I just started this colony and noticed that none of the colonists seem to even know each other.
I have a over 100 mods and I think it might be some mods conflicting but idk what it could be. If anyone could help I'd apreciate it
mod list:
Harmony
Vanilla backgrounds expanded
Carryalls
Collapser
hugs libs
endless growth
harvest organs post mortem
search and destroy
prxoimity
vanilla expanded framwork
vanilla factions expanded-ancients
VFE- Ancients vault walls and doors
more acrhotech garbage continued
raise the roof
research tree
bio reactor
vanilla nutrient paste expander
VNPE-Bio reactor
Vanilla factions expanded-pirates
trade ship drop spot
stabilize
smoothed stone is worthless
RT solar flare shield
factional war
desigantor shapes
vanilla factions expanded-empire
rimcities
rah's bionics and surgery expansion
humanoid alien races
performance optimizer
more batteries
cybernet
glitternet
jecs tools
a rimworld of magic
make war not love
wall light
vanilla races expanded-sanguphage
rimsenal xenotype pack- Askbarn
no hopeless romance
better ground penetrating scanner
floors are almost worthless
vanilla furniture expanded core
hospitality
hospitality-casino
evolved organs redux
biotech mech stuff elongated
hand to hand
modular weapons
starwars kotor weapons and armor
path avoid
mechanoid recycling
tilled soil
door mat
cash register
advanced power plus
bionic icons
drag select
armor racks
change map edge limit
follow me
desire paths
subsurface conduits
infestations spawns in darkness
xml extensions
infused
doors expanded
more mechanoids
un-limited
vanilla persona weapons expanded
vanilla trading expanded
vanilla apparel expanded
blueprints
charachter editor
vanilla furniture expanded architect module
utility columns
vanilla furniture expanded-farming
vanilla weapons expanded
vanilla weapons expanded-quickdraw
vanilla plants expanded
rpg style inventory
vanilla textures expanded
vanilla textures expanded-variations
alpha animals
rocketman-performance mod
quarry
misc. robots
misc. robots++
map preview
mad skills
rimfridge updated
lwm's deep storage
interaction bubbles
increased stack
geological landforms
dont block door
dubs bad hygine
common sense
CM color coded mood bar
prison labour
more trade ships (continued)
missing fabrication recipes
graze up
mend and recycle
work tab
vanilla furniture expanded-security module
vanilla furniture expanded-production
vanilla furniture expanded-power
vanilla furniture expanded-medical
vanilla events expanded
vanilla armour expanded
smarter construction
smart speed
simple side arms
share the load
run and gun
replace stuff
pick up and haul
mod manager
misc training
medical tab
edb prepare carefully
dubs mint menus
defensive positions
colony manager
camera+
auto-cut blight
allow tool
filth vanishes with rain
android for RW 1.4
android conversion for RW 1.4
android expanded for RW 1.4
https://preview.redd.it/6xham4al105b1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=179c5ecc03592da9fdbebe3f2d80407e8185c843

Hello to you, fellow ingrates.
Year 6 of DABR Defends the New York Giants from Criticism has arrived.

Season Recap

tl;dr: The Giants had their most successful season since 2016, and arguably since winning the Super Bowl in 2012 (if the draft spot/playoff success is the measurement) and went into draft night with the latest selection they've had since 2012, the first outside the top 11 since 2016.
Giants fans didn't really expect to win that many games this year. There were still some hopefuls for Daniel Jones but most people had come to terms with new GM Joe Schoen and new HC Brian Daboll pretty much setting up to replace him, declining his 5th year option.
It was the first year of this regime, they hadn't really been able to fix up the roster fully, etc. Most Giants fans I know were expecting a 4-7 win season, not sniffing the playoff race. Ha.
It all started week 1 vs Tennessee. It was honestly a story Giants fans have gotten familiar with. Look absolutely horrible in the first half of the game, but somehow struggle back into it in the second half, only to be dramatically disappointed at the end of the game. After Daniel Jones threw a red zone interception with just under 9 minutes to go, we thought that was pretty much it.
But then with 4 minutes left, Saquon Barkley rips off a 33 yard run, Daniel Jones converts a 4th and 1, and the Giants score a TD to pull them to just a 1 point deficit. Most Giants fans are thinking "okay he's gonna kick it, play for overtime, I respect that, we didn't think it would be that close anyways."
And then we see the offense staying on the field...uh oh. The offense wasn't exactly clicking on all cylinders to that point in the game, having been shut out in the first half. If we don't get it, the game is pretty much lost. Daboll calls a shovel pass, Saquon gets it, it looks like it's completely doomed...I'm thinking "here we go again, his first game and the media is already going to be all over him for going for it"...but Saquon fights his way in! Giants take the lead for the first time in the game. We're feeling good, Daboll's huge balls in that situation giving us some confidence.
Then the Titans methodically work the ball down the field (along with a couple of assists from Austin Calitro and Darnay Holmes), setting up a 47 yard field goal for Randy Bullock to win the game.
Now, I'm thinking, "of course this is what happened, they gave us some hope, now it's going to get ripped away from us, just like always. Story of the last few years at times."
...and then Bullock missed the kick. That was the start of what turned into a magical first half of the season, the Giants getting off to a 7-2 start, all 7 wins coming by a 1 score margin (though the Bears and Texans games were a bit cleaner than the final scoreline suggests), and 5 of them really coming down to big time plays in the last 5 minutes of the game.
The Titans story, taking the lead with 3:38 left in the 4th quarter and Julian Love sacking Baker Mayfield to force 4th and 15 the next drive against Carolina, Kayvon Thibodeaux and Xavier McKinney batting down Aaron Rodgers' passes in London, Love intercepting Lamar Jackson to set up the game winning score against Baltimore, McKinney and Love stopping Christian Kirk at the 1 yard line on the last play against Jacksonville.
All of those games are games that go against us in previous years. But this year was just different. And somehow through it all, there were Saquon Barkley and Daniel Jones as well. Saquon was the focal point of the offense early in the season, Jones being efficient in a heavy, limited, play action focused passing attack.
All thoughts of the Giants earning a top pick and replacing Daniel Jones pretty much went out the window by week 4, and hope for Jones maybe finally becoming the QB he was drafted to be started to blossom in some parts of the Giants fanbase.
Things came crashing down a bit the next 4 weeks. Awful losses to Detroit, Dallas, and Philly, with a tie against Washington in there too that many Giants fans felt they deserved to win capped off a 1-4-1 stretch where the Giants simply did not look good. They looked more like what we expected the team to look like coming into the year. The playoff spot was no longer guaranteed, at 7-5-1. But a flexed SNF game against Washington would pretty much decide the season.
And the Giants took that win against Washington and ran with it. A close loss against the Vikings that was probably the best passing attack game of the season to that point, a dominating win against the hapless Colts that locked the Giants into the playoffs, and a surprisingly tight and scrappy game between the Eagles starters and the Giants backups gave Giants fans some hope headed into the playoffs. We didn't expect to win a Super Bowl, but the matchup against the Vikings seemed winnable.
And winnable it was, as in classic 2023 Giants fashion, they took a lead about halfway through the 4th quarter, and a couple of clutch plays on defense by Cordale Flott and Xavier McKinney ended the game.
Then we went to Philly and got absolutely ass blasted, ending our season.
That left the Giants with the 25th pick in the class, entering an offseason with a lot of business to take care of.

Free Agency Recap

The Giants had a lot more room to operate in free agency this year than last year, and Schoen was relatively creative in how he wanted to go about it.
The first step in that process though was figuring out the status of his pending free agents; most notably, the two who led the way on offense most of the year: Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley. The Jones negotiations were tense, Jones asked for the moon and the team was not having it. Eventually (literally right before the tag deadline) they settled on a 4 yr, 160m extension with 82m fully guaranteed and a boatload of incentives that could push the value up to almost 200m. That allowed the team to tag Saquon Barkley, whose extension talks are reportedly still stalled, as Barkley declined an offer worth almost 14m during the Giants' bye week, and continues to find the Giants' offer(s) unpalatable.
Speculation is that Barkley is seeking more guaranteed money from the Giants (greater than the sum of 2 franchise tags), but Barkley's camp is not leaking much (reportedly because Saquon doesn't want them to). And according to most reporters, Saquon is too competitive to actually sit out the season, removing his last bit of leverage.
Possibly the biggest addition of the Giants' free agency period was actually a trade: The Giants traded the Chiefs' 3rd rounder (acquired for Kadarius Toney) for TE Darren Waller. This is a huge move because the Giants were dead last in explosive pass play rate by a WIDE margin. Only like 6 individual team seasons since 2010 had fewer explosive passing plays than the 2022 Giants. That's something that Schoen and Daboll immediately set out to fix, and Darren Waller is one of the best explosive pass weapons in the league, leading all TEs in explosive pass plays this season despite playing just 9 games this year. Reports out of OTAs are that the Giants are expecting Waller to basically fill a "WR1" role for them; not necessarily in alignment but being the focal point of the offense, high target share, etc.
Schoen and Daboll followed that addition up with two more explosive pass play options: retaining Darius Slayton, and adding Parris Campbell to the room. Slayton is a solid WR, he's good for 600-700 yards when he gets run. His hands are inconsistent, but he makes up for it often. Campbell finally broke out having a healthy season for the Colts this season. I think Campbell is mostly insurance for Wan'Dale Robinson, who is coming off of a torn ACL, but if healthy should get primary run in the slot.
The Giants' other two main moves came on the defensive side of the ball, adding LB Bobby Okereke to a LB room that comprised of: Jarrad Davis, Micah McFadden, and Darrian Beavers (coming off a torn ACL). Much needed improvement in that room. The Giants also added Rakeen Nunez-Roches and A'Shawn Robinson to the DL room to improve the depth there; Dexter Lawrence and Leonard Williams were playing too many snaps, and the Giants were really bad against the run last year.
In the process though, the Giants lost both of their starting centers from 2022, Nick Gates and Jon Feliciano, as well as S Julian Love, who had been a consistent staple of the defense the last few years.

Draft Needs

The Giants roster was in much better shape this year than last year, but the team still had a number of problems:

1. CB was still a HUGE need for the Giants, and one that had not been properly addressed yet. Adoree' Jackson had another very good year in 2022, but the spot across from him had been a mishmosh of misfit toys: Fabian Moreau had a nice little run, but struggled down the stretch. Nick McCloud got a lot of run at CB2 after being claimed on waivers from the Bills. Cordale Flott had been drafted as a nickel defender but got some run there. And the slot position wasn't much better, as Darnay Holmes continued to be a liability there. This position needed reinforcements. I've been a relatively vocal minority in the Giants fandom saying this has been the BIGGEST need the team had for a couple of years now (basically aside from the one year that we had Bradberry and Jackson both on the team).
2. Despite adding Slayton, Campbell, and Waller, WR was still something the team needed. Specifically someone who could develop into a WR1 type player. The Giants WR room is relatively deep, but just adding Campbell and Waller and running back last year's group didn't feel sufficient. The team clearly was putting an emphasis on speed, separation, and yards after the catch ability.
3. Center was a massive need. The Giants basically didn't have a center on the roster who had played meaningful NFL snaps. Ben Bredeson could move to center if needed, but it wasn't that solid of a plan. And in what seemed like a good center class, this seemed like a good way to solve that problem.
4. LB. The LB2 spot currently will be either Jarrad Davis, Micah McFadden (who basically lost the job last year to Jarrad Davis), or Darrian Beavers (who tore his ACL last year). I think that says it all.
5. RB: Saquon is on the tag, so you feel okay here, but the team has been seeking a solid compliment for him for a while. They were in on a few of the RBs last year and the value never lined up, and Matt Breida and Gary Brightwell didn't really cut it last year. They don't want to run Saquon into the ground early in the year like they did last year, so having a compliment for him is big.
6. S: Losing Julian Love is a tough one. He played a lot of snaps and wore a lot of hats for this defense last year, especially with McKinney missing time with a hand injury. The team likes Jason Pinnock, and drafted Dane Belton in the early 4th last year, but more depth and competition here would be very welcome.

So let's get into the picks:

1.24: Deonte Banks, CB, Maryland

Seems like maybe Schoen agreed with me!
It was a lot harder to try to predict what the Giants would do this year, just by virtue of having a later pick. But the general consensus among the beat seemed to be that the team wanted to get a CB or an offensive playmaker with that first pick. I was a little skeptical of CB being an option, seeing how many mocks had all 5 of the top CBs off the board, but that often left WRs available.
So right after the Jets took Will McDonald at 15, if you looked at the board, only 1 CB had been taken and no WRs had been taken. That felt pretty good for the Giants.
Then Forbes and Gonzalez come off the board, and the top 4 WRs come off the board from 20-23.
That left the Giants feeling a little antsy. They had one guy they really wanted left, and negotiated a trade up one spot with the Jaguars to secure their guy: Deonte Banks.
This pick is perfect for what the Giants want to do on defense. Wink Martindale's reaction should say it all, if you go watch the Giants' behind the scenes videos on the draft process.
Banks is a tall, long, and athletic corner, which are all important traits for Wink's press man heavy defense. He's super fluid and smooth in his hips. He tested absolutely crazy. He also plays with a swag that I think Wink and Giants fans will come to really appreciate. He plays confident, he plays fast in terms of processing, and he plays physical.
He still has some development to go, I'm not saying he's going to be a top CB in the league from day 1. He wasn't a super ball productive corner, but that's not something Wink necessarily needs. It will take some time for him to get comfortable with the complexity of route runners in the NFL. But the tools are all there, and the Giants get a perfect scheme fit.
Banks will come in and immediately be the starter at CB across from Adoree' Jackson, and the trickle down effect that will have on the Giants depth chart at CB will be tangible.

2.57: John Michael Schmitz, OC, Minnesota

As this pick was coming up, Schoen and Daboll were discussing who to pick, and basically said "okay we're either going with Schmitz or (we'll get to that later ;) )".
Then the Bears traded up to the pick before the Giants pick. And Joe Schoen said "oh fuck." Daboll tried to calm him down and said "well I guess we're getting ."
Then the Bears took Tyrique Stevenson (good pick!), leaving the Giants the choice between the two players. And the Giants went with Schmitz.
Full disclosure: I was not a huge JMS fan in the draft process. I thought he was super solid all around, but he wasn't really impressive to me, there weren't a lot of overwhelmingly positive reps or traits in my eyes. I thought he was maybe a little heavy footed, especially in pass pro, and his testing kind of backed that up, and I didn't really see full unlocked power either.
I was probably a bit harsh on him in terms of the grade though. Like I said, he's a super solid player. There's relatively little to really complain about. He's smart, he's experienced, and he made few mental mistakes. His snaps were consistent. He is pretty strong though not crazy so. His anchor is really good, and he plays nasty and competitive, which is something the Giants are definitely looking for. It helps he had a really good Senior Bowl week too.
Was Schmitz my favorite center in this class? No. But he was for many people, and for some good reasons. Schmitz will come in and immediately start at center for the Giants, bringing the dead snap with him. If he can be the 3rd best player on this unit (behind Andrew Thomas and hopefully Evan Neal taking a step forward this year and being healthy), it'll be an immensely calming and steadying presence that should raise the OL play of the whole unit.

3.73: Jalin Hyatt, WR, Tennessee

So you may be wondering: Who was Player X?
Well immediately after drafting Schmitz, Schoen looked around the room and pretty much said "what if we can still get ?" He decided that the price he was willing to pay was the Giants 4th round pick. And he and everybody else in the room started calling.
That included Brian Daboll, who leaned over and said "hey should I text [Rams HC Sean] McVay?" Schoen said "yeah sure go for it." And Daboll officially negotiated the Giants trading up from 89 to 73 to select Player X: Tennessee WR Jalin Hyatt
Hyatt is a really fun player to watch. The speed blows you away on tape. It's the kind of speed that even if you're not throwing it to him all the time, defenses have to take note when he comes on the field and play him differently. He's not necessarily slippery or elusive after the catch but (and I'm scared to frame it this way but I'm doing it anyway) the speed and acceleration gives him credibility there, the way that Odell was such a YAC threat on slants just getting to full speed and outrunning everyone.
He's a little high cut I think, and that leads to a little bit of trouble with crisper routes. He wasn't asked to run a very complex route tree at Tennessee, though I do think he has the skills to improve in that sense. The biggest concern for me is just how quickly we can get him up to speed beating press and playing through physicality. When he has room to work, he can beat CBs in a few ways, but NFL DBs will knock even very good WRs off their routes at times. And that follows through to contested catches.
The Giants' WR room is so crowded it's hard for me to say exactly what Hyatt's role will be starting out. The Giants started last year trying to use different WRs in different ways on a game to game basis. Then the wheels fell off obviously, with Shep, Wan'Dale, and Toney being hurt and Golladay stinking and all that. So I wonder if we see a return to that.
Hyatt can be a threat in a lot of ways, end arounds, screens, etc in addition to the obvious "go long" situations. Just how many reps he can carve out will be fun to track in training camp.

