual sadist? It certainly feels like the real world is full of sadistic, evil people. Nobody cares that I was being tortured by sexual sadists for 35 years then I was given an HIV scare intentionally. They'd rather turn a blind eye.
Post 06:
They're all liars and deceivers, every single one of them, and at this point just trust no one. The only person I should trust is MYSELF because I'm not delusional, I know it, they know it, they just gaslight me because they're afraid their negligence and crimes will get exposed.
Post 07:
Stop with the I'm a Nazi or a self-righteous terrorist narrative. Yes, I'm extremely angry. But if you were being tortured like Elizabeth Smart for 35 years, you'd be emotional too. I'm a good guy. An empathetic person. I want to help people. I'm just disassociated and damaged.
Post 08:
I've never had a problem with drugs or alcohol, assuming my parents aren't poisoning my dinners, if I have brain damage, develop a stroke, or get brain cancer it's because of the trauma I lived through. I was being intentionally tortured. They wanted me to be like "Syd Barrett."
Post 09:
After 35 years of living through the metaphoric Holocaust in the United States of America, living through unimaginable pain and suffering, and I'm probably going to get a terminal illness like cancer soon, I deserve to enjoy my life from this moment forward. I deserve the best.
Post 10:
It's not like The Blue Blazer from the WWE, which is a negligent accident that people feel badly about. This is more like the Holocaust, but kind of like Killing Mr. Griffin. They had bad intentions from the very beginning. Now they're lying about their intent. They're not sorry.
Post 11:
The only reason they're going to lie about their intentions is because they never expected it to get exposed. Now they'll try to act like it was a prank gone wrong - which is bullshit. They were trying to metaphorically rape me and expected to get away with it completely.
Post 12:
Stop comparing me to people like Adam Lanza. Although I have schizoaffective disorder and he probably had schizophrenia. I'm a good guy who likes helping people. Adam Lanza is more like the people who tortured me. He's not like me. Most mentally ill people are good people.
submitted by REALCellWaters to cellwaters [link] [comments]
Those psychopaths and sexual sadists INTENTIONALLY gave me the HIV scare. I have no doubt. I am so angry, upset, and don't know what to do.
Post 02:
They took somebody who is clean, practically a virgin, and metaphorically raped me. They made me feel HIV positive. If what they did is not a crime, it should be, I say it again, and again, and again. It's true. I just don't know what to do. I was metaphorically raped.
Post 03:
I don't know why I think everybody finds the HIV scare, me being involuntarily celibate, and my suffering "hot" and "sexy." Maybe most people are aren't psychopathic monsters like my parents are and they empathize with metaphoric "Elizabeth Smart" and "Anne Frank."
Post 04:
Maybe the people I'm surrounded by are monsters who find my suffering "hot" and "sexy", but in reality most people are good. It's not projection of intent. My parents really were getting sadistic sexual pleasure from my suffering. Without a doubt. It's not me projecting it.
Post 05:
Is everybody a psychopathic monster and sexual sadist? It certainly feels like the real world is full of sadistic, evil people. Nobody cares that I was being tortured by sexual sadists for 35 years then I was given an HIV scare intentionally. They'd rather turn a blind eye.
Post 06:
They're all liars and deceivers, every single one of them, and at this point just trust no one. The only person I should trust is MYSELF because I'm not delusional, I know it, they know it, they just gaslight me because they're afraid their negligence and crimes will get exposed.
Post 07:
Stop with the I'm a Nazi or a self-righteous terrorist narrative. Yes, I'm extremely angry. But if you were being tortured like Elizabeth Smart for 35 years, you'd be emotional too. I'm a good guy. An empathetic person. I want to help people. I'm just disassociated and damaged.
Post 08:
I've never had a problem with drugs or alcohol, assuming my parents aren't poisoning my dinners, if I have brain damage, develop a stroke, or get brain cancer it's because of the trauma I lived through. I was being intentionally tortured. They wanted me to be like "Syd Barrett."
Post 09:
After 35 years of living through the metaphoric Holocaust in the United States of America, living through unimaginable pain and suffering, and I'm probably going to get a terminal illness like cancer soon, I deserve to enjoy my life from this moment forward. I deserve the best.
Post 10:
It's not like The Blue Blazer from the WWE, which is a negligent accident that people feel badly about. This is more like the Holocaust, but kind of like Killing Mr. Griffin. They had bad intentions from the very beginning. Now they're lying about their intent. They're not sorry.
Post 11:
The only reason they're going to lie about their intentions is because they never expected it to get exposed. Now they'll try to act like it was a prank gone wrong - which is bullshit. They were trying to metaphorically rape me and expected to get away with it completely.
Post 12:
Stop comparing me to people like Adam Lanza. Although I have schizoaffective disorder and he probably had schizophrenia. I'm a good guy who likes helping people. Adam Lanza is more like the people who tortured me. He's not like me. Most mentally ill people are good people.
2023.04.01 21:30 BreafingBread Sources told Brazilian newspaper that Drake lied about his cancellation in Brazil and other stuff.
Folha de Sao Paulo, one of the biggest newspaper in Brazil, reported yesterday that sources who worked in the festival's production confirmed that around 50 people in Drake's crew were already in Brazil and spent all night setting up the stage, audio equipment and other structures, like a huge LED panel.
Alledegly, Drake's crew learned that he wouldn't be coming while they were setting up the stage. And the ones who broke the news to them was T4F, Lolla's production company, not Drake.
The sources also say they didn't know about the cancellation and that everyone was working like usual until the cancellation went public. Lollapalooza had reserved 30 rooms for Drake and his crew, costing upwards of 100k USD.
Unrelated to Lollapalooza, Drake was also paid 200k USD to appear at an after party after his Lollapalooza performance. He was supposed to stay at the after party for 90 minutes and do two ADs on his Instagram stories. He didn't. And according to the guy who hired him, he also hasn't given back the money he was paid for the after party.
Additionally, this newspaper claims that their sources say that Drake doesn't like doing shows in South America for three reasons:
And the same newspaper said this thursday that Drake still hasn't returned the 4 million dollars he was paid for the Lollapalooza show.
submitted by BreafingBread to Drizzy [link] [comments]
Alledegly, Drake's crew learned that he wouldn't be coming while they were setting up the stage. And the ones who broke the news to them was T4F, Lolla's production company, not Drake.
The sources also say they didn't know about the cancellation and that everyone was working like usual until the cancellation went public. Lollapalooza had reserved 30 rooms for Drake and his crew, costing upwards of 100k USD.
Unrelated to Lollapalooza, Drake was also paid 200k USD to appear at an after party after his Lollapalooza performance. He was supposed to stay at the after party for 90 minutes and do two ADs on his Instagram stories. He didn't. And according to the guy who hired him, he also hasn't given back the money he was paid for the after party.
Additionally, this newspaper claims that their sources say that Drake doesn't like doing shows in South America for three reasons:
- Shows in South America don't pay as much as other countries, like the US and Saudi Arabia (he was paid 4M for the Lollapalooza Brazil show).
- He thinks the South American public is "too demanding", and that he doesn't like "the expectation they create for a show, expecting a huge show with lights, special effects and dancers".
- And lastly he thinks the Brazilian crowd is "low-spirited" and that they have "no energy". Supposedly he was "traumatized" by his Rock in Rio show in 2019 and he thinks the Brazilian crowd sing with a "wrong english".
And the same newspaper said this thursday that Drake still hasn't returned the 4 million dollars he was paid for the Lollapalooza show.
2023.04.01 21:24 SamRaimisOldsDelta88 I can’t believe that this is a thing
 | submitted by SamRaimisOldsDelta88 to Thisisimportantpod [link] [comments] |
2023.04.01 21:22 throwawaytempest25 thirty 7 reasons YuGiOh Sevens anime and Rush Duels are the worst series to ever happen to the YuGiOh franchise
1: Crow didn't show up. They didn't break the tradition of the protagonist beating a 3000 atk monster in episodes 1 or 2, but didn't keep the tradition of him showing up in every odd number season post DM.
