The Russia Mafia is part and parcel of Russian intelligence. Russia is a mafia state. That is not a metaphor. Putin is head of the Mafia. So the fact that they have deep ties to Donald Trump is deeply disturbing. Trump conducted FIVE completely private meetings and conferences with Putin, and has gone to great lengths to prevent literally anyone, even people in his administration, from learning what was discussed.
According to an ex-KGB spy...Russia has been cultivating Trump as an asset for 40 years.
Trump was first compromised by the Russians in the 80s. In 1984, the Russian Mafia began to use Trump real estate to launder money.
In 1984, David Bogatin — a convicted Russian mobster and close ally of Semion Mogilevich, a major Russian mob boss — met with Trump in Trump Tower right after it opened. Bogatin bought five condos from Trump at that meeting. Those condos were later seized by the government, which claimed they were used to launder money for the Russian mob.
“During the ’80s and ’90s, we in the U.S. government repeatedly saw a pattern by which criminals would use condos and high-rises to launder money,” says Jonathan Winer, a deputy assistant secretary of state for international law enforcement in the Clinton administration. “It didn’t matter that you paid too much, because the real estate values would rise, and it was a way of turning dirty money into clean money. It was done very systematically, and it explained why there are so many high-rises where the units were sold but no one is living in them.”
When Trump Tower was built, as David Cay Johnston reports in The Making of Donald Trump, it was only the second high-rise in New York that accepted anonymous buyers.
In 1987, the Soviet ambassador to the United Nations, Yuri Dubinin, arranged for Trump and his then-wife, Ivana, to enjoy an all-expense-paid trip to Moscow to consider business prospects.
A short while later he made his first call for the dismantling of the NATO alliance. Which would benefit Russia.
At the beginning of 1990 Donald Trump owed a combined $4 billion to more than 70 banks, with $800 million personally guaranteed by his own assets, according to Alan Pomerantz, a lawyer whose team led negotiations between Trump and 72 banks to restructure Trump’s loans. Pomerantz was hired by Citibank.
Interview with Pomerantz
Trump agreed to pay the bond lenders 14% interest, roughly 50% more than he had projected, to raise $675 million. It was the biggest gamble of his career. Trump could not keep pace with his debts. Six months later, the Taj defaulted on interest payments to bondholders as his finances went into a tailspin.
In July 1991, Trump’s Taj Mahal filed for bankruptcy.
So he bankrupted a casino? What about Ru...
The Trump Taj Mahal casino broke anti-money laundering rules 106 times in its first year and a half of operation in the early 1990s, according to the IRS in a 1998 settlement agreement.
The casino repeatedly failed to properly report gamblers who cashed out $10,000 or more in a single day, the government said."The violations date back to a time when the Taj Mahal was the preferred gambling spot for Russian mobsters living in Brooklyn, according to federal investigators who tracked organized crime in New York City. They also occurred at a time when the Taj Mahal casino was short on cash and on the verge of bankruptcy."
....ssia
So by the mid 1990s Trump was then at a low point of his career. He defaulted on his debts to a number of large Wall Street banks and was overleveraged. Two of his businesses had declared bankruptcy, the Trump Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City and the Plaza Hotel in New York, and the money pit that was the Trump Shuttle went out of business in 1992. Trump companies would ultimately declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy two more times.
Trump was $4 billion in debt after his Atlantic City casinos went bankrupt. No U.S. bank would touch him. Then foreign money began flowing in through Deutsche Bank.
The extremely controversial Deutsche Bank. The Nazi financing, Auschwitz building, law violating, customer misleading, international currency markets manipulating, interest rate rigging, Iran & others sanctions violating, Russian money laundering, salvation of Donald J. Trump.
The agreeing to a $7.2 billion settlement with with the U.S. Department of Justice over its sale and pooling of toxic mortgage securities and causing the 2008 financial crisis bank.
The appears to have facilitated more than half of the $2 trillion of suspicious transactions that were flagged to the U.S. government over nearly two decades bank.
The embroiled in a $20b money-laundering operation, dubbed the Global Laundromat. The launders money for Russian criminals with links to the Kremlin, the old KGB and its main successor, the FSB bank.
That bank.
Three minute video detailing Trump's debts and relationship with Deutsche Bank
In 1998, Russia defaulted on $40 billion in debt, causing the ruble to plummet and Russian banks to close. The ensuing financial panic sent the country’s oligarchs and mobsters scrambling to find a safe place to put their money. That October, just two months after the Russian economy went into a tailspin, Trump broke ground on his biggest project yet.
Directly across the street from the United Nations building.
Russian Linked-Deutsche Bank arranged to lend hundreds of millions of dollars to finance Trump’s construction of a skyscraper next to the United Nations.
Construction got underway in 1999.
Units on the tower’s priciest floors were quickly snatched up by individual buyers from the former Soviet Union, or by limited liability companies connected to Russia. “We had big buyers from Russia and Ukraine and Kazakhstan,” sales agent Debra Stotts told Bloomberg. After Trump World Tower opened, Sotheby’s International Realty teamed up with a Russian real estate company to make a big sales push for the property in Russia. The “tower full of oligarchs,” as Bloomberg called it, became a model for Trump’s projects going forward. All he needed to do, it seemed, was slap the Trump name on a big building, and high-dollar customers from Russia and the former Soviet republics were guaranteed to come rushing in.
New York City real estate broker Dolly Lenz told USA TODAY she sold about 65 condos in Trump World at 845 U.N. Plaza in Manhattan to Russian investors, many of whom sought personal meetings with Trump for his business expertise.
“I had contacts in Moscow looking to invest in the United States,” Lenz said. “They all wanted to meet Donald. They became very friendly.”Lots of Russian and Eastern European Friends. Investing lots of money. And not only in New York.
Miami is known as a hotspot of the ultra-wealthy looking to launder their money from overseas. Thousands of Russians have moved to Sunny Isles. Hundreds of ultra-wealthy former Soviet citizens bought Trump properties in South Florida. People with really disturbing histories investing millions and millions of dollars. Igor Zorin offers a story with all the weirdness modern Miami has to offer: Russian cash, a motorcycle club named after Russia’s powerful special forces and a condo tower branded by Donald Trump.
Thanks to its heavy Russian presence, Sunny Isles has acquired the nickname “Little Moscow.”
From an interview with a Miami based Siberian-born realtor... “Miami is a brand,” she told me as we sat on a sofa in the building’s huge foyer. “People from all over the world want property here.” Developers were only putting up luxury properties because they “know that the crisis has not affected people with money,”
Most of her clients are Russian—there are now three direct flights per week between Moscow and Miami—and increasing numbers are moving to Florida after spending a few years in London first. “It’s a money center, and it’s a lot easier to get your money there than directly to the US, because of laws and tax issues,” she said. “But after your money has been in London for a while, you can move it to other places more easily.”
In the 2000s, Trump turned to licensing deals and trademarks, collecting a fee from other companies using the Trump name. This has allowed Trump to distance himself from properties or projects that have failed or encountered legal trouble and provided a convenient workaround to help launch projects, especially in Russia and former Soviet states, which bear Trump’s name but otherwise little relation to his general business.
Enter Bayrock Group, a development company and key Trump real estate partner during the 2000s. Bayrock partnered with Trump in 2005 and invested an incredible amount of money into the Trump organization under the legal guise of licensing his name and property management. Bayrock was run by two investors:
Felix Sater, a Russian-born mobster who served a year in prison for stabbing a man in the face with a margarita glass during a bar fight, pleaded guilty to racketeering as part of a mafia-driven "pump-and-dump" stock fraud and then escaped jail time by becoming a highly valued government informant. He was an important figure at Bayrock, notably with the Trump SoHo hotel-condominium in New York City, and has said under oath that he represented Trump in Russia and subsequently billed himself as a senior Trump advisor, with an office in Trump Tower. He is a convict who became a govt cooperator for the FBI and other agencies. He grew up with Micahel Cohen --Trump's disbarred former "fixer" attorney. Cohen's family owned El Caribe, which was a mob hangout for the Russian Mafia in Brooklyn. Cohen had ties to Ukrainian oligarchs through his in-laws and his brother's in-laws. Felix Sater's father had ties to the Russian mob.
Tevfik Arif, a Kazakhstan-born former "Soviet official" who drew on bottomless sources of money from the former Soviet republic. Arif graduated from the Moscow Institute of Trade and Economics and worked as a Soviet trade and commerce official for 17 years before moving to New York and founding Bayrock. In 2002, after meeting Trump, he moved Bayrock’s offices to Trump Tower, where he and his staff of Russian émigrés set up shop on the twenty-fourth floor.
Arif was offering him a 20 to 25 percent cut on his overseas projects, he said, not to mention management fees. Trump said in the deposition that Bayrock’s Tevfik Arif “brought the people up from Moscow to meet with me,”and that he was teaming with Bayrock on other planned ventures in Moscow. The only Russians who are likely have the resources and political connections to sponsor such ambitious international deals are the corrupt oligarchs.
In 2005, Trump told The Miami Herald “The name has brought a cachet to certain areas that wouldn’t have had it,” Dezer said Trump’s name put Sunny Isles Beach on the map as a classy destination — and the Trump-branded condo units sold “10 to 20 percent higher than any of our competitors, and at a faster pace.”“We didn’t have any foreclosures or anything, despite the crisis.”
In a 2007 deposition that was part of his unsuccessful defamation lawsuit against reporter Timothy O’Brien Trump testified "that Bayrock was working their international contacts to complete Trump/Bayrock deals in Russia, Ukraine, and Poland. He testified that “Bayrock knew the investors” and that “this was going to be the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Moscow, Kiev, Istanbul, et cetera, and Warsaw, Poland.”
In 2008, Donald Trump Jr. gave the following statement to the “Bridging U.S. and Emerging Markets Real Estate” conference in Manhattan: “[I]n terms of high-end product influx into the United States, Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets; say in Dubai, and certainly with our project in SoHo and anywhere in New York. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
In July 2008, Trump sold a mansion in Palm Beach for $95 million to Dmitry Rybolovlev, a Russian oligarch. Trump had purchased it four years earlier for $41.35 million. The sale price was nearly $54 million more than Trump had paid for the property. This was the height of the recession when all other property had plummeted in value. Must be nice to have so many Russian oligarchs interested in giving you money.
In 2013, Trump went to Russia for the Miss Universe pageant “financed in part by the development company of a Russian billionaire Aras Agalarov.… a Putin ally who is sometimes called the ‘Trump of Russia’ because of his tendency to put his own name on his buildings.” He met with many oligarchs. Timeline of events. Flight records show how long he was there.
Video interview in Moscow where Trump says "...China wanted it this year. And Russia wanted it very badly." I bet they did.
Also in 2013, Federal agents busted an “ultraexclusive, high-stakes, illegal poker ring” run by Russian gangsters out of Trump Tower. They operated card games, illegal gambling websites, and a global sports book and laundered more than $100 million. A condo directly below one owned by Trump reportedly served as HQ for a “sophisticated money-laundering scheme” connected to Semion Mogilevich.
In 2014, Eric Trump told golf reporter James Dodson that the Trump Organization was able to expand during the financial crisis because “We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia. I said, 'Really?' And he said, 'Oh, yeah. We’ve got some guys that really, really love golf, and they’re really invested in our programmes. We just go there all the time.’”
A 2015 racketeering case against Bayrock, Sater, and Arif, and others, alleged that: “for most of its existence it [Bayrock] was substantially and covertly mob-owned and operated,” engaging “in a pattern of continuous, related crimes, including mail, wire, and bank fraud; tax evasion; money laundering; conspiracy; bribery; extortion; and embezzlement.” Although the lawsuit does not allege complicity by Trump, it claims that Bayrock exploited its joint ventures with Trump as a conduit for laundering money and evading taxes. The lawsuit cites as a “Concrete example of their crime, Trump SoHo, [which] stands 454 feet tall at Spring and Varick, where it also stands monument to spectacularly corrupt money-laundering and tax evasion.”
In 2016, the Trump Presidential Campaign was helped by Russia.
(I don't have the presidential term sourced yet. I'll post an update when I do. I'm sure you probably remember most of them...sigh. TY to the main posters here. Obviously I'm standing on your shoulders having taken a lot of the information or articles from here).

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” - Sun Tzu
We're in a war with the hedge funds and with wallstreet and basically the root of corruption in America with our GME short squeeze proxy war, and if you autists want to win this war, you need to know the enemy, and know yourself.Firstly, education is KEY, so if you're new, you DEFINITELY need to go learn at least what a short squeeze is and a short ladder attack is.
What the enemy is doing:

1. Price manipulation: With short ladder attacks, they use high frequency trading to make the price artificially lower.https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/la4pji/gme_volume_still_low_with_positive_cmf_which/https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/la5updont_panic_and_just_look_at_the_fucking_volume/https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/laak53/for_those_of_you_getting_scared_look_at_that_tiny/This can be seen with sizeable price movements that have tiny amounts of volume. There are several reasons why they are doing this:
   1. Scare off paper hand bitches: They prey on people who jumped on GME without even knowing what a short squeeze is; they see price fall, they paper hands and they get out.https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/la6vcb/wall_street_plan_trying_to_psychologically_scare/
   2. Make it cheaper for them to cover their more costly short positions.
   3. Price manipulation will fail ultimately because while they are able to drive prices lower with their short attacks, when they eventually have to cover their short positions and buy, they will again drive prices up due to purchases of almost none existing stock (cuz we be holding), sending prices up as high as before they shorted or even higher. All the while hedge funds will continue to eat fees and interest on their short positions, making this cycle not doable indefinitely.https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/la7bhj/gme_mms_have_until_tomorrow_22_to_buy_shares_it/
2. Media manipulation
   1. Most if not all American main stream media is clearly serving corporate and wallstreet interests, simply by the false narratives they are reporting.https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/la1022/hmmm/They are not to be trusted and if seen, can dishearten and shake the will of those who don't have diamond hands. Best to avoid if you are a paper handed bitch. Some examples of false narratives are:
      1. Reddit is made up of alt-rights, or idiots, or gamblers, etc. -> We're not idiots, because we're the ones who were able to grab wallstreet by the nutsack. We're retards and autists who love the stock and the company. That is all.
      2. Reddit is moving on to silver. -> SILVER CANNOT BE SQUEEZED!!!!! With a market cap of more than $1.5 Trillion, there is NO WAY for retail investors to be able to make a dent in that. The only possible short squeeze play is GME because it's a small cap company with a market cap of only $250 million as of July 2020, so it is definitely doable for a bunch of retards on WSB to affect the price of a small cap company stock. Literally all the posts on reddit promoting SLVR are from bot accounts that have sus creation dates and karma and post counts. Plus, Citadel owns a giant amount of silver so silver prices going up higher is gonna benefit them and give them more fuel to fight this GME war. You're shooting yourself int eh foot if you buy SLVR. https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/la1xhf/guess_who_owns_tonnes_of_slv_options_fuck_citadel/
      3. "XXX IS THE NEXT GME" -> This is also a false narrative. NOTHING can be the next GME, because NOTHING is shorted as much as GME, which is STILL over 100% shorted. GME IS A ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY GAIN FOR US, AND LOSS FOR THEM!
      4. Shorts have covered their position. -> Another false narrative. Short interest is still over at 100%, and there are multiple WSB posts that explain this. Another metric that correlates to short interest is cost of borrowing for opening short positions, which would increase if it is harder to find shares to short.https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/la7d94/no_more_shares_to_short/https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/laaai8/gme_short_interest_is_currently_sitting_at_12297/https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/l5d6sk/gme_short_interest_increased_to_7141m_after_jan/
3. Breaking the law: Some if not all of the things posted above are pretty much border line illegal, but there has been clear signs of breaking the law and market manipulation, IE: freeze buying of select stocks and only allow for selling. They can spin it however they want, but as far as I know, it has been unprecedented for a majority of brokerages to simultaneously alter the way a stock can be traded with cash. And if the situation is desparate enough, they'll break the law again and again if it ends up costing them less than to just let the price get to $69.420. Expect them to fight dirty until the bitter end.
4. Social Media Manipulation: Hedge Funds now employ bots to spread doubt and misinformation in order to weaken your hands. Some places they target is WSB itself, other stock trading subreddits, facebook, and on sites / apps like Webull and Yahoo Finance. Don't believe in random comments. Always believe in WSB posts with huge amounts of likes (top posts are vetted by the 8 mil users here / by mods too to make sure they're factual)https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/lafh4d/in_case_you_needed_proof_that_there_are_imposters/
5. Their Current Strategy: Wallstreet calls us "dumb money", because they think we are unsophisticated and just chase after a quick buck, and we have short attention spans. They'll try and continue to manipulate the price so that the stock will trade sideways, or continuous short ladder attacks, trying to scare paper hands into selling, and bore diamond hands into selling as well. They will also try to tempt us with other "NEXT GME" type plays and may even artificially raise prices of a stock or two (IE: SILVER) to try and get people to hop off the GME rocket. They'll use media to continue to push narratives that the GME short squeeze is over, short positions are covered, and redditors have moved onto something else. If this fails, then they may simulate a "SQUEEZE" by suddenly letting the price go up to $700 or $800, then unleash a short ladder attack unlike which we have ever seen, to simulate the sell off, so idiot retards will be scared into thinking they missed the top, so they will all sell. But if people just look at the volume, they'll know it's all a ruse.