So the Giants come out of the first 3 rounds with 3 players who were commonly mocked to them at 25. Pretty good business! But let's get into day 3:

5.172: Eric Gray, RB, Oklahoma

The Giants traded away their 4th round pick to get Hyatt so they went 99 picks without making a selection.
Like I said earlier, the team has been looking for a compliment to Saquon Barkley for a long time, and they find it here with Eric Gray.
Schoen said he sees Eric Gray as a 3 down back. And you can definitely see why. He caught 88 passes over the last 3 years at Oklahoma and only dropped 2. He's also strong and physical, willing to pass protect. That physicality carries over into his running style, he runs hard and is willing to run through guys. He's bursty in short areas and has pretty solid vision in my opinion.
He's a compact guy, just 5'9 207. He's not super slippery or elusive, and he's not really a home run hitter. But in terms of finding a backup RB on day 3 to feed some of those tough yardage carries to and keep Saquon fresh, you could do worse than Eric Gray for sure.
The Giants ran a fair bit of "Pony" type formations in 2022, using 2 or even 3 RBs at times. The competition between Gray and Matt Breida for the true RB2 spot will be fun to see. Breida brings a little more explosiveness to the table, but Gray will certainly give him a run for his money. And depending on what happens with Saquon Barkley's contract situation, we may see even more of Gray down the line.

6.209: Tre Hawkins, CB, Old Dominion

When asked about what is different this year from last year, what improvements or what has gotten easier now that he's been in the chair for a full year, Joe Schoen talked a lot about really getting a good handle on what his coaches look for in players. And he singled out Wink in that respect because him and Daboll have worked together so much.
The Giants selection of Tre Hawkins really highlights that. Like with Deonte Banks, Hawkins brings a ton of physical traits. He tested through the roof. He has the length that the Giants look for. He's also super physical in both phases, run and pass, which Wink loves. ODU let him just play press man, so he's comfortable doing that.
He's a little slim still, so his frame needs some reworking, but that's common with CBs and especially ones from outside the P5 schools. He also has a lot of technique and FBIQ stuff to clean up. His footwork is messy, he's not always patient enough with his punch. His ball skills still leave something to be desired. He's still learning to read routes and manage space both in man and zone.
I figure Hawkins will come in and be a depth player and core STer for the Giants. If his play strength holds up against NFL scrutiny, he can definitely be a day 1 punt gunner. Wink has started calling Jerome Henderson the best DB coach in the league, so it'll be fun to see what Henderson can do with a ball of clay like Hawkins. Even if he ends up just being a STer and CB5 type guy, that's still a pretty good pick in the 6th round like this.
Also, sorry Patriots writer :)

7.243: Jordon Riley, DL, Oregon

Beating a dead horse at this point, but this is another pick Schoen highlighted as an example of his understanding of what Wink is looking for.
Obviously Riley is a flawed prospect, it's the 7th round. He was a 6th year senior who spent time at 4 different schools, starting at UNC, then going to JUCO for a year, then Nebraska for 2 years where he barely played, and finishing his college career at Oregon. PFF lists him as having just 534 career snaps in college despite the 5 years he spent at the P5 level. He wasn't very productive, partly because he barely played and partly because he's just not very good. He's not a good athlete.
What Riley does have, though, is size, strength, and knockback power. And that's what Wink is looking for in a depth NT. He eats blocks, stuffs up lanes, and just is hard to move.
Schoen put it this way:
"It’s hard to find these guys. When you get into the seventh round, you are looking for guys that maybe it will be hard to get at different areas. And another guy we spent time with, big run stopper in there, 6-foot-5, 330.
You walk out to practice, and there’s this 6-5, 330-pound guy, who piques your interest right there. Again, some of these guys in different schemes may not have the production, the tackles, the sacks. But for what Wink looks for in terms of size, length, knock-back — he possesses those traits.”

7.254: Gervarrius Owens, DB, Houston

Last pick in the draft and the Giants go back to the DB room. They took two CBs already, but some depth/developmental guys at safety would help. Enter: Gervarrius Owens.
Owens is a former CB turned S from Houston. The CB in him flashes to me on tape, I thought his ball skills as a safety were good. He's athletic enough to play pretty much any safety spot, including that single high spot that teams find difficult to fill. He's super physical and willing to play downhill and tackle. He's super experienced, he was a team captain and 4 year starter for Houston.
He makes a lot of mistakes, however. The angles he takes to the ball in both phases are super inconsistent. He missed a ton of tackles in college, so that technique needs to be worked on. The ball skills turned into PBUs rather than INTs; Wink won't mind that but some of them were like "he really should have just caught that."
Owens is another guy like Hawkins who looks primed to earn his roster spot on special teams and provide solid depth for the team's DB room. Wink likes to play 3+ safety sets, especially when he feels like he has a good group there. And the Giants' S room right now is basically Xavier McKinney and a bunch of question marks, so it's entirely feasible that Owens can come in and beat Dane Belton, Jason Pinnock, and Bobby McCain to earn playing time early on.

UDFAs

The Giants UDFA class included a few notable names. 5 total players who got 100k+ in guarantees:

1. Bryce Ford-Wheaton, WR, WVU: The Giants gave Bryce Ford-Wheaton a LOT of guaranteed money for a UDFA: 236k, which is the full season PS salary plus 20k. BFW was one of "my guys" this year I was hoping for the Giants to get. He's got the size and athleticism to be really good, but he's a little one note right now. In a crowded WR room, I kind of doubt he'll make the roster without some injuries (or Wan'Dale/Shep being on PUP) but like other late rounders/UDFAs, if he can find some value on special teams, he's a fun upside swing.
2. Dyontae Johnson, LB, Toledo: Another guy who got a lot of guaranteed money. The Giants needed some reinforcements at LB and clearly didn't find them in the draft. Super productive in college, very instinctive player, but I'm not sure if he can run with the league. He'll compete with the Giants mishmosh of LBs to play on special teams.
3. Ryan Jones, TE/FB, East Carolina: The Giants have been searching for a kind of H-Back type for a while now. Last year they brought in Jeremiah Hall from Oklahoma, that didn't stick. Andre Miller, who was a WR at Maine, seemed like he was getting run at that spot in camp last year, but a broken arm ended his season. Chris Myarick ended up taking some of those reps. Ryan Jones kind of fits that mold as well.
4. Habakkuk Baldonado, EDGE, Pittsburgh: The Giants' pass rusher depth is...not great. Behind Kayvon Thibodeaux and Azeez Ojulari, it's Jihad Ward, Oshane Ximines, and Tomon Fox. And Ojulari missed a lot of time last year. Baldonado could potentially come in and earn a spot over Ximines/Fox. He's got good play strength and power and fits what the Giants would need as more of an edge setter and run defender to give Thibodeaux/Ojulari a rest rep before letting them loose to rush the passer.
5. Gemon Green, CB, Michigan: Another tough and physical corner. I don't think there's really a spot for him on this roster with the additions of Banks and Hawkins, and I think he's not quite the athlete the Giants look for at CB, but as a last resort/STer he can potentially get somewhere.

Final Takeaways

I did this last year because it was Schoen's first year here, but I like the idea of doing it every year. What can we learn from the way Schoen drafted this year that we can file away and learn for the future? What can mockers learn from this to inform them of who makes sense for the Giants.
And it's pretty similar to last year:

1. Athleticism. Once again, pretty much every player the Giants drafted, and the UDFAs generally, were excellent athletes who tested well. The main exceptions being JMS (who was still a solid athlete) and Jordon Riley this year; where the exception last year basically was just DJ Davidson. This team has faith in its coaching staff and wants to give them players they can work with.
2. Scheme/Roster Fits. I talked about it a lot with the defensive picks, but every single one is a "Wink Martindale" guy. What does Wink want for his system? This can be a little dangerous considering Wink was in the running for a HC gig last year, and another strong year might finally get him the HC job he has been looking for. If he leaves and the scheme changes, these players need to be able to match the new scheme too. But it's clear that the FO values the input of the coaching staff and there's really clear communication there. This also applies to the offensive side of the ball, where it's super clear that the team wanted more speed on offense, which pointed to Hyatt a little bit.
3. Youth. This one is a little less applicable this year as they did draft a few older players, like JMS and Riley, even Eric Gray who turns 24 in November or Tre Hawkins who turns 23 over the summer. But Banks just turned 22, Jalin Hyatt will turn 22 in late September. It feels like maybe they felt more attached to the age stuff when they thought this was a full on rebuild, but now that they're hoping to be a playoff team again, they need some more instant contributors.
4. Aggressiveness/willingness to trade. This is a newer one, as last year the Giants only traded back. But this year the Giants traded up twice, giving up 3 day 3 picks in the process. Schoen is not afraid to make trades in either direction. Up to secure guys he really wants (Banks/Hyatt), or down if there's nothing there. Schoen talked about having trades lined up in both directions with the first round pick, he had a trade down ready if there was no one he wanted left.

The Giants went into the 2022 draft clearly rebuilding, 5 picks in the top 81 and making 11 selections. This year, the team came into the draft with 10 picks and came out with just 7. Clearly the team thinks the depth is improving and wants to focus on building the championship contender they are looking to be.

There has been a lot of talk recently about the lack of SP depth at AAA so I thought it would be a good time to dig deeper then that and highlight some names in AA (and lower) that might not be as far away as some would think. The AA rotation deserves a bit of a spotlight with the performances of some of the pitchers there.
There has been a lot of criticism of the organization drafting and developing of pitching prospects (much being very fair) but we really might now be seeing some of the results coming through.
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I have excluded a few guys who are years away from making a real impact who are below AA but I will make some notes on them. Brandon Barriera (#2 Prospect) in A-Ball is looking very good and is being brought along slowly after his injury so has pitched just 13.1 IP. Dahian Santos (#12 Prospect) in A-Ball might be the biggest sleeper pitcher in the organization. His fastball-slider combination is electric but is extremely raw overall as a pitcher. He is learning a changeup and is gaining muscle fast in order to take the next step in the organization. CJ Van Eyk (N/R Prospect) still has the raw tools to be a good pitcher but has pitched just 7.0 IP over the last two seasons and is on the IL again.
Adam Macko, Yosver Zulueta, Hayden Juenger & Hagen Danner are honesty still very talented pitchers but all seem destined to be relief pitchers at this point in their development. This post focuses more on pitchers who have good odds of remaining as SP. Don't sleep on these guys though, they all have electric bullpen arms and might see some of them in our bullpen come next season.
In terms of the 2022 draft it is of course much too early but there are some really interesting names and notes: Ryan Jennings (Round 4) who can throw 99 mph as a reliever and that seemed like his career path BUT has had surprisingly good results as an SP at the moment in A-Ball. Insane fastball-slider combo but needs a third pitch. Mason Fluharty (Round 5) has been tearing through the minors and is already in AA as a reliever. Unique but effective cutter-slider combo. Rocking a sweet 1.25 ERA & 0.83 WHIP this season. T.J. Brock (Round 6) dominated A+ in 20 IP to a tune of 1.77 ERA and is already in AA. Electric fastball-slider combo. Devereaux Harrison (9th Round) is an SP turned RP turned SP again in A+ with a 2.63 ERA. He struggled with his control as an RP but it has vastly improved as a starter.
Ian Churchill (Round 10), Pat Gallagher (Round 11), Nolan Perry (Round 12), Bo Bonds (Round 13) & Ryan Chasse (Round 17) are the others pitchers from the draft class but they are just getting things started but all look fine-to-good in small sample sizes in Rookie or Low A. The early returns on this draft class are really positive and probably deserve a spotlight post on its own.
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New Hampshire Fisher Cats Rotation:
Ricky Tiedemann (Age 20):

• 91st Overall in 2021 Draft // 1st Ranked Prospect
• 4.97 ERA / 1.62 FIP / 2.18 xFIP
• 16.34 K/9 - 4.97 BB/9 - 0.00 H9
• 1.26 WHIP & 0.205 OBA

We have all read dozens upon dozens of articles on this guy. There really isn't too much to say on Ricky. He has missed most of the season due to injury. He really is as good as advertised though with top of the rotation potential. His injury likely pushes he debut back until mid-way next year at best. He still needs to refine his control and get a little deeper into game. Be excited though, I do think his injury has killed a lot of the excitement people had in following the AA team which does still have an excellent staff...
Adam Kloffenstein (Age 22):

• 88th Overall in 2019 Draft // N/R Prospect // Peaked @ #8 in 2018
• Nickname = King Kloff
• 3.12 ERA / 3.61 FIP / 3.37 xFIP
• 11.08 SO/9 - 3.81 BB/9 - 0.87 H9
• 1.29 WHIP & .231 OBA

Probably the biggest story from the Blue Jays minor leagues this year. A prospect who was once deemed a steal at his draft position who quickly become one of the better valued prospects in our system to falling off the map in 3 years and likely on his last chance to be a starter has become one of the most stable pitchers in the entire organization. A former power pitcher came into the year losing some mph on his velocity in order to get some proper control and it has paid off for him.
He leads the entire Eastern League in strikeouts & is second in innings pitched behind only a pitcher turning 27 this year. This season he has gone 5.0 IP+ in 8 straight starts now of which half have been a QS. He has allowed 0 ER or 1 ER in 7-of-10 starts. The Blue Jays in recent years have struggled developing pitchers who can pitch deep into games; coming into this season 6 of the 10 pitchers on the Blue Jays Top 30 list are very likely or already on their way to becoming RP; Zulueta, Macko, Juenger, Danner, Hernandez & Carter.
His strikeouts are up, his walks are down, his HR allowed are down, his BABIP is reasonable and his FIP is in range of ERA. He ranks near the top of the league in most statistics and only turns 23 later this year. He has been very consistent on top of everything. This is looking like a real breakthrough rather than a fluke.
The concern with him moving forward include avoiding losing much more velocity or he needs even more improved location to compensate as well trying to develop a third above average pitch as he currently heavily sticks with his effective two pitch combo. The Blue Jays will likely keep him in AA so he can continue to build confidence after 3 years of struggles but a run in AAA and becoming Major League starter depth next season is very much in play if he keeps it up.
He will very likely be added to the 40-Man this off-season with the team lacking SP depth there.
Paxton Schultz (Age 25):

• 433rd Overall in 2019 Draft // N/R Prospect // Never Ranked
• 3.30 ERA / 3.07 FIP / 3.75 xFIP
• 10.49 K/9 - 3.69 BB/9 - 0.58 H9
• 1.32 WHIP & .236 OBA

As I was writing this Schultz actually had his AAA debut; pitching 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 2 BB & 6 SO in an excellent debut.
Schultz was not actually a Blue Jays draft pick...he was acquired from MIL as a PTBNL for Blue Jays legend Derek Fisher. May have won the trade all these years later. He has always been considered a "low-ceiling" prospect and always put together solid but unspectacular seasons which meant he never really caught the eye of scouts. This year he kind of has put everything together and went from career minor league player to someone who could be that 6th to 8th starter depth we have been really needing in the minors. He doesn't have overpowering stuff by any means but he is really smart and does not allow very much hard contact.
His numbers have been great across the board. Career bests in pretty much everything and has improved in his consistency from years past. He has allowed less than 2 ER in 8-of-10 AA starts. He has actually been a tad unlucky this season as well rocking a BABIP higher than his used to. He also tends to avoid very much disaster starters; in his career of 55 starts he has allowed 5 runs just 3 times (never more) and over the last 2 years has pitched under 4 innings just 3 times. Pretty much an ideal from a #5/#6 starter.
All this has earned him a promotion to AAA now where if he keeps up the same level of consistency he very likely works his way into becoming the teams 6th starter and likely finds himself on the 40-Man roster. If an injury occurs to the rotation Schultz might be the guy to fill in.
Sem Robberse (Age 21):