2: Noh Gil bo didn't return. Instead of working on the comedic YuGiOh, he went to animate episodes for the comedic Precure seasons. Granted, his animations in those shows are good, but if he could work on the comedic Precure, let him work for the comedy YuGiOh.
3: Rush Duels were made because Konami completely screwed up with the power creeping in YuGiOh. Sevens is Konami's fault.
4: There were no official subs. The subbing team did a good job, but good luck getting people who want the original version without 4KMedia's isms.
5: Yuga is the worst duel protagonist. His win record is 21 wins and 9 losses, not counting the 108 duels he won alongside Nail and Roa. Worse, his win record is 70%. That can get you through middle school, high school, college, but not being a good YuGiOh protagonist.
6: The video game didn't get updated for the states well.
7: It's too comedic and lighthearted like GX. And if you hated the tone shift of season 3, you'll hate it less.
8: They could've used the 20th anniversary to make a crossover between the other six series. They could've fixed the ending to Arc-V, give Yusaku more personality, give Tori something to do, erase Crow from existence, make Bastion prominent, and treat main Bakura like an actual character.
9: Ghost Girl and Ranze have the same voice actress and sadly, her VA's combined character roles have only ONE win and One DRAW to their name.
10: Gakuto should've had one win in the first 13 episodes. I get he's supposed to be the Tristan of the group, but it took 24 episodes until it felt like the writers actually cared about his dueling process.
11: It's called SEVENS when there's six letters in it's name. Take away the RANS in VRAINS and you have the roman numerals, 6. That makes more sense.
12: The women actually win duels in the second half and final season of the show. That's not the YuGiOh I grew up with and that's weird.
13: The Rush Duel game is still currently exclusive to Japan and Korea. How the hell are people over here going to enjoy the series when the card game isn't in the important country that matters! No wonder SEVENS and Rush Duels are a massive failure.....in America
14: Yuga losing so much makes no sense. How do you create the game, but still lose?! That's like if Pegasus lost a game in Duel Monsters, or if the developers of King of Fighters lost to Mexican fans and developers at their own game and had to create a busty wrestler inspired by the Rock. I feel like making a Pac Man analogy for some reason.
15: They brought back characters dueling on motorcycle-like vehicles again! We did it in Arc V, you gave Shark that weird cycle in Zexal, but you didn't do it in VRAINS where characters could customize avatars and boards, but they didn't duel on bikes there, but in SEVENS? F this show.
16: It is a little jarring to go from a series with little to no magic to then having Monster Reborn being a rare card that can steal people's memories.
17: I don't have a problem with the pigeon dueling, we had a pigeon in VRAINS, that's fine. But what packaging company sends a kid under the age of 11 to do a delivery while there's a snowstorm?
18: Ending 2 literally spoils the plot of the Rush Duel Robot breaking thanks to the restraints before the whole "beat us 6 to 6 or it gets destroyed arc." Sheesh, they didn't spoil the second half of VRAINS or their own season but now this?
19: Luke being an annoying piece of crap half the time is worth it when Tiger calls him out, especially if you hate how perfect his win record is, but considering she's part of the reason he is the way he is, it's kinda hard to not put the blame on her.
20: Asana's final duel should've been more impactful. Maybe if she fought one the Goha Siblings.
21: Same with Nail. Everyone was getting their own ceremonial duels. It makes sense it's his only friend, but at the same time, someone like the Goha Drone would work or President but the show needed someone at Goha evil enough for it to hit stronger. Nail needed another duel after 65. He barely got to use any new aces after season 1.
22: Luke getting convinced to betray his own friends for the Goha Siblings just by being baited and talked to somehow manages to work being in character but also extremely stupid at the same time!
23: It ripped off Buddyfight because both have a protagonist named Yuga. Just because one was animated by OLM and Xebec and the other by Bridge doesn't excuse the blatant plagiarism.
24: What is with Japan's minor obsession with having a female character under the age of 18 being really bad at cooking? Like I'm not saying I chuckled at an 11 year old pouring gunpower in a pot and two ninjas and their lord having to point out how bad it is, but it's such a weird gag.
25: No adult has won a duel the whole show. Way to attack your diehard fanbase! Kids shouldn't be allowed to get into YuGiOh anyway, they literally showed that with Yuga Goha becoming an obsessed psycho who wanted to make people more upset than when Mystic Mine wasn't banned.
26: There needed to be more details on Otes. Him being the final villain and wanting to destroy the dueling system because Konami...um...Goha made it so restrictive so he could rebuild it, fine. But was he related to the first Goha President who built the system, how does he have so many ties and ways to get around the city beyond his ties to Goha, did he know Asana's situation and Goha blackmailing her, just answers to those.
27: Some of the duels are so freaking stupid. Like in what normal YuGiOh season where two people would duel over what show to watch? That's about as stupid as a restaurant patron getting mad at the service, challenging the waiter to a duel, and losing from Tongue Twister!
28: I just can't get behind the unrealistic setting. I mean, really. A society run almost entirely by a single, all-encompassing megacorporation that controls the populous via proprietary technology, mass surveillance, and discriminatory AI? It's just not believable.
29: The show could've used 10 more episodes. Covid probably was the reason, but it still feels like there's stuff on the cutting room floor.
30: The tournament arc legitimately should've been better with more episodes. It didn't have to be 26 episodes like doubling it, but at least 6 or 7 more episodes could've allowed for more matchups before the finals.
31: Speaking of which, Romin vs Sushiko 2 could've been the new Yuzu vs Masumi. Shame. I dunno, after Arc-V, it honestly feels like the only people who get rematch duels are the protagonist, best friend or rival.
32: VRAINS ended early for this and there is absolutely no evidence to debunk this.
33: Every duel is only four turns, and whoever goes first loses. Has that changed throughout the series or any expectations, absolutely NOT!
34: This is just a children's card game show! If I wanted to watch a series about that, I'd watch videos of real people playing them in simulators! What happened to the dark, edgy and mature series and manga like card games on motorcycles, robot monkeys, a deck of cartoons, an ace monster card that's not allowed to hit female themed monsters all revolving around plots for revenge and taking over the world with a children's card game!
35: It's impossible to enjoy more than one YuGiOh series.
36: Luke can't tell the difference between Dragons and Wyrms...and neither can I!
37: These are some of the most unrealistic and ridiculous themely decks! Cleaning productions! Chairs! Concert demons! Excavations sites! Newspapers printers! Dian Keto but now they're Japanese gyarus?! What happened to less ridiculous decks and cards like gun dragons, the Ojamas, a living tongue monster, living Hamburger with fangs, tomatoes, corn, circus monsters, penguins, and cartoon monster!
That's it, happy April Fools, Long Live YuGiOh.
submitted by throwawaytempest25 to yugioh [link] [comments]
2: Noh Gil bo didn't return. Instead of working on the comedic YuGiOh, he went to animate episodes for the comedic Precure seasons. Granted, his animations in those shows are good, but if he could work on the comedic Precure, let him work for the comedy YuGiOh.
3: Rush Duels were made because Konami completely screwed up with the power creeping in YuGiOh. Sevens is Konami's fault.
4: There were no official subs. The subbing team did a good job, but good luck getting people who want the original version without 4KMedia's isms.
5: Yuga is the worst duel protagonist. His win record is 21 wins and 9 losses, not counting the 108 duels he won alongside Nail and Roa. Worse, his win record is 70%. That can get you through middle school, high school, college, but not being a good YuGiOh protagonist.
6: The video game didn't get updated for the states well.
7: It's too comedic and lighthearted like GX. And if you hated the tone shift of season 3, you'll hate it less.
