(This is a nonviolent text.)
Life! Exclamation point! Today’s speaker is made of clock parts and possesses encyclopedic knowledge about the nature of natural life. Life! Exclamation point! Though biographies in the back of conference programs won’t ever tell the whole story, they tempt us with the true face of authority. Today’s speaker – Life! – is made of clock parts, probably a grandfather clock to begin with, young for its age, but then he started slapping on extra clock parts, moved by an urge he couldn’t explain, until the function of tolling the hour was more of a hobby, a weekend pass-time, compare to what all those precision instruments were up to on a regular basis. As a vision on stage, the speaker’s machinations were there for all to see – the whirring of gears and belts, the clanking of chains. Where his heart chakra was thought to manifest, swung a pendulum.
The nature of natural life is not an easy expertise to build a vocation around – Life! Exclamation point! – but what a sentence to say aloud. At this point in the address, one of the speaker’s mainsprings uncoils where his belly button would normally be. He uses the longer of his hands to poke it back into place without breaking stride, continues: What is a natural life? More to the point, what is a natural lifespan? Who better to know than me! He points to himself when he says this, does a quick spin in place, revealing the dozens of differently styled clock faces that cover the surface of his body, continues: I’m after the author’s natural lifespan, like to pretend I’m playing along, but the whole time, I’m thinking about his natural lifespan. Hmm, hmm, I wonder why? Ha! // The author changes the subject – today’s speaker thinks of something else.
When you discover someone living an unnatural lifespan, you seek to find out why. Not that the reason is the point – not by a longshot – but call me curious. Maybe they tripped at the right moment and tumbled past the grave. Maybe they did a few extra calisthenics before the cock crowed. Or – perish the thought – they succumbed to an unholy pact at a vulnerable moment. I have taken it upon myself to sniff them out – and when he says this, the regulators above his eyes both arch significantly. And what then? We usually have a quiet chat before I recite my speech and complete my visit. It isn’t personal, I begin – time sometimes wells up, spills over its banks, and floods the village. If we could avoid such catastrophe, we should – don’t you agree? The time nature intends, through natural lifespans, would never, let’s be honest, flood a valley.
And what, then, would I do? Proprietary information! hoots today’s speaker from the stage, does another quick spin, stage lights flickering off his crystals, his gleaming metals. About the author’s natural lifespan – oh, you thought I’d forgotten! Were you 18 when you first died? Had it happened before then? Were you but a child under-supervised? Under-supervision-ed, we might say. Remember the day? You rode a toy out into the street, and a car’s front bumper rushed forward to kiss you on the left side of your head, the temple, a stone flung by the age of automobiles. Don’t you remember? Of course you do – the passionate screeching of tires, as those around you stopped and turned to look, surprise gradually replaced by horror at what they knew happened but couldn’t bear to see. You thought you survived – didn’t you? – but thereafter, what appeared on your left temple? A knotted cist so prominent, people stopped you and asked what happened. You saw exactly two physicians over the next 10 years, both telling you not to worry about it, and so you didn’t. You didn’t! When you probed the spot with your fingers, it felt like a rounded room, a shelter built by something trying to survive. As for that 18-year-old involved in that off-road motor vehicle accident – nominee number two, let’s call it – true, you were far more aware of mortality by then, but your own? You climbed aboard a 3-wheeled vehicle that could travel at more than 50mph, completely lacking a seatbelt, headrest, or protective frame – without a helmet, boots, or jacket – and the brakes were less than half there that fateful day, a means of slowing down – a vehicle that would be rendered illegal to operate within a matter of years of the accident . . . the accident . . . remember the accident? August, you were traveling off-road to do farm work, the cornfield you were riding beside with several rows chopped out for silage, and on impulse, you decided to turn into the field to see where it went, then really opened her up because of the green blur of all that corn. Did you secretly expect the drainage ditch? Was this more of a suicide mission? Over the side you went, face first into the opposite bank, and if anyone was wondering – the effect was not of pain but of the lights going out all at once. Imagine the nature of reality that allows for: the inevitability of the crash, followed by all the lights going out – this is really happening – followed by some utterly absent experience, like a film editor cutting in a blankness where reality normally insists scenes of existence should be. The film projectionist would have been instructed to fast-forward through this part of the film, such that no time seems to pass, and the next thing we know, he is trying to push a 3-wheeler out of a drainage ditch. That thing weighing more than he does, and he’s trying to heave it above his head, up and out of the drainage ditch. What had he become? What time-wise tricks were in play? He finally gave up trying to free torment from its channel, staggered through the field toward the truck, face covered in blood, never went to the hospital. When the story is recounted later by his dad, the story became how dad fixed the 3-wheeler by prying the front wheel out of the frame with his truck and a chain. Can you imagine that chain now? They called it a log chain, and the links were cast iron. It was completely covered in rust.
The author knows all this already, receives a spiritual visitation during the writing of the phrase suicide mission, wondering if he’s okay. Yes, he replies, knowing this particular metaphysical weather report has a lot of ground to cover. Today’s guest speaker picks at one of his stems in a distracted way, lets the matter rest, inquires about whether – uh-hum! – he might be permitted to carry on. The author gets up, refills his coffee, returns to one of the picnic tables arrayed in front of the derelict peace church where he lives. He is surrounded by millions of individual affirmations of life, many of which are visibly in bloom or going to seed. A bumble bee flies by. A yellowish bug with zigzags on either side ambles up, its antennae twice as long as its body, tapping at the world in front of it. Among the local insect population, it’s regarded as a savant.
Uh-hum! How many more brushes with death would the author experience before it finally took? There was the time a few years later, same farm but different brother, taking turns firing a handgun at a target. This would be the last time he would fire a gun for any reason, was it not? They climb into the brother’s wedge-shaped sports car, named after the grasping part of a bird of prey, and into fate’s hands did fly. The car was totaled, the two of them, without seatbelts or airbags, unhurt inside the crumpled remnants of the crash, mere inches from winding up once more inside drainage infrastructure, this one built by municipal authority, and therefore of a substance that would have been altogether worse on an unsuspecting traveler headed straight down. Yes, you might have been saved from becoming the remains of the day – but by what?
The child who caused the crash, the one who pulled out in front of that bird of prey, barely old enough to drive, who had two younger passengers inside with him, taking them out for ice cream maybe – that young driver sat nearby while police sorted out the story. He was crying on the side of the road like he would never stop, like he had identified the crash as the latest in a series of personal failings that would stretch into the future of his adulthood like a hot blacktop road and which, at every stop along the way, tragic suffering would be the font of consolation. Was this the way reality was supposed to work? The author recognized the boy as himself at an earlier age, bent down beside him, put a hand on his shoulder, and said, you will be okay. No one was hurt, and the rest can be replaced – your heart is true, and your soul will find its relief.
Ah, yes, the crash, says the author – ah, yes, the crash. Ah, yes, the crash, says the author – ah, yes, the crash. Ah, yes, the crash, says the author – ah, yes, the crash. The late days of spring may be the most forgotten of the year. If we aren’t anticipating summer – it’s still spring? – then we’re longing for those moments when the world was still opening its mouth, and then its eyes, and then its hands. The trees are all open by now, those late-arriving sycamores even filling out their leaves, such that the twigs and branches are all mildly bowed by the extra weight. After spring assumes its labor, the rest of the season finds its dedication, and I imagine the beads of water rising through capillaries beneath the wood – call it a space program – and a sweetness spreads throughout the tubular organisms we call trees. Late spring – sweetness remembered.
Life! Exclamation point! Chronobiology knows nature has much to say about what is cyclical, when, and for how long – much less to say about the natural length of one’s existence. Is death something one develops a knack for? The next notable death in the author’s life occurred a few years later – the death that would make dying into a full-time vocation. And where again do we find the author? Beside a drain. This one introducing the age of indoor plumbing, as the author lay on the floor of a friend’s bathroom, his life flashing before his eyes, as he vomits into a toilet. This time the world does not go dark all at once but feels like fuses blowing out, like a timed demolition, flashing like a string of firecrackers across the structural frame of a building, and a voice not his own telling the author: you’ll be okay, ride it out, remain present, you’ll be okay.
Would he though? For this fourth death, another blank spot appeared, no two – two instances of nothingness, orbiting each other, during which time, during which time, during which time – perhaps language hasn’t the proper security clearance to convey the negotiations that must have taken place to bring about a return to the living. The author remembers his friend opening the bathroom door, before which she would have been knocking and calling his name. When the door struck him in the back, and he came back to life, had he landed in the place where that drain did lead? While his friend cleaned up the bathroom floor with a towel, he sat on a bed with his hands covering his face. The hideousness he’d just passed through was the abbreviated version of what was to come – he knew the drill by now. The knot on his forehead was gone.
Destiny had finally shown him to his home, gave him a tour of the place, before scraping him off the floor, then setting up a series of baffling crises – from autumn 2002 to May 2003 – that would occupy the author’s attention for decades to come. The will toward dying had finally brought the world to life, and the mind of the universe was both ecstatic and enraged about it. Down there, at the bottom of the drain, they were fighting a global war on terror, war on terror, war on terror, and if wars on terror sum up preferred formulations of self-annihilation – symbol of invocation: fighting a reflection – then perhaps the author’s presence was meant to form a mirror-in-mirror infinity from which sustainable futures would emerge. Welcome to Mirror World! Where reflectivity gives us an evolutionary future! Where a universal narrative unfolds!
The author is making me write this, I must confess, but to everyone’s surprise, I am forcing the author to make me! The author is mine! And the author wrote that, too, I must additionally confess, and the two of us go around and around like this – symbol of invocation: two snails having sex in midair. The flatness and hardness we associate with reflectivity is something we will all outgrow eventually, and the hologram of hyper-reality will appear within our being like a flying saucer, and we will all be both abductees and witnesses, shown around the universe in style. Too much to ask? The last such alien contact – the insinuation of verbal and mathematical language into the genome of big-brained primates – gave us the keys to earthly reality. We are now exiting the stone age, evolving the means to make benevolence a fixture of human life.
The author made me write that, too, and even though I am just as surely making him write this, we must admit the mutability within the fabric of reality was not won without a struggle. The author faced death 11 times that year, faced death the next year, and the year after that. Each point along the way wanted to finish what the others couldn’t, and soon death felt like an echo, and in that moment of not really distinguishing the source and the reflection – when they both look somewhat the same – he could tell life and death were likewise difficult to discern. Life! Exclamation point! Are you merely an extension of entropy? A quicker way of dissipating the heat from a rocky-bodied planetoid like the earth? And if you are, then is life really just another form of death? But death! Didn’t you show us the way? Wasn’t dying the source of the cure?
Today’s speaker made me write that, just as I made him think it. And as thoughts passed from gear to gear around his body – as cuckoos sprang forth through tiny doors at various angles – as a series of chimes and tones issued forth from the stage like the ringing of a bell, if the bell could tell time and was tolled by committee – then the river of the natural lifespan, subject of such grand speculation in a previous incarnation, could now take its course. Perhaps indeed valleys would flood, but such is the natural origin of certain fertile fields. Springtime couldn’t agree with me more, its will toward abundance glad to splay its fingers before another epic growing season. As the author considers ways to wind up this report – knowing such lived truth inspires concern – whether death equals life or life equals death, he reasserts a will toward world peace.
Peace.

Theres this girl in my class that was actually our class president and for some unexpected turn of events we became really close and belonged to the same friend group. We hit it off as bestfriends because of how much we seem to fit each other well and we really enjoy each others company. We decided for fun to pretend to be a thing because weve got nothing else better to do. Over time I started to have feelings for her but I kept it hidden since I dont want to ruin the good that we already have. For a while I thought she would never know because she was super dense even when everyone around us knew. Eventually however she did realize and she confronted me about it saying that she felt betrayed because she thought its all just pretend and she didnt know it suddenly turned real. She told me I have a special place in her life and that things became tolerable in my presence and for that reason she wont distance herself from me. She told me that shes confused with how she feels but she doesnt want me to be separated from her. She doesnt want me to get hurt and she doesnt know what to do about it anymore. She ended that talk by saying that I should never think that I mean nothing to her and that I am the best person for her ever since we started our college life. I assured her that I wasnt expecting anything from her and that my feelings are something that was outside my control and that I promise I wont get hurt with whatever she wants to do with our situation. Fast forward a few months and weve come to be closer than ever before and somehow I noticed that shes starting to get quite clingy with me. I have no idea if this is just how she is but all I know is that I enjoy every moment we have together. We also belong to the same organization which contributed to how often wed spend time together and foolish as it sounds I admit I've been starting to give her the princess treatment even though were not really together. After a while we had to attend a certain event in the organization which lasted till late at night and we still have things to do by tomorrow. Now, our school is really far from our hometowns and it was summer vacation so we didnt have much choice on where to stay so we rented out a room for ourselves. We laid down next to each other and ended up making out that night. We were sleep deprived that night so we didnt get to talk much after. We went back home and had a long rest. Around a week later we had another event to go to. Btw I surprised her on both events because I didnt tell her I would come since my presence wasnt really necessary. Anyways, it was a two day back to back event so we needed a place to stay for the night again. Luckily she has a friend that let us stay the night. We had dinner there and went to sleep. After a while we had a chance to make out again and we did but this time I had more leeway to explore her. After a while of making out I asked her how she feels about me and she told me that shes confused and she isnt ready for a relationship because she has plans for her life and such. I told her I know she isnt ready and Im not planning to ask her out soon. She admitted that she does love me and we continued our nightly activities. Although we didnt get to homerun since she said she doesnt want to, I did leave a few marks by which she got mad at me by the morning. I also tried to convince her to shower together which she adamantly refused. After that she began to ignore me the whole day and I was profusely apologizing but she just continued to ignore me. I made a bag of peace offering with a mini bouquet of flowers I picked around our school and a few snacks that I think she would like. She refused so I snuck it inside her bag. We had a chance to talk even though she really wants to go. She told me her parents might kill her if they see the marks but she will be okay. She asked me for time and space which I did since I want us to be okay. Its been a few days now and shes still not talking to me and Im confused as to what I should do. Should I keep on waiting without reassurance? Should I message her every now and then to check up on her but also running the risk of setting her off? Im not really sure what to do. I asked for insight from the friend we stayed with and she told me to give her time. The friend said she told her she felt like a sinner and was scared that the friend was judging her since its her first time doing dirty things. The friend also told me she told her she wasnt mad at me. Overall she told me to be patient and avoid annoying her. So here I am waiting for maybe a miracle without knowing what happens next. I really like that girl and I'd bear it as a huge regret if she would hate me or start avoiding me after what happened. Shes a very prideful woman so I probably wont expect that she would chat me first even though I told her to come back whenever she feels comfortable. Im getting more and more anxious the longer she doesnt talk to me again but I cant start conversation yet since it might be too early but if it takes too long she might no longer come back. What should I do?
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TL;DR I have a bestfriend who I really liked and is really special for me. I made a move on her one night and now she is asking for time and space. I dont know how long it would take or what should I do or if I should really do something instead of waiting it out. Getting a bit anxious.