​
​
What we're doing, our advantage, and why the enemy can't win.

1. This is a movement: This has become more than a few people of a subreddit trying to make a quickbuck off of a short squeeze. This has become a movement that represents the struggle between the corruption of wallstreet and the 1% vs the 99%, the common people. News agencies from all over the globe are reporting on this and have their eyes on this. We have ape brothers and sisters all over the world buying and holding this stock together. We even have a few outspoken whales on our side as well, as well as politicians from both sides of the spectrum speaking out for our side as well. We have billboards being bought all over the country, airplanes flying banners about GME. A global movement will crush any hedge fund.https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/l5mt6n/gme_short_squeeze_the_whales_have_arrived/https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/l9qtey/kjetill_stjerne_is_da_real_mvp_he_his_friends_are/https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/l8rf4k/times_square_right_now/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
2. We are holding, and we're continuing to buy: We are getting smarter, tougher, and slowly but surely paper hands are turning into diamond hands. We managed to hold during the short attack to ~$110 on Thursday, and that was when they froze our ability to buy across many brokerages. They will never have another chance to do this again now with everyone watching. The volume trading these days is getting smaller and smaller. Any price decrease is strictly from short ladder attacks, and not us selling, due to tiny tiny volumes. Also, we are continuing to buy calls on GME to increase upward pressure. No one here has stopped buying. https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/labvei/volume_is_low_dont_believe_the_news_no_one_is/https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/l83ctf/the_volume_of_gme_has_plummeted_the_past_few_days/https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/lagd2m/millions_in_gme_calls_bought_today_at_800_hold/
3. Nuclear Bomb still undetonated*:* Short Squeeze still coming, it hasn't happened yet. We know this because the volume of shares bought is not nearly enough to show the shorts have bought enough to be covered.https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/l1q9hy/l2_nyse_quotes_for_gme_volume_the_squeeze_hasnt/https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/l66kcl/gme_volume_is_low_shorts_arent_covering_hold/
4. Enemy loses money everyday, we don't: It costs the hedge funds billions to continue to fight this war of attrition becauase they continue to eat insanely high fees and interest on their short positions because the cost of borrowing remains high because the short interest are remaining high. Melvin down over 50% just this month alone. You think they can hold on much longer and keep eating fees?https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/labq1a/this_is_so_satisfying_to_look_at/Meanwhile we don't have to pay anything for holding our stocks. We can literally just hold and not have a short squeeze and just from the cost of borrowing alone the hedge funds will run out of money, so that's why there will come a time where it's cheaper for them to cover their positions rather than just keep on bleeding until they die out. I don't think they can hold out for another month of trading sideways with no progress. I believe in Feb we will see some major action. It could even start as early as tomorrow, because that's the last day shorts have to cover their 1/29 puts that expired.
5. We're not breaking the laws, they are: Recent rumor mills are saying that there are a lot of counterfit stocks circulating and the hedge funds and clearing houses are all in on it, and once they need to start to find shares to buy to cover their short positions, things are going to explode in a way that is unprecedented. Basically by taking advantage of a situation wallstreet has set up (insane short interest set up for short squeeze) we may have uncovered one of the biggest financial crimes in the history of the stock market. You bet that the government and SEC will be involved soon if this is true, and things will explode to the stratosphere. Read the following and ponder yourself, I'm not a financial advisor, just a dumb ape. https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/l97ykd/the_real_reason_wall_street_is_terrified_of_the/https://www.reddit.com/usebcRIPstecomments/labq6u/follow_the_crumbs_gme_exposed_the_meta/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
6. We're getting smarter: Everyday we get new DD on WSB and more and more people are reading these DD's and understand how to diamond hands, and can now filter out fake news from mainstream media. We've just hit 8 mil subs; our subs are going exponential. We've recovered from the RH fiasco and we're primed and loaded on other brokerages like Fidelity. We are more ready than EVER to continue this war and this fight.
7. An Ape's Move this week: Again, not financial advice, but hypothetically if there was an autistic ape, the autistic ape would buy the dips, ESPECIALLY at this insane discount price of around $100. The autistic ape knows that basically it is paying $100 for a ticket to ride the GME train past $1k, easily 10x their bananas. Those apes who bought in at $300 will only get to 3x their bananas at the end of the month. The autistic apes will also understand that this is not a 1 day thing, but the events leading up to the squeeze can take weeks. But the autistic ape will ask itself, is it willing to wait a few weeks to at least 3x their bananas? Most apes will answer yes. But the ape knows if they buy it, they should be prepared to see red in their banana tracker for a month. But those red number are just fake numbers generated by HFT short ladder attacks, and not due to other apes actually selling their bananas, because apes together STRONK.

TL;DR = 💎🙌 🐵 = 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🚀 🌙PS: You only lose if you sell. Stock stays down for a month, then rockets up in March = no loss, only historical profits for retail investors.

This is going to be a lengthy one, so if you fancy reading, grab a cuppa...or a vodka
This passage is partly for myself, hoping that writing it out will work as a form of therapy, God knows I've tried every other form, and partly to help those in a similar circumstance.
Background
My dad (a very smart gent, who had a real education and sense of life) became a JW in his mid-twenties (after his mother started studying) and went to MTS. During this time, he met my mother, a lady who was home-schooled and followed the traditional route for a JW woman- pioneer and work at either a care home, as a cleaner or in a little shop.
They moved to where my dad was posted- a little town that needed a new hall- so my dad set it up, and so began him being super duper famous in the eyes of all the congregation members. They got married and had me- 'the baby of the hall' (given everyone else was like 108) and then a few years later, my brother. For a long time, it was just us 4. Dad was a 'great elder' so we spent most of our time travelling to different halls for him to give talks... a few people referred to him as 'modern day Jesus'. We very quickly became 'that family'. You know, the ones who do *every* demonstration at assemblies and constantly seem perfect. As you can imagine, it was all pretty tiring to keep up when you are being asked, "What would you like to be when you're older?" and you know fine well you cant give an honest answer such as teacher or midwife, you *have* to say pioneer or bethel member.
Fast forward 7 years or so and my mum decides she wants more children and needs my dad to help out more. They had my second brother and dad stepped down as an elder to be more on hand. Mum then decided that, given the age gap, my second brother would be really lonely growing up and convinced my dad to have a fourth child- my third brother. A year went by and much to everyone's dismay- she was pregnant again! This would be with my little sister, who thankfully, really was the last child.
Now, my mum ( like a lot of Jws) comes from a family who all suffer from mental health problems. This unexpected child made her go bat shit crazy and seriously depressed and she basically lived in her bedroom whilst I (age 14) dropped out of school and raised my 3 youngest siblings. This made me grow up *super* fast and ashamedly, resent my mother for taking away my childhood. My dad turned to drinking to cope and he was removed as a servant.
In a matter of years we had gone from 'the perfect family' to one that was barely keeping our heads above water.
Skip ahead a few years and I had gotten baptised (after being pressured for years to do so), gone to night school to do my GCSE's and I myself was on anti depressants. I had started working 55 hours a week in a nursery for £2.50 an hour and my siblings went there with me for childcare. Of course, the wage I earnt went to my family as 'money is greed'. I barely had a social life and was desperate to find someone, get married and leave.
I should add though, that regardless of all of that, we were a very close family, especially me and the three little ones, and my dad was like my best friend.
Where it started to get really shit
On one of the rare occasions I could go out, I met who would later be, the biggest mistake of my life.
Someone who at the time, made me feel like the most special person in the world... someone who liked me, for me. To cut an incredibly long story short, he was the biggest manipulator I have ever met. He told me that in order for me to be free from my current situation, I needed to marry him, and before he would consider doing that, he needed to sleep with me first to see if I was good enough for commitment. I thought this was normal. I had never been taught about boys, my parents never let me text or really communicate with any, so here started my long line of getting abused by various men.
After him sleeping with me whenever he demanded it, (I was too dumb to see that I was actually just being raped) he told me I should go part-time and pioneer so that no one caught on to what we were doing. My congregation absolutely adored him, as did my family, so again, I thought that I had found someone great and this was it.
One night I had a call from him saying he had gone on holiday with my best friend and had accidentally kissed her. I was so head over heals for this fucker that I said it was ok, and we could stay together. This completely messed up my head though and I turned to anything that I thought would take away my problems... mainly all the things I had seen my mum doing- popping any kind of pill to sleep, self harm and drinking. I really didn't care about what was happening to me, and it seemed as if no one else did either.
Going forward a year (one that consisted of more lows than highs) and we had planned a wedding. Blah blah blah, I got a phone-call from him one day telling me that my best friend had decided she was 'ready to date him now' so things between us were over. I was beyond crushed. What now? He was my scape goat... he was what everyone wanted for me. I knew he was a piece of shit, and yet even he didn't want me.
Yay, judicial and disfellowshipping
To top all of that that off, 3 weeks later he calls me again to tell me that he drunkenly told his new girlfriend that we had been sleeping together and she had now told his elders. They in turn had then told mine and a judicial was about to be held, so I 'should probably tell my parents before someone else did'...then asked if I wanted to pray with him for everything to be ok. LOL, you read correctly. What a twat.
I went downstairs and told my parents. My mum turned it into a Spanish inquisition and my dad didn't say a word, just placed his head in his hands. I couldn't work out which was worse.
A few days rolled by and it was my judicial. There sat 6 elders and my ex, in a circle, with a space for me. They asked for every position, for the exact number of sexual encounters, if he had ejaculated in me and even asked if I had been on my period for any of it. FUCKING CREEPS is all I can say about that. I'm pretty sure they were just doing it for their wankbanks.
They listened to both of our versions, his worlds apart from mine, and then took us into separate rooms to see if we had anything else to add and then deliver us the end result.
My elders immediately decided for me to be disfellowshipped (which, fair one, I had broken the rules) but his elders took 3 hours to decide, and 2 of them believed what he had done didn't warrant a disfellowshipping. *rolls eyes*. Eventually though, we were both disfellowshipped.
Life after being disfellowshipped
(For some background information, I had just started a teaching course and was being diagnosed with what wold later be discovered as endometriosis stage 4 and a load of other illnesses that basically meant I was in pain 24/7)
If I wasn't at work I had to stay in my bedroom...which had a lock on it for when the Saturday ministry group or family members came round, just to reassure everyone that I wasn't going to run out of my room and try and fuck people, as clearly, that's what you do when you've been disfellowshipped for sexual immorality.
It had now been 6 months of sitting in the back of a kingdom hall, people shaking their heads at me when they walked by and I was getting pretty done with it. I had told my parents that Wednesdays were staff meeting night- but they were actually pub quiz night at the local Weatherspoons. I would go there every week, neck as many drinks as I could, then go home. I had started to realise that there is actually a really nice world outside of being a JW, not a terrifying one like its made out to be.
One Saturday I told my mum I was going for an ice-cream with my friend. She told me that if I do, i would return to packed bags and that would no longer be my home. I went anyway, and upon my arrival, she really had stuck to her word, and i was being kicked out.
I cant talk much about the events of that day, and i don't really think i'll ever be strong enough to talk about them to be honest. But just know, it was really, really hard and has truly fucked me up for the rest of my life. *cue emotional breakdown and panic attack having just thought about it*
Life in 'The Big Bad World'
So I was now officially in the world, all alone, living with a colleague.
I made some amazing friends, all of whom have stuck by me ever since, but also got myself into another atrocious relationship. Blah blah blah again, he was a gambler and also someone who again, just had sex with me whenever they wanted to... on one occasion i was screaming and crying so loudly that his own mother came in and pushed him off me. Great times.
I got a flat with my best friend, broke up with that utter piece of shit (which took forever as he fully played the suicide card etc) and made him set up a standing order to pay back the £13,000 he had stolen off me.
It had been about 2/3 years now since I was kicked out. I had no contact with anyone in my family, other than my Dad messaging me to see if I had been at the Ariana Grande gig when it was blown up. (No, im not a fan of hers, i think he just momentarily cared and wondered if i was dead or alive). After he was reassured that i was very much alive, they went back to crossing the street if they saw me etc.
Reinstatement
One day I got a call from my dad, my grandma was dying and they would 'allow me' to go and say my goodbyes. So i did, and i took my brother with me. They gave me a set time so that i wasn't around when they were. The car journey was about 2 hours long and my brother spent literally the entire time emotionally blackmailing me to come back. It worked.
I called my dad and told him I was going to start coming back to meetings, and ta-da, everyone started talking to me again. Only occasionally mind, i was still a bad influence. He came to pick me up and sat in the second school with me. My little sister ran straight out and turned to my dad to ask if she could hug me. He said yes, and for the first time in 3 years, i held my little girl again. I felt so disgustingly selfish, like how could i have ever left and why on earth did i do this to her.
That was my new focus, i was going to come back and then fade away, anything that meant having those kids back in my life.
My saving grace however being that i still lived in my flat, so other than a Thursday and Sunday, i lived quite a normal life, and no one speaking to me at meetings meant i could rock up and sit silently, nursing my hangover.
I was attending meetings routinely when i got a call from the hospital, saying that i needed an emergency operation and it would be one that would put me out of working, driving and even walking for the best part of 6 weeks. I told the elders and they said they could understand me not attending on the week of my operation, but anything longer than that would hinder my reinstatement. How nice and understanding.
Cutting my ridiculously long story short, my mother had a breakdown and they decided to reinstate me sooner than originally planned for fear of my mum killing herself about me not being back to do her jobs again.
Everything was good again family wise, but then came along all of the pressures. I had to study with two sisters, go on the ministry and attend all meetings. My health meant i really struggled to do a lot of these, but i was basically told to shut up and get on with it by the elders.
Things with my family were so lovely again, even though my mum would say things like, "I know Jehovah has forgiven you, and now hopefully, one day we can too." The emotional blackmail never stops.
MY 'WORLDLY' PARTNER... NOW HUSBAND
During this time my best friend had downloaded Tinder in a hope for me to find someone to go on a double date with her and her partner of the time. I really wasn't into that idea but would find myself flicking through it when adverts came up on TV... and so one day i swiped right to the love of my life.
After a while of talking, we met up and he really, really was everything I had been looking for. I'm not just saying that because he's on here too lol.
He took on all of my shit, loved me for who i am and has held me through every breakdown ive had since. As our relationship progressed, I gradually explained the whole JW story. How on earth do you explain that to someone? I used to just say things that gave some context to what was going on, but it was never enough. "Yeah, my family are... uhh... really religious. Like really religious," I'd say - he'd just laugh and say it was okay. He really had no idea!
As time went on I realised he's a complete nerd as he went and read everything there is to know about Witnesses. Literally everything he could find. I was still going to my Bible Study (one of the terms of my reinstatement) and would turn up at his house crying that the world was going to end. He'd have to give me a hug and explain that it's a load of crap and why. I was comforted, but didn't particularly listen to the reasons. I'd just get on with it.
We reached a point where we were ready to move in together. He was still totally secret to anyone who was a Witness, but we had plenty of friends outside so it didn't matter. I got really upset because I thought I'd never be able to move in with him, and for the briefest of moments thought it'd just be easier if he became a Witness too. He said he'd think of a plan, and a couple of days later he came back with one.
My flatmate was reaching a point where she could no longer afford to live in the flat we shared, and my partner had just got a big four bed house to rent. He said that I should tell my parents I was moving in to a house share with a guy and a girl, both of them middle-class working people and not students. I told my parents I'd be renting a room there, and my mum wasn't particularly pleased. Obviously she didn't think it was appropriate I live with worldly people, and was concerned I'd turn into a heroin slut and all that really accurate stuff. I also managed - somehow - convinced the Sisters I did my study with that this was the best idea ever. Nobody really had much of a choice anyway, and we moved in to what would become the first home I'd had since I left the original one.
In order to keep up the facade, my boyfriend and I had to set up two additional rooms in the house to belong to me and the other phantom housemate. We borrowed clothes off one of our good friends and filled the room with her stuff. 'My room' also had all my things stored in it, and then the master bedroom (where we actually slept) had all my partner's things in it. He thought it was crazy we had to go to such lengths, and couldn't believe one religion had such power over people, but we went with it nonetheless.
My parents visited the house, and really had no idea that anything was awry. My boyfriend played a fantastic flatmate that seemed completely disinterested in me and was focused entirely on work, whilst often being 'away' on business trips. My parents thought he was really nice though (mainly because they didn't think we were together).
So, for the best part of a year I played the simultaneous rolls of contrite and repenting JW and regular, normal me all that same time. PIMO, I guess, though I still believe in God - just not the version of him that is written down in JW literature. It turns out, as I'm sure many of you can relate, that this is extremely mentally taxing. It was the biggest burden to bare. Sitting through meetings when I thought most of it (apart from the practical advice and nicer readings) was a load of utter fucking codswallop. It was a nightmare going to studies, going to meetings and dying of boredom, or going to the shitting ministry. I refused to knock on any doors.
Eventually, like trying to run with an anvil swinging around my ankles, it became too much. I was perpetually exhausted. I had a condition that made me extremely fatigued and left me in an awful amount of pain. I worked every day, and every day I wasn't asleep or working I was plastering a fake smile on and sitting through another meeting. The mental burden was exhausting.
I decided to call it quits.
PIMO TO POMO
Much to my partner's surprise, I just told my family one day that I was no longer going to attend meetings. They took it in a similar fashion to how I imagine a regular family would if I walked into their home on a Sunday and took a steamy piss all over their freshly-cooked dinner. Much sadness ensued. The normal defensive measures were initiated.