8: They could've used the 20th anniversary to make a crossover between the other six series. They could've fixed the ending to Arc-V, give Yusaku more personality, give Tori something to do, erase Crow from existence, make Bastion prominent, and treat main Bakura like an actual character.
9: Ghost Girl and Ranze have the same voice actress and sadly, her VA's combined character roles have only ONE win and One DRAW to their name.
10: Gakuto should've had one win in the first 13 episodes. I get he's supposed to be the Tristan of the group, but it took 24 episodes until it felt like the writers actually cared about his dueling process.
11: It's called SEVENS when there's six letters in it's name. Take away the RANS in VRAINS and you have the roman numerals, 6. That makes more sense.
12: The women actually win duels in the second half and final season of the show. That's not the YuGiOh I grew up with and that's weird.
13: The Rush Duel game is still currently exclusive to Japan and Korea. How the hell are people over here going to enjoy the series when the card game isn't in the important country that matters! No wonder SEVENS and Rush Duels are a massive failure.....in America
14: Yuga losing so much makes no sense. How do you create the game, but still lose?! That's like if Pegasus lost a game in Duel Monsters, or if the developers of King of Fighters lost to Mexican fans and developers at their own game and had to create a busty wrestler inspired by the Rock. I feel like making a Pac Man analogy for some reason.
15: They brought back characters dueling on motorcycle-like vehicles again! We did it in Arc V, you gave Shark that weird cycle in Zexal, but you didn't do it in VRAINS where characters could customize avatars and boards, but they didn't duel on bikes there, but in SEVENS? F this show.
16: It is a little jarring to go from a series with little to no magic to then having Monster Reborn being a rare card that can steal people's memories.
17: I don't have a problem with the pigeon dueling, we had a pigeon in VRAINS, that's fine. But what packaging company sends a kid under the age of 11 to do a delivery while there's a snowstorm?
18: Ending 2 literally spoils the plot of the Rush Duel Robot breaking thanks to the restraints before the whole "beat us 6 to 6 or it gets destroyed arc." Sheesh, they didn't spoil the second half of VRAINS or their own season but now this?
19: Luke being an annoying piece of crap half the time is worth it when Tiger calls him out, especially if you hate how perfect his win record is, but considering she's part of the reason he is the way he is, it's kinda hard to not put the blame on her.
20: Asana's final duel should've been more impactful. Maybe if she fought one the Goha Siblings.
21: Same with Nail. Everyone was getting their own ceremonial duels. It makes sense it's his only friend, but at the same time, someone like the Goha Drone would work or President but the show needed someone at Goha evil enough for it to hit stronger. Nail needed another duel after 65. He barely got to use any new aces after season 1.
22: Luke getting convinced to betray his own friends for the Goha Siblings just by being baited and talked to somehow manages to work being in character but also extremely stupid at the same time!
23: It ripped off Buddyfight because both have a protagonist named Yuga. Just because one was animated by OLM and Xebec and the other by Bridge doesn't excuse the blatant plagiarism.
24: What is with Japan's minor obsession with having a female character under the age of 18 being really bad at cooking? Like I'm not saying I chuckled at an 11 year old pouring gunpower in a pot and two ninjas and their lord having to point out how bad it is, but it's such a weird gag.
25: No adult has won a duel the whole show. Way to attack your diehard fanbase! Kids shouldn't be allowed to get into YuGiOh anyway, they literally showed that with Yuga Goha becoming an obsessed psycho who wanted to make people more upset than when Mystic Mine wasn't banned.
26: There needed to be more details on Otes. Him being the final villain and wanting to destroy the dueling system because Konami...um...Goha made it so restrictive so he could rebuild it, fine. But was he related to the first Goha President who built the system, how does he have so many ties and ways to get around the city beyond his ties to Goha, did he know Asana's situation and Goha blackmailing her, just answers to those.
27: Some of the duels are so freaking stupid. Like in what normal YuGiOh season where two people would duel over what show to watch? That's about as stupid as a restaurant patron getting mad at the service, challenging the waiter to a duel, and losing from Tongue Twister!
28: I just can't get behind the unrealistic setting. I mean, really. A society run almost entirely by a single, all-encompassing megacorporation that controls the populous via proprietary technology, mass surveillance, and discriminatory AI? It's just not believable.
29: The show could've used 10 more episodes. Covid probably was the reason, but it still feels like there's stuff on the cutting room floor.
30: The tournament arc legitimately should've been better with more episodes. It didn't have to be 26 episodes like doubling it, but at least 6 or 7 more episodes could've allowed for more matchups before the finals.
31: Speaking of which, Romin vs Sushiko 2 could've been the new Yuzu vs Masumi. Shame. I dunno, after Arc-V, it honestly feels like the only people who get rematch duels are the protagonist, best friend or rival.
32: VRAINS ended early for this and there is absolutely no evidence to debunk this.
33: Every duel is only four turns, and whoever goes first loses. Has that changed throughout the series or any expectations, absolutely NOT!
34: This is just a children's card game show! If I wanted to watch a series about that, I'd watch videos of real people playing them in simulators! What happened to the dark, edgy and mature series and manga like card games on motorcycles, robot monkeys, a deck of cartoons, an ace monster card that's not allowed to hit female themed monsters all revolving around plots for revenge and taking over the world with a children's card game!
35: It's impossible to enjoy more than one YuGiOh series.
36: Luke can't tell the difference between Dragons and Wyrms...and neither can I!
37: These are some of the most unrealistic and ridiculous themely decks! Cleaning productions! Chairs! Concert demons! Excavations sites! Newspapers printers! Dian Keto but now they're Japanese gyarus?! What happened to less ridiculous decks and cards like gun dragons, the Ojamas, a living tongue monster, living Hamburger with fangs, tomatoes, corn, circus monsters, penguins, and cartoon monster!
That's it, happy April Fools, Long Live YuGiOh.
2023.04.01 21:17 Guga_ My review of "PORTALS" as a recent new listener
I started to listen to Melanie Martinez only 1 month ago, since I bought tickets to see her show at late March with my bf (she's his favorite artist), and I wanted to have a firm idea of her music before it. Cake is my favorite song of her, abrasive and very well-written in terms of structure and singing.
Onto the review then:
As everything, PORTALS is good or bad relative to a criterion. When it comes to song structure, most songs follow a straight-forward verse-chorus-verse-chorus, which is disappointing given the prior work that made sure to have a clear bridge so that the last chorus had bigger impact on the listener.
When it comes to lyrics, I personally think this sub has a serious problem with interpretosis (the neurotic need to have each single lyric to be about some this or that meaning, that somehow it's all about her ex-boyfriend (not empowering at all)). But ignoring that, her current lyrics seem to lack conceptual cohesiveness when this album is supposed to be a concept album. If we attempt to ignore that this is intended to be a concept album, the lyrics are nothing to write home about, and aren't as hard-hitting as Crybaby.
Finally, when it comes to music, I like that Melanie Martinez tried more rock-oriented songs like BATTLE OF THE LARYNX or EVIL; it's daring to have a more diverse album that tries out different music styles (even a small rap segue!) However, even when I'm a rock and metal fan, my favorite songs in this album are not those, but are the stranger electronic-oriented ones: SPIDER WEB and THE CONTORTIONIST manage to be really unique in their lyric-music coherence, the latter having an excellent use of finger snaps along with the auto-tuned laughs at the end of each chorus. And personally, NYMPHOLOGY is pure excellence, the best song of the album: something of the nasal voice, the hard drum machine in the chorus, along with the bridge that makes the last chorus hit hard, makes it a real contender to be my next favorite song.