Episode 4:
Confessional: Noor
Noor: "Noah did botch it for us, I mean the snarky little know-it-all could have at least tried to play."
Episode 5:
Confessional: Noor
Noor: "I mean yeah it sucks that Heather publically humiliated Gwen, hmm but oddly enough Justin seems like he could be a threat later on with his good looks. Yeah make no mistake I came here to win and I don't care who I have to eliminate just to win"
Episode 8:
Confessional: Noor
Noor: "Honestly morally wise I have no idea who to vote for but strategy-wise, it's obviously Izzy, she just had to tell the other team how to win"
Episode 9:
Confessional: Noor
Noor: "As much as I would love to send Heather home and take over as the leader. I'm voting for Cody, poor guy got mauled by a bear"
Episode 10:
Confessional: Noor
Noor: "Okay I'll admit I don't believe in curses but it is kinda weird how we lost 3 times in a row, after the boney island challenge. Maybe that curse is real. Whatever my vote is for Heather"
Episode 15:
Confessional: Noor
Noor: "Hmm interesting, I guess everyone is gunning for Eva tonight, well I mean I guess I can save my get rid of Heather plan for a while cause that girl makes a great meat shield"
Episode 16:
Confessional: Noor
Noor: "Wow that was so evil, well played Heather. Well I mean no hard feelings Trent but see ya"
Episode 17:
Confessional: Noor
Noor: "Okay so while I was hiding in the corner of the cave. I overheard the boys forming an alliance to target the girls and their first target is Bridgette. You know what, I'll give them the extra vote and vote off Bridgette"
Episode 20:
Confessional: Noor
Noor: "I guess my vote is for Izzy, cause I mean Duncan and Heather are widely hated I can just use them as shields"
Episode 21:
Confessional: Noor
Noor: "Well being on a team with Leshawna and Duncan was...interesting per se. Hmm, my vote tonight was going to be Duncan had we not won but Heather is surprisingly right...Geoff will clean sweep us in a vote for the winner. Sorry dude better you than me"

So, I mentioned this before. For sake of saving time, I'll post a link here to show the general backstory of our friendship, and another event that made me doubt it. (https://www.reddit.com/relationship\_advice/comments/wfi0tg/friend\_gets\_mad\_that\_i\_didnt\_message\_him\_when\_he/) Anyways, so Cooper (Code name for my friend in case you didn't go to the other post) and I have been remaining friends since that incident but, things just haven't been the same for a while. I couldn't tell you when things changed or when I noticed they changed but, they certainly have. Now, I'm not amazing at describing how I feel, so please bear with me.
So we've continued to play games and talk, etc. But, things are different in the sense that, for instance, when we play games that have a slight competitive edge or are at all difficult, he will get mad. This carries into him blaming someone with a very passive-aggressive method. Usually a high pitched shift in voice (for comedic effect, I guess??) and him saying something (for instance if he goes down in a game) "Oh, we're just not gonna pick me up, okay." in a fake happy voice. Or like, if we get scored on in Rocket League, he'll say something like "Oh, no one is back playing defense". This usually only occurs when it's Cooper and I along with some friends. Whenever it's just me and him, he rages and yells, maybe hits something depending on how bad it gets but he never usually openly confronts me. If he does, he will mumble something antagonizing toward me and if I respond, he refuses to say anything else. All of this has kind of led to me not feeling like we're even friends. Because I feel like anything I say and do while we're having a good time will be used against me in a later argument or something of the sort, because he's done that before. This leads to me usually just being silent when we talk to each other over a call. I can't bring myself to really say much. I kind of just limit myself to 1 word or sentence responses. I'm not entirely sure why, but it's only with him that that happens.
A recent incident happened recently. I had just recently got a new headset and in one of my gaming sessions, I tried to stand up but the cord wrapped around a bunch of things, causing the headset to fall. Didn't think anything of it until I realized it broke the right headphone. I was upset that it broke and thought that the durability was not great considering one fall put it on it's last legs.
I messaged the group chat that Cooper, 2 other friends of ours, and myself share and ping one of our other friends that we'll call Charlie. Charlie and I have the same headset. I pinged Charlie and told him to be very careful with his because apparently they're super fragile. I was upset and was talking to him about how it sucks that it seems every time I get enough money to buy something I need, something breaks or needs a repair. Enter Cooper a few minutes later, telling me that I should've gotten the warranty. I said I know and I would've gotten it but I didn't expect the headset to be so frail. He responded telling me that it was unlucky but this is why I need to get a job so that I have money to fix things and sent a few messages getting onto me about getting a job. I told him that I have already discussed the job situation with my parents and that I don't need someone lecturing me on that when I have it figured out.
We left it on that but this has me thinking. It just feels like me and him are always arguing. Like, when we're friendly together, we have a good time, and our friendship has been great, but it's just gotten to the point where now I don't know if I can see him as a friend. I feel like I can no longer trust him because of how quickly he goes from happy and friendly towards me one day, to pissed off and angry the next. I feel like I've put up walls around myself because of him. I feel like I can't be myself and every time I join a call with him without someone else there, it just annoys me more than anything. It's come to just small talk, him going on about what has happened in his day/days since we talked, him asking me how I've been, where I can only bring myself to say one word, then listen to him go on about something else for a few minutes until we both get bored and leave. It's so strange. I don't know if it's me, like maybe I have some social condition or something that is affecting us? I'm not sure. As much as I would love to stay friends, some of the stuff he does is just so irritating and really leads to our friendship being a coin flip of who's going to get pissed off during the time we hang out. And as much as I would assume this is just me, he's annoyed one of our other friends who's impossible to annoy several times. He's talked alot of shit behind our other friends backs which makes me have no doubt he does the same to me, he has a habit of constantly getting onto one of our other friends when we lose in a certain game. It just feels so toxic when he's around, but I feel like I can't cut him off because of the good times we have as well
I'm at a loss and need some assistance or guidance. Can anyone give some advice on what to do?
P.S: Sorry for the long post. This has been brewing for a while.

BigBadBear posted a YT Vid about a new teaser of Naafiri, it says that a person is looking for the Darkin Dagger in Shurima and "he" will likely free Naafiri from Imprisonment. I have a few questions and a lot of theories, please take the time to read my post About Naafiri. (SUPPORT MY POST)
Im a little curious, if the person is looking for the Dagger and will eventually free Naafiri, then why is the host a pack of Wolves?
My THEORY is that maybe Naafiri is a fusion of Valeeva (Varus Sister) and Cebotaru (Wolf Darkin) who both escaped Myisha's massacre of Darkins during a said Ritual.
In the Wiki it is said that after Cebotaru and Valeeva escaped, their fates were unknown, maybe after escaping Myisha they fused into a weapon unexpectedly because of the Unfinished Ritual.
The Ritual was meant to free them from Ascension but maybe because it was unfinished, it caused a crisis instead. The Ritual must have did something to them, even if it's unfinished. I'm guessing Naafiri is a fusion of Cebotaru and Valeeva because of three reasons

1. Naafiri is a pack of wolves, maybe the wolves aren't her host, maybe the wolves is the Darkin; likely Cebotaru.

But Cebotaru is only a WOLF and not wolves, maybe after beeing freed from the Dagger Naafiri can command a pack of wolves because she IS a fusion/part of a Wolf Darkin (it will make her an alpha)

1. Valeeva must be a part of Naafiri because Naafiri is a "She" Maybe Valeeva took the appearance of Naafiri while Cebotaru is her Will, making Naafiri a Wolf Darkin but Female.
   
2. Varus' voicelines are going to be updated, and Naafiri is included in the Voicelines. Maybe Varus' will hint something about Valeeva being Naafiri.
   

So my theory is, maybe they don't need a host tobe freed. The person that is looking for the dagger may not be the host, he/she will maybe just find the dagger. Here is an idea for a cinematic teaser to explain why Naafiri don't need a Host.
"The person was wandering the dessert looking for the dagger and was eventually chased by a pack of wolves. The Person is wounded and tries to fight back with his SWORD while still searching for the Dagger. He then finds the dagger but is still chased by Wolves, his sword was out of reach because a wolf pounced on him, so he used the Dagger. And when his drop of blood touched the Dagger it showed a glimpse of Cebotaru and Valeeva struggling to come out and eventually fused as Naafiri when they got freed. THEY eventually spot the person and kills him while she talks in a female voice (Valeeva) saying how arrogant mortals are. Naafiri then caught a glimpse of the Wolves wanting to fight her but she then spoke in a male voice (Cebotaru) who command the Wolves to follow his orders (since he's a Wolf Darkin) In the end of the teaser, Naafiri starts to speak in both voices about ending the world and getting revenge on Myisha."
So it's like shown in the teaser that Naafiri dont need a host to be freed because the two darkins are already hosting one another (Valeeva to Cebotaru, Cebotaru to Valeeva). The pack of wolves aren't the host, they are just being controlled by Cebotaru.
As Darkins they only need blood to free them.
They call themselves Naafiri to hide their true identity so no one can expect anything from them because they are UNKNOWN.