• International Free Agent in 2019 // 6th Ranked Prospect // Peaked at 6th in 2022
• Nickname: The Pitching Dutchman
• 4.73 ERA / 4.96 FIP / 4.00 xFIP
• 9.45 K/9 - 3.38 BB/9 - 1.69 H9
• 1.18 WHIP & .217 OBA

Don't let the ERA fool you, he has had a much better season than that would suggest. At quick glance his WHIP and OBA are some of the best in the league. Most of the damage coming from an increase in HR allowed this season which is something he is trying to work on. Otherwise his numbers are on par with or better than they have before.
He is considered by many to be the smartest pitcher in the organization. He spent most of COVID studying pitching sequencing and strategies needed for a pitcher. Dude has zero ego to his game and embraces being taught which makes him loved in the organization. Robberse is one of the prospects that we will see play for the Blue Jays one day, whether it will be as a mid-rotation pitcher or as the odd spot stater remains to be see. Probably the "safest" starting prospect in the organization.
He has 5 pitches with his slider and curve be his good ones and throws some decent heat at 92 mph+ but one of his goals is too increase that. He was at 185 lbs last season and is aiming to get over 200 in hopes of increasing his velocity as well as help with his durability although he is already a rather good innings eater being behind Koff.
His major concern is when he does lose control he starts getting hit very hard...which doesn't happen all too often but something he is trying to cut back on. There is a legit claim for him to be the organizations #2 pitching prospect.
Chad Dallas (Age 22):

• 121st Overall in 2021 // N/R Prospect // Peaked at 28th in 2022
• Nickname: Cheese
• A+: 2.03 ERA / 3.09 FIP / 3.71 xFIP w/ 0.94 WHIP & .146 OBA (12.49 SO/9 - 4.05 BB/9 - 0.3 H9)
• AA: 2.42 ERA / 3.76 FIP / 4.52 xFIP w/ 0.85 WHIP & .128 OBA (8.06 SO/9 - 3.63 BB/9 - 0.40 H9)

This is the dude to be excited about and his seemly quick and easy transition into AA which is considered to be the hardest jump for a pitcher in the minors is only more reasons to be excited. In his 5 A+ starts he allowed just 6 ER in 26.2 IP...4 of those 6 came in a single bad start 4.2 IP...he dominated with easy in his other 4 starts which earned him the quick promotion. He loves to just pound the zone and go after hitters.
It is easy to see where his success comes from. Having 4 pitches all very decent including a nasty, nasty slider...a very good curveball, a fastball that touches 95 mph and a changeup he is working on heavily. His control is what really hurt him last year but he has for the most part vastly improved in the matter.
His AA debuts was one of the best I have seen: 7.0 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 2 BB & 9 SO. Since then he had three more starts; one where he lost his command in struggled and another 2 dominating outings where he has allowed 1 total ER in 11.0 IP. There was a lot of "bullpen" risk when he was drafted but he put a lot of that to rest with having no trouble hitting 5-7 IP constantly this season. In his 9 starts he has gone 5.0 IP in 7 of them with the other two falling short (4.1 / 4.2 ) due to struggles not stamina.
He does struggle against LHP hitters and it is something to monitor. His two big outlier blunder starts this season were with lineups that were lefty heavy. Which is the main reason for him wanting to improve his changeup. His cutter and curveball are killer against RHH but don't have the same effect on LHH.
If he does not rocket up prospect boards this season then I have no idea what scouts are looking for anymore.
Trenton Wallace (Age 24):
He hasn't pitched in AA yet but was the one who got the call-up to replace Shultz. He is on the older side but was just drafted in 2021. Has caught the attention of scouts with his performance in A+ but AA will be the big test for him. Cruised through A+ with a 1.79 ERA / 3.20 FIP / 4.18 xFIP with an elite WHIP of 0.82 and 0.155 OBA. There is a good chance we are talking about him a long with the rest of the successful AA pitchers in month time.. A mid- 90's fastball and mesmerizing slider is what gets the job done for him. 5 of his 8 starts he allowed exactly 0 ER including an outing where he thew 5 perfect innings.
He is looking like a massive steal being drafted in the 11th round of the 2021 draft.
The other name in AA are Jimmy Robbins (Age 25); he was very solid last season in between A+/AA but was a tad over-age and now in his full season in AA has lost the strike-zone and is averaging 6.65 BB/9 which has lead to a ERA of 5.40. Even with his success last season; never really caught the eyes of scouts and wasn't protected in the Rule 5 draft even though some fans argued he should. Seems to have been the right call.
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Tiedemann - Kloffenstein - Robberse - Dallas (+Wallace) might be the best rotation we have had in a single level of the minors in a very long time. All are no older than 22 as well so even with some bumps in the road they have time on their hands. All 4 are going to be very exciting to monitor. Paxton Schultz is also worth watching as he might have leap frogged his way right into the 6th SP role with other options in AAA falling apart or being converted to relievers.
Our upper minors pitching depth has been a big concern to fans but they depth coming from AA and below might soon change that.
Who wouldn't want a future rotation of King Kloff, The Pitching Dutchman, Cheese & Ricky Titty?!?

Hello,
This post will probably sound strange and contradictory at times, since this is a big thing that's been part of me forever, yet doesn't make sense at times.
To start with, the title is the best description I can find, namely that I believe I'm incredibly obsessed with myself and my own well-being, while giving little to no care to others, even if they have some degree of relationship with me. I never paid it much thought because frankly, I always though this was natural human behavior, and it's more "abnormal" to see people who are openly compassionate towards others. But recently I've felt like that belief no longer holds.
So, in order to describe more of this. It's something about myself that's been around so long that for me it feels like a natural part of myself, and not exactly to be corrected. I'm not selfish to the point I'd throw someone else under the bus in my favor, but if someone else throws that person under the bus, I won't be inclined to help them. I don't really feel much compassion for other people, and I noticed that everything I attempt is geared towards my own satisfaction. I want to learn something new, to feel good about myself, or to receive praise from others for doing something great. I still seek out relationships with other people, not because I am inclined to know and understand them, but because I require social contact or I'll literally go insane.
I mentioned this would sound contradictory, because despite all this focus on myself above anyone else, I'm actually doing far worse off than you'd think. I dropped out of college, I've only found work twice in these 10 years, and neither lasted more than a year, I often cut off contact with people I knew, my many attempts to work self-improvement have been half-hearted, the initial spur of motivation always died out, and I've been back to square one so many times. Now I'm almost 30, and aside from having become far more insightful and able to control and understand some of my emotions, it feels like nothing has changed since I was 18.
I live this near hermit lifestyle, always on my computer. I have a friend who I talk to often online, but even he feels like a social crutch I need since I don't have any other friends, and I don't really care about all of his life events (many of which are positive, at least which he tells me), and in fact I even get a bit annoyed, but I still show basic decency of encouraging him and feigning interest because I don't want to lose this friend. I also live with my mother, I lost my father 10 years ago, and all this time I live with her, I dread the eventual day I will lose her too, and the part that makes me feel a bit sick, is that I dread it because this means I will lose my main means of sustaining myself, and I have no more future once she's gone.
The point of all this is that I'm confused about these feelings, yet I can't quite grasp what it means to be genuinely compassionate or caring towards another human being, without wanting to satisfy your own ego. Is there someone who understands or even has a very similar mindset to mine? Is there a reason behind these things? I just want to understand more of this mindset, and I think this is the best place I could post without facing judgment for my thoughts.