So, in short (TL;DR): PORTALS doesn't quite hit the mark as a concept album, nor is it the best album that Melanie Martinez has put out so far. However, she's moving forward in trying out styles, and is more into embracing the strangeness of her form of pop music, that she could explore more and get to good results. NYMPHOLOGY is the best song, hitting that spot just right.
submitted by Guga_ to MelanieMartinez [link] [comments]
Onto the review then:
As everything, PORTALS is good or bad relative to a criterion. When it comes to song structure, most songs follow a straight-forward verse-chorus-verse-chorus, which is disappointing given the prior work that made sure to have a clear bridge so that the last chorus had bigger impact on the listener.
When it comes to lyrics, I personally think this sub has a serious problem with interpretosis (the neurotic need to have each single lyric to be about some this or that meaning, that somehow it's all about her ex-boyfriend (not empowering at all)). But ignoring that, her current lyrics seem to lack conceptual cohesiveness when this album is supposed to be a concept album. If we attempt to ignore that this is intended to be a concept album, the lyrics are nothing to write home about, and aren't as hard-hitting as Crybaby.
Finally, when it comes to music, I like that Melanie Martinez tried more rock-oriented songs like BATTLE OF THE LARYNX or EVIL; it's daring to have a more diverse album that tries out different music styles (even a small rap segue!) However, even when I'm a rock and metal fan, my favorite songs in this album are not those, but are the stranger electronic-oriented ones: SPIDER WEB and THE CONTORTIONIST manage to be really unique in their lyric-music coherence, the latter having an excellent use of finger snaps along with the auto-tuned laughs at the end of each chorus. And personally, NYMPHOLOGY is pure excellence, the best song of the album: something of the nasal voice, the hard drum machine in the chorus, along with the bridge that makes the last chorus hit hard, makes it a real contender to be my next favorite song.
So, in short (TL;DR): PORTALS doesn't quite hit the mark as a concept album, nor is it the best album that Melanie Martinez has put out so far. However, she's moving forward in trying out styles, and is more into embracing the strangeness of her form of pop music, that she could explore more and get to good results. NYMPHOLOGY is the best song, hitting that spot just right.
2023.04.01 21:13 TiredTransLesbian CMV: We should stop doing widespread news coverage on mass shootings (school shootings to be specific).
I know when reading that title, you might see this as outrageous, but I have a genuine thought process behind this, so please, read all of what I have to say before challenging my view.
I want to get one thing out of the way first: With the recent Nashville shooting, it is rather poorly timed for someone with the username, u/TiredTransLesbian, to be writing a post about how we should avoid covering school shootings. No, this post is not about trying to avoid mass shootings being weaponized to target a specific group. I do not blame news coverage for people's incompetence to the point that they make such outrageous generalizations, that is simply an act of stupidity that could theoretically be avoided if news coverage of mass shootings stopped, but bottom line, this is just another one of the ubiquitous straws that bigots will continue to grasp till the end of time, removing one will not do much as there are way more bullshit claims for them to create out of thin air, just like this one. With that out of the way...
Ask yourself, what do you think the people committing these deplorable acts want? The answer is fame, which we give them, even if such fame is infamy, that is enough to satisfy these insane people. When we cover stories of these shootings, we are giving the attackers what they want, they want to be noticed by the public, they want people to see the damage they did, that's where they get their pleasure. Even if they're not around to see the public outrage they caused a lot of the time, they still go into these attacks knowing what will happen after they're 6 feet under or they're nothing but a pile of ash.
The fact that we're giving these attackers what they want is only half the story, where do you think school shooters get the idea to commit a school shooting!? With each coverage, that leaves more and more impressions on potential future attackers. The insane people likely to commit these acts see the pedestal of infamy they would gain if such an act was repeated.
I'm not gonna deny that this would be a slap in the face to the victims. I can't speak for everyone on this so I'd love to see what others have to say, but if I was a victim or the family member of a victim, I would much rather avoid more people having to go through the same pain than to receive widespread sympathy for my loss.
Bottom line: I think the most logical solution would just be to ban firearms all together. While that wouldn't 100% fix everything, as I believe people with such ill minds would find some other way to cause such a damage that will then be repeated, banning firearms would make a HUGE difference and save thousands of lives. The public attention on mass shootings is definitely a method used to protest against firearms, but we've been doing that for years, and it's got us nowhere. Somehow, America's fucked up government is still allowing for mass murder weapons, it it's far too obvious that we should just ban them, yet there's been hardly any progress in such a change being made. As sad as it is to say, I feel like we're at a point where it's more likely for a bunch of news outlets to get together and unanimously decide to stop covering these stories, than it is for our country (assuming reader is from America as that's where this problem is most prevalent, even if you are from somewhere else though, I would be happy to see the perspective from an outsider) to do something as obvious as ban weapons that are literally designed to quickly murder multiple people. The most logical solution is still what I think SHOULD happen, but it won't, and at the end of the day, the thing I want the most is for as many innocent lives to be saved, and the quicker a change happens, the less people will have to go through this prevalent pain.
submitted by TiredTransLesbian to changemyview [link] [comments]
I want to get one thing out of the way first: With the recent Nashville shooting, it is rather poorly timed for someone with the username, u/TiredTransLesbian, to be writing a post about how we should avoid covering school shootings. No, this post is not about trying to avoid mass shootings being weaponized to target a specific group. I do not blame news coverage for people's incompetence to the point that they make such outrageous generalizations, that is simply an act of stupidity that could theoretically be avoided if news coverage of mass shootings stopped, but bottom line, this is just another one of the ubiquitous straws that bigots will continue to grasp till the end of time, removing one will not do much as there are way more bullshit claims for them to create out of thin air, just like this one. With that out of the way...
Ask yourself, what do you think the people committing these deplorable acts want? The answer is fame, which we give them, even if such fame is infamy, that is enough to satisfy these insane people. When we cover stories of these shootings, we are giving the attackers what they want, they want to be noticed by the public, they want people to see the damage they did, that's where they get their pleasure. Even if they're not around to see the public outrage they caused a lot of the time, they still go into these attacks knowing what will happen after they're 6 feet under or they're nothing but a pile of ash.
The fact that we're giving these attackers what they want is only half the story, where do you think school shooters get the idea to commit a school shooting!? With each coverage, that leaves more and more impressions on potential future attackers. The insane people likely to commit these acts see the pedestal of infamy they would gain if such an act was repeated.
I'm not gonna deny that this would be a slap in the face to the victims. I can't speak for everyone on this so I'd love to see what others have to say, but if I was a victim or the family member of a victim, I would much rather avoid more people having to go through the same pain than to receive widespread sympathy for my loss.
Bottom line: I think the most logical solution would just be to ban firearms all together. While that wouldn't 100% fix everything, as I believe people with such ill minds would find some other way to cause such a damage that will then be repeated, banning firearms would make a HUGE difference and save thousands of lives. The public attention on mass shootings is definitely a method used to protest against firearms, but we've been doing that for years, and it's got us nowhere. Somehow, America's fucked up government is still allowing for mass murder weapons, it it's far too obvious that we should just ban them, yet there's been hardly any progress in such a change being made. As sad as it is to say, I feel like we're at a point where it's more likely for a bunch of news outlets to get together and unanimously decide to stop covering these stories, than it is for our country (assuming reader is from America as that's where this problem is most prevalent, even if you are from somewhere else though, I would be happy to see the perspective from an outsider) to do something as obvious as ban weapons that are literally designed to quickly murder multiple people. The most logical solution is still what I think SHOULD happen, but it won't, and at the end of the day, the thing I want the most is for as many innocent lives to be saved, and the quicker a change happens, the less people will have to go through this prevalent pain.
2023.04.01 21:12 TStrable "I Feel Like I'm Drowning"
How Sarah J. Maas and Her Novel 'A Court of Silver Flames' Changed My Outlook On Damn Near Everything:
Let me start off with some information about me. I am 32. I am a married man. My wife convinced me to read the ACOTAR series.
The end.
The rest about myself will be sprinkled in this… book report? review? essay? Whatever it is, I already know I am going to bear parts of me that I can only type. Forgive the tangents and thoughts that will probably end up nowhere because I just need to get my thoughts out.