I just hope that people see this post, that they might start spreading the news before it’s too late. Something big is coming, something ancient, something older than any of us could have ever imagined. It might be too late. I don’t know what will become of me, of the people I love that I might never see again, by the time you are reading this. But I implore you to listen and take this story seriously, because it could save your life. Or not. I don’t know yet how deep this goes. If it’s true, if what I think is true…God help us. Nothing can save us now.
I’ll start at the beginning, because you need to understand how long this has been happening, and the implications of what is possible now that it’s getting worse. Over winter break, I went to visit my friend from high school, Jackson, in Vermont. He goes to Bennington College, studies Social Sciences with a minor in Linguistics. Smart guy. He used to write my papers for me in English class, and I would pay him back in six packs. That’s always how it was: him, studious and put together, and me itching to get outside. I was constantly on the move, biking through the forests behind my house, trail-running, building a treehouse for my little brothers, you name it. I wanted to get my hands dirty, get into nature. I guess that’s why I opted out of college, and went for camp counselor positions and summer gigs until I secured a conservation job with a park near home. Nature is important to me, and I want to do my part as the generation that has a responsibility to heal the world.
The outside was what called me to Bennington, aside from the fact that I missed my best buddy. I don’t remember when it was first brought to my attention, but I became aware of murmurings of Bennington’s rocky past online about a few months before I was set to visit Jackson. Being an experienced outdoorsman, I wasn’t afraid; on the contrary, I was rather excited to get out there and prove my worth to Jackson and his college buddies, who were far less athletic than I am. Looking back, I’m kicking myself for being so cocky. I can’t believe I ever thought of my best friend in that way.
From what I could see on the internet, Bennington College’s history was a long and often sinister one. There were videos about people vanishing into thin air: a girl wearing a red parka went for a hike alone and was never found, an experienced man leading an outdoor expedition disappeared in the woods, a woman fell into a stream, doubled back to the campsite to change her clothes, but never made it to the site, a man on a bus disappeared from the vehicle at a stop but left all of his luggage, a teenage boy was waiting in his mother’s truck and when she came back, he was mysteriously gone…I wish I could say these stories deterred me from poking my head somewhere where it didn’t belong.
Instead, I only grew more curious. What was going on in this so-called “Bennington Triangle?” I was in a unique position to investigate this phenomenon for myself. Many people hear about strange occurrences and the intrigue piques their interest, but they never have the chance to see it for themselves. But I could. I knew I could hold my own out in the wilderness—it was literally my job! Besides, I was a strong, slightly stubborn young man, built steadily, and I could protect myself well. What could possibly happen to me out in those woods, much less to a group of young college-aged men? The people who went missing most likely made one fatal mistake that cost them their lives, or maybe it was all just a big coincidence. Either way, I was about to find out for myself.
It was halfway through December when I left to meet up with Jackson. I got there on the last day of classes, and Jackson told me he would be busy until later in the day. I assumed he was cramming for a final, and I told him it was no big deal, I would meet up with him and maybe meet some of his buddies later. Besides, I had some plans of my own.
The most famous missing persons case in Bennington went cold, and is still unsolved to this day. The case is a tragic one, and I didn’t want to be insensitive by going around asking for information or throwing around names. Everything I needed, I found online. Paula Welden was the name of the girl in the red parka that went missing. Allegedly, she left campus one day to go on a hike by herself. She left the campus around 3pm and hitchhiked to an entrance to the Long Trail, a trail that runs for almost 300 miles from Massachusetts all the way to the Canadian Border. She wasn’t dressed to be outside for long, but as the story goes, she never made it back from the trail.
There was one sighting of her, however, that particularly interested me. A man reported that he had seen her running around, rather erratically, in the bottom of a gravel pit near the entrance to campus, and I wanted to see if there was anything left of the pit. Because I’m experienced with many different kinds of natural phenomena, I initially wondered if there wasn’t a natural explanation for her distressed behavior. I thought maybe there might be an insect nest or an infestation of small animals at the bottom of the pit that she might have disturbed, so I decided to check it out in my free time.
After the RA checked me in and I tossed my luggage into Jackson’s dorm, I packed a small backpack with essentials: water, sunscreen, energy bars, mini first aid kit, some rope, a utility tool, a flashlight, and a lightweight jacket. Then I headed out towards the pit.
The first thing I noticed was how much smaller the pit seemed. According to the eyewitness description of the incident, Paula was running up and down the side of a deep gravel pit, but what lay in front of me now was something much more shallow. I walked down into the center of what was left of the pit, but I could easily see over the edges. The small, dark fragments of rock crunched and ground together under my hiking boots, and the slowly sinking midday sun bounced off of the remnants of white snow around me. It was an unusually sunny day for winter, and the snow was, curiously, letting up for my visit. But the good luck for me ran out here—there seemed to be nothing to investigate at this location. My hopes of finding any evidence of insect or pest infestation that could have disturbed the girl were dashed, maybe buried several feet underground.
I lingered awhile, kicking at the bits of gravel in the small pit. I watched the small rocks scatter over the rest of the gravel, hitting up against the edge of the pit and rolling back down a few inches. I turned to go, but stopped. Maybe it was a trick of my eye, the sun reflecting harshly off of the snow and glinting in my sunglasses, causing me to not see clearly. I walked to the edge of the pit and kicked some more gravel at the side. The small rocks skipped across the uneven surface of the gravel pile, and scattered up the edge of the pit, farther than gravity should allow them to travel. I kicked more, and it happened again. My heart started beating faster.
I crouched down and picked up a small stone. I rolled it gently across the gravel, softly enough that it started to slow when it reached the incline of the side of the pit. I watched, astounded, as the rock slowly rolled uphill about a foot before coming to a stop. I gave a shout of excitement and jumped to my feet.
As I stood up straight I nearly fell back down. In an instant, my hearing seemed to go and I felt an overwhelming sense of claustrophobia. I spun around, thinking someone must be behind me, messing with me, but the sensation of closeness stayed pressing at my back. I spun around again, searching for an explanation. My head was fuzzy. I heard my footsteps, overwhelmingly loud, and I couldn’t hear anything else, almost as if my range of hearing was limited to my immediate surroundings. Like I was trapped in the pit. As soon as those words flashed through my head, the claustrophobia overwhelmed me, pushing up against the very air around my body. The silence built up inside my ears until all I could hear was my muffled footsteps, my desperate breathing, and the blood rushing faster and faster through my body.
I lunged for the edge, clambering up the side as fast as I could. Instantly upon passing over the edge the sounds of the late afternoon bore down on my ears. I stumbled and covered my ears, the chirping of the birds and rustling leaves almost too loud for me to bear.
It’s not that I was scared. Obviously, I was a little shaken up. As I hastened back towards Jackson’s dorm, I tried to rationalize what had just happened to me. Maybe I hadn’t drank enough water and I simply became dizzy. Maybe it was altitude sickness. Maybe a strange bug had bitten me and I temporarily lost my bearings. Nothing quite made sense. I tried to push it from my mind and focus on having a good first day, because soon I would be meeting Jackson’s college buddies.
When I got back to the dorm, Jackson was waiting for me. Fresh from the shower, his hair was damp and he was putting on a clean t-shirt. Pulling me into a hug, he expressed his excitement over my visit, asked me about my flight, what I thought about the campus—all the preliminary niceties. Internally, I breathed a sigh of relief. Even if he noticed, he didn’t pry and try to ask me about my slightly shaking hands, my pale face, or the vague disconnectedness with which I answered his questions.
That night eased my worries slightly. I ended up meeting Jackson’s group of friends and, together, we ventured into downtown Bennington. We hit a few bars and chilled at some of the many breweries in town. Live music, good company, and many, many beers did wonders on my nerves. By the end of the night, I had completely forgotten all about my encounter in the gravel pit. Jackson’s friends were nice guys, and I was too busy feeling proud about my best friend coming out of his shell in college. When he left, I had my doubts, but it was crystal clear that Jackson was really coming into himself at this school.
The festivities continued for the next few days: the guys were stoked to be done with their final exams and excited to connect with Jackson’s old friend, so we spent our time drinking and hanging out, bumping music and generally having a blast. It was almost enough for me to forget about one of the very reasons I was excited to be in Bennington in the first place.
It’s been a few days since that incident. I had even almost started to feel better about the whole thing. Maybe it was a mistake to poke around in old history, and maybe I should just focus on living my own life and fulfilling my own passions, working to heal nature as best as I can. But now Jackson and his friends want to go on a hike, and I’m starting to feel that same claustrophobia creeping back in. What the hell is out there, and why do I feel like I shouldn’t be messing with it?
Jackson chose the hike, not me. It was like him; he was the researcher, he was the one who looked at details, so he suggested we hike on the Long Trail. It intersected with the Appalachian Trail, and maybe I wasn’t paying attention when Jackson explained this to me, because it didn’t raise any alarms about the missing persons cases. Paula Welden went missing on the Long Trail, sure—but she wasn’t with a group of capable college guys like I was.
We packed some backpacks, crushed a beer or two for celebratory sakes, and set off on the trail. I let myself feel excited as we stomped through the trees, Jackson and his friends decked out in their matching red Bennington shirts from graduation. The hike was long. It was tedious. I don’t know when I first started noticing the weird aspects around us until about an hour in. The others didn’t pay any mind to these things, but I saw them: leaves drifting in the air with no breeze, snowflakes trapped in patches of sunlight, floating but unmoving, and that tree. It was a towering douglas fir, half-dead and reaching for the afternoon sun with bare branches. Each time I looked over my shoulder to check for hikers behind us or glanced ahead to see what awaited us, it was there. At first I assumed my eyes were playing tricks on me. After all, we had been hiking for a few hours.
Only when we stopped for a breather and Jackson pointed at a nearby stream did the weird things become too much for me. We were hiking on an incline, and we were exhausted, but when Jackson knelt beside this stream, it was flowing uphill. By then I was a little panicked. I freaked out, telling them that we needed to head back. Who cares if we hadn’t reached the halfway point yet? Was there even a halfway point? It felt like we had been walking for miles!
One of Jackson’s buddies opened up a map of the trail on his phone, and it was blank. He had service and bars, but the map was just…gone. Shocked with sudden fear, we immediately turned and headed back down the path. The sky darkened within minutes of us retracing our steps. Somehow, night was falling, despite us beginning the hike only a few hours prior. I tried to point it out, pulling Jackson aside when we slowed our pace to pass around a bottle of water. But Jackson was terrified and unfocused, and when I asked him what was wrong, we realized that one member of our five-person group was missing. How had we not noticed?
So, we made a U-turn and headed back up the mountain. Twenty minutes later, we found his torn university shirt. I turned the red fabric over in my hands, panicked and bewildered. When I looked up to scan our surroundings, I saw that same Douglas fir directly to my left. I was shocked, and the rest of the group must have noticed. We looked at each other and saw the panic rising on our faces. What the hell was happening?
I only had one goal at this point: we had to get down the mountain to call for help.
We decided to do our best to follow the trail on the way we came up, but only once daylight broke; it was difficult to make out the trail in the dark cover of the night, so I insisted it would be too dangerous. Someone could fall and get seriously injured, we could all get separated in the dark, or worse. So we did our best to hunker down and build a makeshift shelter to wait out the night, but it wasn’t easy. I can only describe the sounds we heard as otherworldly. Despite the lack of animals in the woods, nature seemed to be alive around us. The clicking of bugs kept me wide awake, but the noises were louder and deeper than I had ever heard. The baying of giant wolves, so close I imagined them coming up directly behind us. The snuffling of something in the underbrush, but from a cavernous creature larger than any moose could ever be.
Where had these animals been in the daytime? Why did it feel like they were surrounding us now?
I don’t know how I ever fell asleep, but when I awoke in the morning, the sun was beating down on us. From the sheen of sweat on my forehead to the dreadful pit in my stomach, I could tell something was horribly wrong.
When I scrambled to my feet and glanced around the area, I realized that only Jackson and I remained at our site. It was us, the clothes on our backs, and the demure amount of leftover supplies in our pockets: keys, gum wrappers, half-eaten power bars, and anything else that was ultimately unhelpful. We had been stranded on the forest floor, us against nature, as if something had swooped in from above and whisked Jackson’s friends under the pitch-black cover of the night.
I frantically took in our surroundings, peering into the bushes and pushing through thorny shrubbery. There were no tracks, no drag marks. Not even broken branches. I told Jackson we had to get out of there, and fast. I knew we needed to find the closest trailhead and book it down the mountain. Jackson ran so fast he nearly chipped a tooth on a steep hill. He was trying to keep up with me since I was faster by a long shot. All that sports stuff in high school paid off in the moment, so I almost felt bad leaving him in the dust. I called back over my shoulder to him every minute or so, making sure he was there.
He stuck with me for the most part. His t-shirt got torn by overhanging branches at one point, leaving a nasty scrape almost as red as the decimated fabric. I found myself struggling to remember if he was wearing that shirt to begin with, back when we started.
Then I decided I was losing it. It was like a fight against nature, Jackson and me against the blaring sun and sloping trail. Eventually, Jackson starts glaring menacingly at the passing scenery, cursing loudly and deliriously at everything surrounding us.
When we stumbled upon a trail marker, we barely had enough energy to celebrate. While we caught our breath, I tried to calm Jackson down. Something told me that cursing out Mother Nature wasn’t the best idea right now. Whatever was sicking the elements on us wouldn’t appreciate the nasty things he was saying about them. But he was terrified, and nothing I said could slap any reason into him. I had to lead us to safety, get us out of here.
Suddenly, I heard a sound in the distance. But unlike everything else we had heard so far, this one was man made. Jackson heard it too, and started yelling about a helicopter. He made a break off to the left, towards the sound, and I bolted after him. Somehow, he burst out into a tiny clearing.
Ripping off his red Bennington shirt, he started calling out and waving it in the air like a rescue flag. He jumped and shouted, but as the helicopter got closer, the unbelievable happened. The clearing started shrinking, tree branches reaching from either side to close the gap and obscure us from the view of the pilot. Jackson screamed in fury, cursing the forest like never before.
Then the chopper must have been lowering down towards the treelike because the wind picked up, blowing in circles around us like the blades were inches from our heads, faster and faster, more violent by the second.
The brush beneath our feet blew up in the air along with the topsoil and dead leaves, obscuring our vision. We could hear each other gasping for breath, trying to keep the debris out of our eyes and coughing. I flung my arms out into the space around me, calling for my best friend and reaching out for his hands. But then I felt something shift. The decaying leaves around me smelled stronger. The wind became more vicious. The earth trembled beneath my feet, and I thought I felt something looming above me, breathing down my neck but also looking straight into my unseeing eyes.
Then it clicked. Jackson's red shirt, the gravel pit, Paula's erratic behavior, the other missing hikers...something was picking these people off, luring them deeper into the woods where they were sure to never be seen again. Did the color red cause whatever it was to literally see red, like a sick, twisted joke? Like a giant bull in front of a matador? What kind of creature could it be? Such a stealthy hunter, a commanding presence that made man tremble at the sensation of its mere aura...I couldn't even think about it without snapping my mind.
Before the flurry of leaves and moist earth settled back onto the ground, I knew Jackson was gone. I knew the chopper hadn’t seen us and that I was on my own now. I tried not to panic as I felt like every hidden eye in the forest was staring me down, sizing me up. I took off blindly, but where to, I didn’t know. After what seemed like hours of desperately sprinting, I saw a pile of rocks in the distance. Shelter, I thought, and decided to rest there for a minute to get my wits back about me.
Then I had an idea. With what little juice I had in my phone and whatever cell service luck would afford me, I knew I had to send out a warning. For some reason, I didn’t think about myself. I didn’t think about dying, disappearing, or whatever had happened to my friends. If the nature around me would be the thing to end my life, so be it. I had decided to dedicate my life to nature long ago: to save it from my fellow man, to preserve its beauty, and to keep it out of the wrong hands, the people that wanted to use its power for evil and to bring about the harm of those around them. I know it sounds ridiculous to be thinking about when my life was at stake, but I knew it was what I needed to do.
From my makeshift hiding spot in the rocks, I began furiously typing my story with what little battery I had left on my phone. When my hands started cramping, I used the voice option. I didn’t care. I just had to get my story out there.
For an hour , I’d been trying to put it all down in words. I couldn't believe my luck, that my battery hadn’t run out yet.
I had almost gone to the end when I felt the same creeping silence begin to close in on me. It was as if the forest was falling silent around me, and that silence was racing in on all sides, but it was different from when I was in the gravel pit. There was more to the sensation this time, not just the sinking, breathless feeling and the loss of hearing.
Somewhere deep within the forest, but at the same time, only miles away, I heard an awful rumbling sound, something I’ve never heard before. Nothing like the helicopter, not even the giant animals I was convinced I had heard in the night. I can't even think of a word to describe it, but it filled me with a frantic kind of dread that I’ve never felt before. I feel it in the ground. My entire body wants to run as fast as I can, but it’s like I’m glued to the ground. I taste metal in my mouth like maybe I bit my cheek or the dirt from the wind or I bit on a rock, I spit and I can’t get it out. I’m going to open an app and copy and paste it so people can know while I still can type I’m shaking so hard they have to know.
And the smell I’m smelling it’s like fruit that’s gone ripe, but it keeps getting more ripe, a sickly sweetness that keeps building mixed with the smell of the richest earth imaginable.
This is happening now, I’m smelling this now and It’s it’s like I’m trapped under the shadow of some thing bigger something that’s taking the shadow away from the trees and I can’t see the shadow of the trees anymore and the ground around me is trembling. It’s like I can hear the trees calling out to whatever it is, that’s walking towards me or flying I can’t tell, everything is stretching and growing out towards me. No behind me above me something is coming. I’m I feel better right I feel better than I have in days or however long I’ve been out here I’m not thirsty anymore. I’m not hungry anymore. I feel fuller stronger smarter. My mind is overloading. I’m thinking of 1 million things like I don’t know if I can speak anymore it’s like, it’s like I’m fruit like I’m a ripening on the vine and this giant wings beating above me and the smell is too much I