1. Claims of rampant selfishness and clearly not wanting paradise.
2. "How could you do this to [insert most emotionally blackmailing option possible]?"
3. "How can you do this to Jehovah?"
4. Repeat Step 2.
5. Inform Elders.
6. Have other important people in your life repeat Step 2.
7. Soft Shun

Need I say more? Thankfully, my immediate family made the decision to hang around. They carried on talking to me, and I'm fairly certain that Disfellowship Round 1 was so hard on my Dad that he didn't want to do it again. My extended family, however, took it upon themselves to shun me without formally shunning me. The soft shun. They still do to this day.
So I was now relatively free. I couldn't be blatantly obvious with my relationship, but after removing all Witnesses from my social media, I could post the odd picture or two of us together. I think my Dad had seriously caught on to me being with my boyfriend, and he even came for a night out with us. We'd never properly told him, and he was content to accept that he just happened to be home when we went out so invited him along. We had a really good time.
MARRYING SAID WORLDLY MAN
We had a really good thing going. My family (with the exception of my mum) sort of accepted the status quo. This became slightly more difficult when my boyfriend proposed, despite the fact it was a perfectly natural point to make that step. How the hell would we tell my parents? Then we'd absolutely be living in sin. I'd have to move out, and it would be atrocious. We meant everything to each other, so to go from my home to living somewhere crap just to satisfy someone else's religion didn't sit well with us.
We told my family, and said we'd still be living together in the run up to getting married. We were due to get married about 9 months later, and everything was fine until my mum told an Elder's wife the situation. Then it all kicked off. They tried to call me to 'learn the facts' to work out what to do. I was petrified. They called me when I was at dinner, and I almost froze. I started to immediately go into a panic attack, and all the old horrible feelings returned. My husband urged me to end the conversation and said that he'd call back. I was really surprised he said that.
WORLDLY MAN VS ELDER
That night, he did call them back. I didn't realise how much reading he'd actually done about Witnesses. All our doctrine, history, supposedly supporting scriptures. The lot. He spoke to the elders for about 45 minutes, and I sat at the door browning my pants whilst in tears. He told them exactly what the effects of disfellowshipping people are, how it causes lasting mental trauma and severe abandonment issues. They didn't like hearing this. In fact, they didn't like having a 'worldly' person armed with logic and knowledge having anything to do with them. He knew about the two witness rule, so told them categorically that we weren't intimate in any way and that they had no biblical grounds to take any action and therefore, they should very politely, fuck the fuck off. Also, if they fancied a meeting with me, he'd come along for moral support as there was no scriptural reason he couldn't and we wouldn't want to go beyond what is written, would we?
They left me alone, funnily enough. I've not heard from them since. They even left my family alone when it came to anything relating to me. They really, really did not like speaking to my husband. Crazy. I treated him well for that.
HAPPY(ER) ENDING
So now I'm married. I have all the family I need. It's been a lot of work, we have a child on the way, and our relationship is rock solid. We live in the same city as my family, and we all get on great. My husband is like a police attack dog whenever anything JW related is brought up, which has led to some heated debates and has resulted in us not talking about religion, ever. For anyone who has read this far and has wondered if things ever turn out alright, they really can do. Just hang in there.
WHAT DO I THINK OF MY TIME AS A WITNESS NOW?
A. Load. Of. Shit. The only positives I can take are the good Christian qualities I was instilled with as a child. They teach you nothing about life, and woefully underprepare you for anything that is not relating to the organisation. You live your life constantly in fear of something that won't ever happen.
The evidence that is out there - if you take the two seconds it takes to look - that really exposes the gaping holes in the doctrine. When I first left, my husband would try and explain to me why different parts of the Watchtower's interpretation is plain wrong, but I didn't really listen. I didn't want to listen, or to think about how stupid I'd been. It was just something I grew up with, I was out now, and that was good enough. I didn't want it any more.
Gradually, as time has passed and I've spoken about the worst bits with my husband, I've been slightly more open to looking at different views on the religious front. Not that I was closed-minded, I just never studied in any detail what you're required to believe as a Witness. I still felt like I was going to be struck down. The 'apostasy' stuff is so ingrained in us that it's almost life long. You feel that pang of guilt or fear when you think something is saying anything bad about JWs or their beliefs. It turns out, they don't really have the truth.
It started with my husband letting my know about the child abuse investigations, which disgusted me. He showed me the scriptures about shunning and how they're misapplied, and we spoke about blood at length. Blood was one of the only things I kept up whilst DF'd, but I can quite clearly see now it's a terrible interpretation of the scripture. We spoke about religion and God and everything at length, and he sat and listened to what I believed.
He joined this site and read about other people's experiences online - he's boring like that. After three months of showing me the odd thread, I find myself sat here now typing all this out. It's unbelievably therapeutic. It's great to know though, that there are other people out there who understand what it's like, that I'm not alone.
So, there you go... it really can get better.
For those of you who got to the end, bloody well done!

First, my annual income has ranged quite wildly from $100-180k for over a decade but I also live in an expensive metropolitan area where 1,500 sq ft of a condo or modest single-family home sells for $1.5m. I went to a financial advisor for the first time a few months back and they called me earnestly, "solidly middle class." So, $750k is significant.
I bought about $50k over various buys in 2013-2014. At the time, I’d say that was about 15% of my net worth (all of which I earned, I am no trust fund baby).
I have never once sold any bitcoin. All purchases go right into cold storage. I watched all the big dips. 30-50% drops in violently fast intervals. Long recoveries. Never touched it.
I’m no hero HODLer. In fact, I hate that term. It’s childish, and not in an oh-so-cool-for-the-Internet way. People with any kind of positive net worth have portfolios. You don’t HODL. You have assets in various instruments. Some on paper, some as property. You’re “HODLing” all of them. You’re sometimes reallocating, but largely you choose a mix and leave it alone. To say you HODL just tells me you’ve never had anything other than a cash savings account and probably a mountain of debt.
So why do I hold bitcoin and not sell it? For many reasons already espoused endlessly on this forum, but here’s a simple take I don’t see often: If one bitcoin is worth $1, it’s basically worth over $1 million. It’s either valueless or should be priced at whatever would account for the entire world’s business conducted in direct btc transactions with no fiat ramps. There is no in between. Because bitcoin either works or it doesn’t, and the objective fact is: it works. It has worked since 2009 when the open source software was released to the world.
Ask an average Joe anywhere in the world: “Is bitcoin proven, working software or just a prototype?” and I bet 9/10 say the latter. The mainstream narrative of bitcoin is so laden with bullshit, most people simply do not know that bitcoin just works and has worked since the beginning.
Its promise is to allow two entities to transfer value without any middleman, and that the value cannot be counterfeit. This has not changed. If you transferred coins to an address generated in 2009, they sit at that address today still. Any free wallet software today will let you access it. The original client and its variations have been iterated, but bitcoin is still just a ledger, shared by thousands of volunteered machines online. And the deflationary economic philosophy -- a limited supply of coins -- chosen by its original creator, is the same and will always be.
For all the endless talk of how the protocol, the thousands of pointless crypto copies, and decentralization is a platform that can change every industry… it all doesn’t matter. Maybe the other applications will happen meaningfully, maybe they won’t. But the first software devised which runs the largest network, and a permanent, immutable economic policy that is the polar opposite of MMT and the state-run money of every country around the world, **has already happened**.
Bitcoin’s price moves so much because most people are simply idiots. The “speculative asset” narrative is self-fulfilling. There’s nothing to speculate. Bitcoin works. Will it be adopted, won’t it be? It IS adopted. When one person agreed to hand over a product or service for some amount of coin, it was adopted.
The single biggest thing that slowed its *widespread* adoption was government making a coffee purchase a taxable event (i.e. defining bitcoin as property). If we weren’t concerned about bureaucratic friction, we’d just spend what we must and save the rest. Like money is supposed to work. Instead, we hoard. And the dumb players crash in and crash out, creating and riding their own mania, but never really understanding anything.
Screw every person — with ill will or just ignorance — that says it has no inherent value. It is technology with measurable demand. It is finite, it is impossible to counterfeit, it is instantly and safely transferrable between any two parties without a middleman, and cannot be confiscated. It also cannot be uninvented. Owning it is knowledge of characters in your head and that can never be regulated away.
Again: If bitcoin is not valued at zero, then its total value should amount to the entire stored work product of the human race. Because there’s no safer place to store that value. If you think that value stored in something like fiat, which can be printed infinitely, is safer, then you’re with 98% of the rest of the world right now and you’ll continue to resent every leap in value bitcoin makes. I’ll see you at the next peak, where many more gamblers will have come and gone, but a few more who understand that fiat is garbage will be here to stay.
UPDATE: Appreciate the comments, and I guess it was ultimately a post that would be polarizing. I will say I didn't post it to flex -- I explained my financial overview so you'd understand where I'm coming from and not just be another doomsayer or to-the-mooner with no context. I put moderate risk for me in relatively early, I've benefited on paper. I've neither sold at the wrong time or the right time. I just researched the tech 8 years ago, and have seen nothing over that time to suggest anything was wrong with the first conclusion that this a game-changer and store of value worth holding for the long haul. Is it a non-flex to note I drive a 10-year old POS?
The thing is, you can't win. If you say you have no bitcoin, then you clearly don't believe in it. If you do have it, then apparently you just want others to fund the ponzi scheme. Something that benefits from a network effect does not mean those already participating can only have ulterior motives.

This story is only ramping up, with numerous politicians jumping in today. The post made yesterday was specifically about Discord banning their server. But that is A) really tangential, and B) very much in the middle of the procedure. And when people enter in the middle, we often have a bad habit of assuming what came before. So I wanted to start with the basics of finance so it's all laid out simply.

It begins with a magic box

Suppose there is a magic box that spits out $10 every year.
Every January 1 a $10 bill comes out of this box. You don't know how and you don't care, but you have every faith it will continue to happen. How much would you pay for the box?
Seriously, try to come up with a number.
It's not obvious if you've never studied this kind of thing. The entire field of finance exists to answer questions like that. But let's say for the purposes of our discussion the "reasonable" price is $500. (If you're curious about the actual calculation, look up "Present Value of a Perpetuity".)
We'll say there's a whole bunch of these magic boxes out there, all exactly the same. But not infinite. So if someone new comes along and wants a box, they have to find a previous owner and offer a trade. Maybe you'd take $500 for it if you wanted the money now instead of waiting. Or maybe you really like your box and you insist on $520 or $530 for yours. If all the people buying and selling the boxes make the trade prices publicly known, what you have is a market. And the prices of the boxes will go up and down based on various factors.
But it should be clear that regardless of what anyone is paying for it, this magic box continues to work exactly the same.

Eat my shorts

So you have your box. I come to you and say "Can I borrow that? I will give it back to you in the future, and in the meantime I will pay you the $10 every year that the box would have." So to you it makes no difference. To the box it makes no difference. But to the market, it might. Because I can then go sell that box, planning to buy it back later. And if I do that a lot, all these boxes I'm selling might make people less interested in buying. Which means the going price is lower, and the box I sold for $500 maybe I can buy back for $400. Then I return it to you and keep the difference as profit. (Minus any annual payments I had to give you.)
This is "short selling", or "shorting". Instead of buying then selling, I would sell then buy. It's made possible because I was able to borrow.
Now let's ramp it up. I borrow more and more boxes, selling each time. I even borrow the same box again from the person I sold it to, just to sell it to someone else. And the price at which I do it goes cheaper and cheaper and cheaper. Eventually I'm so successful the last buyer bought a magic money box for $50. I have successfully shorted the price that low.
So let's ask the question: is this bad? Consider different points of view:

• If you had held on to your box and suddenly found you needed a quick $500, you'd be pretty unhappy if no one was paying more than $50.
• If you loaned yours to me you don't care. You're still getting your annual $10 and will eventually get the box back.
• The box doesn't care. Not because magic boxes don't have feelings (who knows?) but because it still works exactly the same.
• If you were looking to acquire a box, you'd be absolutely thrilled that I had made them so cheap.