I'd like to start by letting everyone know that the genre is Fantasy Epic, and that this is a long prologue at 6,414 words. This prologue serves a purpose as it takes care of a lot of my setting and plot setup. It also gives the reader a fair bit of worldbuilding without making it too much of an info dump (talking to you Robert Jordan ;P).
I've had several people beta read this for me and gotten a lot of positive feedback. The prolbem for me is that these were all people I know very well on a personal level. Several have made comparisons to Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings as far as how well the full book is written. The problem is, friends and family can often have a bias and make things seem better than they really are. So, now I want to do a test run in the real world and see what people who don't know me think. Is it as engaging and compelling as they have made me hope that it is?
I'm basically wanting to take a page from a couple authors I admire and follow the ABC rule for critiquing. Please let me know of any point where you thought it was Awesome, Boring or Confusing. I know prologues aren't everyone's favorite thing, but this has basically been written like a novella for the main story as it foreshadows a lot of things leading all the way into book four.
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PROLOGUE
ARCHIVE INFINITUM
October 14, 844 (Alt-Future)
"Welcome back to the Archive, Master Jonathan."
"Thank you, Charles. It's good to be back. Have you noticed anything interesting in the Physical Realm?"
"I have not, sir. Do you require any assistance today?"
"Thank you, but no. I'm only here to revisit a passage within the history of the Order. Shortly after, I'll depart for the reunion at the Tower."
"Excellent, sir. I'll leave you to it."
Jonathan emerged from the ether and walked through the Archive doors. Inhaling deeply, he breathed in the familiar scents of dusty cleanliness that can only truly be found in a place of learning. The lights reflected off the floor's white marble surface, casting a glow that evenly lit every corner of the large chamber. Even so, the room still felt cavernous to him, as if he were a galleon amidst the vastness of the ocean.
Jonathan appeared to be in his early to mid forties. Though, with the way he carried himself and the spring in his step, he seemed closer to his late twenties. His hair was shoulder length and dark gray. He wore bifocals though he hadn't needed them since his ascension, and dressed with a refined sense of style.
His gray eyes were by far his most interesting feature, though. They were the only hint of how old he truly was and the many adventures and travesties he'd witnessed. Regardless, how old he was didn't matter as age had long since lost its meaning for him. After all, being an immortal tended to give a man new priorities in life.
As he strolled across the room, a lift descended from the tower's heights. The square platform had waist high rails around its perimeter. It floated through the air showing no sign of a suspension system to raise or lower it. This was accomplished by a magical enchantment that allowed it to levitate and dart about the room at mind numbing speeds. As he stepped up onto the platform's dais, it landed on the floor in front of him. He took a position at its center, then, after folding his arms behind his back, mentally willed it to take him to floor eight hundred forty four.
It rose off the ground, gradually gaining speed until it was a hundred or so feet in the air. At that point, the platform took off like a rocket. The thought of what these speeds would do to him if this were outside the Realm of Intellect crossed his mind, making him chuckle nervously. He knew he had to be moving close to six hundred miles per hour.
Now, let me tell you a bit about Jonathan's pet project, The Archive Infinitum. The Archive is a magical structure he'd designed shortly after the cataclysm that nearly wiped out the human race. An event most of you now refer to as the Night of Burning Skies. That same event is also what gave us the powers we now refer to as magic.
Shortly after obtaining his ascension, he learned that science's multiverse theories were close to how reality really worked. There are an infinite number of parallel universes, or branching timelines, that coexist simultaneously. What was different is that each universe shared a common six realm structure. The Physical Realm, the Realm of Intellect, the Dominion of Shadows, the Plane of Enlightenment, the Land of the Forgotten, and the Ether.
He built the Archive within the Realm of Intellect so it wouldn't be bound by the laws of physics or time as we know them. Once the structure was anchored in place, he could set most of those parameters himself. What he didn't realize was that making it here would have an unintended, though not unwelcome, side effect. The structure's size, shape, and architectural style could change by anyone who entered it.
When someone enters the Archive, it ascertains their strength of mind and will. Suppose the individual's mental fortitude is deemed stronger than that of the other occupants. In that case, the appearance will adjust to one that best serves and appeals to that individual. This could become unsettling for the occupants already inside the first few times it happened. That being said, it has no effect on the contents atop the shelves or where you're located within the structure. For Jonathan, it shared an uncanny resemblance to the George Peabody Library, though on a much grander scale.
The lift stopped after a brief ride, and Jonathan stepped off. He resumed his stride, passing row after row of the cherry wood bookcases. There were hundreds of rows and thousands of tomes and scrolls in each. As a scholar, he'd spent most of his existence here. But, even so, he knew there would always be something more to be gleaned from their pages.
Today was a day of remembrance. Of celebration. Of mourning. It was the anniversary of the end of a war that had lasted ten thousand years. With the death of one individual, a light of hope was given to many. For others, it was a bittersweet victory that left a void in their hearts. He'd come here today to revisit a passage that would return him to that fateful day. Reliving the event which granted them this peace, and once again, paying his respects to a dear friend.
"Ah, yes, yes, yes. Here we go."
The plaque on the side of the bookcase read, Row DD, Column 15. Now that he'd found the right one, he began scanning the shelves. It wasn't long before his hand landed on the tome he sought.
"Here it is." He pulled it down from the shelf. "My word. Has it truly been fifteen hundred years since I glanced through these pages?"
Looking at the cover, he chuckled. The combined magic of the Archive and the Realm had created a thin layer of dust. Giving it the feeling of something ancient and lost to time. Raising it to his lips, he blew the dust away, causing the magic to dissipate as it fell to the floor. He pulled open the cover and rifled through the pages. The section he stopped at contained the account of Rexinon the Prophet's final words.
Summoning his divine magics, he channeled a spell into the tome. The words that once filled the passages began to fade away, leaving only the blank pages, which now bled a blueish gray smoke. The soft glow of the lights against the floor diminished as the smoke spread. As the darkness grew more substantial, luminescent spheres and arcs of brilliant blues and crimson could be seen dancing about its surface like lightning.
The ground trembled beneath his feet, and the smokey haze took on a more stormlike appearance. All around him, the air started to feel heavy, and the taste of dust and sea salt filled his mouth. A gentle rain began to fall, and the room's remaining lights winked out. If not for the increasing flashes of lightning, he would've been left in total darkness. But even this was not a comfort, as those flashes cast shadows against the storm's ever swirling walls. Many of which appeared to be dark things that should never be seen in the light.
The storm's intensity grew, bringing disorienting cracks of thunder and wind whipping around him. It assaulted his senses and seemed to have an almost vengeful purpose. That meant he had to constantly focus on the spell, bracing himself against the onslaught. If he failed, it would kill him without question.
Some of the shadows began to take on a physical form with details beyond what the walls could offer them. He watched as an hourglass tumbled end over end, circling him before it returned to the storm. A moment later, a blazing fireplace and mantle emerged but produced neither light nor heat. Finally, a door engraved with the crest of the Order appeared. These images were ones he'd expected to see for this particular passage, and so came as no surprise. However, when a fourth image appeared, he was caught off guard.
Although it was normal for three images to accompany this spell, an occasional fourth spoke of prophecy. He focused intently on this final image. It showed twelve people standing in a circle; one of them was coated in blood. Two others were bound by chains. One a man, the other a woman.
He looked closer at the man and realized it was Godric. His eyes opened wide as he tried to decipher the meaning behind the image. Only a few moments passed while he speculated, but it was a few moments too many. Disaster struck, and too late, he realized his mistake. He'd lost focus, and now the storm would surely take him.
Hurricane force winds and debris tore at his clothes, quickly turning them into rags. One powerful gust slammed into his side as if he'd been struck by a car, knocking him off his feet. The storm swelled with even greater ferocity. It threatened to consume him this time, and he wondered if it would finally cost him.
Rain and hail pelted his face and body, while dust and sand stung his eyes. As he wiped away the grit, a bolt of lightning struck before him, temporarily blinding him. He got to his hands and knees, gasping for breath as the storm continued to beat him relentlessly.
Steeling himself against the pain, he rose to his feet. As fast as he could manage, he began casting mental defenses and barriers to protect his mind from the horrific assault. He bellowed in defiance of the storm, "I will not let it end this way! I refuse!" One defense after another was laid upon his person, until finally, he succeeded. The winds died to a breeze as the rain became little more than a summer misting.
He heard the sound of a quill scratching against paper over the storm's remnants, and the air behind his back grew hot as a crackling fire joined the room's ambiance. The sickly sweet smell of incense filled his nostrils, reminding him of days spent in his master's study. Another fond memory.
The storm wall vanished as the tremors subsided, making the room visible through a misty haze. The light of the fireplace cast his shadow across the now rough cut gray stone floor. Half a dozen tapestries hung around the room, and a liquor cabinet stood at the room's far corner. The main entry door remained closed to his left, and the doorway to the study's balcony lay to his right. At the room's center sat Rexinon at his desk, writing furiously on a piece of parchment.
Wiping the sweat from his brow, he breathed a sigh of relief. Although he'd done this countless times, the journey into the pages of history was always filled with peril. But, blessedly, the most intense part of the spell was complete. And while he could now relax in that fact, that fourth image still concerned him.
He stood in the familiar square room, clothing restored to its original state. The evening's air flowed through the open windows, making the ambient temperature quite cozy. Crossing the room, he paused at the desk and listened as Rexinon started muttering. "What I wouldn't give for a typewriter, much less a computer. Would make this so much faster."
Jonathan couldn't help but crack a smile. "Oh, but how many times have I thought the same thing, old friend?" He remarked, though he knew Rexinon couldn't hear him.
He stepped up to the desk and leaned over it. Looking down at the paper Rexinon was writing on, he frowned. Like so many times before, it appeared as little more than black scribbles on a page. Those words had to be important, but there was no way to know.
This was one of the spell's critical weaknesses. The details within the vision were only as precise as what was written in the tome. Most of the books in the Archive were magically transcribed. The benefits of this were completed histories free of victor and writer biases. Although, it wasn't flawless.
Throughout history, there have been individuals or events that the spell couldn't see. The most well known examples of these blips in time were the United States presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945 and the United Kingdom's Prime Minister, Michael Durham, from 2063 to 2065. All that is known about them was their lives before office and the accounts written by those around them. These gaps in history were generally the result of one of two things. In these two cases, a place or individual with a strong connection to the Dominion of Shadows.
Sighing, he pushed off the desk and crossed the room to the liquor cabinet. He opened the glass doors, pulling several bottles and a glass from the shelves. He made a drink consisting of three parts Red Adders Bite and one part Dry Amorian Blood Wine, then added a lime wedge to the rim of the glass. The others wouldn't arrive for another half hour, leaving him time to kill.
He walked around the room with his drink in hand and studied the various tapestries, several of which he'd been a part of. Each one depicted an accomplishment or tragedy facilitated by the Order. All save one, which showed a scene from the event that started it all.
The one to the left of the cabinet showed the Order's founding. In the background stood a grand tower of black and white marble. Its four sides were engraved with the Mark of Hellyrr, which glowed with a magical light. In front of it stood a man facing a gathered crowd, his arms swept wide in triumph. They looked up at him and the structure with reverence and awe.
He continued to move in a counterclockwise manner around the room. Above the main entry door hung another tapestry. One he was even depicted in. It showed the aftermath of a massacre. Six figures stood amidst the bodies of hundreds. The earth around them was scorched by flame, and the blood of the fallen had stained it red. The cloud covered sky glowed a deep crimson with gold outlines from the fires below. It had come to be known as the Cleansing of Elysian, in which the entirety of the planet's second continent had been annihilated to preserve the world.
"I wish it had never come to this. Why can't we all just get along? Instead of thriving in the prosperity of our two lands, they plotted and began planning to bring war to our own people. To rape, pillage, and enslave them. Even with all my vast knowledge and wisdom, I can't understand why they felt the need to dominate and control the world." He looked back up at the tapestry. "Even now, most of the land is still uninhabitable."
He turned around and looked at the tapestry above the balcony door. This one would appear out of place with the others to all but a few handfuls of people. Even for those who learned the truth behind it, it looked like little more than an artist's vision of what a beautiful landscape at sunset should look like. The sky is dotted with hundreds of stars as shades of red, orange, and yellow dance across the land's horizon. The artist's point of view appears to be looking down from a hillside. Down the hill's slope, you can see a pond teaming with wildlife along its edge. The remaining landscape is filled with miles of forest stretching toward the horizon.
For the few who survived this event and still remained, they knew it depicted the final moments of their world before all of humanity was nearly lost.
Jonathan fixated on this tapestry more than he had on the others. The longer he stared, the more distant his expression grew. Over time, his breathing quickened, and his grip on the glass slipped. It shattered as it hit the floor, causing the rug to stain from the liquid. The sound jerked him out of the trance like state, making him feel ill.
He could still recall the memory of that long ago day like it were yesterday. The thought of how close humanity had come to extinction made his legs weak, and he stumbled back against the wall behind him. He slid down the stones' cool surface and noticed his hands were now trembling. Through shuddering breaths, he uttered the words of a broken man. "So much death. So many lives were lost that day. So many. Oh, Sonia. Even after all this time, I still miss you."
The main entry door slammed open, crashing against the wall with a loud bang. Jonathan jerked as one of them collided mere inches from where he sat. The startling sound had been enough to pull him from his stupor, but it still took a moment for him to gather himself. A man in the doorway lowered his foot from where he'd obviously kicked the unlocked door in.
"Knock, knock, Rex. Seems you've done it now."
"Seth. I'll never understand the animosity you held for Rexinon," Jonathan said wearily as he got to his feet.
Seth stood just shy of five foot eight inches and had slick black hair that he kept combed back. He wore black jeans and a beige dress shirt with mother of pearl buttons, which had seen far too much polish in recent days. A malevolent grin displayed his perfect teeth and careless eyes. He strode into the room, dragging a chair behind him, and placed it on the rug by the fireplace.
"Was kicking the door in really necessary, Seth?"
A second man stepped into the room, obviously annoyed by the unnecessary use of force. He wore a navy blue business suit and towered over everyone else in the room, and that was saying something considering Jonathan was six foot. As he still held to the standards of a marine, he kept his hair high and tight and his face clean shaven. He stood at the rug's edge out of respect for the Order so as not to mar the embroidered Mark of Hellyrr. A respect Seth clearly lacked.
"Godric Gibbs. This day changed you. Hell, it changed all of us, but few as much as you," Jonathan said. He looked back at the door as the third and final man entered. "Assassin."
This man was of a height with Jonathan and wore all black from head to toe. His outfit looked like something out of a TV show. Almost like a cross between Gi Joe's Snake Eyes, and CW Arrow's League of Assassins. After ten thousand years, all they knew about him was his previous occupation as a contract killer. It wasn't long before they'd taken to calling him Assassin, as they had no other name to go by. Any time he was asked a question regarding his past, he either remained silent or dodged it outright. He took a position to Godric's left and, like Godric, took care of where he stood on the rug.
The three men stood in silence and watched as Rexinon continued to write. Godric and Assassin seemed content to wait until he addressed them. On the other hand, Seth seemed to grow more agitated as the minutes passed. Jonathan chuckled in spite of himself.
About twenty minutes later, Rexinon spoke, "Reverend Seth Jones, Colonel Godric Gibbs, and Assassin. To what do I owe the pleasure?" His tone plainly indicated that he already knew.
Seth spoke first. "Oh, cut the crap, Rex. You already know why we're here. This cult thing of yours has gone on long enough."
"Well, there's the pot calling the kettle black," Jonathan muttered sarcastically.
Godric rolled his eyes. Everyone in the room knew about Seth's past as a cult leader. They also knew his anger was more at being forced to wait in silence than anything to do with Rexinon or the Order.
"Calm yourself, Seth. There's no need for such hostilities." Godric looked at Rexinon apologetically. "I'm sorry to have to do this, old friend, but my hands are tied. Rexinon the Prophet, Headmaster of the Hellyrrian Order, you've been charged with conspiracy to overthrow the governments of Aurelia and seize control for the Order.
"As we speak, the leaders of the Hellyrrian Order are being gathered for execution. Furthermore, your towers and all their artifacts will be destroyed, and any remnants of the Order's existence is to be wiped from the face of history. As of 0813 this morning, you have been sentenced to death. How do you plead?"
Rexinon continued to write at an incredible rate. He knew why they'd come. He'd known this was coming for months. After all, his gift was the gift of prophecy. The evidence for the charges against him was both substantial and ethereal, depending on what light was shown on it.
Two centuries ago, the Order had tracked the activities of an unknown number of individuals who'd been subtly manipulating several of the Aurelian governing bodies. They'd spread like a poison, corrupting them and turning once prosperous kingdoms which knew few hardships, into lands where the people had to fight just to survive. The problem was that whoever that force had been, always seemed to be just one step ahead of them. Now, not only was it check, but checkmate. The Order had lost.
"I believe the Righteous Twelve to be ill advised. I believe you've been manipulated by the same corrupted governing body which we've spent so long trying to purify—." Seth grunted. "—But," he said at length, "I accept all charges against me, save one. Neither myself nor anyone else of the Order has ever sought to rule Aurelia, as the charges would imply. The Cleansing of Elysian should've been proof enough to show that to be true."
Rexinon penned the final words of his letter and placed the pen back in its stand. Pulling the top off a jar, he dusted the page with a thin layer of sand to soak up any excess ink. After dumping the sand back into another jar to be cleaned, he pushed away from his desk and stood to look at his guests for the first time. After nudging his stool back under, he addressed Godric directly.
"Will you join me on the balcony one last time?"
Godric nodded his head and gestured towards the balcony doorway. As they stepped outside, Jonathan followed.
Rexinon leaned against the railing and looked out over the city, his gaze fixed on the setting sun. Godric joined him and looked down to the tower's base, some five hundred feet below. Although he was not afraid of heights, it gave him respect for the sturdily mounted railing at the balcony's edge.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Rexinon said. Godric looked at him, confused. "The way the world has turned out since that day? Ten thousand years of watching as civilization was rebuilt and destroyed time and time again by a senseless war. Watching them evolve into something more as they learned how to use these gifts we were given. In some ways, we're greater than we ever were. In other ways, we're inferior. If I have any regrets, it's that I couldn't do more to leave the people better prepared for this new age."
"Well spoken. If it's any consolation, I believe this is wrong. I even spoke out against the council for a different outcome. For my efforts, though, I was threatened with execution if I didn't cease my objections."
Rexinon's tone grew heated after hearing of the council's reaction. "You should know better than anyone why I fought so hard against them, then. I'm not against governance. I'm against corrupt governance. We had far too many corrupt politicians and warlords in our own time for me to ever want to allow it again."
Godric nodded his head. "Yes. The problem is you played too heavy a hand too quickly. Instead of accepting that they'd been beaten, they cheated by playing with an ace they had hidden up their collective sleeves."
Rexinon sighed, knowing his words were true. "Indeed. I've accepted my fate. I won't run. Won't even make it difficult for y'all. I have no need to. I would like to make one final request to ease your conscience, though."
Rexinon leaned toward Godric conspiratorially. As he did this, the world around them began to shimmer and distort. Almost like the motion blurring you'd see on a TV. Likewise, their conversation was masked by the sound of white noise and the sound of hushed incoherent whispers.
This was the second hurdle the scrying spells had to deal with. Individuals with divine magic could conceal their conversations or even the events they were a part of. Rexinon had concealed this conversation, and to this day, Godric has never spoken of what was said.
Jonathan returned to the study with a resigned sigh. There was nothing more he could learn from their conversation. Assassin stood in the same spot he'd been when he first entered the room and looked as if he hadn't so much as twitched. Seth, however, was rummaging through the desk's drawers. He'd tried to figure out what he was looking for in the past, but nothing seemed obvious.
The shards of glass from when he'd dropped his cup earlier had vanished, along with the stain on the rug from the liquor. As expected, the glass had returned to the cabinet, and the bottles had refilled to where they were before he'd arrived. This was yet another reminder that this was a magically induced vision of an event that had long since passed. It could be too easy to forget that this wasn't real and that if he spent too much time here, it would have consequences in the real world for him.
He knew they'd be out there a while. In previous visits, he'd occasionally spent this time combing through the room, similar to what Seth was doing. Having cataloged everything centuries ago, there was nothing left to do but wait. So, he walked around the desk and sat squarely within the Mark of Hellyrr embroidered on the rug. There, for the next hour or so, he would remain, arms folded, legs crossed, and eyes shut. Freeing his mind of all unnecessary thoughts and emotions. At least, that was the plan.
About forty minutes in, Seth started to grumble and complain, forcing Jonathan to give up on his meditation. "… I know he's one of the humblest among our kind, but lord, does he have to be so dull? I can't find anything interesting anywhere. Even his liquor cabinet is dull." Seth walked from behind the desk to the liquor cabinet, pulled a few bottles out at random, and read the labels aloud. "Red Adders Bite, Amorian Blood Wine. Christ, he's even got Athester's Sweet Malt. This crap might as well be water." He pulled another bottle down and said, "At least he's got the taste to have at least one bottle of Nordic Berserker."
"Some of us prefer the simpler things in life. You might find life more enjoyable when you aren't always looking for the rare and exotic," Assassin said with a disinterested, almost dismissive tone.
Seth clicked his tongue. "Hell, even this letter he was so focused on when we arrived makes no sense." Seth thrust the letter towards Assassin, who took it nonchalantly. "Look at this."
Jonathan studied Assassin intently, hoping for any sign that would reveal the letter's contents. It was no use, though; for all the emotion he showed, Jonathan would've thought it no more important than a grocery list. But, if that were the case, why obscure it from the eyes of the scrying spell? The frustration caused by such a simple sheet of paper was baffling.
Jonathan got to his feet as Rexinon and Godric returned. As Rexinon walked to stand at the center of the rug, Jonathan moved behind the desk. Godric walked toward Assassin and conversed with him for a few minutes. Once again, the sound of white noise shrouded what was said. This time, it was Godric who masked his words from the spell. When Assassin nodded, Godric moved beside him and faced Rexinon.
Rexinon looked at each tapestry and seemed to relive each as he did so. They all knew those accomplishments and tragedies would stand the test of time. Any efforts to change that would fall flat. The Order had played too significant a role in shaping this new world. Finally, he turned to Godric, kneeling as he met his regret filled eyes.
Assassin pulled an infamous rod from his side, dubbed the Executioner's Handle. Forged in the Dominion of Shadow by Assassin some three thousand years ago. It was one and a half feet long of shadow infused steel and bound with his own divine essence. Ominous black tendrils crawled along Assassin's hand like something alive and flowed into the handle. The shaft elongated, and an axe head formed at its end.
Though he had accepted his fate, seeing that axe form made Rexinon's heart stop momentarily. He looked at Godric questioningly. Godric knew what that look meant and nodded his head in assent. Agreeing to this had allowed them both to right several wrongs this night by asking one simple question. "Do you have any final words or requests?"
"I have two, if you'll grant them. The first, allow me to disband the Order formally as my final act as headmaster."
Seth started to protest, but Assassin lowered the axehead in his direction as a silent threat. Seth glared at Assassin with seething hatred. Godric nodded to Rexinon. "Proceed."
As the headmaster of the Hellyrrian Order, he had a mental connection with every member. Without hesitation, Rexinon's eyes began to glow with a brilliant purple hue. This would be Rexinon's final order, and Godric knew it would save thousands.
"My brothers and sisters, hear me now and heed my words. Abandon the Order and save yourselves. Flee to the hills and never look back to what we once were. With my dying breath, the Hellyrrian Order is no more. The governments of Aurelia have played a hand we can't stand against. Anyone who disregards this command will be hunted down and executed without mercy. To the leaders and guild masters of the Order, I charge you with dismantling everything relating to the Order and turning over every artifact and document you can to Godric the Just, Jonathan the Wise, or Assassin the Watcher. I also ask that you help calm those who feel outraged and betrayed by this night. Do not blame the Twelve, as they were little more than pawns in this corrupt game of politics. Farewell, my friends. My family. May the peace we have fought for be found in the coming days."
The glow faded, and he slumped forward onto his hands, his breathing labored. A few moments passed, and he managed to catch his breath but still looked towards the ground.
"The second request I have is that anyone who would heed that warning be spared. The ruling factions wanted me. As long as no one else causes trouble, we know they won't cause too much fuss over it."
His voice took on a much sharper edge as he looked back up. "You call us a cult, though you know we are nothing of the sort. On the contrary, our Order has stood for nearly five thousand years for the betterment of the entire world. How they treated you should tell you that what I said and what we were doing was justified."
"Shut your mouth, Rex!" Seth spat venomously.
Godric glared at Seth. His own anger with this situation was at the point of breaking free. "Be silent! I don't know what kind of grudge you have, but I, for one, don't give a damn what the council said. Rexinon doesn't deserve death for the crimes he's being accused of. Unfortunately, the ruling factions in almost every nation are corrupted and working towards being as corrupt as they were back in our day." Godric sighed. "Regrettably, my hands are tied, though. The law is the law, and I have been overruled on this matter. Regardless of what my conscience thinks, I will abide by the rules of the land."
Rexinon nodded, understanding Godric's situation perfectly. Godric had become the divine embodiment of law and justice at his ascension. While those two things work hand in hand, they are far from the same, and one must often walk a fine line to serve them both. In this case, the choices were clear. In the end, it didn't matter what he chose; he would inevitably betray one virtue or the other. Unfortunately, there was no good way for him to handle this, and Rexinon could see how this was affecting him.
"The majority of the Order will heed my warning. As for the leaders, if any are still alive, they will follow that command to the letter. They'll even aid you in handling any hotheads who resist," Rexinon said.
"The good news is that no one has yet been executed this evening. I'll personally see to it that those who abide by that order are given a chance to live long, productive lives within society. If all goes well, you will be the only casualty of this idiocy."
Rexinon gave the faintest sign of a smile with a halfhearted chuckle as he said, "Godric, one thing I'll not allow is any of the Order's work ending up in the hands of one of those tyrants. Therefore, I demand that Jonathan be given every document, scroll, and tome held within our strongholds for safekeeping." Rexinon felt exhausted. The spell to warn his Order took more out of him than anticipated.
"You're in no position to be making demands of us," Seth said. Godric finally snapped and struck him so hard that he slammed back into the wall beside the fireplace, cracking it. He got back to his feet a moment later, fixed his shirt, and looked down at the blood he'd wiped from his lip. Godric looked back at Rexinon.
"As you were saying."
"Assassin, I'd ask that you secure all our relics and artifacts, regardless of their magical significance. I don't need to tell you what all we have housed around Aurelia."
"No, you don't. The nukes of our time were nothing compared to some of those items," Assassin replied.
"We'll see to it that it's done. There are things within these walls that were never meant for untrained mortal hands," Godric added.
"Thank you."
"As for the texts, Jonathan will have a field day going through everything. There is far too much the council doesn't understand within these walls that we can't afford to lose."
"Godric was right, Rex. I still have everything. Much of which has been quite useful over the centuries,"
Godric turned his head away, no longer able to look Rexinon in the eye. "I no longer deserve the right to call you a friend, but is there anything else you would ask of me?"
Rexinon looked at Godric for a long time and couldn't help but smile. Not at his pain or suffering in following the orders given to him, but knowing that if anyone here had ever been a friend to him, Godric certainly was. With his final words, he left Godric with a warning.
"No, but I'll leave you with this. Be wary of those among you, for one will betray you all. My friend."
Godric nodded, accepting these as Rexinon's final words as a tear ran down his cheek. Rexinon lowered his head, and Assassin enveloped his axe's blade in a purple aura.
"Woah, Assassin, what's with the new color? Never seen that before," Seth asked.
Ignoring the question, Assassin swung the axe, severing Rexinon's head cleanly.
That night, the cries of the Order were heard in every city across Aurelia. All mourning the death of the Order's first, and last, headmaster.
Jonathan fought back tears of his own as he watched the axe's head vanish. Assassin secured the handle on his belt as he walked towards the desk. Godric looked as though he was going to be sick.
"Did you do as I asked?" Godric asked shakily.
"Of course. I may be a trained killer, but even I know this was bullshit, mate."
Seth walked over and picked up Rexinon's severed head by the hair. He held it up before him, a mischievous grin on his face. Then he whispered something into Rexinon's ear.
Assassin's eyes locked on Seth. As he let go of the head, he used one of his abilities, known as shadow step, to cross the distance to where Seth stood. Before Rexinon's head hit the ground, Assassin snatched it out of the air and punched Seth so hard that it sent him flying into the same section of the wall he'd hit earlier. He bounced off it, but the force of the impact sent several of the stones flying into the next room. Seth crumpled to the floor, where he lay unmoving for several seconds. After a while, his head snapped upright, and he began to laugh. He stood up as if nothing had happened and headed out the door. Godric, now seething with anger, watched as Assassin started to go after him. "Leave him. He's not worth your time."
Jonathan paced around the room, waiting for the spell to wear off. His heart ached, and his own anger toward Seth at that moment made him wish he could destroy the man. But that was Seth's way, and they'd all learned to let it go in time. The world began to blur and vanish, reverting to the Archive once again.
He closed the cover, placing the tome back on the shelf with a heavy sigh. His fingers lingered on the binding as he read the inscription, A Complete History of the Hellyrrian Order, Volume 666. Finally, Jonathan let his hand fall to the side as he walked away with his shoulders slumped.
As if speaking to an old friend, he lamented, "Damn you, Rex. Why couldn't you have just left well enough alone?"
As Jonathan walked away, he shed a tear at the loss of one of his closest friends.