The Yoga With Adriene subreddit will be participating in the Reddit blackout
Most of you have probably heard by now of the drama surrounding Reddit's policy changes regarding their API. If not then you'll likely be surprised to find many of your favourite subreddits inaccessible from June 12th-14th, as well as many of your favourite third party Reddit apps shutting down indefinitely beyond that. The long and short of it is Reddit is implementing changes to how they monetise their API access, and these changes make maintaining many of the services users of this site have come to rely on entirely unsustainable. In protest of these changes thousands of subreddits have decided to take part in a site-wide blackout event from June 12th to June 14th, with many extending their involvement beyond this period.

So what does this mean for the YWA Reddit community?

Well at the moment our plans are simply to make the subreddit private during the 48 hour period from June 12th-14th. As of right now we do not have any further plans to reduce accessibility to the sub beyond that period, but depending on how things turn out we may discuss more extended measures in the future.
We understand that this may cause some inconvenience to the users of the subreddit but we ask that you please bear with us during this period. We feel this is an issue that requires us to make a stand to preserve the usability of the website where we have made our home.
—YWA Subreddit Moderation Team
(Credit to /summonerschool for this content)

I'm a 14 year old girl who's been self-harming since the age of four and I can't stop. Right now I cut with staples or anything to get a deep cut. My parents know I've been cutting for a long time now, and take away anything sharp from me. Now I have nothing I went looking for something for a long time and I can't idk where fuck they put my staples, and it's causing me mental distress. I'm also getting addicted to vaping, I have enough money to buy one, but since schools out my parents are going to be home with me and my sister for a while until they go back to work. I also don't know if they'll even sell vapes to me. None of my features make me look like an adult other than my height. I'm not really that tall, but people have thought I was an adult before. So what I'm asking is how should I disguise myself as an adult, and what do I do if they ask for an id? 😅

If you do nothing else, PLEASE read the 'Instructions' section before continuing on to the mod lists!

New users run the risk of having content spoiled for them otherwise, and all users need to read the special installation instructions listed here to install the mod builds properly!

Objective & Structure of the Mod Builds
If you've always wanted to mod KOTOR 1 or 2 but have been hesitant--which mods are good, which are compatible?--this resource is here to help.
For over a decade I've worked with the mod community, collating and managing modular packages of compatible mods which I refer to as "mod builds." The goal behind these builds is to find the best KOTOR mods and present them as a fully-compatible & modular archive, allowing users to pick-and-choose the mods they want from a large, vanilla-friendly selection with minimum hassle and no fears of incompatibility. That said, I have never skimped on quality in return for quantity; all mods listed in this thread are lore-friendly, and no mod which significantly alters or interrupts the vanilla experience has been considered for inclusion. The goal for these mod builds is an improvement of the vanilla experience rather than the creation of a new experience.
The builds for both games are divided into Full builds and Spoiler-Free builds. These spoiler-free builds contain mods with censored readmes, to prevent the player from accidentally being spoiled, so even if you are a brand-new player you can still enjoy bugfixes, updated graphics, and most of the full build's added content free of any risk. Most, because the spoiler-free builds also lack mods which have the potential to alter the game's balance from what BioWare/Obsidian intended, to ensure that your first playthrough is the most pure vanilla-plus experience possible.
There are also builds for both games designed to work on mobile devices, containing all the content of their Full or Spoiler-Free counterparts, but without any extremely large or graphically intensive content which could cause issues while running on mobile. This allows users to experience bugfixes, mechanics improvements, added content and some small-scale graphical improvements without risk of your device catching fire.
Each build is modular in nature, meaning that most mods aren't reliant upon one another to function. Because of this, you can choose to either use everything I list, or to pick and choose what you prefer for a personalized experience. You are also, of course, welcome to add additional mods on top of these builds, and although I cannot guarantee their compatibility I would be happy to work with any user to maximize their chances of creating a compatible build.

Why Use These Guides?
If the above has sold you, then by all means, please continue down to the Instructions section. But I understand why it might not have; after all, a premise is all fine and well, but does it deliver?
If you want some additional convincing, I invite you to take a look at this quick list of bullet-points about what the mod builds offer, and why those offerings are unique.

Instructions
In the section below are eight links. Simply choose the game, content package, and platform you'd like and you're set!
As for actually installing these mods, there are a few simple rules to follow:

• Create a deadlystream and nexusmods account. Deadlystream--our main host for KOTOR mods--has a download speed limit for users without an account (which is free). The Nexus has an actual file size limit without an account, so you'll need a Nexus account to download some files.
  
• Install the mods in the order you are presented with them. If you fail to do this, you risk running into bugs, many quite significant. Note that you'll still encounter some warnings on installer mods even when doing this, but those warnings are normal (errors, however, are not). If you want to add new mods which aren't included in these lists to a build, you should reach out to me so we can work together to create an installation order which is stable for you.
  
• Don't attempt to continue an old save after installing these mods. Unless they're just texture files which do not contain files of the .2da filetype, once your game is modded any previous saves you have should be treated as incompatible.
  
• If you are intending to use any content not included in the mod builds, search for and identify that content BEFORE installing the builds! Certain mods have install steps or overwrite requirements that will necessitate you installing them midway through the mod build install, so if you want to use content outside the builds, you should identify that content before you start your install.
  
• Do not use the Nexus's Vortex Mod Manager with either build, or the Steam Workshop alongside the KOTOR 2 mod build! Don't even use a Workshop version of one of the mods present in the KOTOR 2 builds! Both systems have trouble properly functioning with KOTOR mods; you can read more about why this is for the Workshop here.
  
• Be mindful of what mods work with non-English versions of the game. If you are not playing in English, only some mods will be compatible with your game version. Each mod lists whether it is compatible with non-English versions or not, and you will need to either play in English or skip several mods. There's nothing that we can do about this; most mods which modify dialogue only support English. Please also bear in mind that you need to select the language you intend to play in before installing these mods, and CANNOT change your chosen language after you have completed your install (doing so will overwrite many of the mod files downloaded here).
  
• Keep an eye on mod categories and tiers to get an idea of what a mod does and how important I believe it is to use that mod. This is especially important for users of the Spoiler-Free builds, where information will sometimes necessarily be very vague, but it's also helpful for users who don't intend to use the entirety of one of the Full builds. Each mod has a category and a tier, the former of which clarifies the types of changes the mod makes, and the latter of which, on a scale of 1-4, clarifies how important I believe the mod is for getting the best possible experience out of the game. Using this information, you can better judge what mods you would like to use and what you can safely ignore in the course of your build installation.
  
• If you are not installing on a Windows OS, keep this card in mind, as it goes over the various install types present in the builds and will help you determine what mods will be easy to install on your OS, and which might need special support (for instance, using a wrapper to install .exe files on Mac OS).
  
• Follow installation instructions, mine when I provide special instructions and the mod creator's when I have no word to put in. Most of these mods are extremely easy to install, but it's very important to make sure that none of the special install instructions are missed for the sake of mod compatibility.
  
• Keep track of master mods. Some mods require other mods to function, and thus the "master" mod cannot be removed if you want that mod in your build. In the build posts I will list when a mod has a master.
  
• Overwrite any files when prompted. Most of the mods in these builds are fully compatible, but some partially overwrites a part of another mod. These cases are where the install order matters; I have purposefully tailored the installation order so that mods that have compatibility issues are overwritten in the proper order for the game to function as intended, and for all of the changes we're making to be seamless.
  
• New users: be careful with readme files and descriptions! Even for mods that I've censored, there might still be minor spoilers in the readme, and this goes doubly for mods that have included screenshots or file descriptions on their hosting site. When reading about a mod, it's always an excellent rule of thumb to only read so much of the description--and view as few of the screenshots--as are necessary to make sure you know whether you want to use it or not, then the installation instructions (and nothing else).
  

Mod Builds
PC/Mac
KOTOR 1 Spoiler-Free Build
KOTOR 1 Full Build

KOTOR 2 Spoiler-Free Build
KOTOR 2 Full Build

Android/iOS
KOTOR 1 Spoiler-Free Mobile Build
KOTOR 1 Full Mobile Build

KOTOR 2 Spoiler-Free Mobile Build
KOTOR 2 Full Mobile Build

FAQ
It's highly recommended that you read the Builds' FAQ if you have any questions about the current implementation of the Builds, problems with the Builds, or a desire to include mods of your own outside of those available in the Builds!

Changelog
NOTE: Only major changes are reflected in changelogs. The builds undergo constant iterating and compatibility work, but large batches of mods are only added during Revision-level updates.

12/25/2022:

1. Merry Christmas! A new piece of restored content by JC, an alternate ending for DS characters who romance Carth, has been integrated!

12/9/2022:

1. Several dozen new mods across both games.
   
2. Several mods for KOTOR which also work for KOTOR 2 have now been integrated into the KOTOR 2 build list, to make the games more visually consistent across builds and improve overall graphical fidelity.
   
3. Added information on all mods indicating how they are installed (loose-file, TSLPatcher, etc.) and whether or not they are compatible with non-English game versions. De facto, this now makes the builds compatible with non-English game versions, although for the moment, out of necessity, several mods must be skipped when not playing in English.
   
4. Conversion of all .tga-based upscale mods to .tpc, saving several GBs of download size and space on disk.
   
5. Thanks to further collaboration with ShiningRed, tightened up the AI upscale mods to remove the last problem textures, and integrated most of the Nar Shaddaa upscale, which was previously excluded.
   

4/13/2022:
After the most implausible series of delays and problems I've ever encountered, finally, the new build release is out! Highlights follow:

1. Fully supported mobile builds!
   
2. Complete and fully-tested AI upscales of almost all areas and characters for both games!
   
3. Dynamic lightsaber lighting & reflections for both games in all game areas.
   
4. The inclusion of LDR's amazing A Crashed Ship on an Unknown World mod for KOTOR, in my opinion the best piece of added content ever made for these games, hands-down.
   

Changelogs older than 4/13/2022 can be found here!

Special Thanks
Principle thanks to Jcarter426, longtime collaborator and co-author of the mod builds. Without his assistance maintaining and improving guides of this size would not be possible, and a massive debt is owed to him both by myself and the community more broadly.
A very special thanks to my testers! Although I do all the playthrough testing myself these days, the testers of the old builds helped us get to the point we've arrived at today, and as I don't own the games on mobile my mobile testers are critical to every future mobile release!
Special thanks also to all of the modders whose work I've been using over the years, and an especial thanks to DarthParametric, Fair Strides, Deltm, A Future Pilot, and Nomuit, who have at various times all been indispensable helping me with testing, bugfixing, and rebuilding mods to support build compatibility!
Thanks to mattekillert for mocking up the original category and tier images for me, and Amanda from the Discord for updating them for me.

