Powershell gui interprest split as space

Celtic and Rochester: A WoWsL Tier 7 Review

2023.03.29 11:41 Captn_Thatch Celtic and Rochester: A WoWsL Tier 7 Review

HMS Celtic

USS Rochester (CA-124)

Scope

These ships were given to me by Wargaming for review.
Welcome back. Sure, it does seem rather apt to jump into the first published review in sometime with the addition of two new Baltimores…well, one Oregon-City Cruiser, and another Baltimore. With both ships being so closely related, it seems fitting to tag them both together here. Per the norm, there will be lots of pretty charts, and a comprehensive breakdown of both ships; with the added benefit of showing exactly where these two wrap up into the bigger picture.
All stats are current to the best of my knowledge as of v5.1. Stats are subject to change in the future, and this review may not reflect those changes.
Celtic is a GREAT ship, with a MODERATE Skill Floor and a HIGH Skill Ceiling.
Rochester is an AVERAGE ship, with a LOW Skill Floor and a MODERATE Skill Ceiling.
Quite obviously, this review is going to be mostly centered on Celtic, with some Rochester slapped in there to show exactly how she stacks up to the competition. 2 for 1, or a freebie, you decide.
Nothing could honestly make me happier than to be able to bring reviews and writing to you all full-time. If this interests you and you enjoy reading my work, please support me if you can, as every little bit helps. My goal is to keep my reviews free and public for all to read; and by supporting my Patreon you can help keep me at my desk.

Matrix Rating

History

The design was first commissioned in the late 1930's, which adapted lessons learned from the preceding Wichita-Class and the currently under construction, lighter Cleveland Class. Baltimore's design featured an orthodox A-B-X configuration of 3 triple turrets of (8") 203mm guns. Fast and well-armed for the era, the fate of the project ended by cancelling later ships construction in favor of the Cleveland Class which were both faster, lighter, and quicker to build which meant more ships out at sea protecting US Navy Carriers. Baltimore Class Cruisers were built from 1941-1945 with some serving in various sub-classes until the 1970's.
With 14 completed ships of the class, the Baltimore-Class had the most constructed heavy cruisers built of any one class from nation during the war-time period. Generally considered a success, the class was preceded by the USS Wichita, and succeeded by the Oregon-City Class. With attached sub-classes, the Boston Class featuring the world's first Guided Missile Cruiser in the early 1950's USS Boston (CAG-1) and Flagship variations. The design was most notable for incorporation of surveillance radar, gun control fire systems which allowed for calculation beyond the horizon, 5'' Anti-Air, and 8'' Main Battery. This design was focused in on the ships ability to be a Carrier Fleet Escort Ship, capable of both Anti-Air Screening, Shore Bombardment, eventually being modified to serve as the world's first guided missile cruiser.
USS Baltimore (CA-68) herself was laid down in 1941, by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. The ship was launched in 1942 and served until 1956 when she was decommissioned, and eventually scrapped in 1971. The ship served primarily in the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign, earning 9 battle stars.
HMS Celtic is a made-up ship that never actually existed but rests on the concept that would have been if the Baltimore Class had been sent to the Royal Navy. This was not an entirely foreign concept of the era either, with the two allied nations cooperating heavily with some ships being used by the other’s navy. It would be this cooperation that ultimately played a decisive role in every major theatre of World War 2.
USS Rochester (CA-124) was laid down in the same shipyard as her predecessor, in May 1944. She would be launched in August the following year, then commissioned into the US Navy in 1946. Succeeding the Baltimore Class, the Oregon City Class featured many similarities, with changes to her exhaust, superstructure and Anti-Air Suite. Rochester would serve throughout Korea and Vietnam, being decommissioned in the 1960s, and scrapped in the 1970s. 10 Oregon City Cruisers were planned, with only 4 completed.

Strengths: Celtic

Weaknesses: Celtic

Strengths: Rochester

Weaknesses: Rochester

The Basics

A Baltimore with a Super Heal and longer-range radar? Sign me up. Baltimore on her own is already one of the stronger ships in the game and in terms of utility, one of the stronger team players. Celtic takes an interesting concept and adds a new flair to an older line. She has her own strengths and weaknesses, all of which will be identified, some of which are likely to be seemingly splitting the finest of hairs. This ship has a bit less of a grudge against controlling caps than the traditional Baltimore but should be readily found in the same niche doing the same things, just slightly different. Radar support, anti-destroyer, area control are all tags that apply. Celtic is strong, strong enough to be thrown in with the likes of AL Baltimore, Mainz CE and Wichita CE.
Trashchester is tough. I’ll honestly do my best to not shred this ship into a bajillion pieces while pouring out the salt, but I’m only human. She was painful on release, and since she’s had work done, fitting for her review to be finally finished and published for you all to use as a dash of seasoning for dinner. On release, Rochester had a smoke fire concealment on par with her sister’s base concealment, meaning, her smoke was essentially pointless and served only to blind herself, and not her opponents. Lacking radar, Rochester presented as a clumsy self-blinding target unable to deal the things that engage her. What’s worse, Rochester trades her heal for her smoke, meaning, players are left purchasing a regular old Baltimore, with some fancy AA, or a deaf-mute without a heal. Yes. She was that painful; a concept that bumps in the worst of ways, both theoretically and in practice. While her concealment has been buffed, it’s still an awful kit as her smoke fire concealment is still too weak to present much of a force upon the caps. If we’re stuck to smoke firing spam, there are better ships than Rochester; even making good old Belfast 43 seem like a knight in shining armor.
Both of these ships do sport improved AP performance, in the shape of improved ricochet angles. We’ll tear this apart in the ballistic section, as per the norm. Baltimore’s ballistic performance has been studied quite extensively in the past, which has set up an excellent point of comparison.