Hi Everyone,
Thank you for your support and patience regarding JRIS65 R2. The GB has only 3 days left, and we have updated the review links. Please check the following GB information.

JRIS65 R2 Group Buy Information

SKUs and pricing
JRIS65 R2 GB Page
GB Time
31st May to 12th June
Estimated Delivery
Start packing and sending to vendors and Mykeyclub direct customers in August 2023
All component is compatible with the R1.
Vendor List

• US: KeebsForAll
• Canada: Ashkeebs
• EU: Candykeys
• UK: Prototypist
• Oceania: SwitchKeys
• South Korea: Geonworks
• Japan: Basekeys
• Singapore: Mecha.Store
• Indonesia: KeebsMark
• Philippines: Zion Studios
• Thailand: NTCH Keys
• Malaysia: Rebult Keyboards
• Vietnam: MOKB STORE
• Taiwan: 鍵盤好貴
• Rest of the world: Mykeyclub

Please check the extracted GB info from the vendor you plan to order.

JRIS65 R2 Information

JRIS65 R2 Renders

What are the differences between Jris65 R2 and R1? 

We have received much feedback about the JRIS65 after they built it. Most of the customer love and enjoy the build and love our Jris65. And we also received some improved feedback or issues they were having. So we have improved the R2 according to the R1, please check the details below:
​

• The JST cable has been extended for a better build experience
• Upgraded the material and finish of the screws
• Added a 1.6mm Non-Flex Cut Black core Hotswap PCB.
• Upgrade a piece of Poron Case Foam to Non-Flex Cut.
• The plates have been upgraded to better support ISO compatibility.
• Added the case colors options: Lilac, Orange, Silver, Maroon, Navy Blue, Dark Green, Titanium Grey, Orange&Black, Dark Green&Black.
• Added the PVD Mirror Weight colors options: Blue, Purple, Gradient.
• New limited edition: Red and Black.

​

JRIS65 Specifications 

• Dimensions
• Typing angle: 6°
• Front height: 21.3mm
• PCB GASKETS structure
• PCB with USB-C daughterboard
• Both PCB and plate adopt flex cut design
• PCB gasket jackets or socks (included as default)
• QMK/VIA Supported (Note: The BT PCB has its drive, so it doesn't support VIA/QMK)
• Support PCB stabilizers

​

What can you customize for JRIS65 R2? 

Case Options:

• 2 limited edition case: Red, Black (Only 300 Limited QTY Worldwide)

Highlight reoxidation finish for the chamfered in makes the overall front more three-dimensional and exquisite.

• 5 E-coat case： E-white, Milky White, Pink, Lilac, Orange
• 6 Anodized Case: Black, Silver, Maroon, Navy Blue, Dark Green, Titanium Grey
• 6 color combos case: Orange&Black, E-White&Black, Maroon&Black,Dark Green&Black, Navy Blue&Black, Titanium Grey&Black

Weight Options:

• Anodized Alu Weight: Black, Silver, Gold
• PVD Mirror Stainless steel Weight: Gold, Silver, Black, Chroma, Blue, Purple, Gradient

PCBs Options:

• Wired Flex Cut Black core Hotswap PCB( 1.2mm, Multi Layout, support QMK and VIA )
• Wired Non-Flex Cut Black core Hotswap PCB(1.6mm, Multi Layout, support QMK and VIA )
• Wired Flex Cut Black core Solder PCB( 1.2mm, Multi Layout, support QMK and VIA )
• 5.2 Bluetooth Hotswap PCB,battery included ( 1.2mm, ANSI Layout, support LDN Software)

BT PCB is cooperating with Li Dana. LDN’s PCB is famous in China because his PCBs are stable and qualified and use friendly. It has its drive and software, which can edit the key mapping. Please check the software driver interface here.

1. 8 devices can pair with at the same time, and it is easy to switch devices you want.
2. The power switch is on the PCB, easy to turn BT function on/ off.
3. The fastest response time is only 1.25ms

Plate Options:

• PC/POM/FR4/ALU
• Brass (Add-on only)/Black core FR4 (Add-on only)

Plateless Options:
We highly suggest building plateless with 5mm extra plate foam and solder PCB. The 5mm extra plate foam will bring a more soft typing feel, and the typing sound will be cleaner. But without the 5mm plate foam, it will also work fine, and the typing feel and sound are very different.

What's in package? 

• 1x Full CNC Aluminum Case
• 1x Weight( Anodized Alu/ PVD Mirror)
• 1x PCB (Flex Cut Hotswap/ Non-Flex Cut Hotswap/ Soldered/ Bluetooth)
• 1x Plate (PC/ FR4/ Alu/POM)
• 1x Type-C Daughterboard
• 1x IXPE Foam
• 1x Poron Plate Foam
• 1x Flex Cut Poron Case Foam
• 1x Non-Flex Cut Poron Case Foam
• 1x Masking paper for PCB
• 1x JST Cable
• 10x gasket jackets
• 20x gasket socks
• 1 Set of PCB stabilizers O-ring
• 1 Set of Footpad
• 1x Silicone pad of battery compartment (We include this as default, so you don't need to consider choosing which PCB to be the default.)
• 1x Battery（Only for the Bluetooth version）

Gift(will not send make-up or replacements)

• 1x USB-Type C keyboard cable
• 1x Carrying Case

​

Please check the prototype photos below# 

• Pink Case with Chroma PVD Mirror Weight
• Maroon + Black Case with Gold PVD Mirror Weight
• Maroon + Black Case with Silver PVD Mirror Weight
• Milky-White + Black PVD Mirror Weight
• Titanium Grey+Black
• Accessories

Review links

Content Creator	Prototype (JRIS65 R2)
Yo_keebs	Orange Case+Black PVD Weight
Rx003	Silver Case+Silver PVD Weight
hi_keebs	Black Case+Chroma PVD Weight
YBBK	Limited Edition Black Case+Black PVD Weight
SeungupKBD	DarkGreen Case+Gold PVD Weight
Preston's Thoughts	Milky-White Case+Silver PVD Weight
bored bear	Limited Edition Red Case+Silver PVD Weight
kittykat.keys	E-White Case+Chroma PVD Weight
whnkeys - Custom Tastaturen	Pink Case+Silver PVD Weight
get.switched	Lilac Case+Purple Weight

​

Content Creator	Prototype (JRIS65 R1)
Alexotos	E-White&Black Case+Gold PVD Weight
Keybored	Milky-White Case+Black PVD Weight
nearLucid	Milky-White Case+Gold PVD Weight
Yo_keebs	Milky-White Case+Chroma PVD Weight
Tofutypes	E-White Case+Chroma PVD Weight
sviz ify	Pink Case+Silver PVD Weight
Clackbait	Titanium Grey+Black Case+Black PVD Weight
Shoobs	Black Case+Chroma PVD Weight
Mecha Store	Maroon&Black Case+Silver PVD Weight
edwardtanujayaa	Milky-White Case+Chroma PVD Weight
mmorpg.com	Black Case+Chroma PVD Weight
tomshardware	Pink Case+Chroma PVD Weight

Mykeyclub Team

We are a platform that integrates creativity and innovative design, helping more studios join this hobby community and bringing more fun and cool products to you guys. Please participate in our MKC family for more discussions and future updates.
Mykeyclub discord
Mykeyclub Ins
Best Wishes
Mykeyclub Team

Just recently started playing this game a lot more after a fairly long break from it and boy does it frustrate as nothing seems to make sense?

1. Weapon stats and types mean nothing - doesn't matter whether you choose an SMG or an AR or an LMG - it seems that distance no longer matters based on weapon type and an SMG can beam you from 100M plus and with the same TTK as an AR or an LMG
2. WTF is with either the hit registration or random spread on waepons? It used to be that if your weapon had high recoil you burst fire it to get better accuracy - that seems to make no difference at all these days. As with point 1 above makes no sense choosing a higher damage weapon that has higher recoil.
3. A .50 calibre Vehicle turret seems to do minimal splash damage at best and you need to hit a person what 3 times to kill them? Same as an AR or LMG at close range? Mortar splash damage is marginally better but still about as devastating as pushing a bunch of mentos into a coke bottle. The minigun turrents are only really there to make noise it seems.......
4. Doesn't matter if you shoot the tracks or wheels of vehicles - apparently the only damage vectoring they bothered to include in aiding taking out a vehicle is from directly behind it? I mean if you shoot the tracks or wheels you get a 'part disabled' message pop up - the thing is still operable and moving fine - what is disabled exactly?
5. Aim assist on console operates in two fashions - either inadvertently dragging your crosshair away from your intended target or not present at all. I mean I get that having played all the previous games up until BF4 on PC that console is going to feel different but it shouldn't feel 'unplayable and luck based'
6. Footsteps make no sense - either they cut in very very loudly all of a sudden in a direction thats not easily discernable or are non existent.

Now, before people jump up and down on me - I'm not saying I'm not having any fun - there are some 'fun' moments and I do enjoy some games while finding others really frustrating but for all their talk of 'fixing' this game I've returned personally to find that not that much is really fixed? I mean its playable enough but its still not battlefield.

1. hi there is there anyone that is also going into scs this monday?? haha
   
2. will i OOC day one for medical condition if i were to excuse outfield, helmet or camo (got specialist letter)
   
3. will i be posted into places like armour or infantry if i OOCed due to serious acne condition as mentioned above????? assuming i’m still combat fit PES
   
4. which schools are now open for intake and how are the trainers like in there?
   

starting to have second thoughts abt indicating interest, don’t know if i should have just not indicated interest and carry on as a man. super sianz rn thinking abt another 6 months of “BMT2.0”
PS i’m not trying to OOC because idw to try at all, i want to OOC because my condition became real fkin bad in bmt and it affects training eg pain, cuts, abrasions, easily forms everywhere on body and face

God is a trinity
God the father God the son God the holy spirit
God the father:
Genesis 1:26 / Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.
John 14:28 / You have heard Me say to you, ‘I (Jesus) am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.
Matthew 24:36 / But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.
God the holy spirit:
Genesis 1:2 / The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
John 14:26 / But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.
John 16:13 / However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
God the Son:
John 1:2-5 / In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
John 1:14 / And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth
John 8:58 / Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
Revelation 1:18 / I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.
God is good:
1 Chronicles 16:34 / Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.
God is holy:
Psalm 97:12 / Be glad in the Lord, you righteous ones, And give thanks to His holy name.
God's love:
John 3:16 / For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
God's justice:
2 Corinthians 5:10 / For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
God is righteous:
Psalm 119:137 / Righteous are You, O Lord, and upright are Your judgments.
How to enter heaven:

1. Believe in the trinity
2. Believe Jesus Christ died for your sins on the cross
3. Believe Jesus Christ was raised from the dead 3 days later
4. Do not follow your own desires
5. Put on the armour of God
6. Resist the devil and he will flee
7. Follow God's commandments
8. Repent of your sins
9. Pray to God
10. Ask for forgiveness from God

1 John 2:3-6 / When we obey God, we are sure we know him. But if we claim to know him and don't obey him, we are lying and the truth isn't in our hearts. We truly love God only when we obey him as we should, and then we know we belong to him. If we say we are his, we must follow the example of Christ.
We are all sinners but through Jesus we can find everlasting life.
Repent and turn from your old ways. Sin escalates and gets worse without regret.
Sin is not allowed in heaven so bind and resist sin on earth.
Matthew 18:18 / I assure you and most solemnly say to you, whatever you bind [forbid, declare to be improper and unlawful] on earth shall have [already] been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose [permit, declare lawful] on earth shall have [already] been loosed in heaven.
We can receive forgiveness and mercy for our sins through God the son, Jesus Christ our lord and saviour.
Forgiveness is available to everyone, even those who have made the same mistakes many times. However repentance is needed from you. Jesus will show you the right way but you still have a choice to follow or not.
How to resist the devil:
The armor of God represents the defense we must take in our spiritual lives. The Bible tells us that we are fighting a war against Satan, who seeks to destroy us. Therefore, we must take action and put on God's armor. As Christians, it is important for us to understand the severity of this battle.
Armor of God

1. the belt of truth - honesty
2. the breastplate of righteousness - do the right thing
3. the shoes of the gospel of peace - remain calm and collected
4. the shield of faith - trust God
5. the helmet of salvation - accept Jesus Christ is my lord and savior.
6. The sword of the Spirit - use and know the word of God

GOOD FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT:
Galatians 5:22-23 / But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Matthew 6:14 / For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don't forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Luke 6:36-38 / Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.
Matthew 22:37-39 / Jesus says, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
1 Peter 4:8 / And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins
John 14:21 / Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”
SINS:
The 10 Commandments:

1. You shall have no other God's before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy.
5. Honor your father and mother.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shall not bear false witness.
10. You shall not covet.