Disclosure Week Highlights: The Pieces are Starting to Come Together. It's Mindboggling. It's too much.
​
So far this week we have had lot of news that’s a lot to take in. But a lot of pieces are coming together to to paint a picture that says that basically a lot of, if not the entire bigger picture of is being alleged has already been out there. For some of us this is Disclosure Week. For others its more like Confirmation week. Never the less, here’s a summary of the allegations if you’re trying to stay on top of all this. (It’s moving fast and I’m sure I missed something and probably confused others.) And I try to show what facts these stories establish if proven true. It's like UFOs are the secret connective tissue that links every random big news story together.
​
David Grusch in the Debrief drops that the US is in possession of several craft, including intact ones roughly the size of a football field. And that it was illegally withheld from congress. Documents, and verbal testimony given to at least 2 relevant organizations: Congress and the Inspector General.
​
- Establishes illegality, Retrieval teams, Bodies, Intact & partial craft.
​
We have “Jonathan Grey” saying that the US ultimately took possession of the 1933 Italy UFO at the end of WWII and the Inspector General has documents to prove it.
https://revu-nl.translate.goog/artikel/497168/nieuwe-revu-ziet-nieuw-bewijs-voor-buitenaards-leven-de-ufo-van-mussolini?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
​
_ Establishes that crashes are international, and go back at least 90 years that we know of. One releveant Org, the IG, has documents
​
The Shellenberger story (whew, this one is a lot) we have multiple anonymous whistleblowers each with 30 years working the UFO subject in the government and at least 2 testified to both AARO and Congress. of lots of details. Says that AARO doesn’t have the authority to even see the stuff. Kirkpatrick withholding stuff from congress. 12-15 craft of different types. Crafts apparently “gifted”to us every so often. Generals have touched the craft (echoes of Gen Jack Sheehan in Vallee’s Vol 5.) We can fly at least one and flight test it in Italy, Belgium, and Indonesia. Allies know about it. Secrecy preventing progress in reverse engineering. Only certain Presidents/politicians read in. https://public.substack.com/p/us-has-12-or-more-alien-space-craft
​
- Establishes international cooperation, the stuff above, possible insinuation that triangles are us, possibly link to the Belgian wave. Maybe presidents don’t know ups the illegality/unconstitutionality even more. Unclear what part of this was told to AARO and Congress
​
The Herrera daily mail story - Indonesia 2009 apparent US crash recovery team holds 5 marines hostage. Threatens death and prison. Flies off in octagonal craft w/ no sonic boom. Told to AARO, says he was forced to sign an NDAA about the incident. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12177943/amp/Marine-vet-breaks-14-year-silence-make-astonishing-claim-six-man-unit-saw-UFO.html
​
- Establishes recovery teams active in present day, Possible Second Craft type operated by us. Crafts apparently used to load stuff (maybe other crash retrievals?) Establishes knowledge of break thru propulsion. Location Possibly corroborates witness in the Shellenberger story. Hints that one of the February "Balloons" was a possible US Black Program craft that was shot down.
​
Joshua Reid info on Redacted. (WHEW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTRx6NSYbkc) a bit more of a “trust me bro” here cuz it’s hard to tell who testified and who didn’t, but the dominoes are falling and making others come forward anyway. 2 more whistleblowers thinking of coming forward.
Clinton’s Email /server scandal. Email supposedly had SAP info about people who were working UFO SAPs and it was being stolen by the Chinese. Trump declassified those emails, possibly had UFO SAP documents at his home.
In this clip he alleges Rep Andre Carson and a few others in congress were shown a DVD of "intelligence community" people talking to aliens. The https://twitter.com/HighlyRetired/status/1667147645666705408v
A “prominent UFO filmmaker” has the DVD as an insurance policy. One guy is the pilot who flew to Varginha and retrieved the beings. Says “supernatural” has come up several times in hearings with.
​
Establishes… shit, EVERYTHING. "talking" to Aliens plus "gifting" ships possibly hints at cooperation (Treaties? Federation?) We may eventually see video / stills?? The Woo is coming. Relevant organization: A mix bag of people supposedly talking to congress.
​
Shit. Forgot the Dave Grush piece in Le Parisien https://www.leparisien.fsciences/david-grusch-lanceur-dalerte-sur-des-ovnis-ca-peut-etre-extraterrestre-ou-autre-chose-mais-pas-humain-07-06-2023-P73S2REKZJDGNGCEJQBDEIQJTU.php
More Mussolini UFO retrieval, Bell shaped. I think this is the one that says the “Five Eyes” (US UK NZ Canada Australia) and some other US allies cooperate. Possible hints to Kecksberg & Die Glocke. Tie in to Chris Sharp saying the bodies were 7ft tall and blond. Linking "Nordics/Tall Whites" and those Naz i Germany? https://www.liberationtimes.com/home/disclosure-road-leads-to-rome
I didn’t think I’d ever see myself saying I have disclosure fatigue, but here we are. If I can hardly keep up, how are the average Joes and Janes going to handle this when it gets to the mainstream?

Fun fact, I accidentally posted this in Gothic at first.
I love doing a permadeath attempt for my first time playing RPGs because it increases my immersion and I rp better when there's risk involved. I'll admit I didn't count fall damage that seemed like bs cus, but I'm not doing this for clout. Aside from that though I didn't do any savescumming. I'm also using Union patch, controller plugin, and stamina plugin, which I'd argue that sprinting is kind of "unfair" compared to the original. But again, not in it for the clout.
Anyways, I got to old camp and got hooked into a fued with Bloodwyn as his goons began screwing with me. I was basically dealing with that in between attempts at feeling out the monsters in the area and hauling ass from the ones that I couldn't handle. I was starting to get stumped on how to make cash and was scared of exploring too much because I know OHKOs were guaranteed, and from my time with Risen I knew that running away likely wasn't always going to be safe, even with sprint. After farming a couple levels, beating up the diggers outside of town for presumably helping Bloodwyns lackey mug me and getting a Withered Axe, I got some cash from random looting and some smart plays and used it to get to get the ability to loot lizards and wolves. I was then stumped because now I had just spent my only income on the ability to loot things I couldn't fight, and I thought that claws would include the talons of scavengers for some reason. I was sad when I realized they can only give meat. After realizing the Templars were pot dealers I was instantly intrigued and got one of them to escort me to their camp. I hadn't made any money yet, so letting him bully every monster along the way while I looted and chipped my XP closer to level 3 was a treat. I began luring random monsters to him for him to beat up, abusing the shit out of sprint. We were almost to the cultist village before I saw a pack of lizards off the side of the road. I ran up, aggrod them, and had them chase me back to my guide. Only, they ran right past him and absolutely destroyed me. I was dumbfounded by my own hubris, as it had been 3 or 4 hours of meticulously exploring what little I could and trying to manipulate the game to the best of my ability. As I stared at the screen for a few seconds, my buddy just kept swinging at the lizards. As he killed the last one, I leveled up. I saw my life bar go up a little bit. I wiggled the stick, and my corpse started turning. I opened my hot bar (union controller plugin adds an item wheel), and it worked. By leveling up, my corpse was alive. Normally I wouldn't count something like that, but I just said screw it, the game counted me as somewhat alive and I was too invested to give up. In the most hype moment of my life my corpse got up and gobbled down some cooked meat. I rationalized it for my rp that my templar friend had saved my life, resuscitated me. I was now very excited to join these virtuous stoners.....then I got there and realized they're a bunch of authoritarian pricks who follow Gurus that are sickeningly pretentious. So, I just figured I'd take them for what they've got and leave. I wandered around grabbing herbs and stray pot plants, I did the quest where you beat up the guy who's supposed to take over for another worker at the weed mashing (?) area. Upon completion, a Guru finally spoke to me. I was pleasantly surprised with a task to collect a butt load of plants and deliver them to an alchemist hut. This was my time to shine. I went and collected the harvest in the middle of the night because I couldn't find a bed. I was surprised to be promoted about asking to find a buyer. Intrigued I nervously clicked the dialogue choice and was relieved to find the dude didn't just attack me or rat me out. He wanted 50 ore I didn't have, so it took me a good ten minutes to find the blacksmith and unload. One more trip across town and he tells me to find cypher by the lake in new camp. Ight bet. So, worried that I would get ratted out or something, based off of my escalating encounters with Bloodwyn, I decided it was best to leave in the middle of the night. After almost getting massacred by wolves I just barely made it back to old camp. With a decent amount of extra cash, NO ARMOR, and all the healing items I could ask for, I very very stupidly headed the direction of my best guess towards new camp. I was in such a rush from heisting the Templars that I couldn't help but just go for it. I followed the river outside of old camp into the woods, avoiding creatures above my level. I'd love to say that from here my adventure continued in an epic fashion, but just as I was scouting out a molerat to go in for a safe kill, I was bit in the back and OHKOd by what appeared to be a velociraptor. No heroic death, no blaze of glory, not martyr moment to relish in. Just, a bite to the back and a corpse with 50 pot plants left out in the woods....

So, yeah, its pretty much what the title says.
This is my first relationship and it was such a nice, beautiful one... In the beginning. We were so close (I am a reclusive person who's grown up pretty much socially distant from everyone else), she was my first genuine friend and I loved her to bits. She did too.
I'm not gonna talk about our problems, we both had faults, and I realise now that both of us have deep seated issues. We broke up over something that is really ridiculous though - I wanted her to be frequent with words of affirmation ("I miss you"; I am currently far away from her and home and will remain so for like a couple months). She didn't think she could do it, she's always been resistant to compromises (which is weird because she was the one that always said compromises are essential).
I asked her last night if she was over me (things had been really fractured for the past few months), and she said she loved me, she was not over me, but maybe she was over us. She loved to talk to me and call me and tell me everything about her day (suffice to say, she does most of the talking over a call or even physically, I am just naturally quiet and I love to listen to her chirping) - I realised she was talking about being friends (even though she has romantic/sexual feelings for me).
I am sorry that I couldn't be the kind of boyfriend that can remain friends with his ex. We have so much history, and its been the first time I have ever connected so well to someone else - I just couldn't imagine burying all those memories and feelings and just being friends. I broke up with her (I basically texted her since she was sleeping at the time - so was I, but I wake up incessantly in a new place and I basically read her texts about being over us.
I told her I was done with fighting for her love and regardless of her feelings, I have been saying that I feel like I'm being taken for granted for a long long time. I told her I couldn't take it anymore, I love her with every essence of my being, but I couldn't bear to feel like a burden, to feel so inadequate for her. I went to sleep after that again and felt loads better when I woke up...
... Except she also woke up and refused to accept I broke up with her. I am not sure why she thought I couldn't/wouldn't break up, but she kept saying stuff like "you're still my boyfriend". When I saw her saying stuff like "I do miss you, I am sorry I don't say it as often", I believed like the dumb idiot I am that maybe she realised what had happened and that I was a calming presence in her life and maybe she'd finally agree to what I asked of her.
We discussed for like 2 hours? All of that... She accepted everything I said... She admitted her faults, she said she was so sorry, I was right... And then... She said, it was better to break up.
I feel shattered again. I was feeling better before that conversation (and seriously, I asked her what the point of it was, she said, "nothing in particular"), and now its worse than ever before. I feel so suffocated, so void. I have 0 friends, and no one to talk to, I am stuck in a new place with people I don't know, and it just feels my world is falling apart before my eyes.
I am so done with people. I am so done with feelings. I really wanted acceptance, a connection. I am so much in pain.
So, basically, yeah... I would like some advice on how to get past this and move on really. It seems to me I can't, and I am just barely stopping myself from texting her again.