Offense

Let’s start with the prodigal child and then work towards the bought rented mule. Celtic does well here, in terms of heavy cruisers (203mm) she sits nearer the top of the lists dropping more midfield when included with the rest of the pack. Apart from some of those silly DPM small caliber ships, Celtic packs a noteworthy punch. Rochester starts more midfield and holds her placing through the pack. For a 203mm cruiser, a 2s difference in reload is often enough to bump a ship up or down a rank, entirely. This translates to roughly 20k between the two, and about a full salvo difference.
HE Alpha HE DPM
AL Chapayev 2850 256 500
Cleveland 2300 254 769
Weimar 1700 244 800
Suzuya 2700 243 000
AL Montpelier 2300 220 800
Bayard 2200 221 200
Belfast 43 2450 207 529
Harbin 1900 207 273
Chapayev 2300 207 000
Mainz CE 1700 204 000
Kutuzov 2200 198 000
Mainz 1600 192 000
Ochakov 2200 182 069
Charles Martel 2800 151 200
Wichita CE 2800 151 200
Celtic 2700 145 800
Albemarle 3300 142 560
Wichita 2600 140 400
AL Baltimore 2800 137 454
Mogami 3300 132 000
Baltimore 2800 126 000
Rochester 2800 126 000
Atago 3300 123 750
Pyotr Bagration 2500 122 727
Azuma 5100 114 750
Hipper 2700 112 696
Riga 3050 106 625
Amalfi 3100 104 625
Prinz Eugen 2500 92 308
Sigfried 4400 60 923
Edinburgh - -
Perfect 10 - -
Plymouth - -
In terms of alpha punch, Celtic and Rochester are somewhat similar separated by the performance of firing different shells off different reloads from the same gunnery.
AP Alpha AP DPM
Weimar 3750 540 000
Mainz 3900 468 000
Mainz CE 3900 468 000
Plymouth 3100 457 846
Cleveland 3300 365 538
Perfect 10 2800 358 400
Bayard 3300 316 800
AL Montpelier 3200 307 200
Chapayev 3400 306 000
Edinburgh 3100 297 600
Kutuzov 3300 297 000
Suzuya 3300 297 000
AL Chapayev 3100 279 000
Ochakov 3300 273 103
Harbin 2500 272 727
Charles Martel 4900 264 600
Belfast 43 3100 282 570
Hipper 6000 250 435
AL Baltimore 5000 245 454
Celtic 4500 243 000
Wichita CE 4200 226 800
Baltimore 5000 225 000
Rochester 5000 225 000
Pyotr Bagration 4550 223 364
Prinz Eugen 5900 217 846
Wichita 4000 216 000
Riga 5750 200 323
Azuma 8650 194 625
Albemarle 4500 194 400
Mogami 4700 188 000
Atago 4700 176 250
Amalfi 5100 172 125
Sigfried 11 600 160 615
Celtic has among the better AP DPM values for a 203mm armed cruiser, only being outclassed by ships with meatier AP. In terms of overall, Celtic sits more midfield. Her overall AP ballistic performance allows her to unlock more of this actual number than many of her counterparts.
Range (Km) Reload (s)
Weimar 15.3 5.0
Harbin 14.5 5.5
Ochakov 15.5 5.8
Mainz 15.8 6.0
Mainz CE 15.8 6.0
Plymouth 15.2 6.5
Cleveland 15.3 6.5
AL Montpelier 13.9 7.5
Perfect 10 15.2 7.5
Edinburgh 15.3 7.5
Bayard 15.8 7.5
Kutuzov 16.0 8.0
AL Chapayev 16.0 8.0
Chapayev 16.0 8.0
Belfast 43 15.3 8.5
Celtic 15.5 10.0
Suzuya 15.3 10.0
Charles Martel 15.8 10.0
Wichita 15.5 10.0
Wichita CE 15.5 10.0
Pytor Bagration 16.0 11.0
AL Baltimore 15.5 11.0
Hipper 15.8 11.5
Baltimore 15.5 12.0
Rochester 15.4 12.0
Albemarle 15.5 12.5
Prinz Eugen 15.8 13.0
Mogami 15.3 15.0
Riga 16.1 15.5
Amalfi 15.4 16.0
Atago 14.7 16.0
Azuma 15.8 24.0
Sigfried 16.2 26.0
Overall, there’s not all that much to crow about here. Rochester sits a bit lower on the charts than Celtic due to reload. Both have improved ballistics to offer compensation for a lack of torpedoes. The DPM numbers are at their worst, workable, and at best, functional, neither being awful nor spectacular. Celtic takes the edge due to better numbers overall.