The seven deadly sins are:

1. lust
2. gluttony
3. greed
4. laziness
5. wrath
6. envy
7. pride

Proverbs 6:16-19 / These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.
Matthew 5:27-28 / You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
James 4:17 / So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin
Colossians 3:5-6 / Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
Galatians 5:19-21 / Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity (hostility), strife (conflict), jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions (disagreement), divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:19-21 / Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality (sexual pleasure), idolatry, sorcery, enmity (hostility), strife (conflict), jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions (disagreements), divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Any miracles done that is not from God is from the devil. The devil is deceitful and will hide his sorcery in false doctrines. Do not be deceived and be led astray because this is done by the devil to hide the truth.
1 John 3:15 / Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
CONSEQUENCES OF SIN:
James 1:12-16 / Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and SIN WHEN IT IS FULLY GROWN BRINGS FORTH DEATH. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers
Hebrews 3:12-14 / Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an EVIL, unbelieving heart, LEADING YOU TO FALL AWAY FROM THE LIVING GOD. But exhort (strongly encourage) one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be HARDENED BY THE DECEITFULNESS OF SIN. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
1 Peter 3:12 / For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
Matthew 5:30 / And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.
Proverbs 9:10 - The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
SAVED BY FAITH:
Matthew 7:21-23 / Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’
Ephesians 2:8 -10 = For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand SO WE MAY DO THEM.
James 2:17 = So too, faith by itself, if it does not result in action, is dead
James 2:21-22 / Was not our father Abraham justified by what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith was working with his actions, and his faith was perfected by what he did.
My conclusion on faith:
We are saved by faith in the trinity. Works are there to strengthen your faith. Sin weakens your faith until it dies.
Reasons for evil:
Isaiah 45:7 / I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things
You have free will to choose to be good or evil. God allows you to choose even if he knows what you will choose. If he doesn't allow evil people to exist he cannot give free will to man or he cannot let man be created. If man has no free will then we can no longer call ourselves human being as we would be something else. If we are not created by God he cannot save his lost sheep born into a world of good and evil where the ground is cured and weeds grow amongst the wheat.
Hell was created for the fallen angels but also because evil people exist. Evil people cannot escape justice so God created a place of torment for them. This place is for people who disobey God and refuse to serve him.
Matthew 13: 37-39 / He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
God needs cursed ground to sow the seeds of sinners. God has rules which he also follows, he does not just do as he wants. The devil can sow his own seeds as well. The devil's seeds/children can also be saved.
Zechariah 3 1-4 = Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?" Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, "Take off his filthy clothes." Then he said to Joshua, "See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you."
The devil is making mistakes as you can see from the verse above. Weeds can also be saved.
These sinners can be saved by faith in God the son. We are all black sheep which God is coming to find.
The reason for life:
You have free will but God also told you not to sin. Therefore you can ignore God's will and do as you please or you can obey God and do his will.
When you die or come to the end of your life on earth God will tell you who you are. Only God can define you. God loves you and wants to bless you too. Your blessings depends on what you did during your life on earth.
The bible is God's word.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 / All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Trying Something new here apologies for any confusion, but going forward, the mod team has decided to move the Listing Thread to a sub-directory within the Mega Thread. The reasoning behind this is to free up the other Sticky for other uses and giving more flexibility in reacting or hopefully making the sub more usable and useful to the member base as a whole.

CRT Listings WTB/WTS/Freebie (June 2023) Thread (Click Me)

Previous Threads Here: /crtgaming/wiki/sqt

The purpose of this thread is to attempt to cut down on the amount of clutter and troubleshooting, price check, ID check, spec(ification) check, and just general "HELP!!" style threads often seen filling the front page of the sub, and hopefully get those questions answered more quickly and efficiently by bringing them together in one place for viewing.
If your thread would consist of (list is not exhaustive, just likely examples):

• A question you think should have an obvious/well known answer
• A question that feels rather specific and you're worried it might get passed over entirely
• Wiring help for your setup
• Asking for an ID Check for a CRT TV/Monitor you've stumbled upon
• Asking for a Price Check for a CRT you've stumbled upon
• Asking about benefits of 1 CRT over another that you're looking into

This Thread is for you!

Some of the modteam, as well as several veteran members of the sub check in on this thread often and will attempt to got answers to questions as they come up, but it would be much appreciated if once you've posted your question here, you use the link above to the older threads to see if the question may have already been answered. Of course, it would also help greatly to check/ctrl+f the current thread first before submitting your own question too.
This specific thread is set to a Newest first suggested sort, so you shouldn't have to worry about your brand new question being buried instantly under the previous week/month/etc's worth of questions. There is no consistent schedule these threads will be remade on, so please don't be afraid to post a question just because it was pinned a month or more ago.

So I've got a standard wood shed, the type with the shiplap cladding and the roof that has two rectangles merging to an apex.
I recently cleaned off the old felt roof, stripped out all the old felt nails and installed OSB board. Each side of the apex now has an OSB board measuring 250cm x 104cm.
I'm trying to find some metal roofing sheets, the box profile style, and the sheets I've found say that they give 1m of width coverage when overlapped in the standard way.
This is probably quite basic but how do I get hold of exactly the right amount of box profile roofing sheets to cover each 250cm x 104cm sheet? Should I get more than I need and use something to cut them down to size, or is there a way to get it as close as possible?

Newly added:

Version	Item	Condition	Price (Includes Shipping)
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Limited Edition Console	Joycons, Straps, Grip	Brand New	$160.00
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Limited Edition Console	Box & Inserts	Brand New (minor cut/damage in one spot on a corner)	$60.00

About the above:

• Images already added to the top of the images link mentioned below.
• The Joycons and Straps have not been removed from their packaging at all. Completely untouched. Grip only removed for photograph.
• Box will include all packing materials except those specifically for the Joycons, Straps, and Grip.
• Prices are based on recently "Sold" listings on eBay but are negotiable within reason.

​
All images uploaded for this post will be included here:
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNv-U01HWODjMDJVo5l9VbVSGuClM8KIYj7jaFD65Vezu5L0mFVrSOfBJayrtaTiQ?key=b2VHWlcyMjhneUVQWjM0TW5XSjV2djR4Ym1wZHZn
​
Shipping is USPS Priority Mail. Items will be placed in bubble wrap and shipped inside boxes. Tracking and insurance are included. Add the following to all orders:

• $10.00 for small boxes (1-2 games)
• $15.00 for medium (multiple games, small bundles, Amiibos)
• $20.00 for large (consoles, large bundles)

​
Tables:

1. GAMES
2. MANUALS ONLY
3. AMIIBOS
4. CONSOLES

​
Things of note:

• Prices are negotiable for individual items and custom bundles. All price negotiations and initial contact should be via comments per this sub's rules/suggestions.
• "Condition" is based on my most recent check of item. If you are concerned about a potential missing item (insert, manual, etc.), reach out and I will confirm if it is included/not included. List should be accurate but sometimes things get missed. Will also provide confirmed testing of items upon request.
• Images of specific items available upon request. There are just too many to do big sweeping images and my place is small. Just reach out and I'll be happy to take a shot or two of any items.
• All disc games will come in plastic cases, even if listed as "loose".
• If you see anything in the list that you believe may be an error (typo, game listed twice, etc.) please let me know and I will double-check and correct any mistakes. As previously said, list should be accurate but sometimes things get missed.
• Priority will be given to buyers that are bundling the most items together.
• Lastly, I work 8am-5pm CST Mon-Fri. If commenting during those hours, please allow for a delay in response time.

​
1. GAMES

Console	Game	Condition	Price
3DS	Animal Crossing: New Leaf	CIB - Complete In Box	$14.00
3DS	Disney Magical World	CIB - Complete In Box	$13.00
Atari 2600	Dragonfire	CIB - Complete In Box	$24.00
Atari 2600	Missile Command	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$4.00
Atari 2600	Space Jockey	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$3.00
Atari 2600	Space War	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$4.00
Atari 2600	Video Chess	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$4.00
Atari 2600	Warplock	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$4.00
Game Boy	Asteroids	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$9.00
Genesis	Columns	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$4.00
NDS	Lego Batman: The Videogame	CIB - Complete In Box	$4.00
NDS	Lunar: Dragon Song	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$8.00
NDS	Spectrobes	Boxed - Cartridge/Discs with Box (No Manual/Extras)	$9.00
NES	Deadly Towers	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$5.00
NES	Donkey Kong Classics	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$15.00
NES	Double Dragon	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$9.00
NES	Gauntlet II	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$6.00
NES	Gyromite [5 Screw]	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$5.00
NES	Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$4.00
NES	Karate Champ [5 Screw]	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$4.00
NES	Ninja Gaiden	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$9.00
NES	Section-Z [5 Screw]	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$6.00
NES	The Bard's Tale	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$19.00
NES	The Immortal	Loose+ - Cartridge/Discs with Manual	$16.00
PC	Final Fantasy VIII	Loose+ - Cartridge/Discs with Proper Disc Sleeve	$10.00
PS1	Final Fantasy VIII	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$9.00
PS1	Gex: Enter the Gecko	Loose+ - Cartridge/Discs with Manual	$25.00
PS1	Spawn: The Eternal	CIB - Complete In Box	$20.00
PS1	Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$8.00
PS1	Tekken [Long Box]	Boxed - Cartridge/Discs with Box (No Manual/Extras) - Box Damaged, Price Reduced	$10.00
PS1	Test Drive: Off-Road	CIB - Complete In Box	$5.00
PS1	Test Drive: Off-Road 2	CIB - Complete In Box	$3.00
PS1	Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation	CIB - Complete In Box	$7.00
PS2	ATV Offroad Fury 2 [Not for Resale]	CIB - Complete In Box	$4.00
PS2	Devil May Cry 2	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$4.00
PS2	EverQuest Online Adventures	Boxed - Cartridge/Discs with Box (No Manual/Extras)	$5.00
PS2	Final Fantasy X	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$5.00
PS2	Final Fantasy XII	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$4.00
PS2	Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories	CIB - Complete In Box	$8.00
PS2	Ultimate Board Game Collection	CIB - Complete In Box	$3.00
PS3	Diablo III	CIB - Complete In Box	$4.00
PS3	Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition	Boxed - Cartridge/Discs with Box (No Manual/Extras)	$14.00
PS3	Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX	CIB - Complete In Box	$6.00
PS3	Mass Effect 2	CIB - Complete In Box	$2.00
PS3	Mass Effect 3	Sealed	$7.00
PS3	Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe [Greatest Hits]	CIB+ - Complete In Box Including Extras	$7.00
PS3	Red Dead Redemption	Boxed - Cartridge/Discs with Box (No Manual/Extras)	$13.00
PS3	Tomb Raider	CIB - Complete In Box	$5.00
PS3	Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Game of the Year) [Greatest Hits]	CIB - Complete In Box	$5.00
PS3	Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (Game of the Year) [Greatest Hits]	CIB - Complete In Box	$3.00
PS3	White Knight Chronicles: International Edition	CIB - Complete In Box	$7.00
PS4	Destiny	CIB - Complete In Box	$3.00
PS4	Disney Infinity 2.0 Edition	CIB - Complete In Box	$10.00
PS4	Olympic Games Tokyo 2020	Sealed	$15.00
PS4	Puyo Puyo Tetris 2	Sealed	$15.00
PS4	Super Monkey Ball - Banana Mania (Anniversary Edition)	Sealed	$15.00
SNES	WWF Super WrestleMania	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$6.00
Switch	Harvest Moon: Light of Hope SE - Complete	CIB - Complete In Box	$13.00
Wii	Disney Epic Mickey	CIB - Complete In Box	$4.00
Wii	Donkey Kong Country Returns	CIB - Complete In Box	$10.00
Wii	Donkey Kong Country Returns	CIB - Complete In Box	$10.00
Wii	Elebits	CIB - Complete In Box	$5.00
Wii	Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition	CIB - Complete In Box	$9.00
Wii	Super Mario Galaxy	Boxed - Cartridge/Discs with Box (No Manual/Extras)	$12.00
Xbox 360	Alone in the Dark	CIB - Complete In Box	$6.00
Xbox 360	Batman: Arkham City	CIB - Complete In Box	$3.00
Xbox 360	BioShock	Loose+ - Cartridge/Discs with Behind the Scenes Disc	$3.00
Xbox 360	BioShock 2	CIB - Complete In Box	$4.00
Xbox 360	Borderlands	CIB - Complete In Box	$2.00
Xbox 360	Borderlands 2	CIB - Complete In Box	$5.00
Xbox 360	Burnout Paradise	CIB - Complete In Box	$5.00
Xbox 360	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$4.00
Xbox 360	Devil May Cry 4	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$5.00
Xbox 360	Enemy Territory: Quake Wars	CIB - Complete In Box	$6.00
Xbox 360	Fallout: New Vegas	CIB - Complete In Box	$4.00
Xbox 360	Halo 3	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$5.00
Xbox 360	Kinect Adventures!	CIB - Complete In Box	$3.00
Xbox 360	LEGO Batman: The Videogame	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$3.00
Xbox 360	LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7	CIB - Complete In Box	$4.00
Xbox 360	LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga	CIB - Complete In Box	$7.00
Xbox 360	Lost Planet: Extreme Condition	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$3.00
Xbox 360	Mass Effect	CIB - Complete In Box	$5.00
Xbox 360	Mass Effect 2	CIB - Complete In Box	$4.00
Xbox 360	Mass Effect 3	CIB - Complete In Box	$4.00
Xbox 360	Plants vs. Zombies	CIB - Complete In Box	$6.00
Xbox 360	Pure	CIB - Complete In Box	$5.00
Xbox 360	Rocksmith	CIB - Complete In Box	$7.00
Xbox 360	SoulCalibur IV	CIB - Complete In Box	$5.00
Xbox 360	Star Wars: The Force Unleashed	CIB - Complete In Box	$5.00
Xbox 360	The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion -- Game of the Year Edition	CIB - Complete In Box	$7.00
Xbox 360	The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim	CIB - Complete In Box	$2.00
Xbox 360	The Orange Box	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$14.00
Xbox 360	Turok	Boxed - Cartridge/Discs with Box (No Manual/Extras)	$9.00
Xbox 360	Unreal Tournament III	Loose - Cartridge/Discs Only	$4.00
Xbox 360	Viva Pinata	Loose+ - Cartridge/Discs with Manual	$3.00
Xbox 360	Your Shape: Fitness Evolved	CIB - Complete In Box	$3.00
Xbox One	Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition	CIB - Complete In Box	$6.00

​
2. MANUALS ONLY

Console	Manual	Price
GBA	Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Prophecy	$7.00
GBA	Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World	$7.00
GBA	Wario Land 4	$10.00
PS1	Brave Fencer Musashi	$27.00
PS1	Breath of Fire III	$21.00
PS1	Final Fantasy Origins	$6.00
PS1	Intelligent Qube	$12.00
PS1	Vagrant Story	$21.00
PS1	Wild Arms	$14.00

​
3. AMIIBOS
Note: All Amiibos are "loose". Images included in the link at the top of the post. Amiibos also require $15.00 shipping regardless of how many are purchased. Their bases are just too big for the $10 shipping box's size.