So good/bad depends on who is speaking. But I would point out that the first group is hypothetical and probably not that big. But the fourth group very definitely exists. My shorting offered a lot of valuable boxes to a lot of people at a very low price. In any other context you might even call that a public service.
In all likelihood, the biggest loser of this scenario is me. I took something of proven value and made people temporarily question that. But if they have either rationality or patience, they're not going to sell me these boxes back at $50. And I do have to buy them sometime because I owe a whole lot of them.

Group hug

In fact, sometimes it's not up to me when I start returning the boxes. Suppose that while I'm trying to short the price down, it actually goes up to $600. You were fine with me borrowing before because you knew that I'd already have the cash to buy it back at a lower price. But at a higher price, you'd probably want some reassurance. This is known as a "margin call". (Margin being the broker's term for borrowing.)
When the price goes higher than expected, as the short seller I either need to dump a whole bunch more cash in the account to make you more confident, or I need to start buying back the boxes immediately and returning them to the lenders. But of course if I start panic buying a bunch of boxes, that's going to have the exact opposite effect that selling them did. The market price will go up. And the higher it goes, the more margin calls I get on the ones I still owe. This loops on itself over and over, and is known as a "short squeeze".
Basically everyone in this situation wins except me. Lenders get their boxes back immediately. People who bought them cheap now get to sell to me at a higher price. People who held see the price shooting up. This is why shorts are painted as the enemy - because in terms of our bet, it's everyone against me. But remember that the short itself wasn't a problem. All I did was make this valuable magic box available at a low price.

You don't actually believe in magic, do you?

Of course, magic isn't as reliable as it used to be. For years the box spit out a $10, sure. But at the start of 2021, each of the boxes only gave out $7...
Well that changes things, doesn't it? $500 may be a fair value for $10 a year. But if the box doesn't pay as much, it's not worth as much. And what if next year is lower than $7? What if someday it stops giving out money entirely?
Now the *intrinsic value* of the box has changed, and may continue to do so. If I were to short in this environment, that makes a lot more sense, does it not? If the price is going to go down, I'd sure like to be selling now and buying later.
This still puts us on opposite teams. Whether you bought your box a long time or got it cheaply from me, you hope I'm wrong and come next January it goes back to giving $10s. Again, you win if I fail. I guess that makes me the enemy. But don't mistake that for me breaking the box. I didn't affect it. I just have a different prediction.

The box is Gamestop. It was a metaphor!

OK, push the "magic box" analogy to the back of your mind. Stocks really aren't all that different. When you buy a stock you own a piece of a company. You bought it from a previous owner. You hope they will make money and someday send you your cut (called a "dividend"). But these things are unpredictable, which is why stock markets move around.
Always remember the order though: The magic box affects the price. The price did not change the box.
If Gamestop is a good company, all the shorts do is make the stock cheaper for people who would like to own it. They can't drive the company out of business and "cost thousands of people their jobs". Which is something I've been seeing people say. It's kind of why I wrote this. You can't make the magic boxes stop just by selling a bunch of them.
However, if Gamestop is legitimately having problems, the price is going to go down and the shorts are just the first ones to figure that out.
(1)

The special investors

I've been entertained by WallStreetBets for years. And there's a way I like to describe them:
1/3 smart people acting dumb because it's funny. 1/3 dumb people not knowing it's a joke. 1/3 people who think they're in the first group but are actually in the second.
WSB has made the news a couple times. The biggest story before this involved using an account glitch (at newbie broker RobinHood) to borrow a million dollars and then gamble it at 20:1 odds. Who they are (or at least pretend to be) are wanna-be Jordan Belfort. (The guy from Wolf of Wall Street). It's not reflective of your save-for-retirement investor and it's not some new Occupy Wall Street movement. Causing a short squeeze like the one I described above is something they might do because it's funny, and because some gamblers will get paid off, and because it's funny.
That's basically what happened here. Many short sellers had bet against Gamestop. Management had added new members to their Board of Directors (basically the shareholder's representatives) including Ryan Cohen, the founder of pet-food-seller Chewy. His suggestions about significant change to the company had inspired some optimism. WSB members saw that as an opportunity and tried to rally people into the stock to cause a short squeeze. And from there it caught on.
Make no mistake. When something like this hits the news, causing either casual investors or anti-Wall Street bandwagoneers to follow with their own money, that makes the joke so much better.
But remember the stock price does not affect the underlying company. The shorts pushing it down to $4 or the buyers/squeeze pushing up to $400, neither affects how Gamestop operates. This isn't about saving the company. It's what happens when serious predictions meet treating-money-like-a-video-game.

Short answers about shorts

Is there going to be a government bailout?
Not of the hedge funds. We're only talking about 1-2 funds. And I assure you, there are hedge funds on the other side as well. Nobody wants to see a fund manager fail more than their rival managers. The industry is fine. And hedge funds are by their very nature not open to average investors because of the risk involved.
Will anyone else get one? I don't know. This is America. So probably.
How will this end?
I don't know the accurate value of Gamestop stock any more than anyone else. But I can tell you it's a lot closer to $10-15 than it is to $250. If you're in for the joke, it's hilarious. But the higher the spike, the more appealing it is to sell - both to new shorts and to long-term holders. No one wants to be the last one holding.
Marijuana company Tilray might be a model. In 2018 the stock was first issued at $17 per share. Buyers (including a great deal of WSB hype) pushed it up to $300 within 3 months. Last year it hit a low of $2.43.
Who will be the biggest loser?
Probably RobinHood. This app-based broker targets a less experienced audience which makes them perfect for WSB-style comedy. And for reasons not entirely clear, earlier today they banned the purchase of Gamestop (along with others including AMC, BB, and BBBY) on their platform. This has already sparked a class-action lawsuit and promises of legal investigation from as diverse a group as AOC and Ted Cruz.
That action may actually be the bit that leads to lasting change. If it turns out that Robinhood was pressured by their own market connections, who were motivated by the hedge funds involved, we might see stricter rules about firewalls between roles. But that is speculation. I could guess several reasons why they might have acted that don't rhyme with "Bon fearacy". But they should be made to answer.
Is this like 2008?
No. Other than that they're both about finance, and therefore about the prediction of the value of future events. But these are predictions about the value of selling used video games. Not comparable to a drop in home values - the most widespread, leveraged market in the world.
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Footnote:
(1) For completeness, I should add a caveat. If a company is in trouble but not dead, they may seek out new investors so they have money to stay alive longer. A low stock price makes that harder to do, and short sellers certainly don't help that. But crucially here, genuine problems must exist first.

Hey everyone, I wanted to make a more in-depth post about the newest 5 Star, Childe / Tartaglia, as it seems to be a very controversial topic whether he is good or not.
I will be working on a more in-depth version of this guide in Video format, but here is a highlight videos showcasing his power until then!
Find all my updated Character guides here: Reddit: Childe | Bennett | Fischl | Jean | Barbara Videos: Childe | Bennett | Fischl | Jean | Barbara
So my first impression is that he is an absolutely amazing Carry Character, probably on par with Diluc, Klee and Keqing. Another point about Tartaglia is that his scaling seems very exponential. He might seem underwhelming at first, but once you min/max his stats and get him to a nice Crit/Crit Damage Ratio with a lot of Hydro Damage (lvl 80 Weapon, lvl 20 5 Star Artifacts, Lvl 6+ Talents) he starts becoming an insane DPS machine, but I do think he will be more whale-friendly than F2P friendly, as a weapon like Skyward Harp really takes him over the edge.
Note that this is taking into account Childe as a main DPS. There are possible builds with more Energy Recharge and Elemental Mastery that would be using him more as a Ult Spam / Vaporize Secondary DPS that could also work very well.

Abilities

• His main strength is fast attacks as well as crazy burst and AoE damage. The way this character works is all based on him applying a debuff called Riptide on enemies, which will then cause that debuff to trigger AoE Hydro Damage in many ways.
• In ranged form, this applies only by doing aimed shots. Subsequent Aimed Shots will trigger Riptide:Flash which will do a few hydro damage hits in quick succession for a lot of burst damage.Enemies who die with the Riptide Effect on them will also explode for AoE Hydro Damage and Apply Riptide to all other monsters around. >> The Strategy in ranged form will be to full Aim Shot at monsters (and do huge dmg on weak points) and will do very well if you can snipe off weaker mobs in a pack 1 at a time, as they will keep spreading Riptide and Exploding. The damage is actually very impressive on these effects and makes waiting for the Melee Stance Cooldown a lot less painful than people think.
  
• His Elemental Skill turns Tartaglia into a melee god and simply activating the ability does a nice burst AOE Hydro Damage. All attacks are still considered "Normal Attacks" but do purely Hydro Damage. Hitting enemies affected by Riptide with Normal or Charged attacks will cause an AOE Hydro Burst Explosion that does very good damage (That damage is considered Elemental Skill DMG) and can only happen once every 1.5 seconds, per monster. >> The big concern here is the cooldown, which is not as bad as people think. If YOU are the one CANCELLING the skill, either by pressing E again, or switching to another character, the cooldown will be anywhere between 6 and 36 Seconds MAXIMUM. If you instead let it run out after 30 seconds, the cooldown will be 45 seconds. So PAY ATTENTION TO THIS. There will be flashing sword icon on top of your head once its about to expire. >> If you cancel the skill quickly, you will only have 6 seconds cooldown, and will be able to continuously go into melee form to trigger the burst damage of the stance. It is recommended to not stay in Melee form too much, and keep "Stance Shuffling" and alternate to other characters to keep triggering elemental combo. It seriously doesnt feel like the cooldown on E is a big deal once you get into a good flow.
  
• His Elemental Burst is one of the highest scaling ability in the game, even more-so in melee form.In Ranged Form, it shoots off an Arrow, similar to Venti, that does huge DMG to everything hit and applies Riptide. It also returns 20 (33%) of the energy cost. This is a very powerful ability not to be underestimated.In Melee Form, it will do a full 360 AOE Hydro Damage and Proc all riptide effects for enemies hit, consuming them and doing even more damage. This is considered Elemental Burst DMG and has gotten me crits close to 100K at Lvl 80 without crazy buffs.
  
• His Talents are pretty straightforward, Never Ending extends the duration of Riptide by 8 seconds, and Sword of Torrents makes it so Critical Hits in Melee Form apply Riptide. This is why Critical Strike is important on him.
  
• His Passive Talent is probably the best passive in the game, as it increases the Talent Level of Normal Attacks by 1 for every party member, Himself Included
  

Constellations

• The first Constellation reduces the cooldown of his Melee Stance by 20%, which is a very big buff to his biggest downside.
• The second Constellation gives him 4 energy every time he defeats a monster, and probably one of his most powerful one because of that, due to how powerful his Ult is.
• Constellation 4 is a huge DPS increase, triggering extra Riptide Effects on enemies consistently during combat and as a Damage over time.
• His 6th Constellation basically makes his melee stance have no cooldown at all and will make Whales stupidly powerful when using him

Stat Priority

• Crit Rate is very important to have on him, but you dont need to have 100% for it to work due to his insanely fast attack speed and the fact that his Riptide lasts a long time on enemies. Around 40% seems to be very sufficient to have all enemies instantly affected by the Debuff.
• Hydro Damage, Crit Damage and ATK will be the other priorities in terms of Stats while making sure to keep a good ratio close to 1:2 for Crit Rate/Crit Damage. Energy Recharge is also not bad at all, since his ult is insane especially if using 2-Piece Noblesse Oblige.
• You will want to make sure to have ATK on the Sands, Hydro Damage on the Goblet and Crit or Crit Damage on the Circlet

Weapons

1. Skyward Harp is by far his Best In Slot, providing him Crit Rate, Crit Damage and the passive works in both ranged and melee form. Its no wonder that it is available in the weapon Gacha right now.
2. Rust might be his second best weapon, due to the passive giving him Normal Attack damage which works with his Melee form, though, it also reduces Aimed Shot damage, which is actually a big part of Childe's kit as opposed to most other archers. Sadly, it gives ATK instead of Crit/Crit DMG but that is still a great stat for him. The passive on Rust is absolutely amazing, especially if you have refinement levels, but sadly this wont apply to his Ult nor his Aimed Shots so it has some drawbacks.
3. Amos Bow is very close to Rust for being second best, simply because its a 5 star, and will have much higher Base Damage late game which scales better than any other stat in the game. The passive is also amazing, and works very well with both his Melee and his Aimed Shot Ranged stances. It also has ATK which is, again, not the best, but still good.
4. The Viridescent Hunt, the BP weapon, is another incredible weapon for him. It seems like the passive effect also works in Melee, and as it gives Crit, it allows him to scale very well late game (and possibly run Crit Dmg on the headpiece)
5. Royal Bow and Blackcliff Bow are good options as well, can be bought from the Starglitter Shop and do provide with great Stats, Crit Chance and Crit Damage.
6. Most other bows don't seem to work super well with him, Compound Bow is quite bad as he doesnt do much Physical Damage at all, Stringless doesn't seem to apply to his melee attacks, Sacrificial bow doesn't work on his E cooldown, and most other just lack the damage bonuses, though some might build him more as a support and use them okay, it will definitely not be as good.

Artifacts

1. 2-Piece Noblesse Oblige and 2-Piece Gladiator seems to be the best combination, boosting both his Atk stat and his Ult damage which is a huge part of his damage. Until we get the Water Damage Set, this is probably going to be the best option for 5 Stars.
2. 4 Piece Gambler seems to be a very powerful option as it does reset his Skill cooldown, but the fact that there are no 5 star version will result in a big loss of dps
3. Wandering Troupe is another option that can be very good, but the 4-Piece doesn't work well in his Melee Stance and to get the max value from the 2-Piece, it requires him to have access to a lot of elemental combos, which is hard to manage with his Stance Shuffling.
4. There doesnt seem to be many other options for him sadly, as most items dont work well on him due to being a Bow User. Martial Artist and Berserker would be great, if they had 5 Star versions.

Team comps and Tips

• One of the best way to use and combo his abilities is as follow:

1. Starting the fight in Ranged Mode, Cast Aimed Shots at enemies and pick off the weak ones if possible to spread the Riptide.
2. Switch to other Characters and use their abilities
3. Cast his ult in Ranged form to trigger great damage (Especially Vaporize) and apply riptide to everyone
4. Can switch to other characters again to regen more Ult Energy and prepare more combos, or simply go right into Melee Stance (you will have a lot of your ult recharged already) and hit them until you can ult Again. With effects such as Xiangling's Goaba or Ult, you might be able to proc Vaporize here again with the ult which is going to be optimal.