Ballistics

The tell-all ballistic chart. Royal Navy Cruisers and US Navy Cruisers sport among the best AP performance in their respective classes and tiers. Celtic has among the best HE DPM numbers of the Baltimores, but takes a hit on her fire chance percentage. Rochester SHAP hits like a truck, along with her Baltimore cousins. Things get interesting here the more you study this chart, captains. Celtic has arguably better HE, but worse AP. Rochester has SHAP and excellent AP performance, but poor shell count. AL Baltimore once again takes the cake with the best “happy medium” of the bunch, sporting a decent shell count, SHAP with excellent penetration and a lower muzzle velocity introducing slightly higher arcs yielding much more forgiving angles on the receiving end…
What I can say definitively, is Baltimore SHAP has much greater penetration than the standard AP. Wichita leans on HE at range, and she has the numbers to back it up, Baltimore hardly ever shoots HE in practice which is backed up by her AP performance and penetration values. Captains, it would not be entirely erroneous in terms of gunnery to compare Stock Baltimore to Celtic and Wichita or Elite Baltimore to Rochester and AL Baltimore.
Ricochet (o) Fuse Time (s) Sigma Velocity (m/s) Projectile
Albemarle 45/60 0.033 2.0 814 AP
AL Baltimore 60/67.5 0.033 1.8 762 SHAP
Balti-Stock 60/67.5 0.033 1.9 853 AP
Balti-Elite 60/67.5 0.033 1.9 782 SHAP
Celtic 60/67.5 0.033 2.0 853 AP
Rochester 60/67.5 0.033 2.0 762 SHAP
Wichita 60/67.5 0.033 1.8 853 AP
Wichita CE 60/75 0.01 2.0 853 AP
The major and palpable difference in performance here is between Celtic and the native Baltimores, is that Celtic lacks SHAP. This means Celtic’s AP shells weigh less, which translates to depleting velocity and thus penetration values faster than the Baltimores heavier shells. Fortunately, Baltimore has some of the best AP penetration in her class which means that Celtic can afford to lose some raw penetration value before she begins to suffer. Rochester wins the AP argument here, while Celtic takes the HE side. It’s almost literally splitting hairs, and Baltimore Mains will feel right at home in either ship.
Fire Chance % HE Pen (mm) Shell Count Velocity (m/s) Projectile
Albemarle 17 33 43 814 HE
AL Baltimore 14 33 49 823 HE
Baltimore 14 33 45 823 HE
Celtic 10 33 54 823 HE
Rochester 14 33 45 823 HE
Wichita 14 33 54 823 HE
Wichita CE 14 33 54 823 HE
If you’re looking to start fires, grab Albemarle. However, this is about the only such category she takes. Celtic manages better with access to a shorter reload and better overall ballistic properties. Shell by shell, edge Rochester, overall, solidly in Celtic’s favor by a full 9 shells.

Torpedoes

Neither of these ships sport torpedoes, so this section is predicably blank.

Defense

Let’s jump into the major category of defense. Celtic arguably may be one of the best, Rochester, rather mediocre. From the top.
Celtic has among the best effective health pools, just edging out Edinburgh with a chunky 66k. It’s worth pointing out Albemarle tops both with a mighty 78k, though most Albemarle tend to be much more passive alluding to a different playstyle entirely. Baltimore is considered “tanky” at 56k, and Celtic adds in a super-heal. I wouldn’t chance to say Albemarle is particularly tanky, but she can heal quite well. A Baltimore is tanky enough to access that 66k EHP and is a scary thought. Baltimore can take a punch, where Edinburgh relies on defense by trickery, clever armor schemes and angling, Albemarle by range and angle. It’s also quite worth mentioning that Celtic rests with 36,7k base HP, meaning on par with most Cruiser Lights. Captains, you will feel getting hit in Celtic. Kit with 9.9km radar, sonar, a super heal, decent armor, excellent AA and workable concealment…captains, this is a literal no-brainer. Celtic is a slightly different twist off some of the most competitive ships in the game.
Rochester is rather tanky like most of her preceding Baltimore cousins. She has the same armor scheme essentially, and similar HP/EHP values. While this would normally be good on its own, Rochester has an Achilles’ Heel. Rochester must choose between having smoke or having a heal, and outright lacks Radar. While she has defensive AA, this is mostly a living meme rather than consistently as effective in combat as Radar. As said before, in terms of smoke cruisers there are just better options some of which don’t involve sacrificing your heal, or even radar. This relegates Rochester to just being a rather average 203mm CA, with very slightly better AA and decent enough armor.
The ranking seems a bit harsh, but that’s generally the difference between the hunter (Celtic), and the hunted (Rochester). Rochester initially will feel getting hit less, due to a larger health pool however, the table quickly swings in favor of Celtic, which gets most of it back.
​
Health Effective Health
Azuma 52 500 78 960
Albemarle 43 800 78 840
Sigfried 55 000 70 400
Celtic 36 700 66 020
Edinburgh 36 400 65 520
Hipper 43 800 58 517
Plymouth 41 000 58 220
Prinz Eugen 45 000 57 600
AL Baltimore 42 400 56 646
Baltimore 42 400 56 646
Mainz 44 000 56 320
Riga 42 000 56 112
Rochester 41 900 55 978
Amalfi 42 800 54 784
Mainz CE 42 500 54 400
Kutuzov 40 700 54 364
Pytor Bagration 42 000 53 760
Atago 40 100 53 574
Mogami 39 100 52 238
Perfect 10 36 500 51 788
AL Chapayev 37 000 51 504
Chapayev 37 000 51 504
Belfast 43 38 400 51 302
Suzuya 38 000 50 786
Wichita 37 900 50 634
Wichita CE 37 900 50 634
Charles Martel 38 000 48 640
AL Montpelier 36 900 47 232
Cleveland 36 900 47 232
Ochakov 34 750 46 426
Weimar 32 000 42 752
Bayard 34 700 -
Harbin 26 500 33 892