“My life’s okay. Just when you’re not around me. I feel like I’m drowning.”
Music has been my life since I had my first CD player. I would shove that massive contraption in the front pocket of my Levi’s just about every day while I would walk, or skate around my neighborhood. Escaping in the depths of my mind while strings, percussion and lyrics fill my ears, imagining me in a different place, a different time, doing something other than whatever my life was. Even at a young age I would disassociate like it was my job.
cut to.
When my wife said she wanted me to read the ACOTAR series, I of course has my hesitations. I read. Mostly horror or fantasy. Not really romance.
“This is fantasy.”
I saw how engrossed she was while reading book after book. “5 stars.” Would leave her lips after finishing a couple. I saw the emotion in her face when talking about these books. Like hearing her talk about herself, or me and our life. I had just finished a thriller, half satisfied, half annoyed with the predictable plot points and overused tropes. I decided to start the series. “This is fantasy.”
This is not fantasy. It is in the sense that there is magic, there are fae, males with bat wings, monsters and the like. This is as real as anything I’ve read in the last 15 years.
I’m going to skip the main parts of the series, with our heroine and the males who love her. I liked all that.
But I want to talk about Nesta.
When reading the first book, my wife asked me, very purposely, what I thought about the sisters, instinctively knowing I would see something in the older sibling.
“I mean there aren’t in it too much but I do like…Nesta. That’s her name right?” I gravitated towards this character that on the surface was… for lack of a better term, a mean girl. Mean to her sister. Entitled. Lazy. I immediately saw it as some sort of shield. Not outwardly like I thought “oh she’s actually very misunderstood.” like I am some sort of wizard, predicting the outcome of the series. I saw it as a shield, like the one I have for myself and have disguised my entire life.
So it would come to a surprise to me what happens to Nesta at the end of the second book. Thrown into a literal cauldron, being forced to change, against her will. Fighting the entire way down, stealing a part of the thing that was tearing her soul apart, coming out of it, changed forever.
Being thrown into a world so foreign to her, forced to live with it. It’s better than the alternative of how you were living your life before! Right?
Right. But fuck you.
This character, so clearly broken, so clearly in desperate need of love, threw it all back in the faces of those that tried. Not in a place of malice. Not in a place of hate, even if the words spewing out of her mouth said as much. A place of such despair that the shield was now armor. Surrounding her entire self. And when her father was killed in front of her, without a trace of trying to stop it, as if the entire situation before her and the consequences and the past racing through her head lasted hours, not seconds as in reality. And his neck snapped right in front of her. But she helped save the day. She helped the heroine on her “Hero’s Journey”. It’s great right?
Right. But fuck you.
That third book wrecked me. The Suriel. The sacrifice from the High Lord of the Night Court. All that of course ripped though me like it was happening to me and those that I loved.
Nesta’s scream to the person she loved. That she loved but couldn’t explain why. The thought of living in a world without that little speck of something she has never felt before wasn’t an option. That wrecked me too.
So I finished that book. Exhausted. Mentally drained because while our heroine went through her own trials and tribulations, her older sister, who hates everything and everyone (on the outside of course) went through it. To devastating effects.
Then I read the novella. The “christmas special” if you will. Excited that we get to see the story from Nesta’s perspective for the first time.
Broken. This character, who you are made to dislike right off the jump in the first book. This character who was forced to change. Forced into a literal cauldron. Forced to watch her family struggle to maintain their own sanity while forcing herself to stay encased in the armor surrounding her so no one can get in. No one can see the pain of her actions, her lack of actions and the pain of wanting love but knowing she doesn’t deserve it.
She survived. She clearly has loving sisters and a male who loves her. She should be happy, right?
Right. But fuck you.
A Court of Silver Flames broke me. Broke me in a good way. Opened me up to deal with my own “I don’t deserve love.” I can be mean. I can be bratty. I can be lazy. I have said and thought some truly terrible things to those I love. To those who love me. Why would anyone love me? I’d rather shut down, disassociate and fuck around on my phone.
“This is how we grow now, woman. A child ignored. These will just be places to me now.”
The book starts off with a memory. Nesta’s last moments as a human. Fighting with every ounce of her to keep any remaining humanity. Why? Did she leave a mark worthy of the history books as a human? No. Did she deserve immortality? Forever beauty? Love? No. Not to her.
“Climb. Is all we know. When thaw. Is not below us. No, can’t grown up. In that iron ground.”
Climbing was a major theme throughout the book. In the literal sense and in the metaphorical. Nesta was forced into a life she did not want. Did not think she deserved. And shut those around her, off completely. She saw her sisters, living, learning to thrive. Learning to love and be loved by this new family. She spiraled. Her sisters may deserve the immortality. Deserve the love. Deserve the praise. Why would she? Why would the girl who watched her youngest sister go out on her own, hunting and gathering food and survival while she sat in anger at her father. Her father that showed no love or determination towards his daughters. Not in a way a father should. A father who came through in the end. Crossing waters, with boats named of his children, coming to save them. A father who showed no sign of this while surrounded by his daughters. A father who “was more a father to me than my own” to a stranger. A father who died right in front of her. In front of the male she loved with her whole being, all while he was near dying himself.
Gone was the girl who laid atop that dying male she loved, insisting that there would be no chance in hell she could live on this earth without him. Gone was the girl who struck down the villain. Gone was the girl.
Despair. Death. That’s what remained. That’s what she deserved.
Trauma. Sex. Love. Climbing.
Throughout the book Nesta was training. Physical, brutal training. Not to be some great warrior. But to train to her inner self in letting those who love her, back in. Training to become whole. Training to restore self worth, if it was ever there to begin with. Because she replaced those awful thoughts in her mind with sex. Sex with strangers. Then “just sex” with the male she loved, but would never say. Fill her mind with nothing but earth-shattering sex so she could push those awful thoughts to the side… for a time, rather than embrace said earth-shattering sex.
Meeting new people. Gaining friendship. Training. Climbing. Fighting. Saying unforgivable things to the sisters she loves. Pushing them away. Pushing away the male she loves. Fucking that male over and over again to forget herself. Running from her power. Using that power to destroy her enemies. Losing herself. Training. Climbing. Gaining friendship. Self loathing. Getting better. Getting worse. Fucking. Disassociating. Fucking. Rinse. Repeat.
When faced with the truth of her love. The truth if her power. The Great Rite. When faced with these obstacles, again both literal and metaphorical, she had to make a choice.
Wallow. Fall down those steps into a bottle or into a strangers bed.
Give up. Let the Kelpie take her as his bride. Give up and let the queen take what power she has. Give up and let her sister die. Give up and become what she thinks everyone sees her as.
Or climb. Climb the literal mountain to save herself, save her friends, Climb the mental mountain to her the male she loves so he can hear the truth of said love.
Death.
Ten thousand steps.
A mountain.
A dance floor.
A declaration of love.
A beast of a man who loves her and gives her earth-shattering sex.
Climb those. Climb out of the literal cauldron AND the metaphorical one.
It’ll be hard, right?
Right. But fuck you.
Cut that ribbon it and it doesn’t disappear.
Cut that ribbon and wear it.
Can’t make your trauma disappear. Learn to not let that trauma control your life.
When I finished A Court of Silver Flames I knew I was Nesta. I knew that I couldn’t just magically get rid of my trauma. My sadness. My self loathing. I knew that I had to let it in and not push it aside. Let it in to heal from it. Cut that ribbon and wear it. Fucking. Climb.
And have that earth-shattering sex.
Sarah J. Maas wrote these books with a clear understanding of how hard LIFE is. She wrote characters with depth and humanity. Seemingly side characters who you didn’t think twice on while reading this amazing adventure with our heroine. Side characters that become mirrors to yourself.
Be a Mor. Be an Amren. Be an Elain. Be a Cassian. BE A FEYRE. Be the hero. Be a Rhys who loves her.