Amiibo	Price
Diddy Kong	$17.00
Donkey Kong	$25.00
Dr. Mario	$13.00
Fox	$9.00
Link	$31.00
Link - Majora's Mask	$40.00
Link - Toon	$24.00
Lucario	$13.00
Luigi	$17.00
Mario	$13.00
Mario - 30th, Classic	$10.00
Marth	$11.00
Mega Man	$15.00
Pac-Man	$12.00
Peach	$11.00
Pikachu	$9.00
Princess Zelda	$28.00
Simon	$19.00
Sonic	$26.00
Yoshi	$21.00

​
4. CONSOLES

Console	Notes	Price
Nintendo 3DS XL Black & Red	Comes with charging cable & grip. Boots directly into custom firmware. Will remove NNID prior to shipping. Will come with a 128gb SanDisk SD Card.	$135.00
Playstation 3 Slim System	Comes with power cable, HDMI cable, and at least 1 official controller (rubber in thumbsticks may feel sticky) and may include bonus official or third party controllers for free. System is loaded with CFW and boots directly into it. System has new thermal paste and rubber block installed that helps apply pressure to the CPU/Heatsink to additionally reduce temperatures and prolong system lifespan.	$90.00
Playstation 2 System (Phat)	Comes with power cable, PS2-to-HDMI adapter, HDMI cable, 1 official PS1 memory card, 1 official PS2 memory card, and 1 official controller (rubber in thumbsticks may feel sticky). System is modded and comes with 1TB HDD. Shell has an area on the side that is broken from a drop, but all internals are unharmed, and system has been tested and was found working as expected. May include additional memory cards for free.	$90.00

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In the spirit of Fresh Friday I am going to put forward an argument why nonreligious people, especially in the West, should be more concerned and vocal about non-institutional beliefs such as those outlined in the title. I’ll be using this as a starting point for discussion:
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2009/12/09/many-americans-mix-multiple-faiths/
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/10/01/new-age-beliefs-common-among-both-religious-and-nonreligious-americans/
On this forum we tend to focus a lot on debating the Abrahamic traditions. Arguably this is because most of the userbase is more familiar with and effected by them in their daily lives. There is comparatively much less energy devoted to debating the validity and effects of belief in things like astrology, healing crystals, the presence of souls in not just animate but also inanimate objects. The above study demonstrates the high percentage of people in the US who believe in such concepts/practices. This study in particular takes a look at how many Christians in particular also identify with these things, despite it going against most mainstream doctrine. It does not account for the number of nonreligious people who also do and anecdotally, I’ve met plenty of people who tell me they are also an atheist, only to turn around and say they also believe that tarot is real etc. The rise in nonreligious identification in the West has not necessarily led to a decrease in people holding these types of spiritual beliefs. Because both religious and nonreligious people alike continue to allow them to guide their lives, we should devote more time and energy to addressing their validity.
If you need more motivation, think of some of the charges commonly leveled against theists by us nonbelievers; that their practices/traditions are often harmful or useless, that they have an undue influence on a wider pluralist society and that their validity is often accepted uncritically. All of these charges can be leveled at these beliefs as well. The Reagan administration had a secret official astrologer for seven years and current candidate for the American presidency Marianne Williamson has a long history of promoting astrology as comparable to psychology and responsible for saving America from worse natural disasters. How much money do mediums/psychics make as an industry a year off of people who may use it as a healthy coping mechanism or be getting exploited. People unfamiliar with the proper procedures for building and operating a sweat lodge cause health scares and even fatalities on a regular basis. “New Age” spirituality has been tied has been tied to things like extremism: https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/03/29/qanon-new-age-spirituality/ and vaccine refusals, leading to outbreaks of old diseases such as measles. With 62% of Americans holding belief in at least one of these things (again, cutting across the religious/nonreligious divide) then you are mistaken if you think this isn’t an issue that needs to be addressed.

Hello everyone, I am a senior engineering student whose graduation project is a Mars rover-style robot which is to be powered via an 8S8P Li Ion battery pack (33.6V 24Ah) that was assembled from these 18650 batteries. The battery pack is managed by this BMS (10Series 60Amps). Currently I am facing 2 problems:

1. I can't get the BMS to work, because it needs to be charged first, which leads me to problem number 2;
2. I don't have way to charge the battery.

The problem lies with the fact that I live in a country where no fancy Li-Ion chargers exist, my only option of getting them would be to order them online, wait for the duration of the shipping and customs procedures (weeks to months), and risk the fact the product could be refused entry (which has happened with a group of colleagues), all while paying an exorbitant amount of money. This is to say that unfortunately I have arrived at a not-so-engineeringly-sound list of alternative solutions that I was hoping to get some information on. again I want to preface this by saying that I know these are not the optimal solutions, It's just that I have no other options as far as I'm aware:

• Solution A: Use one of these DC Adapters, and step up the voltage through a boost converter, depend on the BMS to handle the charging process of the cells. I am not sure how well this would work, and also the current rating is very low (highest I could find was 3A at 24V. or 4.7A at 19v)
• Solution B: Same as solution A but use one of these DC adapters, and step down the voltage through a step down converter, again the same problem with the current (only much worse this time.)
• Solution C: Use a switching power supply such as this one, and decrease the output voltage or use a step down converter to decrease it. However; as far as we've researched this is absolutely not recommended due to the switching nature of regular SM power supplies.
• Solution D: Use a laptop's charger such as this one, cut off the end (cannot find a 7.4x5mm female plug where I live for the life of me) and use it with a step up converter (main benefit here would be the higher current than the DC adapters above.) However; I have seen mixed opinions online about this approach.
• Solution E: Something else entirely that we have not thought of.
  Sorry for the long post, I am looking for suggestions/ recommendations. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
  

Thank you in advance!

Ok, so this might be a long one, which i may or may not add to through edits if people decide to tell me otherwise or chime in with legit theories. Also this is just an observation and discussion, if you think that i have gotten things wrong, please tell me, it will give me some time to kill till Sunday-Funday.
I've been following the general subject for a long time (compared to my current age), I have been meaning to write something but due to stigma i thought that it was a little silly to get too heavily involved in the sub. But all the recent negativity has almost forced me to feel inclined to chip in.
First I'll start with some basic observations concerning UAP/UFO lore-

1. There is always an attempt at a coverup by people who we could consider "above the government"
2. The videos that we do get to view are always blurry
3. People both skeptics and believers demand hard evidence that they simply aren't entitled to get.
4. The witnesses that are involved with situations like these and people who talk about these points have an opportunity to use their fame to make a living.
5. There is a media drip that allowed the stigma for the field of study to be ridiculed.
6. There are disinformation campaigns that pollute the very core of the subject.
7. Extremely reputable people will come forward and be ridiculed by the general public due to mental and cultural conditioning.
8. There is no definition between fields of studies within even this sub itself. (This is a big one!!)
9. The UAP is in expected to be benevolent, by a large majority of the users.
10. The necessity and also danger of skepticism.
11. The conspiracy mindset.
12. The increase of reports, and why the Whistleblower is more important than previous events (thing Greer's disclosure meeting event)

So to expand,

1. The coverup of something you are not supposed to see is a great casus beli, why haven't we got any proof? Because the the people who are paid money to focus on this one aspect of disinformation are simply very good at their jobs. Think of a World renowned chef, or heart surgeon, they most likely don't even need to think about what they are doing, and do not put any extra effort at their job, they live and breathe this line of work. It would most likely be a similar situation with someone who has devoted their lives to disinformation and media manipulation.
2. The videos are alway blurry, we have had accounts of many sightings, lots of video footage, some spectacular, some absolute rubbish (think las vegas zoomed in aliens (even though you're probably already sick of this)). So many times in accounts, there has been records of people saying UAP's and creatures are simply "hard to look at". which covers the shitty side to this. BUT when there is some exceptional footage, it's always 'too good to be true'. Must be CGI, must be faked somehow. So it's a lose-lose situation. There is no consensus on what would be considered by this sub to be honest verifiable information.
3. Lots of people are banging on about how they "need to see hard evidence" and that's all that will convince them. So this evidence is potentially top secret, so im sorry, what makes the people who have the most intricate disinformation campaign, hide stuff from people in much higher places than you, think that. Hey this UAP sub is pretty legit, we are going to give them all the information because they deserve it. Fun fact, in their eyes, you are worker bees, and they are the beekeepers. they are a higher entity than you in that regard and they see you as something akin to an insect. Without demanding that this gets released to congress and then declassified, you are never going to see legit papers (without occasional leaks (and possibly controlled leaks)). People with this as their only way of fully believing might as well just get out of this conversation and join the rest of the public to wait for full disclosure, as for them it's either everything or nothing.
4. Stains on the reputations of yourself and myself, Think someone like Steven Greer and the more fringe abduction stories etc. I think there is no further explanation needed on this part. It damages the reputation to such a degree, that anyone joining the conversation will immediately leave the talk. Is this another level of disinformation? Hard to tell, but as i will go into detail about later whoever is running the disinformation campaigns is surely benefiting from these people whether their intention or not. (even the rift they create in the community is beneficial to disinformation)
5. The media drip is a simple concept, any thing until a few years ago that mentioned aliens was ridiculed by the media, these reports were always from the angle of comedy. ill put the next bit in brackets, because even for myself it is a little wild, but more of an example into how it could be used, (this is most likely not true but the CONCEPT stands (Look at steven Spielberg's E.T., people who are into this line of thinking are believing they have magic fingers and ride in bikes in front of the moon with children, add in some weird connection with almost undertone of romance, hey presto the UAP following community are connected with Pedophilia.)) Play destroy all humans, the game, look at all the obvious references to current UAP lore, it bleeds through, and this game is a comedy game (great game btw).
6. The disinformation campaigns run into the very core of this subject, and it could be argued that it runs so well that outside intervention is not actually necessary to the upkeep of these campaigns (more on this later)
7. Unfortunately for the mass of the public, it would take the president him/herself to declare this as a real phenomenon in a world address to make this seen as legit. Even though in theory the President of the USA is only a temporary employee position of the US government, and someone who is already in the loop theoretically holds a higher position than a public, temporary employee. They are the face of the USA, but looking at it from a reasonable perspective, someone who has been working a high position in the DOD for 50 years or whatever would have seen over 10 presidents (that's a guess). The label "Deep State" has actually damaged the accessibility of the concept (another disinformation?), where it is actually simple, people who have worked in structured hierarchies outside of the temporary domain of the public representatives have almost autonomy, due to the very nature of 'Classified' information.
8. This is a big one, and IMO it should really be addressed within this community. Why does a legit study of UAP's need to crossover with something as reputation breaking as gathering together to meditate to summon a UAP mothership. The lack of definition between subjects causes all the fringe theories to be mixed into one melting pot, then be branded as simply "batshit crazy" by outsiders. The whole WOO thing (even if it has some sort of credibility) is just damaging the reputation of a legit study into the phenomena. Think of the 4chan leaker, the conversations was littered with (yes racism, its 4chan, what do you expect) people saying they can summon UAP's with their mind, and this is not a foreign concept within the reddit subs. This really needs to be addressed, the scientific community has shied away from this subject en masse because of the stigma, that much is true. Saying you can summon UAP's with your mind (etc.) is only increasing the stigma. And on the flip-side, what a perfect disinformation concept... Why would you want to be involved with this community if you knew for a fact that recently outside your town thousands of people meditated and tried to summon an alien entity, (very cultic action BTW) who ever runs the disinformation campaign either heavily influenced this, or is laughing because they made his/her job easier, and simply did it for them.
9. Are they benevolent? This is a big part of the argument, we don't know enough to actually understand this. People assume the release of information coined the "Great Disclosure" will only bring positives to this world. What happens if there is truly terrifying reasons that has kept disclosure from becoming a thing. Hell it may bring world peace and people making love not war with other alien species, or it could reveal we are under some sort of extreme oppression and danger. The problems of this are not privy to the general public, we simply don't know. I assume there is a real reason for the existence of UAP's to be a conspiracy to some extent.
10. Last part, the Skeptics. So this is an interesting subject. Skeptics are necessary in their own right, but due to the levels of fanatics we find following UAP lore and theory (Think WOO), we also get an equal problem where skeptics will try to debunk things with equally wild claims. The skeptics aren't like a scientific community, they don't try to disprove theories with as much effort, (mostly), with corabarating data that backs up their claims, they just throw the classic "FAKE" at it, claim CGI, claim balloons where it is unlikely, (Except the Mothers day balloon guy VS metapod, that was actually legit and impressive, Kudos), meteor showers, bugs on the lens, whatever etc. This goes to such an extreme, that it is almost easy to tell this may be the effects of a well oiled disinformation campaign, i.e. they are disproving themselves within their own community. You don't find skeptics anywhere else except from the conspiracy community, there are only opposing theories. hell there are even people who have said that the Government released videos are; Fake; CGI; Stupid; Balloons. How great is this level of disinfo where people are questioning the validity of government approved released UAP videos.
11. So the conspiracy mindset is an interesting thing to look at, because of decades of disinfo, and ridicule it has increased the paranoia of some of the conspiracy theorists. a recent example: New Whistleblower? Must be a disinfo campaign, the government is trying to plant something to mislead us; Vegas? Must be a campaign to distract us from the Whistleblower news. Now this mindset is something that has permeated the Mentality of the community for a long time, and i fully believe it is heavily linked to both disinformation and the paranoid mindset, in this example, we are told to focus on the original narrative because this is fabricated to distract us, which is such a ludicrous concept that benefits a disinformation campaign wholly. Why not focus on both? because one is made to discredit the other? how deep into the conspiracy mindset when you can't just take at face value that both have the validity to be true. They are too close together? Yes sometimes in every field two unrelated events occur almost instantaneously and that is the nature of something being truly random. The most logical explanation is that they simply are both happening.
12. This current whistleblower is more important because of ease of access to information that this direct era is privileged to. The people who can't see that and argue, "but they did this in 1978" (Or whatever) are forgetting the concept that information travels much, much further now. I think the people who previously ran the disinfo campaign are actually giving up, due to everyone having cameras, and the seemingly decreasing effectiveness to simply "scrub" information from public record. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmBniAE4y8E This is a great example for the argument.