Armor

This chart below sticks to the USN and RN CA/CLs for now... At some point, this chart will include overmatch and juicy other details for all the cruisers, but for now, it is simple enough to get the point across. Most Cruisers have their critical spaces directly abutting the hull, others don’t. Cruiser armor varies widely and is worth looking at because there are absolutely ships with specific advantages worth exploring and exploiting. For now, let’s keep it simple.
As summarized before, the Baltimore Class has relatively good armor, while it has its weaknesses, is generally functional enough to get by. They are neither needlessly weighed down by their armor, nor under-armored. It’s worth saying Rochester and Celtic have vaguely the same armor lay out and will handle 380mm Battleships.
Extremity Plating (mm) Belt Armor (mm)
Albemarle 25 152
AL Baltimore 27 152
AL Montpelier 25 127
Baltimore 27 152
Belfast 43 16 114
Celtic 27 152
Cleveland 25 127
Edinburgh 30 114
Perfect 10 16 114
Plymouth 16 114
Rochester 27 152
Wichita 27 152
Wichita CE 27 152

Anti-Air Suite

Rochester takes the cake here, with better and larger AA guns she’s rather resistant to airborne pests. Celtic ties in with the close second, along with her sisters. The truly beautiful thing about either ship is that captains will not need to waste any energy into building this into making this sector a functional kit. Captains, you can save some defensive energy by focusing into Celtic’s Radar and by leaving Rochester in port. The magic number here is being north of that 350/s line, Azuma scrapes by with a bit of focus, where pretty much all the USN ships will laugh off aircraft. A major point of contention that is worth noting; Rochester is immune, Celtic is quite resistant to CVs, where Albemarle gets by here, and Edinburgh is rather hindered. I suspect this will be massively impactful for competitive players.
Range (Km) DPS
Rochester 5.0 370
AL Baltimore 5.0 365
Baltimore 5.0 365
Celtic 5.0 365
AL Montpelier 5.0 363
Cleveland 5.0 363
Mainz 5.0 357
Mainz CE 5.0 357
Sigfried 5.2 354
Azuma 5.0 342
Hipper 4.5 288
Pyotr Bagration 5.0 280
Prinz Eugen 4.5 279
Plymouth 5.0 276
Perfect 10 5.0 276
Albemarle 5.0 272
Kutuzov 5.0 264
Amalfi 4.0 225
Wichita 5.0 217
Wichita CE 5.0 217
Bayard 5.0 212
Belfast 43 5.0 207
Al Chapayev 5.0 207
Chapayev 5.0 207
Charles Martel 5.0 204
Ochakov 5.0 196
Riga 5.2 188
Weimar 4.5 181
Edinburgh 5.0 175
Harbin 5.2 170
Mogami 5.0 127
Atago 5.0 90
Suzuya 5.0 67
Rochester takes the cake here, because everyone deserves to be really good at something. However, with CVs it’s important to remember everything is relative.