• He is quite complicated and will require a lot of testing to figure out his best team comps and combo, but Vaporize is going to be his main source of big burst damage, so bringing a fire support character such as Xiangling or Bennett is going to be very important.
• Electric Support such as Fischl is obviously very powerful with him, enhancing his already crazy AOE even more with Electro Charge.
• Sadly, Chongyun does NOT work well with him at all.
• Anemo Supports such as Venti or Sucrose will be S+ with him as well, gathering mobs into a cluster will enable his maximum damage potential. I am not sure if the Veridiscent Venerer set not working with Hydro has been fixed yet, but once it is, that will be almost a requirement when playing with him. I think Sucrose is also going to be even better than Venti with him considering the fact that she keeps mobs on the ground and allows him to unleash his ult and melee abilities, though you can also use Childe's ranged Ult into Venti's ult for crazy burst too.
• So far in my testing, he is an absolute beast at clearing the Abyss. The more monster density, the better for him, and he seems to scale extremely well. At World Level 6, he melts almost everything with ease, and feels much stronger than my very powerful Diluc. I am excited to test him more and figure out even stronger combos and team comps!

Let me know what you think of Childe so far and what combos you think are best for him in the comments as I am eager to learn more! -Xoraz Youtube.com/NotCasuals

howdy 'tardettes!
The Score Media and Gaming Incorporated
$SCR in Canada, $TSCRF in USA
So I have spent the last week looking for potential meme stocks as a personal project, trying specifically to avoid weedstocks or crypto. Again I am not a finance guy just like trying to guess the future and politics. AKA i am a retard. Anyways, as mentioned previously i want a meme stock in a popping/hot to talk about industry with about a year of 'fluff or good news' to prop up the stock price. Then i came across this post
https://old.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/comments/ld8dsi/score_media_and_why_its_a_massive_candidate_for_a/
I am Canadian. I know Score Media and they were one of, if not the biggest sports tv channels before they sold that part of their business to Rogers a couple years ago (Rogers and Bell run our media in Canada) But they kept their website and phone application. Still the go to sports app for ppl in Canada and huge name recognition. I had no idea the gvmt was planning to vote to legalize single wagering sports betting. I know how big this market is as all my friends gamble on sports using bet365 which i think is based in the UK. This is the same gvmt who legalized weed federally and led that change in policy around the world. During Corona when deficits are high and the morale police in society are likely at all time low would Justin Trudeau turn down this source of $$? (also important to note for American friends, he currently has majority gvmt so should be able to pass anything he wants) Then when you find out Penn gaming is invested and this likely has support across the political aisle safe to say after seeing what is happened with DKNG my interest was PIQUED
anyways clearly the cons are that this stock is at a its all time high and i dont want to buy at the top of a pump. that said yolo and i threw $2k on friday. This stock is planning to list on NYSE in the future and the bet is that the law legalizing will pass which I personally believe is a no brainer but will have to do further research.
If this passes, and Penn just straight up buys them out and they list on the NYSE this thing could turn into a huge powerhouse. And, as the degenerate gamblers that we are, dont we really only care about getting into a MEME stock much earlier than the stampede??
Thoughts? Ideas for other MEME stocks? Lets get this hive mind going my tardorinossssss
**Update. To note, i see this play as very similar to the play up to legalization that some of you might remember back with some Canadian licensed producer. Investors are waiting on a vote/change in gvmt policy, the company is primed to take advantage of this new potential regulatory change, there is already a huge market guaranteed, and the TSX/canadian market specifically is used to this play and is uniquely primed to pump one of their own meme stocks (see either any weed LP, or shopify for this example)
**** Update the mods deleted my final update, even though i was just trying to bring some life to this sub and its not like i am some crazy promoter, my sub has 100 ppl lol. Sorry for providing content on your sub and trying to generate some life and take advantage of that opportunity we had after the GME thing went down. Instead, the count has stayed at 2500-2700 for a week with no posts or interesting conversation while others have thrived.
Please feel free to visit and join our experiment at /gamblingstocks
this is the link i tried to post here: https://old.reddit.com/retardbets/comments/lffews/get_rich_or_die_trying_series_part_3_is_the_the/

Hey guys, this post is not intended to tell you what to do. I'm not a financial advisor. This isn't my day job. I am not even a day trader. I learned the difference between call and put options like 3 months ago. I don't trade options. I don't even know how yet, to be frank. I recently got an RH account to try to learn how and then this shit blew up. This post is viewable to the general public and is not "insider knowledge". Everything I am about to say, I have gleaned from PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE DATA. That Hedge funds and other people in the media, the government, and in the general public ALL have access to. This is MORE VISIBLE than even Facebook. Let alone a country club or private "dinner party". Just saying. I am a real person. I am not a bot. I am not trying to screw anyone over. I like the stock I am choosing to gamble my disposable income on and think it will be a good investment regardless of the action over the next few weeks. 💎🙌
I CAN earn it back if I have to. I didn't stake my entire savings. I don't advise people to gamble with money they don't have. Not for financial reasons, solely, but more for mental health reasons.
Bias disclosure: I currently have 1882 shares of AMC at an average price of 9.27$ and I occupied Wall Street for a bit after the financial crisis, mostly on reddit as I was in medical school at the time, and supported occupy the SEC. Please see my post history. It's all there in the top posts. I have nothing to hide as I know I am a valued member of our society, I pay my taxes, I treat mental illness, I follow the law, and I don't normally gamble. This is not about the money for me personally, it's about principle. It's my token of rememberance for the failed actions of our government to hold these types of people accountable for the great recession and the subprime mortgage crisis. Also, WSB just happened to stumble upon these criminal vulture firms, in the act of active company rape and decided to give them a licking. If you were interested in GME and were one of the people on the other side [IE at one of these firms] reading the discussion over at WSB should have been your job as a form of market research. If you missed the warning, it's not Reddit's fault. If you suck at your job, it's not Reddit's fault. I don't see how pinning them in that position was illegal. It wasn't planned, it wasn't private. It developed organically like a movement. It continues to grow. Silencing us will only make it louder. You need to level the playing field and regulate the markets. What they did to defend themselves was illegal. The manipulation of the market and the media was illegal. The restriction of buying was illegal. The algorithmic ladder attacks were illegal. Thus I will hold the line, as I HAVE been since Tuesday. It's been a wild ride and I'm tired of this shitshow. I want to get back to normal investing after this fiasco. It's much better for my sleep.
*So here goes my theoretical question. AGAIN, I AM NOT saying you SHOULD do this. What you do is your call. I am asking if this has been done before or if it even can be done. I'm a n00b. Educate me. I'm trying to learn how the arena works. Like how it really works.
If short ladders by algorithms are being used to artificially deflate the stock price. IE: tanking the price of AMC with low trade volumes that they simply pass amongst themselves. I think yesterday it was 5% buy and hold and 95% sell for AMC but each time with low volumes in a very predictable pattern. (Trey from the link below explained it very well several times better than me.)...
What prevents retail traders from spacing out their purchase orders to 1-10 shares at a time and holding. Wouldn't that be better than just impulse buying 100 shares because you want in and you like the stock? Would it do the same thing as short laddering but in converse? Just curious. Would like to hear your opinions.
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I've been watching this channel to learn about AMC action and markets in general and it has been super educational.
​
*I am not investing in AMC to make a quick buck. I am not a day trader or a pump and dumper. I am doing this because I think AMC will not die from the pandemic, was artificially deflated by vulture hedge funds, almost to the point of bankruptcy, and will NOW be able to pivot into a better business model with fresher screens, Hollywood exclusive releases, fancier theaters, pent up demand, etc., with the new capital and public interest. People LIKE the MOVIES. I grew up in NJ and movie theaters were a HUGE part of my life and many of my most memorable moments occurred at the movies. They make me warm and fuzzy. They have a certain nostalgia for me personally and I like supporting local business when I can. [I know AMC was bought by China, but the staff are all local]. In my opinion GME has an antiquated business model bc I buy games on STEAM and online. AMC was only struggling because of COVID and I don't think that otherwise people would completely stop going to the movies. We Americans LOVE going to the movies. I love going to the movies. That's just my opinion. Don't hate on me for it. I think that the "real value" of AMC is AT LEAST about 10-20$ which is what they were at before 2020 and it wasn't even their peak value. Even if the real value is closer to 5$, according to the arguments of experts, that's just their fucking opinion. It's a different situation now and I don't agree. Is that my right to disagree with them and pick my own stocks? Or can I only bet on what Fox Business tells me to. Or Jim Cramer. As an individual investor, am I free in this country to spend my money how I want on the stock market, or am I not? Am I free to make my own choices about whether to buy a stock or not? At least I think I should be. If I am not, it will solidify my opinion [and the watching world's opinion] that "free market" capitalism is indeed a farce. It will highly depreciate the value of the American dream and my respect for our current government. Which I was Ecstatic about during Election Day. [Disclosure, Bernie/Liz Bro, who voted for Biden and abstained from voting in 2016 due to bitterness about the primaries. Damn you DWS, you know what you did.] We all know the hedge funds sure are free to buy as much stock as they want to. Apparently even to buy stock that doesn't exist. WTF is that? Glad I found out now. Even if I lost 8k by betting it will be 10$ in 2022 rather than 5$ isn't it my CHOICE when to sell? Am I not free to HOLD the damn stock if in my opinion, I'm willing to consider it a tax on sending a giant reddit shaped middle finger into space to these people that rape companies regardless of the consequences to local staff? These parasites who prefer profit to morality and decency? Who sold their souls in the search of...what?...private islands and yachts? Let THIS MOMENT be your Memento Mori, you soulless motherfuckers. If you have any of it left, now is your time to search for it. Your actions will leave behind a husk of an economy and earth if left unchecked. We the Reddit "Retards" stumbled upon our teeth. For the first time the MARKET BITES BACK AND WE ARE NOT LETTING GO. WE ARE MAKING A STAND. FUCK YOU. We all know that the American Citizens will end up footing the bill anyway in taxes when all those people start relying on the government for survival after you motherfuckers artificially drive their employer into bankrupcy. FUCK YOU. You're already taking my money and you know it. I pay 47% in taxes due to my income and living in NYC. FUCK YOU for evading them with offshore accounts you GREEDY FUCKS. I am willing to lose 8k to do that (send you a message) and to rapidly learn about what is going on to manipulate markets. It's also partially the cost of education in my calculus. I have learned more in one week riding this wave, than in 4 years of getting my Economics degree. Either way, my current buy in as at 9.27 so I will hold at least until I make my initial investment back. I am also disclosing that if the stock goes up to 30$ I will likely SELL enough shares to cover half of my position because I am not a degenerate gambler and have been holding the line since Tuesday and it has taken a toll on my sleep and my sanity. I know I might lose some money and this is a crazy roller coaster. I want to get out most of my investment ASAP and then ride the wave to then END with you all. IF it happens. I know it may not. I don't care. The message seems to have been sent. Seems like they received it. But we don't know who will be regulated and how yet. I am tired of this fight. I don't like it. I don't want to do it anymore. But I stayed in for the principle not the principal, and for the people just finding out about this now to still be able to make a choice about what to do before we release them from the HOLD. This is a constantly evolving situation. Will they censor the media from talking about stocks? Why target Reddit? Reddit is LIKE the media. It's not a private chat room. THESE WORDS CAN BE READ BY ANYONE WITH AN INTERNET CONNECTION AND WE ARE AWARE OF THIS. If it falls, and I lose my money, I don't think the government will come in and save me. I don't expect them to. I EXPECT them to let this play out and not SIDE with these assholes. It upsets me that they seem to have decided to save Vulture capitalists. Anyway, despite my fear of posting this question and the associated rant, I really want to know the answer. Has it been done before by Algorithms pushing stocks higher? Is it possible to make a crowdsourced one? Is it legal?
If this gets removed or censored in some way. You have your answer I guess.
facta non verba.
Thanks.
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****IMPORTANT ADDENDUM****: I want to add that I was quite revved up when I wrote this and have had some time to reflect. I want to stress that it is not my intention to lay blame or judge any individual person or organization for the current situation [Of stacked odds in the retail investor vs hedge fund battle]. Emotions run high in the stock market. I know this through experience now. I was angry when I wrote this post. [I am leaving it unedited for posterity and since whoever needed to see it already saw it so removing it would be pointless] This should not become a witch hunt or be personal. These guys and girls are people too. They work for a corporation. They earn a paycheck. They have friends, partners, and families too. I am a person. You, reader, are a person. Don't make this personal. They didn't invent algorithms and weren't the ones that necessarily wanted to take these short positions. The market calculus at the time, dictated that this was a good call for them, it wasn't. We accidentally stumbled upon it on WSB and shit-posted about it until it blew up and they were really in a bind. I understand their calculus to a degree, but I am a "smooth brained" "retard" when it comes to these things. I am learning fast though. I understand that certain companies are likely to fail and it is possible to make a profit off that. My moral views about it are irrelevant as the situation they're in dictates their actions, not my personal views about that. I understand that they're getting screwed at the moment and I'm sorry. I truly hope most of them do not get too damaged by this and have had time to change their positions. But I also believe in the American dream, and think that the people that were able to find a good position in the stock market [the retail investors] should be rewarded. I sincerely hope this doesn't trigger a massive systemic issue and we don't accidentally BREAK the stock market with this action on those stocks. It doesn't seem like that would happen, but again smooth brain here. WE NEED THE MARKET TO STAY ALIVE to have peace and stability in this country. Reddit crew, I beseech you, please understand that the individuals involved are also playing by the rules given to them by the market. The problem I personally have is that the rules are different for the retail investors vs. the big institutions. I don't have a problem with them as people. I don't want to destroy anything or any institutions. That was never my goal as an activist nor as an investor-activist and I can only speak about myself. I just hope they could find it in their hearts to try to understand our outrage and consider playing by the rules or at least letting us play by the same rules. We are attacking them and they don't like it. I get it. In either case, please understand that I am not vested too strongly in either outcome anymore. I am tired and want to return to my regular life and will not be on reddit for a while, nor will I be investing any more money into the stock market for a while... The whole thing has taken it's toll on me and I am going back to my regular life. This is not my war.
On the government's side, I also understand that their goal is to enforce the rules. I hope I'm not breaking any here and will remove my posts if I am. I am not trying to cause a revolution. This country has been through too much and we finally have a shot at beating COVID and have a competent administration that can guide us back on the right track. I truly believe that the people in charge now are decent people and will do good for this country. If Biden says no more diamond hands, I will listen to Biden. What I do further with my shares shall remain my business otherwise. I will no longer tell anyone what I am doing with my shares. I realize now that this is not always a good idea and should be done with tact and experience. I am not a financial advisor. But also, financial advice and being one is not a joke. I realize this now. MEMEing about stocks is like MEMEing about drinking bleach. People might listen to you and sacrifice their lives on a losing battle. Not everyone knows the stakes and not everyone knows what they're doing. Now that this is blowing up, people can get really hurt financially. Reddit, we could be putting people in danger. I see this now. So you all, too, reading this, PLEASE be careful. About investing and about what you say on social media. INVEST but INVEST RESPONSIBLY and not with money you can not bear to lose. I pledge that I will personally no longer post any inflammatory shit on Reddit. Because now I'm afraid that WE are suddenly some form of weird market makers and I don't have as many lawyers as the hedge funds. I am tapping out from posting any more about the current battle. I wish you all luck on both sides, truly. In the next round tomorrow.
Dear Government: If you want this to end, don't you have the power to delist these "Meme" companies and distribute the shares somehow? If not, the the system is truly stronger than our institutions. If you do this, please make sure people don't lose their life savings somehow. That would be nice. Then, please try to make sure this won't happen again and that the SEC actually regulates and prosecutes people so their calculus isn't that the fines are too low to justify following the rules. [Just my humble opinion as a smooth brain with limited experience of markets. Do what you think is best and I will obey the laws as an individual]. Sorry you might disagree hedge fund guys and girls, but I am entitle to my opinion in a free country. This is my platform. You can have CNN and Fox News. Sorry for saying something. I promise this is the end of it. But also, a lot of market makers on TV seem to assert that the market will self correct and I don't see how this should be a large risk for overall wealth. Who knows, none of us can predict the future. But I think if a bunch of Reddit "retards" get a couple hundred thousand bucks, it won't change the overall situation or necessarily be a net negative; and may in fact trigger a renaissance in this country. You'll still be the biggest fish, just in a more biodiverse pond. It may just create a new class of petite bourgeoise in this country. But it is not likely that if they win, it will cause something like the French Revolution. There will be losers and winners, but in the end, it will be a good story for Hollywood. [Hopefully played on an AMC screen in a post covid world] But what do I know, I'm a just another "retard" on reddit.
I hope that after this, you are all decent humans at the end and don't break any law on all sides. [Reddit, Retail investors, Government, Hedge fund investors, etc] I hope we don't break the market over this. If that is a true risk we need to make the market unbreakable or this WILL keep happening. If anyone is resentful about losing future gains on a good position so the government can fix the market, don't be a fucking greedy idiot and look at what we've achieved so far. This is already a big win for the small guy. And if our markets are vulnerable, the next winners will not be idiots on reddit. But will likely be our enemies from abroad. Not to name names. We will ALL benefit more from long term stability than short term gains. We MUST come together as a country so we can spend that money in the future for things. If we break the stock market, we will not be able to buy things with all that worthless money. But if the system isn't at risk, I don't understand what all the hullabaloo is about. There have been countless bubbles before. Why weren't those regulated as much. Maybe they were and I'm an ignorant smooth brain. In any case, I hope that we can stop fighting over carcasses for greed. This was always about making the rules of the casino fair for me, personally. It's not life or death. I'm not an extremist or an ideologue. It's not about burning down the casino. I hope that the government will intervene if they think it is going to short circuit the whole thing and that people reading this gamble responsibly.
This will be my last post about this as I have a life to live.
-Tememachine OUT.
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EDIT 2: Now they're making fun of the movement. Fuck Wall Street. I hope they get what's coming to them one day. [In terms of regulation and prison sentences] I'm still out of this war. But seriously. Fuck them.