You can be any of these characters.
I am Nesta.
For the good and especially the bad.
SJM made a series where fairies and bat boys, living eyeballs and a Cauldron “god” seem so normal because of the dance she does with these characters. And I thank her for that.
“Yeah, these things take forever, I especially am slow. But I realized I need you. And I wondered if I could come home.”
submitted by TStrable to acotar [link] [comments]
Let me start off with some information about me. I am 32. I am a married man. My wife convinced me to read the ACOTAR series.
The end.
The rest about myself will be sprinkled in this… book report? review? essay? Whatever it is, I already know I am going to bear parts of me that I can only type. Forgive the tangents and thoughts that will probably end up nowhere because I just need to get my thoughts out.
“My life’s okay. Just when you’re not around me. I feel like I’m drowning.”
Music has been my life since I had my first CD player. I would shove that massive contraption in the front pocket of my Levi’s just about every day while I would walk, or skate around my neighborhood. Escaping in the depths of my mind while strings, percussion and lyrics fill my ears, imagining me in a different place, a different time, doing something other than whatever my life was. Even at a young age I would disassociate like it was my job.
cut to.
When my wife said she wanted me to read the ACOTAR series, I of course has my hesitations. I read. Mostly horror or fantasy. Not really romance.
“This is fantasy.”
I saw how engrossed she was while reading book after book. “5 stars.” Would leave her lips after finishing a couple. I saw the emotion in her face when talking about these books. Like hearing her talk about herself, or me and our life. I had just finished a thriller, half satisfied, half annoyed with the predictable plot points and overused tropes. I decided to start the series. “This is fantasy.”
This is not fantasy. It is in the sense that there is magic, there are fae, males with bat wings, monsters and the like. This is as real as anything I’ve read in the last 15 years.
I’m going to skip the main parts of the series, with our heroine and the males who love her. I liked all that.
But I want to talk about Nesta.
When reading the first book, my wife asked me, very purposely, what I thought about the sisters, instinctively knowing I would see something in the older sibling.
“I mean there aren’t in it too much but I do like…Nesta. That’s her name right?” I gravitated towards this character that on the surface was… for lack of a better term, a mean girl. Mean to her sister. Entitled. Lazy. I immediately saw it as some sort of shield. Not outwardly like I thought “oh she’s actually very misunderstood.” like I am some sort of wizard, predicting the outcome of the series. I saw it as a shield, like the one I have for myself and have disguised my entire life.
So it would come to a surprise to me what happens to Nesta at the end of the second book. Thrown into a literal cauldron, being forced to change, against her will. Fighting the entire way down, stealing a part of the thing that was tearing her soul apart, coming out of it, changed forever.
Being thrown into a world so foreign to her, forced to live with it. It’s better than the alternative of how you were living your life before! Right?
Right. But fuck you.
This character, so clearly broken, so clearly in desperate need of love, threw it all back in the faces of those that tried. Not in a place of malice. Not in a place of hate, even if the words spewing out of her mouth said as much. A place of such despair that the shield was now armor. Surrounding her entire self. And when her father was killed in front of her, without a trace of trying to stop it, as if the entire situation before her and the consequences and the past racing through her head lasted hours, not seconds as in reality. And his neck snapped right in front of her. But she helped save the day. She helped the heroine on her “Hero’s Journey”. It’s great right?
Right. But fuck you.
That third book wrecked me. The Suriel. The sacrifice from the High Lord of the Night Court. All that of course ripped though me like it was happening to me and those that I loved.
Nesta’s scream to the person she loved. That she loved but couldn’t explain why. The thought of living in a world without that little speck of something she has never felt before wasn’t an option. That wrecked me too.
So I finished that book. Exhausted. Mentally drained because while our heroine went through her own trials and tribulations, her older sister, who hates everything and everyone (on the outside of course) went through it. To devastating effects.
Then I read the novella. The “christmas special” if you will. Excited that we get to see the story from Nesta’s perspective for the first time.
Broken. This character, who you are made to dislike right off the jump in the first book. This character who was forced to change. Forced into a literal cauldron. Forced to watch her family struggle to maintain their own sanity while forcing herself to stay encased in the armor surrounding her so no one can get in. No one can see the pain of her actions, her lack of actions and the pain of wanting love but knowing she doesn’t deserve it.
She survived. She clearly has loving sisters and a male who loves her. She should be happy, right?
Right. But fuck you.
A Court of Silver Flames broke me. Broke me in a good way. Opened me up to deal with my own “I don’t deserve love.” I can be mean. I can be bratty. I can be lazy. I have said and thought some truly terrible things to those I love. To those who love me. Why would anyone love me? I’d rather shut down, disassociate and fuck around on my phone.
“This is how we grow now, woman. A child ignored. These will just be places to me now.”
The book starts off with a memory. Nesta’s last moments as a human. Fighting with every ounce of her to keep any remaining humanity. Why? Did she leave a mark worthy of the history books as a human? No. Did she deserve immortality? Forever beauty? Love? No. Not to her.
“Climb. Is all we know. When thaw. Is not below us. No, can’t grown up. In that iron ground.”
Climbing was a major theme throughout the book. In the literal sense and in the metaphorical. Nesta was forced into a life she did not want. Did not think she deserved. And shut those around her, off completely. She saw her sisters, living, learning to thrive. Learning to love and be loved by this new family. She spiraled. Her sisters may deserve the immortality. Deserve the love. Deserve the praise. Why would she? Why would the girl who watched her youngest sister go out on her own, hunting and gathering food and survival while she sat in anger at her father. Her father that showed no love or determination towards his daughters. Not in a way a father should. A father who came through in the end. Crossing waters, with boats named of his children, coming to save them. A father who showed no sign of this while surrounded by his daughters. A father who “was more a father to me than my own” to a stranger. A father who died right in front of her. In front of the male she loved with her whole being, all while he was near dying himself.
Gone was the girl who laid atop that dying male she loved, insisting that there would be no chance in hell she could live on this earth without him. Gone was the girl who struck down the villain. Gone was the girl.
Despair. Death. That’s what remained. That’s what she deserved.
Trauma. Sex. Love. Climbing.
Throughout the book Nesta was training. Physical, brutal training. Not to be some great warrior. But to train to her inner self in letting those who love her, back in. Training to become whole. Training to restore self worth, if it was ever there to begin with. Because she replaced those awful thoughts in her mind with sex. Sex with strangers. Then “just sex” with the male she loved, but would never say. Fill her mind with nothing but earth-shattering sex so she could push those awful thoughts to the side… for a time, rather than embrace said earth-shattering sex.
Meeting new people. Gaining friendship. Training. Climbing. Fighting. Saying unforgivable things to the sisters she loves. Pushing them away. Pushing away the male she loves. Fucking that male over and over again to forget herself. Running from her power. Using that power to destroy her enemies. Losing herself. Training. Climbing. Gaining friendship. Self loathing. Getting better. Getting worse. Fucking. Disassociating. Fucking. Rinse. Repeat.
When faced with the truth of her love. The truth if her power. The Great Rite. When faced with these obstacles, again both literal and metaphorical, she had to make a choice.
Wallow. Fall down those steps into a bottle or into a strangers bed.
Give up. Let the Kelpie take her as his bride. Give up and let the queen take what power she has. Give up and let her sister die. Give up and become what she thinks everyone sees her as.
Or climb. Climb the literal mountain to save herself, save her friends, Climb the mental mountain to her the male she loves so he can hear the truth of said love.
Death.
Ten thousand steps.
A mountain.
A dance floor.
A declaration of love.
A beast of a man who loves her and gives her earth-shattering sex.
Climb those. Climb out of the literal cauldron AND the metaphorical one.
It’ll be hard, right?
Right. But fuck you.
Cut that ribbon it and it doesn’t disappear.