Concealment

Technically these are the same values while stock, and their rating is the same. However, this is quite deceiving. Rochester is GOOD leaning on GREAT where Celtic is GOOD leaning on AVERAGE. The reason for this follows their available commanders, which Shelly Beapley offers a unique 4th row concealment skill unavailable to any other commander, or nation. The result of this, Rochester, like her cousins sits at a comfortable 9.3km, where Celtic sits at 9.9km. Rochester can do almost nothing with this concealment, as she lacks radar, and her smoke fire window is just a pale 1.7km below her surface concealment. However, that .6km is a palpable difference and can open huge strategic windows; particularly once south of that magic 10km line.
The obvious connotation here is that hiding a radar cruiser inside 10km is far scarier than hiding a smoke cruiser inside 9.5, provocatively when that same smoke cruiser can be spotted inside her smoke at 7.6km. Captains, this 7.6km is on par with her sisters, however, this is a very narrow margin even for a support cruiser. Smoke is infinitely easier to use than radar, however, infinitely less forgiving.
Stock Concealment
Amalfi 11.4
Atago 11.7
Harbi 11.8
Belfast 43 11.9
Plymouth 12.0
Edinburgh 12.0
Albemarle 12.1
Mogami 12.3
Suzuya 12.3
Cleveland 12.5
AL Montpelier 12.5
Celtic 12.6
AL Baltimore 12.6
Baltimore 12.6
Rochester 12.6
Wichita 12.6
Azuma 12.7
Weimar 13.0
Sigfried 13.0
Perfect 10 13.2
Bayard 13.2
Pyotr Bagration 13.3
Charles Martel 13.4
Hipper 13.5
Prinz Eugen 13.6
Mainz 13.7
Mainz CE 13.7
Kutuzov 13.8
Ochakov 13.8
Riga 14.2
AL Chapayev 14.3
Chapayev 14.3

Maneuverability

Celtic sits almost smack dab of the upper midfield pack of heavy cruisers where Rochester sits more towards the end of the pack. Rochester feels clunky and handles like it, where Celtic feels more “native” to her respective class sharing the same stats. While this is rated good overall, its more average in the face of Lighter Cruisers, representing more of a bang-for-the-buck scenario.
Rudder Shift (s) Turn Radius (m)
Weimar 6.4 660
AL Montpelier 6.9 660
Harbin 7.2 660
Cleveland 6.0 680
Wichita 6.0 680
Wichita CE 6.0 680
Perfect 10 8.0 680
Edinburgh 8.6 680
Belfast 43 9.9 680
Plymouth 10.1 680
Amalfi 11.0 680
Charles Martel 8.9 690
Mainz 10.5 720
Mainz CE 10.5 720
Albemarle 10.7 720
AL Baltimore 7.0 730
Baltimore 7.0 730
Celtic 7.0 730
Bayard 9.3 730
Hipper 9.7 740
Suzuya 5.6 750
Mogami 6.4 750
Ochakov 7.4 750
Rochester 10.5 750
Kutuzov 6.5 760
Prinz Eugen 9.8 770
Atago 8.1 790
Sigfried 14.0 880
AL Chapayev 8.7 890
Chapayev 8.7 890
Pyotr Bagration 10.5 890
Azuma 12.3 920
Riga 11.5 920

Commanders

Celtic:
Celtic essentially has one commander that is head and shoulders ahead of the rest, while the rest kind of just work. HotRod offers the best fit here inarguably, along with Radar Edinburgh and Radar Minotaur. This sets Celtic up to be a near par build with the USN CA Queen Shelly Beapley. While her 4th row skill’s absence here is certainly felt and results in a 9.9km concealment, the build is largely similar and works well for any radar focused cruiser. While there are other builds out there, this is the gem of the lot and helps unlock that sacred mantra of utility that surrounds the Baltimore Class. Inspirations should focus on concealment, Mikawa and Swirski, to bring Celtic’s detection to pair with her Radar.
HotRod
Rochester:
Nothing can be easy with Rochester, and naturally, building her was to the same effect. Essentially there are two trains of thought for this ship, build into dispersion or build into utility.
AL Montpelier seemed to mesh the best, which then turns Rochester into a little flamethrower capable of merging all her shells into a single pixel. However, this build is rather finicky to use and has a fair number of weaknesses. The build heavily relies on team spotting and is itself a second-line cruiser. Something like a 19-20% fire chance and a nasty dispersion circle. Rochester already has excellent gunnery performance as discussed; Montpelier really sharpens the sword. Pair with AL Scharnhorst and Scott to reduce dispersion and sigma, respectively, even further.
AL Montpelier
It's a rare day when Shelly gets sat down in favor of another commander in the USN CA tree, but I kept falling into the same pitfalls using the same build for similar ships often being able to use radar. Shelly will help bring out Rochester’s utility, but she’s arguably not as well fit in on Rochester as AL Montpelier is. Pair Beapley with concealment inspirations from Mikawa and Swirski and enjoy a very beautiful 9.3km concealment. Rochester has SHAP and excellent penetration values, meaning she can readily ambush and critically strike ships quite larger than her, all without torpedoes.
Shelly Beapley

Consumables

Ok, rather than spell out everything, everywhere, all at once; I’m going to keep it simple here.
Celtic:
  1. Damage Control: Standard, unlimited uses. 60s cooldown.
  2. Sonar: 3km Torp, 4.2km Ship detection. Lasts around 98s when kit with Hot Rod and reloads in 132.
  3. Radar: 9.9km range and lasts about 28s when built.
  4. Heal: 733/s over 20s. Yep, that’s over 14k HP. Reloads in less than a minute too.
Celtic has a near ideal consumable suite. There are some differences off the mainstream, such as slightly less sonar range or shorter radar duration. Glossing over the minor differences, the bigger picture reveals something better. Built, Celtic can regenerate a LOT of health.
Rochester:
  1. Damage Control: Standard, unlimited. 60s cooldown.
  2. Defensive AA: +200% average AA damage. This is memes, it's sort of like a bug zapper for planes.
  3. Sonar: Standard 3.3km/4.4km detection over 96s. The average sonar found on everything.
  4. Smoke/Heal: 30s duration, 104s dissipation time for the smoke. 251/s over 28s for the heal.
Rochester is rather standard in her access to her consumables, with the killer choice between smoke or a heal. I’ve gone back and forth, generally landing on the heal. Rochester is essentially a decent cruiser hampered by her rather average consumable suite.