I first read Vector Prime back in high school right when it was released in 1999. Over 20 years ago, damn I'm feeling old. While I've read the whole New Jedi Order most of it I only read once so now looking back it I find I only remembered the major points and as I re-read the books it's like discovering them all over again. As the title says major spoilers for the book and for most of the series, you've been warned.
Vector Prime starts off 25 years after the battle of Endor. The galaxy is at peace, or at least as peaceful as the Star Wars galaxy ever gets. The war with the Empire has been officially over for six years and the only conflicts now are small regional ones. The story begins with Leia Organa Solo traveling to the planets of Osarian and Rhommamool. They are two planets that share a system and come very close to each other in their orbits on occasion, such as now. Osarian is a pretty blue green planet and Rhommamool is a barely habitual rock. The Osarians colonized Rhommamool and use it as their major minning world. Now the Rhommamoolie are revolting and due to their close orbits they are in range to lobe nukes at each other. Neither world has tech beyond say modern day Earth. The New Republic is mediating and has a brand new Mon-Cal battleship sitting between the planets.
Leia is on the Jade Sabre with her sister in law Mara Jade Skywalker and her daughter Jaina. The solo twins, Jaina and Jacen are 16 now and Anakin is 15. A major theme in this book is old verses new. The whole NJO series is a passing of the torch sort of story. Leia is faced with her daughter growing up and Leia warring with letting Jaina set out on her own even if it puts her in danger or sheltering her. This is shown when Leia finds her self fighting to let Jaina fly the ship when they are confronted by some old z-95 headhunters that the Osarians have hired to interdict the Jade Sabre and get them to come to Osarian. Leia plans on first going to Rhommamol to meet with the leader of the rebels Norm Anor.
Jaina flies circles around the old fighters. While Jaina is being trained as a Jedi and is good at everything, piloting is her thing. This non-lethal dance is interrupted by a Jedi who was with the New Republic task force, Wurth Skider, coming to their aid and killing one of the headhunters. Wruth is depicted as a hot headed glory hound who jumps into things without caring about the potential consequences.
This is sort of an admonishment of the entire Jedi order, which picks up in the latter chapters. Luke's New Jedi Order is nothing like the order of the old republic. Which we got our first look at in The Phantom Menace, which came out in the same year. Luke has an academy on Yavin four and once you finish there you're a Jedi knight and basically do whatever the 'force wills.' You become a master when the other masters acknowledge you as such and there is no oversight or central coordination. Luke is reintroduced with Jacen Solo on Coursucant, Luke wants to re-create the Jedi council and wants the New Republic's help. Jacen is against any sort of council, Jacen is against anything that interferes with a Jedi's self introspection of the force. This is a running fight through the series with Jacen spending his time waxing philosophic while Anakin argues for the force as a tool to help others.
So that's what the heroes are up to. Vector Prime spends several chapters giving us the point of view of the villains, the Yuzhan Vong. We get to hear from Norm Amor, yeah that guy from earlier and a Yomin Carr. Yomin is a warrior who has infiltrated a small group of scientists working at the ExGal-4 monitoring station on a world called Belkadan which is otherwise uninhabited. They are manning some telescopes pointed out past the edge of the galaxy. Yomin is there to make sure that no one sees his people's ships when they start arriving. The Yuzhan Vong are extra-galactic invaders.
I've heard people give this series a lot of shit over the villains, that they somehow 'aren't Star Wars' whatever that means. Or that they are rejects from Warhammer 40k. Considering I'd never even heard of 40k until at least 2007 that second complaint didn't phase me at all. I personally really like them. Yomin comes of as grounded and rational. And yes evil but not in the cackling mad evil of say Palpatine. Which might be why some people dislike them but honestly, I hate Palpatine. I think he is a horrible villain and I despise villains who are evil in his brand. Villains who are supposedly all powerful and have grand plans, but are really just evil for evils sake. He causes pain and suffering for the lulz it's the worst kind of written villain. Yomin systematically kills every single person on the compound but I never got the feeling that he was just a sadist with no goals other than causing suffering.
The Yuzhan Vong have this whole twisted worldview the says since death is inevitable and pain is a part of life, one should embrace pain and strive not to prevent death but to face ones death with dignity. Yomin salutes several of the researchers by giving them the option to fight back. They have no chance but a warriors death is a good death and being cut down in your sleep like an animal is not.
Norm Amor is one of my favorite villains and come to think of it, the longest running villain in Star Wars history. We meet him very early on this book and don't say goodbye to him until the last book in the series. He kind of reminds me of DS9's Gul Duckat. An utter bastard who is a thorn in the heroes side for the whole series but has the depth of a main character and occasionally helps the heroes, for his own selfish personal reasons of course.
Anyhoo back the the plot, the heroes all meet up on the world of Dubrillion, its an out of the way mining world near the galactic rim. Lando has a mining operation set up on a neighboring planet and in the systems asteroid belt. An aside, Lando is ridiculously rich. The books always paint him as gambler chasing some get rich quick scheme or another but every-time you see him he's in charge of like a planet or two. When Han first meets Lando in The Hutt Gambit he's running a used space ship lot and when he shows up in Empire Strikes Back he's now the administrator of Bespin. In Heir to the Empire he's running a mining operation of Nkllon. Now he's practically the system governor. He's got the asteroid belt rigged up as an obstacle course where people can fly through in specially shielded TIE fighters and compare records.
The solo kids all try and get on the leader-board. Jacen has the force but not the skill, same with Anakin. Jaina once again displays her piloting chops by demolishing the high score. After this the heroes split up, Luke and Mara go to Belkedan to respond to an odd signal, and Han, Chewbacca and Anakin take some goods for Lando to a little place called Sernpidal. Which is were the plot finally arrives and runs over our heroes.
Stuff has been happening in other chapters. Danni Quee, the last of the surviving member of the ExGal-4 research station went to Helska 4, a nearby system, to observe a possible extra-galactic event. She's captured along with Miko Regaila. Miko is a Jedi knight and a member of Kyp Durron's squadron. They have been doing anti smuggling things and go investigate Helska 4, where they get routed by the Yuzhan Vong fleet that's set up there.
At Sernpidal Han discovers the place has gone mad and it quickly becomes apparent why. The moon is falling out of the sky! The moon is coming closer with each orbit and in about seven hours will hit the planet and kill everyone. Sernpidal is a backwater with no where near enough ships to evacuate everyone. Han being well Han needs to do what he can to save the day.
Looking back on it the plan is horrible but it sounded like a good idea at the time. They split up. Anakin goes off in a speeder to try and figure out what is causing the moon to fall and hopefully stop it while Han and Chewie load as many people as they can onto the Falcon. Anakin does find what's causing the moon to fall and with the help of a local manages to kill it. But at this point the moon has already entered the atmosphere and it's to late.
Han rushes to pick up Anakin, leaving Chewie back at the port. Second mistake. They go back to pick up Chewie and Anakin jumps off the Falcon to help Chewie as he tries to free a trapped shuttle. Third mistake. At this point you've got gale force winds and constant earthquakes. The two manage and start heading back to the Falcon. A piece of debris clips Anakin and Chewie grabs him and tosses him the Han, and then stops to rescue someone trapped under some debris. Anakin is fine after a moment but the winds are now hurricane force and the Falcon can't hover in place any more. Han orders Anakin to go hold the ship steady so Chewie can make it aboard. But the winds are too strong and Anakin realizes they are out of time. If he stays any longer no one will make it out.
So Anakin takes them out while Han is screaming go back and Chewbacca turns away to face the falling moon. Our heroes' plot shields are planetary class, unfortunately a falling moon can crack a planetary shield. RIP Chewbacca, as it turns out this was just as hard hitting as when I first read it years ago. Even knowing now that he died going into it. At the time this was the single biggest shock in any Star Wars book. The heroes never die no matter how dangerous the situation. They always find a way through. Han even brings it up at the end of the book that he'd placed his loved ones in a bubble. A bubble where everyone inside was safe, after all how many times had they defied the odds? This was the first time anyone in that bubble had fallen. From an out of universe perspective I think this was the authors warning us that the heroes were no longer immune to death.
I've heard rumors that Salvatore wanted to kill off Han. Which makes sense considering how useful he is in the next couple of books. It's clear the NJO was a passing of the torch to the next generation but that's kinda hard to do with the old generation hogging all the screen time. The very first thing the sequel trilogy did after being given the reigns was write and or kill off all of the big three. Of course Lucas wasn't involved in the squeal trilogy and despite all his 'I didn't care about the EU' Lucas was heavily involved in it and vetoed any attempts to remove the big three. At least these are the rumors I've heard.
Anyway, Chewbacca's death happens at about the 2/3rd point of the book so we've still got a plot to resolve. Han blames Anakin for Chewie's death and Anakin is too broken up about it to defend himself. They work things out but not in this book and not for much latter. Kyp manages to escape and between him and Luke and Mara, who go to Belkadan and latter Helska 4, the heroes are alerted to the threat. The Yuzhan Vong send a small fleet of coralskippers to harass the refuges from Sernpidal and to attack Dubrillion, which is where everyone is regrouping. A note I haven't mentioned the Yuzhan Vong use all organic tech, they despise machines and view AI's as abominations.
Luke plans to sneak back to Helska 4 to do more reconnaissance but Jaina and Jacen steal the specialized craft he's going to use and go first. Meanwhile a New Republic Star Destroyer arrives and also goes to Helska 4 to 'smash these barbarians.' Jacen manages to infiltrate and rescue Danni Quee, Miko dies. And the Star Destroyer gets destroyed by the defenses that the Yuzhan Vong have erected. But the heroes have one last play. Honestly this feels kinda asspully and could have been left out but I can see why the writer wanted to give the heroes a victory at the end of the book, even if it would be only phyric.
So Lando is something of a pack rat and has kept at least one of every piece of tech he's every come across, just in case. The tech they need in this case is six of those massive shieldships that Lando was using in Heir to the Empire to approach way to close to a star. Helska 4 is a frozen ball of ice with a cold but liquid ocean bellow. The Yuzhan Vong base is under the ice, powered by volcanoes from the world's core. The base is protecting a yammosk, also called a war coordinator. The Yammosk is a massive physic creature that the Yuzhan Vong are using to coordinate all their ships to act in perfect formation. It also can pump out a ton of energy they used to jam the star destroyer. The plan is to reflect all that energy back on the planet and melt the ice, which will cool the water beneath it and hopefully kill the yammosk. It sounds like technobabble bullshit, but it works and actually blows the planet up.
The story ends with Norm Amor, who is off fermenting rebellions elsewhere, not being able to get in touch with his agents and knowing they've been killed. Which while unfortunate won't stop the rest of his people as they arrive.
All in all I think this is a good start to the NJO. I think the Vong shouldn't have been defeated in the end as they are back in the next book and the threat would have been higher had the heroes not been given a victory that was, like I said, pretty asspullish. This post is dedicated to Chewbacca, we shall never forget you.
Next up Dark Tide I: Onslaught

Hail Travelers,
Welcome to Verum Weekly. A weekly post to summarize all the game sessions that happen in the week prior. Hope you like it.
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Thursday

The Helix of Fate (Lrret1064)