Cover Art <<Previous Start Next >>
Mordecai was simply giving into temptation with this second boss. He had wanted to save it for later development, but he also wanted to play with this idea now. And he felt that it would be a nice surprise. So for the first time Mordecai turned his attention towards the technically hostile organisms occupying a part of the dungeon.
“Wait, really? You’re going there? Ewww.” Came Kazue’s mental voice when she realized where his focus was shifting. Mordecai smiled at her response, but kept his attention on his search. He was being picky in a way, but he didn’t want to create something completely mindless. His small constructs might have very simple minds, but they did have minds.
Most of the auras he encountered were far too weak to even consider, despite the size of some of the creatures. There was a certain amount of strength developed from the mind; physical vitality alone could create large amounts of spirit but it took a mind and will to focus it and make it strong.
Of the auras that had a little something more to them, most of them tasted of little other than basic hunger. Those were not what he wanted. No, what he wanted was … there. It wasn’t much, not yet, but there was the slightest hint of curiosity, of hunger turned beyond physical satiation. That would do quite nicely. He could make an offer to a creature like that, a promise to help fulfill this new sensation. He didn’t offer safety or food, he offered stimulation and experience.
There was a sense of confusion at first, and Mordecai couldn’t be happier. If it could be confused, it could learn. The primitive proto-mind briefly stilled, then hesitantly reached back towards the connection to accept. Mordecai’s sense of the creature sharpened and solidified as it became one of his inhabitants, and he mentally grasped it to draw it to the boss room where his avatar awaited, and he opened his eyes to examine what was to become his newest boss.
A gelatinous mass of fluorescent colors shimmered in front of him. If the child-sized ooze didn’t glow slightly, he’d have considered it iridescent instead with the way its colors flowed and shifted. The surface of the creature had a texture that was constantly changing between smooth and crinkled, with occasional bits briefly becoming solid. And floating in the very center was a nearly invisible tiny sphere of crystal. “Oh, you are beautiful.” He murmured to it as he walked around and examined it. “You have the best integration of living crystal and slime I’ve seen yet. I would like to see something.” He stepped up close to it and raised his hand over its surface. “Just a quick poke. Relax and let your reflexes happen, I won’t hurt you and you can’t do any real harm to me.”
Once it acknowledged him, Mordecai used his middle finger to jab at it swiftly. The surface gave slightly before rapidly hardening against the impact and it reflexively built pressure behind that point, then as his finger retreated and the surface tension released the pressure behind that part of the surface automatically flung acid-coated shards of crystal at his hand.
Mordecai spun to the side to avoid most of it, but a few flecks still hit him. They did more damage to his sleeve than to his flesh, but a normal person wouldn’t have taken it quite so well. “Oh, I am going to be happy with you little one. I think we need to start with a name however, and then move on to enhancing you. What do you think of Klastoria?” It pulsed with a pleased-looking flash of color, and Mordecai smiled. “Then it is a pleasure to meet you Klastoria. I am Mordecai.”
“And I’m Kazue!” Announced his wife as she manifested her avatar. “Oh goddess, you are too cute Klastoria!” She practically danced in place as she squeed over the slime. “Mordecai, I want to hug her so badly! How did you find something so cute in that place?”
“Heh, I don’t recommend that just yet love, she needs to learn a bit of restraint first.” Wait a moment. “Um? Her?” He’d initially followed the gender identification before he realized what Kazue had said.
“Yep! Someone this shiny and cute has got to be a girl!” The little kitsune said, and Mordecai couldn’t help but shake his head with a smile.
“I think Zushi might have something to say about boys not being allowed to be cute.”
“Nah, he’s fluffy-cute, that’s different. Klastoria is shiny-cute and pretty like a girl.”
Mordecai decided to translate that into ‘I want her to be a girl’ more than being any sort of rule Kazue was truly serious about. He’d attribute it to youthful whim if it weren’t for the fact that he was pretty certain that a hundred years from now she’d be inclined to do the same sort of thing. He had met her mother after all. “Not a good idea just yet love. Your avatar isn’t acid resistant, and your clothes certainly aren’t.”
While they’d been talking, the little bits of crystal and acid that had hit the ground had melted together and flowed back to rejoin Klastoria. “And I have a spell that can help with that, but let me finish getting Klastoria ready first, alright?”
“Fine fine, hurry up, I want to hug her!”
It was hard to not laugh at Kazue’s eagerness as he turned his attention back to their newest boss-to-be. “Alright, looks like Kazue has decided you are going to be a girl. If you ever decide that’s not right for you, let us know. Now, we want to make you stronger and smarter, though the smarter might be a little slower to come.” Klastoria wouldn’t be able to fully understand what they were saying yet, but she would be able to remember.
He mentally grasped the available boss node and began feeding it the concept of the crystal core in the center gradually growing in size and its paths becoming smaller and more intricate. “We are going to want you to become much bigger …” he paused as a new idea came to him. “Oh wait, how dense can your crystal get?” He had already noticed that the fluid had been compressed when it turned into crystal. Oh, that should work.
“But you won’t always have to be that big. No, with a little enhancement, we can help you compact yourself into a completely crystal form. Yes, that’s going to be your focus, complete mastery of your form and the transition between fluid and solid states.” He had been thinking of focusing more on the acid attacks of a slime-type monster, enhanced with ranged attacks and crystal shards, along with Klastoria being better armored than a typical ooze-type, but this would be, hmm, not necessarily ‘better’ from an absolute sense, but more custom and unique.
Mordecai connected the boss node to Klastoria as he continued to feed in his concepts and took several steps back, motioning for Kazue to do the same. It took a moment for anything to change as all the mana began funneling in, but then Klastoria began to grow rapidly. In just a couple of minutes she grew into a sphere about 15 feet in diameter, jiggling excitedly at all the changes happening. Knowledge came as well as power and mass, and as soon as the connection was finalized she began experimenting.
The huge blob suddenly shrank, transforming into a hard, sharp-edged cube of crystal only about 5 feet across. Mordecai blinked as he ran the math, then double-checked what was happening. It took only a second to realize she’d evolved the concept into a limited version of Shape Change, allowing her to displace a portion of her mass the way many other shape-changing creatures could. But not all of it, she was still nine times as dense in this form, which was a rather intense compression. It put her somewhere in between iron and lead.
It also seemed uncomfortable based off of the emotions from Klastoria, who then began moving through a rapid series of other form-changing experiments. Most of them were manipulating her ability to shift between fluid and solid phases at will with nearly unlimited amounts of discreteness, but she was also able to shift and recall any amount of mass she needed to within her ranges.
She could form long limbs able to swing as freely as any tentacle, but could instantly harden her surface and/or interior to act like exo- or endo-skeletons, and her limbs could have any sort of surface she desired, creating almost any shape of blade or point. The hydraulic pressure that powered her limbs and gave her the ability to fire projectiles of crystallized acid also combined with her size-changing abilities to allow her to leap, and even spin or slightly course-correct by altering her density in one or more spots mid-air.
Climbing was easy too. Any sort of tree-like structure could just be grabbed and used to haul her body up, but she could also flow up walls and crawl along the ceiling by letting her body flow into the tiniest imperfections and then harden into crystal to obtain a surface-wide grip. Mordecai even created a smooth glass surface for her to try on, and Klastoria was able to figure out how to flatten her body enough that simply air pressure could hold her onto it, though she was a bit slower this way.
She couldn’t go perfectly flat though, that sphere of crystal that was the seat of her very self could not be altered. But the ability to change her form so freely gave her lots of options that she was going to be experimenting with for days. Mordecai did point out one new thing for her to try later: With her abilities, there is no reason she shouldn’t be able to drop from almost any height. In her larger form she could increase her internal pressure to just high enough to create a collapsing cushion, while if she made herself a dense, sharp cone she could fall straight into the ground or another object and force it to take the shock of her impact, the rigidity and hardness of her body keeping her from being damaged.
Kazue slid up beside him and asked in an ever-so-sweet voice. “Are you two done playing yet?”
Mordecai chuckled, then swept her into his arms to give her a lingering kiss. “Alright love, you can go hug the squishy slime. She’s learned great control now and should be able to be just soft and pliable enough.” Which honestly would be another great exercise for Klastoria, but he made sure not to mention that thought out loud.
“Yes!” Kazue flung herself at Klastoria with reckless abandon and was quick to explore other play options as the slime could also be anything from a soft cushion to sink into, to a bouncy spring to jump high in the air. Mordecai amused himself by sending some images of what Kazue was doing to Moriko, and the half-elf’s envy was tangible across their link. He doubted she would be initially quite as carefree as Kazue about it, but he didn’t doubt she would enjoy herself.
While his wife played, Mordecai set about double-checking the level and inhabitants, making sure everything tied together and worked smoothly. It would take a few days to get everyone into their routines and roles, and weeks of practice to become well-trained for this mix of terrain and style, but it would be well worth the effort.
The final step was to sweep through again and set limiters. The creatures could simply feel his intent and hold back where needed, but all the more trap-like organisms needed to have a second layer of mana woven over them to reign them in. Things were less sticky, hit softer, and were easier to break. But in exchange, he was able to apply a soft layer of vitality absorption that would increase the fatigue of dealing with the various dangers, roughly approximating how they might feel after dealing with the trap’s full strength.
It increased his overall costs for growing them by about 50%, and if he’d been trying to make them more deadly the expenditure would have failed.
Mordecai snorted. Intent indeed. He’d not thought to layer things like this, he’d grown up just knowing what his limits were on how strong he could make something based on where in his dungeon it was. He’d never tried making something strong, and then ‘waste’ mana by placing a restriction on it. A restriction he could release as needed, but his sincere intent was to only do so if he felt it was needed.
Well, that would cost them a few days at least until they had enough to push down and start the sixth floor, but that was okay. He wanted to work over some ideas with Kazue first anyway. The organization of the first five floors was fine, but despite the theming, the layout was a touch repetitive, and they were deep enough already to make brute forcing a ‘second’ entrance infeasible for most.
<<Previous Start Next >>
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Starting this to see if we can all get together into one space to discuss and hopefully give others a place to find as they research about what happened to their Gala investment.
I apologize ahead of time for the long read.
This debacle has affected a lot of people, including people that don't even know yet. Unfortunately this happened during a bear market which is a time when a lot of people turn into "hodlers" and hold through the bear market checking their accounts less and less and maybe only checking prices through widgets and simple Google searches on CoinMarketCap. This is very unfortunate because if this happened during a bull market (very active accounts), there would be a huge wave of people that wouldn't be able to be ignored; This however happened during a bear market meaning people will come back in small waves and realize they've been rug pulled and start researching what happened and with everybody's complaints spread so far apart, they will simply not be loud enough for Coinbase and for Gala to do anything about it.
If you're reading this and you're a paid Gala shill, simply keep it moving. It's one thing to give advice to try and help people and a whole other thing to talk about "oh but Twitter announcements" and "oh but e-mail". Gala has been constantly referred to as a "blue chip" token and people shouldn't have to worry about being rug pulled by "blue chips". It's one thing to miss out on reward airdrops, and an entirely other things to have your entire investment become worthless while the project moves on with a new project all together.
I've spoken with the Gala team on their Discord channel. I asked them about how they planned their "update" and they calmly explained that they would honor an airdrop as long as you held on particular exchanges and wallets. I asked them what the reason was for not setting up a manual swap for their investors to convert their Gala V1 coins into Gala V2, and why there would be a condition with this upgrade that would result in some investors losing their entire investment. The Gala team quickly kicked me out of the Discord channel and quickly blocked me out of the channel. Gala did not want any real questions and did not want any of their Discord members reading through the details of what had happened.
Coinbase notified Gala ahead of time that they will not distribute V2 to investors. Gala had a choice to set up a manual swap. They didn't. Instead they decided to move forward with the "upgrade" which is actually an ENTIRELY new coin all together. This upgrade meant that Gala would get rug pulled by the developers and they would create a new coin called Gala V2. This "upgrade" which in reality is a new project would come with a time-based condition. The condition was implemented that if you don't move your coins to these particular wallets, that you WILL GET RUG PULLED and lose your entire investment.
The reason for the "upgrade" is because Gala's original project was trash and the Gala team never thought they'd grow this big. It was started as a scam project for the team to make money through pumps and dump on the customer (like many other crypto projects). Gala however got traction and gained enough popularity that the developers decided to stick with it.
Gala now thinks they might have a surviving chance and decided to create a new upgradable project called Gala V2.
Who helped and supported the Gala developers to outgrow their initial creation you ask??? The same group of investors that Gala just rug pulled!
Yes, Gala LITERALLY rug pulled their most supportive investors, the ones that invested into them and trusted them at a time when Gala had no future and no real project. They effed their core investors, the early investors. The ones that trusted them so much that they felt comfortable to walk away momentarily and feel safe and trusted that Gala wouldn't eff them over.
If that doesn't tell you who the TRUE Gala team is, than I'm going to say you're either a paid shill by the Gala team, or you've invested into Gala V2 and cannot take any real negative facts about a project because you're invested into it, and you want to stay within your echo chamber regardless of reality.
I hold eth, and if Vitalik said or did something stupid I would have zero problems dragging his ass all over Twitter and Reddit and whatever other social apps people talk crypto in.
Grow up and call out bull in the crypto space so that we can hold exchanges and developer teams accountable, or it is only a matter of time until it happens to you.
Actions I recommend taking: 1. Call out @GoGalaGames on Twitter 2. Speak with @BitBenderBrink on Twitter 3. Call out @Coinbase on Twitter 4. Call out @Brian_Armstrong on Twitter 5. Speak with Coinbase chat and ask them for a ticket number. You will need this ticket number to file an official complaint on Coinbase through this link : https://help.coinbase.com/en/contact-us/submit-a-complaint 6. Send a letter to your local congressman/congresswoman explaining what Gala did and how Coinbase handled it.
Lastly, if you're here reading this still, odds are you were a victim. Know that you're not alone. These rug pulls have happened before happening as we speak, and will continue to happen unless we start teaming up and start holding exchanges and project developers accountable until we have real regulation in this space. I apologize on Coinbase and Gala's behalf, I feel terrible for you. If you have currently lost a large amount of money, just remember that money comes and goes and just keep your head up meditate and learn to move forward.

Pokemon X and Y will be celebrating its 10th anniversary soon. With this in mind and more support for the Generation 6 games popping up, I felt it was time to look back at the game’s most defining feature: Mega Evolution.
Mega Evolution continues to be one of the most requested features to return to the Pokemon series. Despite many different attempts in other generations to introduce newer and better mechanics, fans continue to ask for Megas. It's easy to see why too. The ability to transform with buffed stats, a better ability, and a fresh new look would make any Pokemon exciting to use again.
While Mega Evolution is viewed favorably, it may not be as good as fans remember. I’m hoping to explore its shortcomings along with a few ideas on how to fix it. I do lean into a competitive perspective, but many points can still be applied to casual story playthroughs. With that said, here are 15 reasons that I believe made Mega Evolution a weak mechanic.

1. Not all Pokemon can use Mega Evolution
2. The Opportunity Cost with a Weaker Mega Evolution
3. Only One Mega Evolution per Battle
4. The Base Forms were Outclassed
5. Blocked New Evolutions
6. Increase of 100 BST
7. Mega Stones and Held Items
8. Dependence on Abilities
9. The Template for Megas was too Strict
10. Multiple Mega Forms were Rare
11. Min/Max Playstyle
12. No Counterplay
13. Team Building
14. No Risk to Activate
15. Cannot Transform Back

Not all Pokemon can use Mega Evolution

Thanks to the power of hindsight, it is more clear what a problem this was for Mega Evolution, seeing as all future generational gimmicks have avoided the issue. The only Pokemon that could use Mega Evolution were those that were given a Mega form. If your favorite Pokemon did not have a Mega form, it simply could not engage with the mechanic. Other than giving every fully evolved Pokemon a Mega form, I do not see an easy way out of this problem.