Modifications

  1. Aiming Systems Mod 1: -7% Dispersion
  2. Steering Gears Mod 2: -20% Rudder Shift
  3. Concealment Mod 1: -10% Detectability
  4. Main Battery Mod 3: -15% Gun Reload
Ok, so the modifications section is super easy because both ships share the same builds. Aiming Systems mod 1 for the dispersion, player’s choice on slot 2 with either propulsion mod 2 or steering gears mod 2. Concealment Mod 1 for slot 3 and finishing off slot 4 by increasing DPM with main battery mod 3.

Upgrades

Research

Summary

Celtic is a joy. Rochester is work.
I can see Celtic becoming a popular contestant in competitive play with the access to that 9.9km radar and her super heal. I rather lamented her HE performance, more due to her lower fire chance then her DPM or ballistic performance. While it would be nice to see her have ¼ pen HE, she doesn’t need it. I find her nicely balanced and well measured to take on Tier 7. She is just unique enough to warrant her own review, whilst similar enough to stay nearer the beaten path. While she may not comfortably and outright usurp Wichita CE and AL Baltimore from their spots, she’s worth mentioning with the group. That’s saying something.
Rochester, well, let’s just say that not everyone can be the best. This ship is tough but can be rewarding in a sense of overcoming the demands of a challenging ships. My issue with Rochester is 2-fold, her smoke and her heal. She ideally needs both to function in this current meta, and running the ship’s gimmick leaves her with abysmal EHP in a plummet from pretty good to 3rd worst overall, which only trumps Harbin and Bayard while being out-healed by Weimar. With a smoke-fire penalty in the mid 7’s km, smoke is hard to use effectively that is not relegated to back line, HE spam. As said before, if we’re really going to be stuck to this, there are ships which do this better. While I love the perspective of a USN CA without radar just to offer something more unique, a USN CA without Radar is like a cart without a horse. Hilariously enough, Rochester seems to avoid CV games like the actual plague, so I suppose that’s one strong point. Otherwise, and largely, captains are left with a rather average 203mm CA.
Written By: Capt Thatch
submitted by Captn_Thatch to WoWs_Legends [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 10:55 PzKpfw_Sangheili Gunboat Diplomacy: Prologue

Hi! This is the first post in what I hope to be (about) a 7 part series following the adventures of a human destroyer with a crew who was not trained for diplomacy becoming the last chance for peace between two alien species who aren’t very happy that their first contact with humanity is a purpose-built warship blundering into their space. Kida sorta. This is my first time writing anything like this, or really anything at all for public viewership, so feedback is welcome!
This is the prologue, the framing sequence is kinda vague here, this is mostly just to set up the main cast of this show and the titular gunboat, the UNS Crazy Train, so apologies if it drags a bit in a couple places, but I figured it’d be best to exposit now and focus on a more character driven story later (unless y'all really like exposition). Future chapters will probably use the memory transcription framing sequence, the next one will for sure, but I'm not great at writing in first person, so it depends after that. I’m aiming for one post a week, but IRL may have other plans for me.
Credit to u/SpacePaladin15 for his original series, The Nature of Predators, It is very good! Read it if you haven’t because, 1:why are you on the NoP subreddit without reading NoP? Silly. And 2:None of this will probably make sense unless you already know a good chunk of NoP’s plot.
I started working on this before part 98 came out, but this story is not set in the primary canon, so effectively that's about where it diverges from the normal timeline. I'll do my best to avoid contradicting lore from before 99 wherever possible!
That's enough introduction, on with the prologue!