Azalon, Archmage of Glies, stands before Los, former Archmage of Kalkatesh, and the two prepare to duel. Azolon comments on his old mentor's current status as a Servant of the Enemy. In response, Los tells him he now knows the truth of the universe; there is no end to this because it happened many times before. He believes this is the only way to ease the suffering. Not wanting to waste time chatting, Azolon starts off the fight by firing off a Prismatic Spray, testing what reaction Los will have to it. Los attempts to block, but it scuffs his cloak. In retaliation, he sends Meteors towards Azolon, and the Gliesian gets his robes scuffed in return. Los then pulls out two wands and fires a rain of Violet Magic Missiles. Using the druidic magic in his Staff, Azolon creates a shield that cleanses the Missiles of their Violet energy and sends them back to Los, breaking one of the Servant’s defensive wards.
Los then uses Violet energy to make his arm gigantic in an attempt to crush Azolon, but he sees it coming and Misty Steps right before the arm touches him. Azolon then disparages Los for abandoning his role as Archmage and relying upon the power of the Enemy that so far hasn't even been able to touch him. Los proves him wrong by shooting a laser out of his eyes that hits Azolon across his face, breaking his glasses and scarring him. Los quickly tries to use his arm to crush Azolon again, but he instinctively Vanishes and dashes towards Los while charging a Disintegration Ray through his Staff, which tears open a wound across Los arm. Seeing an opportunity, Los uses the blood from the wound to create Blood Spikes to pierce Azolon, but before they can connect Azolon heals Los’ wound, causing the Blood Spikes to turn into a harmless splash of water.
Azolon attempts to cast a Fireball directly in Los face, but his opponent is faster and grabs Azolon’s wrist, redirecting the Fireball and pulling him in for a headbut. While Azolon is disoriented, Los channels a Vampiric Touch and attempts to strangle him. Azolon drops his Staff to try to break free, but Los is stronger and breaks another of Azolon's wards. Thinking quickly, Azolon summons back his Staff to stab Los. Los uses their position in flight to reorient themselves and make the Staff miss, and he starts to strangle Azolon, draining his energy. Azolon however uses his druidic training to cast Stone Fist and smashes it in Los’ face, breaking free. He then taunts him while casting Mental Prison, baiting Los into meeting his gaze, which breaks through one of the Servant’s wards.
With Los distracted, Azolon flies in close once more to finish the fight by turning Los’ Flesh to Stone. However Los recovers fast enough to use his cloak to block the attack and counters with a fist charged with Violet energy. Remembering his research on the Colors, Azolon attempts to challenge the blow by casting Prismatic Spray, connecting it with Los’ attack. The energy expands and blows them both back. The resulting explosion chars Los arm, and the bit of Violet energy that reached Azolon’s right hand removes it from existence. Azolon keeps his composure and takes the opportunity while Los is still recovering to charge his Staff with druidic power. Los summons a Shield that clashes against the empowered Staff.
Suddenly Alexander flies up through the sphere, wielding a blade made of Negatia, a material that seals magic. With the force of the catapult that sent him flying, Alexander slashes at Los and easily breaks through the magic defenses. Not letting the surprise go to waste, Azolon manipulates the wind to blow Alexander closer to Los, making the slash go up from his chest, across his face, and through his right eye. At the apex of his flight, Alexander apologizes for interrupting and gives Azolon words of encouragement to finish off his foe before falling back down out of the sphere.
Azolon thanks his old friend for his assistance and disses Los, saying that serving the Enemy made him lose any connection to people like that, which makes him a shell of a man. Los admits Azolon is right about those things but wrong in other ways, because “life isn't fair”. He then casts False Torch, creating a Shard of Oblivion and placing it into his empty right eye socket. Now empowered, Los fires an Obliteration Ray. Azolon uses his Staff to block the attack, but Los charges the Ray with even more Violet. Azolon, knowing that he cannot handle the might of that attack, tries to redirect it away from him. However as he turns to redirect it, his Staff breaks and the Ray shreds his back. Azolon asks Los what made him like this, and he answers that he saw the truth. "The wheel must turn, one way or another; this is one is the best way — the only way.” Los fires another Obliteration Ray. Knowing he cannot handle that attack again, Azolon pulls out a ring that Los enchanted and tosses it at the attack. Since Los enchanted the ring, it is soulbound to him, so the Violet energy is absorbed back into the ring. It flies back to Azolon, pulsing with Violet power — power that could be used by him. However, without hesitation Azolon tosses the ring aside, and it instantly evaporates.
Seeing how easily Azolon rejected all that power, Los is dumbfounded. Azolon disparages Los again, asking what worth is there in existing if it means giving into something that doesn't care about him and will only use him as a tool. He asks Los how he could give himself so freely to the lies that spawned from madness of a being that doesn't even belong in their reality. Azolon reminds him of the man he was once before and the man he could have been today. Los begins to weep, remembering who he used to be. He then suddenly grabs his false eye and rips it out. Azolon casts Dominate Person, and the spell cleanses Los of the Violet's control, returning his eye to the shade of blue it was before. Using the hold he has on Los now and his studies regarding the nature of the Violet, Azolon attempts to put a Geas on Los to completely remove the Violet’s enchantment.
However as the magic ripples, Azolon sees the Herald flying in the sky. As he gazes upon the comet, instead of seeing stone and ice, he sees silently screaming faces burning in Violet fire. On top of the comet he sees a silhouette within the Violet light, who begins to speak: "Wise wizard, now you will see the truth, just as he did!" The Herald begins to assault Azolon's mind, but Azolon uses all of his knowledge on the Violet to resist its corruption. Instinctively Azolon uses his signature Color Spray, firing it at the Herald, and he breaks free of its assault on his mind. He returns to the fight, reaches back into the magic over Los’ mind, and pulls out a Violet Shade, giving Los control of his own body once more. Azolon shouts, "Now Los!" Los turns around and fires one last spell, Annihilation Sphere, and grabs the Shade, tackling it into the Sphere. Los gazes back at Azolon with a look that simply says "It's your turn" and disappears along with the Shade.
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Friday

The Tearing Veil Ep. 17 (RoyalCaster)

The party leaves the room where they encountered the evil weapon. Eventually they are led to a room with a statue of Vavren. They move the two hands of the statue together in a praying position, and the walls shift, opening an entrance to a room that seems like it serves as a place to help people escape. They enter and hear someone scribbling past the door. They bait the person by creating a sound and putting a flyer of the Unwise Six under the door. While he goes to investigate, the party passes by him under the veil given to them by Falaael.
They decide that they should take care of Falaael’s task first and later deal with freeing the designated prisoners. They head upstairs and find themselves in another room which has another pair of stairs that takes them to a courtyard. Climbing even more stairs they eventually get to the roof and find a dais with statues of the White Pantheon on it. Vim holds the orb given to him amongst the statues. Angorn recites a prayer, and the orb begins to float and dissipate, forming a smaller statue of Falaael that takes its place amongst the others. Nidhogg suggests to Angorn that they should desecrate the other statues in favor of Falaael. After an hour they head out to hopefully find a map of the prison or to get an idea where they can find the prisoners.
They sneak past a multitude of guards, inciting violence within the guards’ ranks to cause a distraction. They take advantage of the situation and get into an office room where they take the prisoner manifest containing the whereabouts of the prisoners. They find prisoner 48; at first he seems quite apprehensive, but he accepts help from the group. He offers his help in getting the other prisoners out; he can conjure a door to teleport him and everyone else out of the prison. They ask him to go to the rooftop and wait for them. They continue to the opposite side of the cell floor and decide to split up. Vim, Angorn, and Wisp see a guard standing in front of the cell of prisoner 34, so they head to prisoner 17 instead. They find a woman covered in the markings of the skinwalkers. Her cell’s bars are especially thick and cross themselves in a lattice-like pattern. She also wears a silver waist belt that she claims is bothering her. They open her doors, but she does not exit. She taps in front of her, revealing an transparent forcefield, but Vim touches and removes it. She exits and transforms, revealing her drider form. Prisoner 17 mentions that they must free another prisoner not on their list: prisoner 19. She leads them to the warden’s chambers where prisoner 19 is being held.
Meanwhile, Nidhogg, Raber, and Flamewrath stay behind to keep watch. Flamewrath slicks the staircase behind them with oil to safeguard the others and eventually guard come by and fall. Other guards come in and they find a note planted by Flamewrath claiming the prank to be the work of the prison’s flower club. The guards become furious and go away to reprimand them.
Back to the other group, they find a small person hanging from the ceiling, encased in bandages. They help her down and free her of the wrappings, revealing a young girl marked with ritualistic markings and her mouth sewn shut. Vim cuts the stitches from the girl’s mouth, and she takes deep greedy breaths. She thanks them, and the room shimmers with magic. They tell the two prisoners of the plans for getting them to escape, and the two women declare they want to help. They explain that the girl they freed was the actual prisoner 17 and that her voice can command anyone to do what she says. Using her ability, they plan to command the guard that was at prisoner 34’s cell.
The group comes across the guard that was patrolling the area. Prisoner 17 commands him to go away, and he magically obeys. They find prisoner 34 and discover that he is an expert forger and promiscuous deviant. They take everyone to the roof where prisoner 48 is waiting for them. The area darkens, and Oloken’Hai speaks to them. Now that the last bit of their quest is upon them, Oloken’Hai will distract those that would stop them and will put them on their way to defeat the corruption that holds the White Pantheon in their grasp. Nidhogg asks Oloken’Hai why he decided to choose him for his divine spark, but Oloken’Hai claims that it was him who chose himself. As the door opens, it is time for them to enact Oloken’hai’s will.
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Saturday

Shadow of Tyre Ep. 26 (RoyalCaster)

Raost splits off from the group to find Seren, asking her to come with him for a moment. They walk off together and stop when they get to the rock where Toot first prayed to Hizigori. Roast approaches the rock and exhales. He pulls out his notebook and opens it to take out the Clementia flowers he got from Falcon’s grave in their wing. He untangles them and starts to tell Seren how she remained a constant in his life, which means a lot to him, and no matter what happens to her or him, he wants to be with Seren forever. He offers the flower to her and asks her to marry him. At first Seren is silent, but looking down at him she says that marrying him would make her a hypocrite. However, just this once she will be okay with that title. While hugging, Seren pushes him into her chest to show him that her heart is not beating anymore since her Dephtar transformation. She mentions that she still does not know what happened on Azengolt that made her like this. Raost however starts sweating and recommends that they should probably talk with Toot.
They find Toot and ask him if he could marry them, but they also ask about what exactly happened on Azengolt. As Toot explains the intention of his actions, Seren is seething but contains her feelings. Upon hearing this, Xetor pulls Raost aside for some wisdom. He warns him of the tribulations of being married, even more so with how incompatible their forms are. He recalls his own marriage and mourns the brief stint he had with his wife as she was taken by a sickness, but he also remarks that the bliss of being with your loved one outweighs the sorrow. Xetor asks if they would use the rings of him and his wife, handing him the pair. They are far larger than human-sized rings, so they'll wear them as armbands.
As Seren’s honorary dad, Mad Morc gives Raost the dad talk. Marrying Seren means he becomes family, so Morc wants to indict him into the Tops, and Raost happily agrees. Also, Morc discusses the contingency that comes with being with Seren; one day Raost might have to put her down if she loses control. Raost steels himself, so Morc gives his blessing.
Both Seren’s and Raost’s parties gather, and a few more of the people of the camp come by. With Toot leading the ceremony, they speak their vows. As Toot pronounces them husband and wife, they kiss each other. Seren gives Raost a beaded necklace from before she changed, and he gives her a small mirror he got while exploring the temple where they found Xetor; it has a crude drawing of both Raost and Seren on it.
After receiving their items from the Vega and the Gambler Black, the party catches Zacharias up on what they are supposed to do in the Labyrinth. As they enter the labyrinth again, they appear at the entrance of the third floor, the stairs leading up to the destructed second floor behind them. They venture into the halls until they come across a room with seven statues and a pool of mercurial substance; a gigantic hand statue reaches out from behind it, a faded crystal in its palm. Moe uses his cyclopean eye to discern the secrets and sees various events that take place across the timeline of Kalkatesh. Toot messes with one of the statues and accidentally pops it open. Moe recognizes this as an Angel of Band he saw on Eldar Sharkai; however, it seems more like an imitation, as it misses the moving screens and the spikes around the place where the head goes means it’ll probably kill the controller.
They also find tapestries of the events that Moe saw at the Altar, recreated with thread and needle. Investigating more closely, they seem to depict various accounts of fate, but their falsehood is evident. As they move closer, the composition shifts, and it becomes clear that these tapestries are prototypes of what Tyre was trying to create: artificial fate. To the right of the room, Zacharias examines a portal emanating a purple aura. Getting closer, he begins to feel ill, unable to understand what it is. Though everyone feels the same uneasiness, Raost tosses a pebble into the portal, but nothing seems to happen. They decide to avoid it and walk deeper into the room, finding stone containers containing Dust. Zacharias recognizes it as the purest form of life energy, the runoff of the silver cord that keeps you attached to yourself when one is Astral Projecting. Ahst and Raost pocket a bag each and join Toot and Moe at the southern end of the room. They come across a silver chest; Moe looks inside with Latos Zatar and sees a spectral screaming in silent agony. Ahst casts Silence around the chest, and as Raost opens it and looks at it with his soul vision, he sees it is an experiment, a distilled memory to recreate a soul. They decide to close the chest and leave it be.
Moe sees the Dust the others found and examines it by licking it. The magic of the Dust infuses Moe with magical powers and a crippling addiction. They move on and find an aisle full of sarcophagi. Raost looks at them all with soul vision and sees a soul in each one of them. Further down the hall they find two significant tapestries; the group is unable to discern their meaning, but they feel like they have seen it before. They gather that the one on the left is the old god of luck and that the other was supposed to be the god of portals. Using his cyclopean vision, Moe is able to see the remnants of two lost deities, the result of Tyre’s experiment of stealing a moment from a god.
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Sunday

Shattered Crowns S3 Ep. 10 (Lrret1064)

Meena leads the party into the facility. The walls are bloody, flesh is stretched across the walls and ceiling, and there are corpses wrapped in body bags and stuffed in containers. Anthem warns Huck that they should only touch the stuff when needed. Ikkar asks Bethany if she's okay as she is strangely silent, as if she's seeing something the others can’t, but she seems unwilling to share what she sees. Guy asks Meena why they are here and she answers it’s to "save them from Home." However, she doesn't know where the item she needs is, only that it's a big oval made of stone and steel.
They detect a strange noise behind one of the doors. Scrumpo suddenly kicks the door open, awakening the creatures behind it. The undead with giant mouths start attacking the party, but Ikkar is able to Destroy the Undead to clear a large number of them. Iron Pipe uses a Wall of Force to stop the rest from swarming the party, but a large one flanks them from behind. Quick on his feet, Ikkar Banishes it. As the biggest threat is gone, Meena suddenly reappears and instructs everyone to leave the room. As they leave, she tells Iron Pipe to remove the Wall. The creatures flood the room, but Meena flips a lever that ignites a fire through the grating below.
Meena then leads the party quickly around the facility, like she's familiar with the place. She guides them to an office that contains more corpses in body bags and points out a book on top of one of the corpses, saying it belonged to the leader. Iron Pipe reads the book with the help of Drifter Sai’s and Meena's translation; it’s an experiment log on testing methods of movement or transportation, but none of the subjects were able to survive the experiment as something called ‘invitalisation’ caused their death. Meena explains that invitalisation turns the subject’s body inside out. Ikkar expresses his worry that it might happen to them, but Meena says she knows another way. Huck starts to get suspicious of Meena and senses her desperation; she doesn't fully believe what she's saying. Huckleberry then waits for everybody to leave and tells Ikkar what he noticed. Ikkar asks Huck to distract the others so he can cast Augury. Ikkar asks Sekelcuse if they should continue to follow Meena, but another being answers instead: "Woe."
They continue through the facility and approach a strange room. Meena immediately walks in and starts looking in a dresser, as if she knows where to look. Huck takes this chance to inform the others what he saw, and Ikkar tells about his Augury. However, they decide that they don't know who to trust, but that they should stay on guard. While this is happening, Meena pulls out a journal containing sketches and writing of a younger Meena progressing through her life; in the middle is a keycard which Iron Pipe takes. They continue to follow Meena as she approaches a big metal door. Pipe swipes the key card, opening the door. Meena suddenly rushes inside saying “Save you.” The party cautiously walks into the room after Meena.
They see a big metal structure that fits the description of what Meena described. Meena runs up to the metal structure and places her hand on it, repeating “Save you.” Ikkar notices that Meena is looking sickly and asks what the machine does, to which she responds that it “makes people Home better, different, makes door.” She then walks up to a console and enters a code, and a voice greets her as Dr. Jeckin. Ikkar asks Meena if she’s dying. The voice answers that she isn't alive, and Meena confirms it by pulling back her shirt showing that she’s mostly wires. She then points to the back of the machine where they see the letters ‘YU’. She explains that it means Yolnas Unvas, ‘Second Chance’, and that it refers to the machine. Ikkar asks the voice what the purpose is of the machine. It explains that the machine is a last ditch effort to save the Ragdarians by sending embryonic sacks to a different planet to repopulate, but no destination has been given yet. Meena expresses her desire to send the machine to Maltos and makes the party promise to launch it. She then limps toward the machine and pulls out a wire from inside her and puts it into the machine as she starts to lose her light. She thanks the party, and her body falls limp. Everyone realizes that Meena contained the history of the planet and is giving the machine that knowledge to pass on.
Guy asks the voice how to break the Covenant of Death, but it says that information is classified. Trying to fill in the password, they look through the books they took to search for clues; the password ‘Jekin’ let’s them access the files. The voice gives them two options, launching the machine and serum integration. They recognize the serum from one of the books they found; it is able to stave off death. Guy volunteers to go first, thinking it will turn him into a full immortal vampire, and the console injects him with the serum. However, it cures Guy of his dampirism. Ikkar goes next, and it makes him feel younger. When Huck takes it, he feels Anthem’s connection lessen as inside his mind palace Anthem appears as an angry black horse stuck inside a stable. When Scrumpo takes it, he gains a full afro. When Pipe takes it, his augments become more part of him, making him more like a cyborg. While Pipe is distracted, Ikkar lights his pipe and uses Thaumaturgy to burn away the bird suit. When everyone has taken the serum, they ask the voice how it can help them defeat Death. It explains that it injects nano constructs into them that make them immune to instant death effects. The party gets ready to launch the Second Chance to Maltos and asks Drifter Sai if they can follow it. Sai confirms it is possible and that it greatly reduces the fuel required to reach the planet by siphoning the residual energy from the Second Chance.
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Monday