I may add some more if this conversation gains a little traction. I only thing that it should be stated at some point, Yes the title even-headed could be argued to be complete bullshit, and that is peoples opinions. I think that the key point i'm trying to make is that because this was previously a 'tinfoil hat' conspiracy subject, doesnt mean we cant evolve from that and be an actual place of reasonable discussion, with reasonable skepticism. Bring in the extreme on both sides and pull them together to create a more realist focus of discussion (or cut out the extreme for more fringe sites). And focus on the credible and reliable centre discussion, (compared to aliens made me sterile etc.)
There are many viable reports and legit documents i have read in the last year, and some of these have had no focus whatsoever, but in actual reports where the data corroborates each other massively is where any researcher will find truth. If I can be bothered i will add it in another time.
Oh and for the love of god if anyone calls this a disinfo attempt is clearly too far gone for a reasonable conversation.
​

So I guess newsreaders can hide their emotions really well on TV. I’ve never seen Mary Markov in any state of heightened temper. The time she came down to help after I’d burned down the FunFlair building with Frankie was definitely a first in that regard. Then again, I’d never committed arson before either, so there were a lot of firsts that night. It’s been two days, but I can still see her angry face before me when I close my eyes. It frightened me a little.
After the fire had been doused by her staff, she gave Fran and me a look unlike anything I’d ever seen before. There was a homicidal rage in her eyes, her mouth had turned into a thin, steely line and the vein on her forehead threatened to pop. To my surprise (and admittedly relief), she turned the entirety of that wrath against Frankie Preston. “What in the world were you thinking?” she thundered, looming dangerously over the shorter man. “You committed a goddamn crime! If you were a normal person, I’d have to get you behind bars now!”
“Wait, I’m the privileged one here?” he snapped. “That woman tortured me! She brought me into this world by fault and proceeded to make me wish I’d never been born! And there was nothing I could ever do about it, because, oh, that’s right, I’m not a normal person! As you so endearingly put it. No one has a fucking clue what I am, so it’s okay for me to suffer, isn’t it?”
Mary opened her mouth to respond, but only ended up shutting it again. Then she focused her scrutiny onto me. “I thought you’d have known better.”
“I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but I knew what I was getting myself into. This was a contemplated decision.”
“Was it ever.”
I motioned for her to step aside with me, bringing a bit of distance between ourselves and my waiter. “I’ll make it up to you,” I began. “I will, but please, please drop this.”
“Did he force you to come?”
“You don’t actually believe he could force me into anything, do you?”
Mary Markov sighed. “I guess not. Look, it’s not like I don’t understand his grudge. And from what I know of Ms Wallis, she won’t be missed by many. I just wish it didn’t have to come to this. This means a ton of work for me.”
“It means so much more to him.”
Another sorrowful moan. Then, “Alright. I have your back. But don’t, um… encourage this kind of behavior in him, please.”
“I won’t,” I promised. “What are you going to do about the other doll?”
“She’s in bad shape—”
“Trash shape,” Fran chimed in from behind, having inconspicuously strayed closer.
“She’s in bad shape,” Mary repeated, pointedly ignoring him, “and currently unresponsive, but since you said she’s shown signs of sentience, I guess we’ll have to look into her. It prompts a very interesting question, after all.”
“Being?” I offered.
“Think about it. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the other two living dolls, Zion Boyd and Bunny Martell, but they came alive after Frank tinkered with them. And now there’s this one. Maybe your little boyfriend has some kind of yet to be explored ability, seeing as he was the first to gain awareness.” She fell silent for a pregnant pause, glancing between the two of us. “Something to ponder on your drive home. Which you will be starting now.” She made a shooing motion with both her hands.
The message being quite clear, Frankie and I got back into his car. The ride was quiet at first, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable stillness. It felt like a weight I didn’t know I’d been carrying had been lifted. I stared at the server’s profile, alternately framed by nightly darkness and moonlight, drinking in every little detail about it. It was hard to believe that someone as cruel as Philomena Wallis had created something this breathtaking.
“So you’ll probably wanna talk about all of this, huh. About what I am, I mean.” Frankie’s voice was light and relaxed with only a hint of uncertainty gnawing at it.
“What’s there to talk about?”
“Aren’t you surprised? A little… disgusted, maybe?”
“I always knew you weren’t human. Beyond that, it doesn’t really matter to me what you are.” I shrugged. “I mean, I’d be fine if you were human, too. I’d be fine if you were a squonk.”
“What’s a squonk?”
“I don’t know, I just made that up. Anyways, did you actually think I would be grossed out? Did you?”
He smiled. “I guess not. This’ll sound crazy, and it’s hard to explain, but it’s like I got a voice in the back of my head constantly telling me that… that I should wash myself again or that I ought not to touch you. I suppose it’s not really a voice; it’s only these thoughts that kind of keep pushing into my mind even though I should know better. And I do know better. But that doesn’t stop the thoughts.”
I nodded slowly. “I think I understand. I can’t tell you how much I disagree with that voice, though. You’re the cleanest person I’ve ever met and if I could, I’d live in your hair like a cootie."
"That's how close you want me?"
"Yup.”
He let out a soft laugh. “I’m really, really glad you came with me. If there’s ever anything you need, I’ll do it. No matter what. If you want to bury a body, I’ll dig the hole.” He paused. “Actually, we should sell any corpses you might have. It’s wonderfully lucrative.”
I shot him a quick smile before turning to stare out the window with knitted brows. “What do you think about what Mary Markov said? About you being able to make the dolls come alive somehow.”
“I don’t know if there’s anything to it. I don’t remember doing anything special with them. Zion and Bunny were just standing around when I turned them on, and they came to within minutes. I figured they were sentient before, and it was simply repressed. I woke up randomly, too, after all.”
I hummed pensively. “I wouldn’t be so sure.”
“Well, if you’re implying it’s some kinda superpower, then that’s probably the most useless one ever.”
“We don’t have to talk about this now,” I told him, to which he gave me a grateful half-grin.
Per my request, he dropped me off at Nettie’s place. I kissed him goodbye on the crown of his head and told him we’d text the following day. He thanked me again and I watched him drive off before going up to ring the doorbell, mentally preparing an apology for showing up at five-thirty in the morning. My savior human was surprisingly quick to answer, giving me an indulgent wave as soon as I stumbled over my first “I’m sorry”.
“It’s fine,” she muttered. “I hadn’t gone to bed yet.”
I gave her an incredulous look and she sighed, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Her normally soft, rounded cheeks were sunken, her eyes oddly dull. Judging from the angry red marks, she’d apparently been chewing on her lower lip with some force. It was only then that I took note of the sweater she was wearing. A faded, shaggy piece of fabric that clearly hadn’t been washed since Kit Sutton had given it to her on the cliff that day. I felt a sharp pang in my chest and pulled her into a hug as soon as I’d stepped inside with her.
She stifled a sob when she wrapped her arms around me in return. “It’s hit or miss with me when it comes to sleep lately,” she confessed in a brittle voice.
I swallowed. “I’m working on it. I’ll get her back for you, I have a lead. Is there anything I can do in the meantime?”
“Not really. I just gotta distract myself ‘til the morning comes, I’ll be fine then.”
“Then I’ll stay up with you.”
It was thus decided. We sat down in the living room for a while, then went out into the garden to watch the sunrise. My savior human had taken her place in her mother’s chair while I whipped up some chocolate chip pancakes (one of her favorites) for her for breakfast. I carried them out to her on a little plate with a cup of tea, and for a moment, her expression cleared up for a beam of happiness to shine through. “We should do something productive,” she remarked, and I gave her a questioning tilt of the head. “I’ve been thinking,” she went on. “Isn’t it weird how all these years, you didn’t hop dimensions once, and now all of a sudden it keeps happening?”
“Don’t worry about that right now.”
“I always worry, baby girl. It’s my natural state of being.”
“It shouldn’t be,” I insisted. “It feels wrong. You have your own problems, I don’t want to add to that.”
“Seriously, that’s not what’s happening here. This is just how I keep my mind off… things.”
I rolled my lips together. Blue-haired things, probably. “You deserve so much better. You deserve this to be way, way easier,” I stated.
“That’s a nice thought. But it doesn’t change anything right now. You can control your body, can’t you? Your teeth and tentacles?”
“Yes. It happens automatically when I get scared sometimes, but for the most part, I’m actively doing it.”
“Then how about if we could somehow start getting you on top of your dimension jumping, too? It would be a tad risky and I’m not sure how to go about it exactly, but it would be far better if you could toggle it. You’d be able to stop yourself from hopping when you don’t want to, but maybe you could venture into these other spaces for exploration purposes, too.” The words spilled out of her like a babbling little waterfall as she plucked apart one of her pancakes and stuffed them into her mouth. “Because there has to be more to this. I just have that feeling. So I reckon we try and find a way to work with this. What do you think?”
“Sure. I guess I’d be… open to that.”
“Really? I-I don’t want to pressure you…”
“No, no, it sounds fine! I wanna try!”
“Okay!” She set aside her plate, rubbing her hands in blatant excitement. “So it happens when your flight instinct kicks in, correct? How about we get you in that headspace on purpose?”
“How would we do that?” I asked cautiously.
When I was sitting cross-legged on the ground among my savior human’s countless flowers with my eyes closed and her hand in mine, that question had pretty much answered itself. Nettie Peterson was leading me in a “guided meditation” consisting of several intrusive queries about my first ever jump—the most terrifying moment of my entire life.
“The thing, that floating maw, what did it look like?” she began, referring to the creature that had ended it all.
I furrowed my brows. “It didn’t look like anything,” I replied meekly. “Mostly, it was just… really big and dark.”
“Dark? What color dark?”
“Black, I guess. It swallowed the light.” A pulsating pain began to flare up behind my forehead. “It was nothing. It was like a giant ball of nothing.”
“You told me once that it made a noise,” my best friend went on, her fingers grasping mine a little tighter. “Do you remember that sound?”
I winced. “Yes.”
“Describe it.”
“It was more like a vibration that went through everything,” I mumbled. “The ground was shaking. And then we all screamed.”
“Did you see inside its mouth?”
“No. There was nothing inside of its mouth. There was nothing inside of it. Just emptiness.” I shifted my weight. Images were flashing in front of my inner eye, filling the darkness behind my closed lids. My breath had caught in my throat and it felt like ants were crawling beneath my skin. “And then all of us were suddenly… nothing, everything was gone and at that last moment, everyone was so terrified. They all knew it was over. All of them.”
At first, I thought Nettie Peterson’s hand was trembling. Then I realized it was my own, shaking hers through the contact. For a moment, my body felt feather-light, but not in a relaxing or comfortable way. It was as though I was afloat, out of control and weightless. I didn’t like it. “Can we stop?” I choked out.
“Of course,” my best friend replied, gently squeezing my fingers.
I let go of a deep breath, blinking my eyes open. Across from me, Nettie was giving me a soft but deeply apologetic smile. “Did I push you too far?”
“It’s not your fault. I think I simply wasn’t ready for this.”
“I understand. Let’s go inside and make some more of those—” She stopped mid-sentence. She’d been pointing her chin at the plate of pancakes resting on her chair, only to see that it had changed.
The food I had just served her half an hour ago had turned into a moldy, rotten mess. A couple flies were circling it, emitting a low, almost melodic buzz. My savior human and I traded wide-eyed glances, disbelief, fear and excitement mirrored in our eyes. We then got up to take in our surroundings. The flowers surrounding us weren’t the same anymore. They were either withered or deathly pale; formerly pink, yellow and red petals had become either light gray or iridescently white. Thick, soupy fog was hanging over everything, it was denser and heavier than any we’d ever had in town before. The mist seemed to have consumed all the noise and color in the world, leaving only cold, oppressive silence.
Nettie was the first to regain speech. “It worked! Oh my Lord, it actually worked.”
I clasped her arm and she immediately fell silent. Wordlessly, I pointed at the rolling fog on the other side of the garden fence. There was something moving within. An enormous, caterpillar-like shape soundlessly dragged itself through the air, its long body slowly moving along across the street. My savior human’s jaw had dropped, her mouth wide open as she followed my gaze. Neither of us moved a muscle as we waited for the creature to pass by. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to take note of us at all. I didn’t want to imagine what could happen if one were to draw its attention.
“This is… I don’t believe this,” Nettie breathed, running a hand over her mussed coils. “You did it. We’re not home anymore.”
“What do you propose to do now?”
“Keep our heads low and try to find out anything useful, I’d say.”
I nodded and she folded her hand into the crook of my arm. Together, we proceeded through the open door back into the house. Wammawink and Nettie’s old convertible were standing in their garage, a pool of motor fluid surrounding each vehicle. The paint was peeling from the car doors, matching the way the pictures and photographs around her house had faded.
The food in her kitchen had morphed into a self-contained ecosystem. Bugs were crawling up and down the walls and ghostly white mice scuttled across the floor with shocking brazenness. There was no trace of human life anywhere in sight. We stepped out the front door and into the street only for Nettie to grab me and fling me to the ground next to her. We flattened ourselves against the curb as another one of the gigantic caterpillar-figures snaked its way along just a couple feet above our heads. I craned my neck to give my best friend a sidelong glance out of terrified, saucer-sized eyes. I could see my reflection in hers as she pressed a finger to her lips. I gave her a tiny nod.
Finally, it was gone again and we helped each other to our feet. Nettie brushed down her sweater with great care before tilting her head at me as though asking if I was alright. I gave a reassuring, albeit wavering smile which she returned with a slight strain to her brow. We linked arms again and started walking down the street. The whole dimension seemed to be a mirror image of our hometown, only deader. Aside from the flies and vermin, there seemed to be very little life. All of the houses we were so familiar with looked decrepit, old and empty. Walls were crumbling down, roofs looked to be seconds away from caving in and most windows were shattered. It was impossible to see ahead through the mist, but we managed to hide from the flying worm-things everytime they came up.
We were starting to become a little frustrated seeing as our exploration yielded nothing of note. There was hardly anything to be seen safe from the depressing alternate version of our neighborhood. On top of that, the clammy chill that hung in the air along with the fog was making us increasingly uncomfortable. Finally, we decided we should try and get back home. We returned to Nettie’s garden where we crouched down once again, hand in hand. Before my savior human could begin her questioning though, the ground beneath us suddenly began to shudder, heaving as if moved by some kind of subterranean pulse.
Nettie Peterson and I snapped our eyes open at the exact same time, mouths agape in bewilderment. And then we saw it. It was in the sky, partially veiled by the thick fog yet impossible to overlook. It became darker and darker as it neared, its indescribably large form seemed to envelop the entirety of the heavens. It had been five years since I had last seen it, but I recognized it immediately. Not that it had any features I could have recognized. I remembered though, and in that moment, it all came flooding back to me. The breeders that threw themselves in front of their young, the cries that echoed across the plains together with the stones and soil sent rolling by the earthquake. I caught my best friend’s gaze, read the terror in it and knew that it was just as immense as my own. Her lips were parted in an ear-piercing scream that ended up being drowned out by the hovering roar of the Devourer Of Worlds.
I squeezed her hand so tightly I feared I’d snap her fingers. And suddenly, before I knew it, all was silent again. The air was warmer, filled with the fragrances of countless different flowers. The early morning sun was shining down on us, and it felt like it was heating up my very core. We were back. In the blink of an eye, Nettie had thrown her arms around me, pulling me close to her chest.
“Baby girl,” she whispered.
“That was it,” I rasped out. “That was it.”
“I know.” Withdrawing just an inch, she wiped a thumb over my eye, careful not to scrape me with her nail. It was only then that I realized I was crying. Tears were streaming down my cheeks, noiseless and hot, dripping from my chin and wetting my chest.
"You're not hurt, are you? Look, it's going to be alright. You just take it easy now. We'll go inside, have some tea or coffee or whatever and calm down, a-and then we can figure this all out. Come on. Get up. Easy, easy now." She hugged me even as she pulled me to my feet and into the house alongside her. "So tea. How about strawberry? Or Turkish apple? Or classic chamomile? Something for the nerves, at any rate."
"Wait," I stammered, interrupting her monologue. "What about you? Are you okay?"
"Oh, no. No, no, no, far from it. I'll sign us both up for therapy once I find the time, but for now, tea! Tea."
"Nettie, please don't strain yourse—"
"Listen here, I'm gonna make you some goddamn tea and we'll sit down with it and it's gonna be warm and nice and we'll forget all about this. I'm here. I can take care of you. You do not need to be scared." She pressed her face close up to mine, her voice sharp and a mite threatening.
"I'm sort of scared of you right now."
"Oh." She drew back. "Pardon. I'll put on the tea." A forced, crooked tune tumbled from her lips as she went ahead into the kitchen.
We've both simmered down a little since the incident. It's been two days now. I used most of that time to unwind and recover from what had to be the single most eventful night of my time here on earth. Keep in mind, this happened the morning after the fire. The calm is not going to last much longer, though. I don't mind that, I just need to brace myself.
Rhonda's been in touch.
X
1
2: deadbeat roommate
3: creepy crush
4: relocation
5: beach concert
6: First date
7: Temp work
8: roommate talk
9: a dismal worldview
10: warehouse
11: staircase
12: explanation
13: hurt
14: hospital
15: ocean
16: diner
17: government work
18: something in the caves
19: shopping cart
20: olms and Jewels
21: long hair
22: recruitment
23: waitresses
24: dollhouse
25: burning plastic