Historical Record: July 12th, 2137
“Captain Krenshaw?”
The captain didn’t look up from his datapad, beckoning the visitor into his office. Probably just another new batch of paperwork for me to sign. While he was enthusiastic about captaining the UNS Crazy Train, the first in the UN’s new class of siege-breaker destroyers, he hadn’t anticipated the amount of documents he would have to sign and submit before. Liability waivers for every new piece of equipment on board, confirmations of deliveries of a dozen different ammo types, and signing the admittance documents for every one of the six hundred and thirty souls on board. Maybe the engineers have a new type of wrench they need approval to distribute to the workstations, he thought with a rueful smile.
The ship had been scheduled to launch five days prior, but the fueling shuttle had somehow brought fuel rods half again too long to fit in the reactor, and so the geniuses in engineering had figured out a way to cut them down to size. It was faster than waiting for replacements, but by no means a fast process, and some logistician had decided to take advantage of the ship sitting in dry dock above Mars and managed to add thirty tons of cargo to the manifest.
“The last of the ammunition has been loaded, we have one last matter to attend to before we are cleared for cast off.” The visitor said while handing him a clipboard.
The captain stood, recognizing the voice of Commander Wilson, his second in command and long time friend. If the commander was hand-delivering a hard copy, this must be an important piece of cargo. A cursory reading of the document proved him right, much to his consternation.
“We’re transporting war criminals now, Hanah? I thought four hundred incendiary bombs for the Fissan’s new “terraforming” project was a bit much, Lieutenant Kiref was already complaining about how he wouldn’t get any time to train with his marines with all this guard duty, and now he’s going to have to have to incorporate at least ten people into prisoner watch.”
Wilson shrugged. “I tried to argue with them, but apparently these criminals need to be delivered to the Venlil High Courts pronto. UN command wants any Arxur sympathetic to our cause to know that we don’t use exterminator tactics on defectors.”
Krenshaw sighed, “Great, just what I need to be worried about, racist pyromaniacs on a ship packed to the brim with napalm charges. I suppose I should go and talk to them before we set off, acceptable conduct and all that.” He rolled his eyes. “We’re ready to go other than that?”
Wilson nodded, and Krenshaw followed her out of his office, leaving her in the battle bridge to make final preparations, while the captain got in a lift down to the dock connecting them to the Martian Shipyards.
As he passed the levels, he again marveled at the warship he was now in command of. The Crazy Train was not a particularly large ship, coming in at just under half a klick long and a quarter of that in width and an eighth in height, but the armor made her literally second to none. While the lower half of her twin hulls were armored comparably to any other human warship, the top halves were covered and connected by a series of armor plates collectively thicker than the wingspan of Earth’s largest fighter, not even including spacing. In order to account for her massive weight, the four primary propulsion thrusters (one at the front and rear of each hull) could rotate to face straight down for atmospheric flight.
Her design had been the result of information gleaned during the UN Shadow Fleet’s marauding attack through Chief Hunter Shaza’s sector, notably the complete lack of any anti-capital ship weapons on the surface of any of the Arxur cattle worlds. A conversation with some of the Arxur sympathetic to humanity, and interrogation of one of the cattle farm overseers revealed the reason: apparently, about sixty years ago a cattle world had been drained of guards for another all-out attack, leaving just under one hundred Arxur in charge of roughly three thousand Mazics. One stampede later, and the Arxur had lost control of the farm and all of its anti-starship heavy plasma railguns. The facility was removed with antimatter bombs, but over a hundred bombers were lost in an operation that, had the guns not been operational, could have been handled by three or four. Rather than rework their entire military strategy to rely on smaller, more flexible forces that didn’t require reducing entire galactic sectors to skeleton crews, the Arxur just moved all the heavy guns to orbital installations.
As a result, the UN commissioned three new classes of warship under “Project Rustler,” with the objective of creating purpose-built warships for eliminating orbital defense platforms and liberating cattle farms. The designers of the Crazy Train had come up with the quintessentially human tactic of building a ship so heavily armored and with such powerful engines that she could hard burn past the platforms, dumping dozens of boarding torpedoes and enough countermeasures to cloak a small fleet in her wake, hover above the farm, drop the onboard detachment of marines to the surface, rescue as many cattle as possible, and escape virtually unharmed due to the upper armor plate being thick enough to take dozens of shots that would split a larger ship in two in stride.
Captain Krenshaw’s musings were interrupted by the bell indicating someone else was getting on the lift. The doors slid open, and the massive form of an Arxur blocked the doorway before quickly ducking inside the elevator.
“Mornin’ Captain” growled Lieutenant Kiref, crouching slightly to avoid whacking his head on the seven foot tall ceiling. “I’m heading down to the docks to take delivery of that batch of prisoners. Where are you headed?”
“Same place actually, I figured you might need some help.”
The Lieutenant waved his tail to indicate his skepticism. “Captain, I am more than capable of taking delivery of three Venlil, who are already cuffed. If they are that heavy, I can requisition some marines to help drag their bodies to their cells after they faint. Why are we hauling prisoners anyway? The version of the orders I got were blocked out.”
“Kiref, these are war criminals, exterminators deployed with the UN army on an Arxur scientific research base.”
Kiref cut in, “Well at least they should be accustomed to seeing sentient predator species then, shouldn’t that make them easier to handle?”---”Sir?” quickly correcting his mistake. Captain Krenshaw is tolerant of a lack of decorum, but I really need to get the hang of these human honorifics for the next time I have to justify my service to some admiral Kiref internally chastised himself.