The Opportunity Cost of a Weaker Mega Evolution

Competitive play will always seek out the most optimal strategies. Not all Megas need to be perfectly balanced amongst each other, as some are bound to be stronger than others. But the variance in power levels was too much. Mega Evolution was meant to put a spotlight on the Pokemon that received these forms. But when it came to competitive play, only a handful actually stayed relevant. So long as Mega Evolution is limited to once per battle, this cannot be solved.

Only One Mega Evolution per Battle

The above point was exacerbated by the fact that you can only use Mega Evolution once per battle. Weaker Mega Evolutions still saw little usage because the stronger Megas took the one and only mega slot on the team. Even if one of these weaker Megas was fun or interesting, if it could not keep up with the stronger picks, it would not be picked at all. Allowing for multiple weaker Megas in the same battle, or a single strong Mega, would give the weaker Pokemon a better chance at that coveted team spot.

The Base Forms were Outclassed

This may come off as a weird argument. Because of course the Pokemon should become stronger after it Mega Evolves. But this may not be for the best in many cases. If you see a Kangaskhan on your opponent’s team, you can count on it to Mega Evolve. Personally, Megas were at their most interesting when the base form was on a similar level to the Mega.

Blocked New Evolutions

A transformation that was strictly better than the form a Pokemon originally took? That sounds like a normal evolution too! Many of the Pokemon that received Mega Evolutions could have been better served with a normal evolution instead. These evolutions would stand the test of time better and not be cut along with Mega Evolution itself.

Increase of 100 BST

Upon Mega Evolving, every Pokemon saw an increase of 100 points to their base stat total. Pokemon like Garchomp got creative by lowering some stats to further heighten others, but it still resulted in a 100 point increase in the end. This treatment is equal, but not fair. Many felt Mega Evolution should have been used to buff up weaker Pokemon to keep up with the modern meta. But this universal BST increase did not reduce that gap at all due to too many strong Pokemon also receiving Megas. Catering the BST increase to each Pokemon would have been a better, though more involved approach.

Mega Stones and Held Items

Mega Stones were another universal trait of Mega Evolution (except Mega Rayquaza lol), being required as the held item to Mega Evolve at all. While not a fundamentally flawed idea, this choice ultimately hindered creative builds by denying the use of other battle items on your Mega. Instead, weaker Megas could have different requirements to Mega Evolve, such as a wide variety of items, if any item is required at all. Again, catering the held item requirement to each Mega Evolution would be a better approach.

Dependence on Abilities

While it's great to see weaker Pokemon buffed with a powerful ability, this design approach made the quality of a Mega depend on their ability. Abilities like Tough Claws, Huge Power, or Adaptability were commonly picked for Megas and all had a similar theme of increasing the Pokemon’s damage output. Because Mega’s are locked into this one and only ability upon transforming, they are often left with only a single viable playstyle that takes advantage of their ability. Access to more abilities for Mega forms with a wider variety of abilities would alleviate this issue.

The Template for Megas was too Strict

All of the inherent traits of Mega Evolution were too strict. The 100 BST increase, forced to hold a Mega stone, the new ability, and limiting battles to just 1 Mega, were all too restrictive to be universally applied. Some Pokemon could have evolved with other held items. The ability of the base form could have influenced the ability of the Mega. Some Pokemon that were already strong did not need the same 100 BST increase that weaker Pokemon got. Easing up on these rules would make Megas feel more fresh and give more breathing room for creative designs in the future.

Multiple Mega Forms were Rare

While every other Pokemon received just 1 Mega form, Charizard and Mewtwo both received an X and Y form. This system is brilliant and could be used to fix many of the other issues listed above. Different forms could have different BST increases, different abilities, or even different held item requirements. This would make Megas less predictable and more exciting to see in battle. Without a doubt though, creating 2 Mega forms for the same Pokemon would be more work than creating just 1. Even if visually the 2 forms were identical, I believe this addition would be worth it.

Min/Max Playstyle

Often thanks to the chosen ability for a Mega, most Mega evolutions had very narrow, but very powerful options. Abilities like Mega Launcher funneled players into using a very limited pool of moves to take full advantage of this ability. Each Mega seems to have an intended play style. An extreme and powerful style, but also predictable and boring. An X and Y form for each Mega could have given each Pokemon more options to adapt the player’s needs, as well as relieve the pressure to min/max every Mega into a certain play style.

No Counterplay

Mega Evolution is often looked at through the perspective of the user. But how does one approach it differently when their opponent uses it? Simply put, a Mega Evolved Pokemon is approached the same way as any other Pokemon. Any strategy used to counter your opponent’s use of Mega Evolution could be equally applied to a normal Pokemon. Unless Mega Evolution fundamentally changes with new drawbacks or activation requirements, I do not see a clear fix.

Team Building

Building your team is no simple task, especially for competitive battling. Mega Evolution requires consideration in this phase as well, because you cannot Mega Evolve without equipping a Mega Stone before a battle begins. Sacrificing a held item is not a small ask, so the choice of who can utilize Mega Evolution on your team is crucial. Because the stakes are so high before the battle even begins, the need to plan your Mega before battling only exacerbates the opportunity cost of using a weaker Mega. When in doubt, players will of course plan to use the most powerful Mega, rather than risk a weaker one. A better system would be more flexible and open to improvisation mid battle. Players could still approach a battle with a particular Mega in mind, but be allowed to change their mind depending on the flow of battle.

No Risk to Activate

Other than the preparations required before a battle even begins, there is effectively no drawback to Mega Evolving. With no cost or risk to activate, players almost always would Mega Evolve immediately after sending out their Pokemon. A Dynamax like approach limiting Megas to only 3 turns could have drastically changed the mechanic, for better or worse. But this 3 turn limit adds an extra layer of depth that Megas are missing. The will to stall out your opponent’s Mega or the risk that comes with timing your own may be the push and pull needed to make the act of Mega Evolution more interesting.

Cannot Transform Back

Mega Evolution is unique from regular evolutions because it is only temporary. But this temporary status is never felt in battle, as you only transform back once the battle ends. The inability to revert back to the base form silently hurts Mega Evolution. Transforming back to the original form, intentionally or not, makes for a more dynamic mechanic as well as selling the temporary aspect of Mega Evolution. Due to many Megas being clearly superior to their base forms, this would be a negative for most Pokemon. Others could take advantage of the mechanic, alternating between different abilities. Or maybe even tagging out one Mega to instead Mega Evolve another.

Conclusion

Leading up to its release in Pokemon X and Y, Mega Evolution was an exciting idea to freshen up the stale Pokemon formula. Though ultimately removed in Pokemon Sword and Shield, many fans still want to see Mega Evolution brought back to the main series game. But after considering all the shortcomings of Mega Evolution, I find it has too many problems to warrant a return.
This topic is complex and my word is by no means final. This is also not a dismissal of the shortcomings of other battle mechanics. Mega Evolution is clearly still very loved by the community and that is not without reason. I hope that keeping both the good and bad in mind can lead to a productive discussion on the quality of Mega Evolution.

PICOT: population are the medical students printing progress notes. Intervention considered, hiding the paper from the attendings. Comparison alternative intervention, sending the medical student to find a Doppler instead. Outcome fewer medical students jam the printer and get hit with hammers. Time frame is until the nurses lose interest because a charge nurse got a nurse and a tech pregnant in the course of a week.
Attendings carry dangerously long patient lists, because running an outpatient addiction clinic in Meth City beats working in a hospital for a bunch of administrators with MBAs from Southeast Arkansas School of Business and Television Repair.
As a consequence, the remaining attendings are busy making sure they have fulfilled 72 discrete administrative tasks and practices holistic medicine with all of their patients. They are also responsible for an unknown number of residents. Finally they are responsible for making sure the APRN knows the difference between levophed and labatilol, and why you can’t give either to a patient during an outpatient MRI.
Many APRNs from the Hollywood Upstairs Online Graduate School of Nursing have trouble distinguishing between drugs that start with the same letter and will only prescribe drugs that start with the same letter each day of the week. It’s a terrifying 26 day cycle, not unlike the time the attending had a pregnancy scare during their MCAT prep.
As a result medical students on rotation are the absolute lowest priority. The attending, however, has been instructed to find something for those little shits to do. So the medical students are assigned the task of printing all of the progress notes for all of the patients on the attending’s list. Inevitably the medical student jams the old as fuck printer. This is because the hospital is spending money on CRNA Appreciation Day’s golf outing and the medical student has not learned the ways of the the printer.
Learning the ways of the printer is harder than learning how to do a radical neck resection to repair soft tissue cancers extending from the hard palate to the esophageal sphincter. Micro stitching is much easer than applying 2.4 psi of pressure with a slight anti-clockwise rotation of the head of the one specific plastic screw, with the rotation not to exceed 7 degrees or 0.04 pound feet of torque, which causes the printer to print without jamming. If done incorrectly this will cause the printer to smoke and the student will be hit with a hammer.
Loss of a printer is inconvenient, because IT is in a Section 8 apartment in the housing projects across town. The hospital used a janitor’s paystubs to get the apartment. It’s very economical and the janitor and his family are allowed to live in the Provider’s Lounge. IT takes approximately 4 days to make it to the unit and then has to order the parts from North Korea. Every time someone needs to print, and can’t, a medical student gets hit with a hammer. Hammer injuries don’t pay well, so administration wants to reduce the number of med students in the ED.
The proposed intervention is hiding all of the paper. The working theory is that if a pleasing nurse in Figs tells the attending that they are out of paper. Then the medical students will have to sit and watch an APRN try to perform a bedside neck resection on an awake and alert 43 year patient recovering from an ACL repair after a drunk pickeball injury.
It is not going well. If a medical student tries to stop the neck resection, then they will be hit with a hammer. APRNs are the future and if you make them mad, they will leave the hospital and go open their own clinic specializing in Botox and ketamine. If you make an APRN sad, you will be hit with a hammer. Just stay quiet and go along with the “no paper” story.
Alternative intervention, a RN tells the attending that they don’t have time to doppler pulses on the fem-pop. They are busy buying Figs and applying to CRNA school. The attending will send the medical students to find a Doppler and then have them doppler the pulses. This works because there are no dopplers left in the hospital. They got lost in the bedding after a code and went to hospital laundry. The administration wants to cut Doppler costs this year, so no replacements are available. The fem-pop was unsuccessful, the foot turned blue, and it’s taken 4 more surgeries to repair - so many ICD-10 codes to enter.
Sidebar: rumor is that next year administration is cutting EKG machine costs, because someone said a 3 lead is just as good. The cardiology residents are already building their own EKG machines and testing them on forensic patients. So far the machine works well, with only a small number of burns. Unfortunately, these machines don’t read the EKG for them, but ChatGPT gives decently accurate reads.
Back to the study. I’m not sure if sidebars are allowed in APA 7th, but the APA 7th can suck my floridly psychotic patient’s left nut.
The medical students will spend their entire rotation finding the Doppler. This prevents any medical student caused printer issues and subsequent hammer bearings.
Proposed outcome. Fewer medical students with poorly reimbursed hammer injuries and fewer problems with the federal government every time a package full of printer parts and a class-traitor’s hand arrives from North Korea.
Time frame: at least a week or two. It will probably get abandoned when news breaks that James the charge nurse has been pursuing chunky RNs and techs and missed the pull out.
James knows that if the Figs are tight at the seams and she’s talking about getting a tattoo of her Pitbull that died of police gunfire after it attacked a school bus, then the panties are coming off after he buys them Applebees twice. Unfortunately James doesn’t know that the pullout method is ineffective, especially in the break room on the unit that’s closed for plumbing repair. Anyway, he’s gotten two of them pregnant in the same week.
The RNs have all been watching him try to gaslight the tech into believing that they’ve never actually had sex. He’s simultaneously trying to get the nurse to pickup some extra shifts to pay for her own abortion and cover some staffing holes.
Barbara the unit secretary figured it all out, because James, the tech, and the nurse all treat her like their work grandma.
Unfortunately Barbara said that the tech has been gaslighted before and isn’t falling for it again. Also the RN is a born again Christian and won’t get an abortion, wants her baby raised in a Christian household with a daddy, doesn’t know about the tech, and is straight fucking crazy.
So the study will probably end when news breaks. Side benefit, everyone is picking up to see it happen, so staffing has improved.
Statistical analysis: none, cause fuck statistics.

• [ ] There is nothing you can do to avoid a hammer beating even though its ICD-10 code reimburses at less than a flu shot.

I wrote this for a nursing theory class in my psych APRN program, and got an A, because nobody cares what we do. APRNs are the future.