Cut that ribbon and wear it.
Can’t make your trauma disappear. Learn to not let that trauma control your life.
When I finished A Court of Silver Flames I knew I was Nesta. I knew that I couldn’t just magically get rid of my trauma. My sadness. My self loathing. I knew that I had to let it in and not push it aside. Let it in to heal from it. Cut that ribbon and wear it. Fucking. Climb.
And have that earth-shattering sex.
Sarah J. Maas wrote these books with a clear understanding of how hard LIFE is. She wrote characters with depth and humanity. Seemingly side characters who you didn’t think twice on while reading this amazing adventure with our heroine. Side characters that become mirrors to yourself.
Be a Mor. Be an Amren. Be an Elain. Be a Cassian. BE A FEYRE. Be the hero. Be a Rhys who loves her.
You can be any of these characters.
I am Nesta.
For the good and especially the bad.
SJM made a series where fairies and bat boys, living eyeballs and a Cauldron “god” seem so normal because of the dance she does with these characters. And I thank her for that.
“Yeah, these things take forever, I especially am slow. But I realized I need you. And I wondered if I could come home.”
2023.04.01 21:05 o0Jahzara0o The deceit and backtracking rampant among a supposedly righteous movement
I was reading this article just recently shared: War on women: The link between white supremacy, "men's rights" and anti-abortion politics and after someone let slip their racism, this part stood out to me: "Miller's denials across multiple instances of mainstreaming white supremacy are typical of the reactionary right in the Trump era, as increasingly extreme ideas are offered as red meat for the GOP base, while those who utter them later protest that they were taken out of context, kidding or misunderstood."
So I want to take a moment to talk about the sheer amount of deception and backtracking that occurs in the anti-choice movement. Because I take issue with a movement claiming moral high ground while deceiving people.
Actions of individuals:
It's telling their true beliefs that belie everything. People have been sounding the alarm for years: prolifers were not ever planning to stop at "late term" abortion. Or after sending it back to the states. Prolifers were never not going to press for prosecuting women - current prosecution of those who have had miscarriages and still births while on drugs was evidence of that. And now bills are being introduced, thus realizing the warnings that have been sounded.
There have also been warnings about how this was originally about racism and class warfare - look into the origins of the Religious Right and see what Henry Hyde said about his Hyde Amendment barring federal tax dollars from going towards abortion.
All of their rhetoric has been about shrouding true end goals. And all of the slips have acted as political "trial balloons":
They have to hide racism, misogyny, exploitation, abuse. They claim that a newborn baby is no more important than this, while holding up protest signs with images of newborn babies and not zygotes and embryos, thus substituting their humanity for the higher level of humanity they see in babies (they do this with both pregnant people and zefs.)
They have to abuse people for being human (ie people who have consensual sex). They abuse children, who are also barred from accessing abortion and are forced to carry unsafe pregnancies to term that were raped into them. They abuse adult rape victims who are also barred from accessing abortion, either explicitly or just due to hurdles that prolifers refuse to admit harm victims. They commodify infants through adoption (which is only recognized as not human trafficking because it's made legal and passed off as nothing but beautiful while ignoring the harms it causes to birth mothers.) They exploit pregnant people, telling them to give up their newborn babies for adoption and not only not voting for legislation that would make it easier for them keep their babies, but actually voting against those efforts citing "bootstraps" and "mah tax dollars" (even though those people also may be paying taxes.
They will state how they can't allow abortion to be legal because their complicities supposedly implicate them in "baby murder." They accuse even prochoice advocates, people who may never even have had abortions themselves, as holding responsibility for baby murder. Yet when people die from pregnancy, when people commit suicide, when hospitals close birthing centers, they quickly write that off as not due to abortion bans. They scream about us taking personal responsibility while absolving themselves of their own.
submitted by o0Jahzara0o to prochoice [link] [comments]
So I want to take a moment to talk about the sheer amount of deception and backtracking that occurs in the anti-choice movement. Because I take issue with a movement claiming moral high ground while deceiving people.
Actions of individuals:
- Todd Akin's comments about "legitimate rape." He said that if a rape is legitimate, the body has a way of shutting that whole thing down. He later was criticized by his own followers and retracted the statement. Only to later write a book where he retracted his apology for the statement.
- When Trump was asked if women should be jailed for having abortions he said that there should be some kind of penalty for the person having an abortion. Republicans then tried to apologize for him, not because he was out of line, but because he said the quiet part out loud. One need only look at current legislation efforts to see it was always on their mind all along. And many prolifers are more emboldened now to wish jail time and even death on those who have abortions.
- A politician who signed onto a bill that had provisions for re-implanting ectopic pregnancies, something not medically possible, who later said he did not know it wasn't medically possible.
- Several prolife activists have ended up being caught with child pornography. here and here (with one even admitting that the abuse of infants was "his favorite.")
- The person who crafted Texas SB 8 bounty hunter law - he is part of the party that claims the American people have a right to use democracy to have a say on other people's pregnancies, yet undermined democracy entirely with SB 8 that made it impossible to bring a lawsuit against because it allows for individual citizens the private right to sue in civil court, instead of naming a law maker or the state.
- The lies about not coming for birth control and then coming for birth control.
- The lies that Crisis Pregnancy Centers tell people who come into their fake clinics.
- The belief that exceptions should be made for rape and life threats only to now see less and less support of both exceptions, and even seeing bills that deny those exceptions.
- The belief that it should be left up to the states, while then seeing laws that attempt to reach into activities that happen in other states (ie banning travel or trying to prosecute those who help people out of state.)
- Hell, even the idea of abortion being murder and wanting to see prosecution for it as such is a fairly recently revelation. That means that prior to this, they were either against abortion for other reason - and what exactly? - or they were hiding it all along because they knew it wouldn't be palatable.
It's telling their true beliefs that belie everything. People have been sounding the alarm for years: prolifers were not ever planning to stop at "late term" abortion. Or after sending it back to the states. Prolifers were never not going to press for prosecuting women - current prosecution of those who have had miscarriages and still births while on drugs was evidence of that. And now bills are being introduced, thus realizing the warnings that have been sounded.
There have also been warnings about how this was originally about racism and class warfare - look into the origins of the Religious Right and see what Henry Hyde said about his Hyde Amendment barring federal tax dollars from going towards abortion.
All of their rhetoric has been about shrouding true end goals. And all of the slips have acted as political "trial balloons":
A “trial balloon” describes a test of public opinion or reaction to a particular idea, proposal or policy.It's amazing how much deception, shrouding, masking, lies, and abhorrent thoughts come from a movement supposedly so righteous and a moral high ground.
They have to hide racism, misogyny, exploitation, abuse. They claim that a newborn baby is no more important than this, while holding up protest signs with images of newborn babies and not zygotes and embryos, thus substituting their humanity for the higher level of humanity they see in babies (they do this with both pregnant people and zefs.)
They have to abuse people for being human (ie people who have consensual sex). They abuse children, who are also barred from accessing abortion and are forced to carry unsafe pregnancies to term that were raped into them. They abuse adult rape victims who are also barred from accessing abortion, either explicitly or just due to hurdles that prolifers refuse to admit harm victims. They commodify infants through adoption (which is only recognized as not human trafficking because it's made legal and passed off as nothing but beautiful while ignoring the harms it causes to birth mothers.) They exploit pregnant people, telling them to give up their newborn babies for adoption and not only not voting for legislation that would make it easier for them keep their babies, but actually voting against those efforts citing "bootstraps" and "mah tax dollars" (even though those people also may be paying taxes.
They will state how they can't allow abortion to be legal because their complicities supposedly implicate them in "baby murder." They accuse even prochoice advocates, people who may never even have had abortions themselves, as holding responsibility for baby murder. Yet when people die from pregnancy, when people commit suicide, when hospitals close birthing centers, they quickly write that off as not due to abortion bans. They scream about us taking personal responsibility while absolving themselves of their own.