Heart of Tyre Ep. 25 (av5hadow)

Shortly after Seren’s marriage, Morc and Neve decide to get married immediately and travel to the Trees of Marriage. Amaris, Braktor, and Vizier Lozenkor show up. Seren starts the Orc wedding as the shaman, and the couple makes their vows. Morc reveals that Neve has shown him that hope is more than just survival, and he expresses his desire to grow old with the changeling. Neve recounts their journey since the beginning; Morc was always there, a pillar of emotional support. She vows to stand and fight alongside the half-orc. After Seren affirms that the two will uphold their marriage responsibilities, the two bite each other's hands. The wedding moves on to the bouquet-tossing event; while Amaris, Ozzie, and Braktor are distracted by each other, the Vizier and Ives reach out. Ives however is quicker than the Vizier whose composure is gone for the first time as he eats the dirt. Ives is confused as he acted on instinct, so he gives the bouquet to the Vizier. As wedding gifts, the Tops receive a lot of gold from Braktor and Amaris. Morc carries Neve to a tent, and they fade into black. Seren thanks the Vizier for his efforts and wishes him happiness with the one who will do the same. He voices his doubts but gathers the courage to tell Azalon the truth.
Derok spots Xetor and Ili’ith next to the Oracle’s Well and greet them. The three talk, revealing that Derok is a first generation Vega and is from the Vegan Isles. After years of not knowing himself, Derok Dranf finally finds a home. The Vega teach him the true pronunciation of his last name and reveal that his clan was known for staff creation. They are also willing to help the party upgrade their gear.
Derok asks the Azengoltians for advice on fighting the Depthar. Alice gives her wrapped silver chalice to him, saying that silver is effective against the Depthar; they could melt it down to coat their weapons with the silver. Braktor tells Derok that the Vega might have materials that are infused with emotion, which are effective against the Depthar as well. However, augmenting gear with this material will forgo any other Vegan upgrades. Seren, Ives, and Derok go to a now disheveled tent to inform the newlyweds about the augmentations. Neve decides to forgo her armor augmentation to receive an anti-Depthar shortsword.
Seren requests an audience with the Eldar and Letol. She offers Depthar samples to Letol, but he immediately refuses. He begins to berate the Brass Queen, but the Azengoltian Eldar stops him. Letol once again gives his warnings about the Depthar, but he accepts the blood samples. He then expresses his wish of being wrong about the creature, but after being in so many similar situations, he doesn’t want to gamble. Letol thanks the creature, stating that he’ll free the pure innocent soul that is controlling its actions if it exists.
Shortly after the Tops leave, Letol addresses the Azengolt group. He asks for their future plans. Azalon asked them for their help to contain and fight the Depthar on Glies. Alice asks if Letol will come, but he says that someone needs to guide Kalkatesh. He then says that no matter where they go, the group is always welcome to wherever Letol calls home, for “together, they survived what Iron and Sorrow could throw at them.”
Alice provides some supplies to the Tops and tells them the Depthar can adapt to anything. Archibald suggests to cycle their attacks and to leave the anti-Depthar weapons for the final blow. Morc then takes off his pilgrim hat he got from Zorikal, wanting to activate the rune. He wishes to test it. Everyone backs away, except for Hackne who identifies the rune as a divine Word of Recall. The destination is anyone’s guess, so Morc doesn’t touch it. Seren walks away as the Tops discuss who should hold the portal stone in case she goes rampant. The current holder, Derok, says that it doesn’t matter as she’ll read his mind. Braktor gives his group’s stone to Neve to be used as a distraction.
The Tops return to the first floor of their wing, finding themselves in their starting location. As they head towards the Flesh Refiner, Seren takes a new nurse’s outfit in her current size, and Neve gives her Breathless Amulet to Morc who is vulnerable to the fog that will be released. On their way, they hear the familiar stomps in the main room behind them. The Tops configure the Refiner. The party waits out in a room as they have undone the seals on 120 creatures. Ives hears sounds of battle, and Seren feels pain and chaos. During this time, Morc attunes to the Amulet.
“Theta protocol initiated. Releasing cleanse.” Green fog fills up the room and affects the now Depthar Seren, so she puts on the nurse’s mask. The party immediately heads off to the main room where the fog is much thinner; they see environmental damage and viscera covering the path. As they enter the main room, FCO walks underneath the archway. It gazes at each Top member, and its sight lands on the Brass Queen.
A horrifying screech marks the start of the fight.
Before the Tops can get into position, FCO rushes down Neve. Its arm barely misses, but FCO poisons Neve with Hypoxia. Derok, Morc, and Illan enter the melee. The Hypoxia spreads among the melee fighters via Life Pulse. FCO banishes Derok with a Maze-like ability, and Illan gets destroyed. FCO reaps the poison in him and places all the stacks on Seren.
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Tuesday

Weal and Woe (No Session)

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Soul of Tyre Ep. 26

The party uses their newly acquired money to buy better equipment. Alexander gets a Vacuum Edge Sheath which gives the Negatia Blade a chance to destroy spell slots or mental attributes of his enemies. Braktor buys a Weaver Staff augment that empowers its attack and adds thunder damage. Hackne gets an Anointed Court Mage Robes of Temperance which gives her more defense against curse effects and gives her allies advantage against her spells. Ozzie buys the Armor of the Autumn Assassin which gives him more poison damage and can turn him invisible. Belanovan decides to save more money to see if he can get a better item. Braktor also attunes to the Ancient Ring of Regeneration which was taken from Tyre’s Drop. When they’re done shopping, Gailen informs them of the current Wendigo situation. While the party was away, it seemed that the wendigos had united under a king. They are now considered a rising civilization, and Gailen hopes to create diplomatic relations with them. The party agrees to talk to the wendigo ambassador to see what is going on.
As they travel to the contact point at the Rotting Wound, they spot a plateau surrounded by wendigo guards. An ashen guard approaches and leads them to the wendigo ambassador. While walking towards the ambassador, the party sees archaic stones floating around a well of shadow. Eventually, a wendigo speaks to them and introduces themself as Volos. The party walks towards Volos while Alexander looks into the well of shadow, noticing that it is a portal to the Dream Realm; here Inu’s strand should be planted. Volos explains that this portal was already built when they arrived, but the wendigos plan to do a ritual on it so that they can get energy to fuel their kingdom. Belanovan assumes that this energy allowed Volos to speak, but the diplomat corrects him that wendigos have always been able to talk, they just had no reason to.
Volos explains that his nation has been watching Gailen’s Gate and he praises the settlement’s altruism. Belanovan asks who the wendigo king is, but Volos declines his request as people can use the king’s name to harm them and their nation. Belanovan follows up by asking how they can sustain their kingdom and Volos shows them the wendigo’s grand scheme. It is known that wendigos can only gain sustenance from consuming humanoids. However, there is an exploit: If they can use the dreams of humanoids as a spice, they can gain nutrients from livestock and not resort to cannibalism. Belanovan asks how long the king has been in power and Volos replies that they have been the leader for a long time. They and the nation only came into prominence now because they wish to help the fight against the Enemy so that their race can gain tolerance from other nations.
The party contemplates using the strand of Inu; they do not know its exact effect, but they do know it will cause massive changes to the wendigos. Hackne interjects by worrying about the adverse effects of taking other dreams. Belanovan then hypothesizes that Negatia could possibly stop the effects of their curse. They test the hypothesis, but Volos vomits; the Negatia has no effect. As the party studies Volos on his truthfulness, they can see that he is a skilled diplomat, but he’s not lying. However, there is a slight sense of desperation in his tone.
Still unsure, Belanovan asks what the wendigo's plan is. They plan to build settlements in the barren wasteland of the Badlands that will start the foundation of their nation. Belanovan follows up by asking how the wendigos will increase their population. Volos pauses, fear emanating from him. He responds that they are willing to convert the destitute of other nations. This worries Alexander, so he asks Volos if he feels guilty about converting others, as it is guilt that transforms beings into wendigos. Volos does not answer the question, but strain can be seen on his face. He then reveals that he knows that Braktor is a Weaver, a class that counters the undead. Braktor assures Volos that he is not biased against the wendigos because they are still beings. Ozzie proposes to be their ambassador for the Dream realm, but Volos wishes to show the strength of his nation and wants to be the one to talk. Belanovan wishes to talk directly to their king, and Volos accepts this request.
Volos contacts his king and allows them to talk through him. Another voice comes out of Volos’ body and introduces itself as the wendigo king. It is revealed that they are actually a half-wendigo. It was in their search trying to find their origin that they found the well and desired to make a nation for the wendigos. Belanovan wishes to actually meet the king and learn why they are a half-wendigo, and Alexander asks if they even want the curse to be removed. The king responds that he wishes to find a way to remove the curse of wendigos while keeping themselves alive; the current way of removing the curse results in death. The party offers alternatives to the wendigos, such as using their own dreams or living in the Dream Realm, but the king tells them that those paths won’t bear any fruit.
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Wednesday

The Herald's Call Ep. 12 (AsAlternateAsItCanBe)

The battle continues. They learn that Nojack is able to Wild Shape into animals using his Ki, that Vida fights with poison that she’s able to strengthen by hurting herself, and that Urien utilizes multiple stances to fight: Commander, Vanguard, and Desperate. It is also revealed that Urien is their leader; if they’re able to deal with him, it seems it will stop the ritual.
Vida gets knocked unconscious by Riku’s double Scorching Ray, followed up by a hit by Zada’s morning star, which brings her close to death. Archael sees that the Violet ritual circle is getting stronger over time and that it is absorbing Vida’s blood; it seems that the more people are killed, the faster the ritual is completed. Despite this revelation, the party decides to finish Vida off as Arienne draws first blood. Boris predicts that the party will attack again the next round, gaining additional damage to his Smite should he be correct. Meanwhile, Urien decides to attack Zada, allowing Archael to hit him with a critical Smite. Analyzing the situation, Urien throws away his two greatswords and pulls the third from his back. The sword starts to glow with unstable Violet energy; Violet Death is possible.
Seeing the desperation of their enemies, the party decides to finish this quickly. Zada uses her Soulfire ability to refresh everyone else’s and uses Apholios to knock Boris unconscious. Archael attempts to disarm Urien with a Clash, and with the power of Glory on his side, he severs Urien’s arm and the sword falls to the ground. Arienne then uses her whip to fling the sword outside the room to prevent Urien from taking it. Midas sees that the sword is the real key to the ritual, not Urien, and he picks up the sword to attempt to stop the ritual completely. However, as he picks up the sword, Violet flames lash out and try to corrupt him, but Midas resists the temptation and holds his ground. He is faced with two choices: either seal the ritual or allow it to continue and summon the Violet Servant. If he chooses the latter, the party will be able to ambush the Violet Servant and deal a massive blow to the Enemy. Midas decides to hold the decision until the combat is over. Azylea summons Asuna to bring the knocked-out Boris away from the battle. Unfortunately, Boris stands up and strikes Asuna with an empowered Smite. The spider gets hit so hard that Azylea sees the statue crack just from that blow. Meanwhile, Urien once again attempts to Clash with Archael using his normal greatswords and aims for his eyes, but once again he fails. With the momentum on his side, Archael uses Shining Assault to knock Urien out. The battle ends with Arienne rushing towards Nojack and Boris, knocking them out in the same turn. Midas then kills them, gaining three Soul Coins, and starts the discussion about what they should do with the ritual.
The party decides that they will ambush the Violet Servant. They’ll be fighting it at their full strength and will know all of its abilities immediately when it spawns. In addition, the party can seal two of its abilities at the start of the fight. But before the final fight of the campaign starts, they are granted level 5.
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Steel and Silence Ep. 5

Before the party heads into the ruins, Rev’lis Wisp breaks out from its body and begins to transform. It transforms into a Veld with cracks in its skin and shining with colors. After the familiar introduces himself to the party and Rev’lis names him Shiny, the Lord of Blades teleports them to the ruin.
They arrive at one of the many world roads in Steton. Rev’lis flies ahead and scouts what seems to be an abandoned village. As she looks around the town, Rev’lis finds a stonehenge in the center which glows with a Violet light. She quickly flies back to the party and informs them of what she saw. The party cautiously heads into the town and searches the nearby houses. In one house, Shiny notices that whoever left the village, they left long ago and in a hurry.
At the door of another house, Vaeri finds some dragon scales on the ground. She and Terryn enter the house and find a broken blade on a table. As Vaeri walks closer, she notices draconic writing on the blade, reading “Death to the false serpents.” She identifies it as a dragonslayer weapon. Meanwhile, Terryn searches the house and finds a discarded cloak from the Steton Striders. The more Terryn looks around, the more articles of clothing from the Steton Striders she finds. Vaeri tells Terryn to bring the rest of the party here to show them the Strider clothing. They theorize that the resident of this house was trying to hide from the rest of the town that they were a monster hunter. Vaeri takes the broken blade and the party continues their search in the village.
As they walk by a crossroad leading toward the stonehenge, Zara suddenly feels the call of the warrior. She follows the call, and it takes her to an entrance to the Hall of Heroes. Zara enters the gate and finds herself on a rainbow bridge, but the line of violet is missing. Eventually, Zara enters the Great Hall and is greeted by the Throne of War, a stone chair and the leader of the Hall of Heroes. She explains her quest to the Throne and it respects the flame in her heart. If the red orc wants to succeed in her quest, she needs a mentor to guide her. A dragonborn is summoned behind her; Nox will be Zara’s mentor and teaches her the fighting style Dragon’s Fury. The two finish their training session and Zara comes back to the waking realm.
The party hugs Zara as she comes back, and they finally head to the stonehenge. They find a ritual pulsing with Violet energy. Umi sees that these stones are an anchor point for a portal and the only way to destroy the portal is to destroy the spirit residing in the stone in the center of the stonehenge. Terryn slowly approaches the stone to study it and shoots an acorn towards it. Suddenly, the sky darkens as the Aphotic Indefatigable is summoned. The time for mercy has passed.
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Edited by PalladiumDrake
Thanks for reading.