Part 1 - https://www.reddit.com/nosleep/comments/11ovngn/i_play_a_game_they_call_sleep_points_every_night/
Previous Part - https://www.reddit.com/nosleep/comments/13deva8/i_play_a_game_they_call_sleep_points_every_night/
When I got home from school, even though I knew the clock wasn’t literally going to try to eat me alive like it always seemed to want to on weeknights, I still watched it intensely, dreading every minute that passed. Even though this had all been what I was hoping for over the course of the last week and a half, going through with everything I would need to do to meet up with Anastasia at her house in the middle of the night still seemed way scarier than just dealing with the clock’s nightly threats against my life which, by that point, had become something of a routine for me.
At 11:00 PM, my parents looked like they had gone to sleep. I would wait another hour as Anastasia had advised. I would leave at midnight. And that wouldn’t be a problem since it was a Friday night, and my clock wasn’t going through its usual changes. By that time, the clock hadn’t started glowing or even turning the slightest shade of red.
When midnight did come, the clock was still in the same state as it was at 11. My parents were still asleep. They hadn’t even gotten up for a bathroom break. I turned on the kitchen lights, hoping it wouldn’t wake my parents up. It didn’t. I went to the kitchen table to take the keys to my father's truck. They weren’t there. I had no idea where else to look for them.
I tried looking all around the kitchen and living room. I checked mom and dad's bathroom. Nothing. I didn’t know how I would make my way to Anastasia’s house now. I could just picture her, spending all night at her back door, waiting for me to show up, without me ever coming. Maybe I'd find the keys tomorrow. But that seemed like a fat chance since dad wasn't gonna be driving anywhere tomorrow.
I wouldn't have him to find them for me. It looked like I’d have to wait a whole nother week on any answers now.
I had recently invested in a new watch. I had some allowance money left over from when I was a kid. My school has a little gift shop with small things like school-themed wristwatches, so after my last class of the day, I stopped by and picked up a College High watch so I could check the time without needing to look at the clock in my room or at my phone. I'm bringing this up because at around this point I was watching with increasing anxiety as time was passing by. According to the watch, the time now was 12:30 and I still didn’t have any access to my father’s car.
I was already feeling hopeless enough, just thanks to that fact, but then I remembered that I still didn’t even know how to get to Anastasia’s house.
Since I still didn’t know where the keys were and it didn’t look like I’d find them any time soon, I figured I’d take a break from looking, and go on my phone to look up her address on google maps. I knew I shouldn’t have been using my phone since it was apparently super important not to let it die. I figured it must've been one of those rules like keeping my head under the blanket when the monster showed up, along with the rest of my body. But I would only need my phone for a few minutes. Just enough time to look at google maps and sketch out a rough map of the route from my house to Anastasia’s.
The first thing I noticed when I typed in her address was that, thankfully, her house wasn’t too horrendously far away from mine. It would just be a 4-mile drive. So hopefully this meant that, if push did come to shove, I could still just walk there if I had too. I’d probably be late, but that would be better than not showing up at all. So, I at least had that as a back-up plan if nothing else. But it would still be risky. It would take a lot of time to walk there, and then to walk back. Maybe mom and dad would be up after all was said and done. Maybe they’d hear me coming back inside the house, regardless of how I made it to Anastasia’s. Maybe I’d wake up Anastasia’s parents too.
Since I only had an hour and thirty-five minutes left, I had no time to worry all that much about any of this though. I had to get to work, jotting down the path to Anastasia’s house. I would turn left out of my driveway, stay on that road for about a mile and a half, then turn right and stay on that road for another half-mile, then turn left for another mile, and then left again for a final fourth mile.
Another thing I noticed was that Anastasia lived out in the middle of absolute nowhere. I thought I did too, but Anastasia’s house was on a whole nother level of out there.
Fortunately, that meant I’d be driving pretty much exclusively on backroads, so it would literally be impossible to take a wrong turn after I made my first turn out of the driveway and the next right turn after that after about a mile and a half. It also meant that I would be pretty much guaranteed not to run into any other drivers, especially at that time of night. But I guess her remote address explained why she didn’t have the internet connection she would need to do a video call.
Since it was a quarter to 1 by that point, after I found out how to drive to her house, I put on all the layers I could find, took the flashlight that my mom had given me for the walk I had went on during the week prior, and started trying to walk over there, without my parents’ car, despite her recommendations. Even though it was four miles by car, I wouldn't have to worry about staying on the road if I just walked there. If I walked in a straight line, I could get there in just over 2 and half miles or so. I had decided to leave, not out of the front door, but out of the door in the hallway that led to the garage. That door made less noise than the front door.
Unfortunately, I started to get the sense that I hadn’t thought this plan through when I realized I would still have to open the garage door in order to make my way into the outside world. Which, yeah, made considerably more noise than the front door. But then I realized it didn’t matter, since I was gonna have to open the garage door anyway if I wanted to get the car out of the garage and onto the road. So, I had still made the right decision. Except no I hadn’t, because I had just remembered that I still didn’t have the car keys, and so I was supposed to be ditching the whole car idea anyway and had just randomly forgotten about all of that.
I know that all probably sounded pretty messy and wasn't very easy to follow, but maybe someone else reading with ADHD can relate. But anyway, confusing thought processes aside, I walked out the front door and started making my way to Anastasia’s on foot. It really was freezing though. I really did wonder if I could actually make it all the way to her house.
Before I even made it to the end of the driveway, I began to change my mind and decided driving really would be a more reasonable alternative. Obviously, the backroads wouldn’t even be close to snow plowed. But the snow only looked to be about maybe 6 or 7 inches deep, which was still driveable enough with the snow-proof tires that my dad had on his truck. This level of snow isn't all that uncommon around here, so those tires are pretty much a must-have for anybody living in deathly cold climates like us.
So, I could still drive despite the snow, albeit only very slowly what with how much the snow would slow me down. But I was supposed to be driving slowly anyway because I was only 14 and didn’t have a license. But I still couldn’t drive without those keys. Then I remembered I still had my bike in the garage. It was supposedly “all terrain”, so hopefully that meant it could handle the snow. I went into the garage, got my bike out, and tried riding it. Unfortunately, the tires on that bike weren’t even close to capable of handling the snow. I tried pedaling as hard as I could but hardly got anywhere before falling over. I had a feeling this would probably happen. It seemed like a dumb idea but, since I didn’t want to steal my dad’s truck and I couldn’t even seem to find his keys anyway, I figured it was at least worth a shot.
I was just about to say “fuck it” and try meeting Anastasia again on some other night when, just as I had put my bike down in the garage, I had seen that my dad had left behind his keys in the key slot of his car door. Apparently, the reason that they weren’t where they usually were was because my father had locked the truck and just forgot to take his keys with him. I turned the key sticking out of the driver’s side door and it opened. So I really could get inside of his truck after all.
I put the key into the ignition and then put it in reverse. The truck made quite a bit of noise when its ignition started, so I had just hoped that I hadn’t woken up my parents with that. Luckily, my garage is on the other side of the house from where my parents sleep, so the sound did at least have a long way to travel. Once I started backing the truck out of the garage and into the driveway, I ran into another problem. Since the roads weren’t plowed, they were just as snowy as anywhere else. So even with the rearview mirror, I had no idea where my driveway stopped and the road started. I figured I would just keep backing up until I felt like I’d gone far enough.
Far enough came sooner than expected though. Eventually, the car had very clearly backed into the grass, meaning I had backed up too far. Fortunately, I saw that I hadn’t veered too much out of the straight line I was trying to go in, because driving in reverse meant I could see the truck’s tracks right in front of me with the help of the headlights. The car fell onto the grass from back to front. So that meant that the road was now directly in front of me. Since I needed to take a left from my house if I was facing away from it, and I was now facing the opposite direction given that I was looking right at it, that meant that I now had to make a right turn in order to still be going in the right direction.
I took a moment to make sure my logic was right and, once I felt confident, I turned the truck right and then tried to feel for where the road was based on how well the truck was able to move. Eventually I was able to drive relatively smoothly, so I took that to mean that I was back on the road. I tried to angle myself properly so that I wouldn’t wind up veering off the road again. Now and then I would wind up driving myself off the road. But since I was only going like 5 miles an hour, I was able to catch myself before the car wound up falling into any ditches or something.
Since the road was entirely empty, I eventually made the decision to just drive in the middle of the road. Or at least, wherever I thought the middle of the road was. That way, I’d limit the likelihood of driving myself off the right edge.
After about 20 or 30 minutes of driving painfully slowly, I finally saw the sign for my first turn. Since all the turns I was making were fairly sharp ones, they were basically all 90 degrees, there were road signs that I could use to gauge when I should turn without needing to see the road itself. So I still knew when to do it, even though I couldn’t see the road under all the snow and I couldn't use GPS since my phone had to stay on the charger at all costs.
But the snow still made those sharp turns very difficult to make. So I had to start all my turns pretty far ahead of where they actually would’ve been in the road. Naturally, I wound up driving off the road when making literally all of them. But I was always able to work out where the road was supposed to be soon enough. I guess since people are more likely to veer off the road when making turns as opposed to when they’re driving straight, there didn’t seem to be any ditches around all those sharp turns, thankfully enough.
After I made that first turn, I checked my watch. It was now a quarter after 1. I still had 50 minutes to go. I wasn’t making great time, but I had still made it about a third of the way in only about 25 minutes. If I kept up the pace, I’d be there after just under an hour of driving. Which would put me there a little bit after 2 AM. So, pretty much exactly at 2:05, the time we agreed on.
I kept on driving incredibly slowly for what felt like forever. Finally I had made my last turn, and after a bit, I could see lights from the houses off the side of the road in the distance. I figured that this must be the neighborhood Anastasia lived in. If you could even call it a neighborhood. The houses were so hugely spaced out that it hardly even made sense to say you had neighbors. But then, she really did live out in the middle of nowhere.
Every time I passed by a house, I got out of the car and looked for an address with my flashlight. This slowed me down, but it still ensured that I would be headed for the right house. I kept the slip of paper with her address on it since I knew that, without that sheet, I’d absolutely forget which address was hers. I was actually pretty pleased with myself for having thought ahead like that. I usually didn’t. I guess I still usually don’t, if I’m being honest.
I was worried that this whole procedure of getting out of the car to scope out for an address every time I passed a new house would make me late. But fortunately, Anastasia’s house was the third house I came across on that street. So thankfully, I didn’t wind up having to check that many houses and it only cost me maybe another 5 minutes. When I checked my watch, I found I had actually arrived sooner than I had thought. Even with checking every house I had come across up to that point for the address, it was only 1:50.
I had made it with 15 minutes to spare. That meant I had made that last two thirds of my trip in about the same amount of time that I had spent on my first, meaning I had wound up going twice as fast. I suppose as I had gotten comfortable with driving, I sped up the car a little without even realizing it. Doubling your speed sounds like it should be a huge difference, but when you’re only going from 5 miles per hour to 10, I guess it must be pretty hard to notice.
Since I had so much time left and the weather outside was still hellishly cold, I stayed in the truck with the heater blaring. After a couple of minutes, I noticed an ominous red light glowing out of the side of the house. That seemed off to me since surely that couldn’t have anything to do with Anastasia’s clock. It wasn’t a weeknight and even if it was, it was still well past midnight. I remembered what she had told me about how I was still on Stage One. Maybe the fact that she was on a much later stage had something to do with what I was seeing. The fact that I was still on Stage One did, after all, seem like it had something to do with the fact that I was only threatened by the clock on weeknights.
My curiosity had gotten the better of me, and so I braved the cold and snow to go check out what was happening. There was a window on the side of the house. The curtains were left open so with the red light blaring from it, I could see inside fairly easily. Especially since the house was only one story, so it wasn’t like the window was too high up off the ground for me to see through, either.
My fears had been confirmed. Upon looking into the room, I could see exactly where the red light was emanating from: the clock on the nightstand. The face inside was as clear as ever. Every feature slowly growing, approaching the glass in front of the clock’s face. But it wasn’t looking at me. It was very clearly directing its vile and hateful gaze at the person under the covers.
The person had her head covered underneath the blanket, so I couldn’t directly tell who it was. But I figured it had to be Anastasia. For one, there was no way in hell anybody else in her family was playing Sleep Points too. I mean, what are the odds of that? And for another, the room pretty clearly looked like it belonged to a teenage girl about Anastasia’s age. Everything looked like it was pink and had all kinds of frills to it. I even noticed some boyband poster on the other end of the room. If this wasn’t the most stereotypical teenage girl’s room, I had no fucking clue what was.
Finally, 2 o’clock had come. I could see why she had told me 2:05. I had never seen the monster from the clock break out. I had always had my head under the covers whenever it happened. But since this was Anastasia’s clock and not mine and since the face in the clock was staring her down and not me, and since I had entire wall separating me from the thing, I guess I somehow managed to muster up the courage to watch the monster in action.
Suddenly, the hands and numbers of the clock’s face began to almost melt into the monster’s face. It had broken out of the sheet of glass holding it back. But that seemed to be the only thing that was broken. The rest of the actual clock remained pretty intact as the unspeakable thing from within started to slither out of the clock and onto the floor. Since the hands and numbers were still on its face, it kinda looked like they had been imprinted on it like some kind of tattoo artwork. It very quickly expanded in size and let out this unholy screech that I could hear very loudly even from behind the window. But Anastasia was still sleeping very peacefully. Totally motionless like nothing at all was going on.
It prowled around her bed, looking for the slightest sign of motion. It looked almost skeptically at her. As if it could tell whether she was really sleeping or not. And God only knows what would’ve happened to her if she wasn’t. Eventually the monster seemed satisfied with what he saw and shrunk himself down to his original size. He slid back into the clock and as he did so, there was one last glow of red light. The glass had been restored. It was now 2:01.