2023.04.01 20:47 Slippity_Sleww Rating every one of Will Wood's songs!
Okay like, I was bored on lunch one day...and decided to rate all of his songs. There isn't any descriptions of why they're rated the way they are.
I know my opinion here is gonna be VASTLY different from everyone else's. Don't judge it too hard. Just a little bit of fun I had.
This is just based off of the songs I'd listen to normally. Lower the score the less I'd listen to it. Higher the score. The more I listen to it.
...And if I did you deserved it: 11/10
Misanthropologist: 6/10
Tomcat Disposables: 7/10
Becoming the Lastnames: 10/10
Cicada Days: 10/10
Euthanasia: 6/10
Falling up: 6/10
That's enough, let's get you home: 7/10
Um, it's kind of a lot: 4/10
Half-decade hangover: 7/10
Vampire reference in minor key: 5/10
You Liked this: 2/10
The Main Character: 7/10
Against the Kitchen Floor: 7/10
Sex, Drugs, Rock n' Roll: 3/10
Big fat bitchies blueberry pie: 2/10
Willard!: 8/10
White Noise: 5/10
Venetian blind man: 5/10
Yes to err is human, so don't be one: 9/10
Your body, my temple: 8/10
When somebody needs you: 8/10
Suburbia Overture: 9/10
2econd 2ight 2eer: 6/10
Laplace's Angel: 7/10
I / Me / Myself: 9/10
...well, better than the alternative: 8/10
Outliers and Hypocrites: 9/10
BlackBoxWarrior: 9/10
Marsha, thankk you for the dialectics, but I need you to leave: 9/10
Love, me normally: 8/10
Memento Mori: 6/10
TAPEWORMS:
6up 5oh Copout: 4/10
Skeleton Appreciation day: 6/10
Front Street: 8/10
¡Akido!: 9/10
White Knuckle Jerk: 8/10
Cover this song!: 8/10
Thermodynamic Lawyer: 7/10 -because of one lyric-
Red Moon: 5/10
Lyserglide Daydream: 6/10
The First Step: 9/10
Jimmy mushroom's last drink: 4/10
Chemical Overreaction: 10/10
Everything is a lot: 4/10
Destroy to Enjoy: 1/10
Self-: 9/10
2012: 10/10
Cotard's Solution: 8/10
Mr Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity: 10/10
The Song With 5 Names: 10/10
Hand me my shovel, I'm going in!: 10/10
Dr. Sunshine is Dead: 10/10
-Ish: 7/10
I'm a sucker for Self-Ish so that's why it's so highly rated. Love that album.
(Also tell me if I forgot any. I don't think I did. I used his playlist he made which is his Discography.)
submitted by Slippity_Sleww to willwood [link] [comments]
I know my opinion here is gonna be VASTLY different from everyone else's. Don't judge it too hard. Just a little bit of fun I had.
This is just based off of the songs I'd listen to normally. Lower the score the less I'd listen to it. Higher the score. The more I listen to it.
...And if I did you deserved it: 11/10
Misanthropologist: 6/10
Tomcat Disposables: 7/10
Becoming the Lastnames: 10/10
Cicada Days: 10/10
Euthanasia: 6/10
Falling up: 6/10
That's enough, let's get you home: 7/10
Um, it's kind of a lot: 4/10
Half-decade hangover: 7/10
Vampire reference in minor key: 5/10
You Liked this: 2/10
The Main Character: 7/10
Against the Kitchen Floor: 7/10
Sex, Drugs, Rock n' Roll: 3/10
Big fat bitchies blueberry pie: 2/10
Willard!: 8/10
White Noise: 5/10
Venetian blind man: 5/10
Yes to err is human, so don't be one: 9/10
Your body, my temple: 8/10
When somebody needs you: 8/10
Suburbia Overture: 9/10
2econd 2ight 2eer: 6/10
Laplace's Angel: 7/10
I / Me / Myself: 9/10
...well, better than the alternative: 8/10
Outliers and Hypocrites: 9/10
BlackBoxWarrior: 9/10
Marsha, thankk you for the dialectics, but I need you to leave: 9/10
Love, me normally: 8/10
Memento Mori: 6/10
TAPEWORMS:
6up 5oh Copout: 4/10
Skeleton Appreciation day: 6/10
Front Street: 8/10
¡Akido!: 9/10
White Knuckle Jerk: 8/10
Cover this song!: 8/10
Thermodynamic Lawyer: 7/10 -because of one lyric-
Red Moon: 5/10
Lyserglide Daydream: 6/10
The First Step: 9/10
Jimmy mushroom's last drink: 4/10
Chemical Overreaction: 10/10
Everything is a lot: 4/10
Destroy to Enjoy: 1/10
Self-: 9/10
2012: 10/10
Cotard's Solution: 8/10
Mr Capgras Encounters a Secondhand Vanity: 10/10
The Song With 5 Names: 10/10
Hand me my shovel, I'm going in!: 10/10
Dr. Sunshine is Dead: 10/10
-Ish: 7/10
I'm a sucker for Self-Ish so that's why it's so highly rated. Love that album.
(Also tell me if I forgot any. I don't think I did. I used his playlist he made which is his Discography.)
2023.04.01 20:36 Prestigious_Award_57 why is the lyric transcription such crap?
i love this album so much- so much care went into it. but my set just arrived and i’m a little bummed. there are a bunch of little typos in the lyric transcription. vinyl and CD. it looks sloppy. like, “how did this make it to print” sloppy. no one is double checking one of the most important parts of the album, the official lyrics?
it’s not that they’re so egregious, it’s just that there’s so many, it seems obvious that nobody proofread this even once.
ex: “Take knife” and cut through the darkness (should be Take a knife)
So I take pleasure in the “detail” (should be “details”)
Running “middle finger” through the red lights (should be Running middle FINGERS through the red lights)
I guess somehow we made it back With a few dreams of ours Still “in tact” (should be Still intact; the misprint changes the meaning)
submitted by Prestigious_Award_57 to FallOutBoy [link] [comments]
it’s not that they’re so egregious, it’s just that there’s so many, it seems obvious that nobody proofread this even once.
ex: “Take knife” and cut through the darkness (should be Take a knife)
So I take pleasure in the “detail” (should be “details”)
Running “middle finger” through the red lights (should be Running middle FINGERS through the red lights)
I guess somehow we made it back With a few dreams of ours Still “in tact” (should be Still intact; the misprint changes the meaning)
2023.04.01 20:15 Trans_Girl_Alice How to make the most powerful squirrel?
I recently got a seven power squirrel (Patriot and Blue Marvel in DC) which made me wonder, how strong could a squirrel possibly become? My best idea is something like this: -Location A is whatever, B is Bar Sinister, C is Mirror dimension -Turn 3, fill tye Bar with Patriots -Turn 4, MD turns into another Bar, and you fill that with Mystiques copying Patriot -Turn 5, both players use Scarlet Witch at Location A, first turns it into Central Park, second turns it into Nidavellir
Not sure what would happen Turn 6, my best idea is Captain America and Ironheart targeting the squirrel. This would be base 1, 2 times 8 from Patriots, 5 from Nidavellir, 1 from Cap, and 2 from IH, for a total of 25 power on one squirrel. Sure, you'll probably lose the Bars Sinister, but it would absolutely be worth it to create a squirrel more powerful than a full powered Thanos.
submitted by Trans_Girl_Alice to MarvelSnap [link] [comments]
Not sure what would happen Turn 6, my best idea is Captain America and Ironheart targeting the squirrel. This would be base 1, 2 times 8 from Patriots, 5 from Nidavellir, 1 from Cap, and 2 from IH, for a total of 25 power on one squirrel. Sure, you'll probably lose the Bars Sinister, but it would absolutely be worth it to create a squirrel more powerful than a full powered Thanos.