“They were found by their commanding officer after having burned several defectors to death, so I think fainting is nowhere near the worst situation we could have.” Kiref’s yellow slitted eyes went wide, then narrowed with anger. “What’s more, there was another defector who was still on fire, and survived, so this will definitely go public. The UN wanted to try the exterminators at the Hague, make sure everybody else knows that’s not how humanity treats defectors and POWs, but Tarva insisted that they be tried on Venlil Prime. The UN wants to announce the trial before the story breaks, so the prisoners are taking the next ship to Venlil Prime, which is us.”
“Thanks for the heads up, and glad to know the ship’s leaving soon.” The captain nodded in agreement to the last sentiment, as the doors to the lift opened, revealing the ready deck, which was supposed to be kept clear for troops and equipment for planetary landings, but which was currently packed to the brim with shipping containers full of napalm and canned fruit. The pair made their way through the labyrinth to the airlock connecting the Crazy Train to the dock, Kiref taking note of the lack of any dropships within the hangar.
“Captain, has there been any word on when we will be taking on any landing vessels, and of what type they may be? I was hoping to run disembarkation drills with the landing party.”
“Some new Nevok design they don’t want to be sending the schematics over long range broadcast, probably a good idea given how poor the cybersecurity on those old Fed transmitters is.” The captain replied, with a chuckle at the last part. “You should have at least some time to train on the way to the rest of the fleet. I understand you had planned on using the ready deck to train for surface combat, but since that isn’t an option, I’ll set aside the living quarters and sickbay for the freed prisoners as a simulation for boarding actions.”
Kiref swung his tail in a gesture of appreciation. “I thank you for your consideration sir. I will make sure my men will be capable of securing any ship in the Dominion or Federation within less than a half an hour after boarding.”
Stepping through the airlock, the pair walked onto the dock, which was as large as a highway, and populated sparsely by crewmen loading the last few containers and a squad of marines who snapped to attention as the two officers walked passed. Sticking out like a sore thumb among all the sailors were three of the baldest looking Venlil either man had ever seen seated in benches a little way down the dock, flanked by four uncomfortable looking guards in UNMP uniforms. Upon seeing the alien’s strange haircuts, Kiref glanced quizzically at his commanding officer, who just muttered “exterminators” in response, causing Kiref to roll his eyes. The exterminators were wearing hand (or paw) cuffs clearly designed for someone much larger than them, and The lead exterminator, judging by the insignia pinned to his fire-resistant uniform, glared at Kiref with a look that betrayed not so much fear as anger and disgust.
As Captain Krenshaw began signing over custody of the prisoners, the lead exterminator let out a yell. “Hey human! You know you got a monster in your crew?” The captain put down his pen and turned to face the Venlil, a terrifying look in his eye that made the other two Venlil back down. The leader carried on, oblivious “We could take care of it for you! That thing’s a danger to anybody on board, at least get your chief of security to confine it to a cell!”
Lieutenant Kiref snapped his eyes over to the Venlil, and unsheathed his claws, causing the exterminator to take an involuntary step back. “I’m sorry prisoner,” said the Arxur, his every syllable dripping with venom “I didn’t quite hear you, would you care to repeat that?”
The captain jumped between the two aliens. “THAT’S ENOUGH!”
“Look, human, that thing-”
“I SAID ENOUGH. For future reference, his name is Lieutenant Kiref, not ‘it,’ mine is Captain Krenshaw, not ‘human,’ and as commander of my ship’s marine detachment, he is the security chief. You are under his charge for the duration of our voyage, so I suggest you treat him with the respect he is due.” The captain turned to the Lieutenant. “Take these war criminals to the brig. You know the handbook on prisoner transport inside and out, I trust you will have no problem keeping them confined?”
“None whatsoever” said Kiref, grinning at the now cowering Venlil. He motioned for two marines who were coming back from the interior of the shipyard, and the three of them escorted the cuffed Venlil into the bowels of the ship.
The captain sighed and turned back to the four military police officers, and finished filling out the clipboard before handing it back to the officer who had given it to him.
“Safe travels, captain, and good luck” The man said.
“Thanks, we’ll definitely need it.” Captain Krenshaw turned and began calling over his radio to the crew, “Alright, seal all airlocks, disconnect all umbilicals and prepare to release docking clamps, we will be underway within the hour.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ship wasn’t under way for very long.
The UNS Crazy Train exited hyperdrive about four lightyears from the edge of the Sol system, just over a day and a half after departure in a patch of seemingly uninteresting space. Captain Krenshaw ran onto the bridge, disheveled but attempting to put on a professional face, buttoning the last button on his jacket. “What’s the status?” This was a charted area of space, if there had been an asteroid or large space rock,it should have been marked on the map, and the only other plausible option was an enemy fleet, which seemed absent.
Commander Wilson turned at his entrance, vacating the command chair “We’re not sure what it is, the automated navigator detected an absurdly large object in our path, but only picked it up at the last second, and was able to break us out of FTL within just forty klicks of the object. Scanner Officer Casey is investigating now, but we haven’t seen anything since going sunlight.”
The captain took a seat and looked over at the sensor station. “Any ideas yet Caysey?” Officer Casey was by far both the youngest and least experienced member of the Crazy Train’s bridge crew, but Krenshaw was somewhat concerned with the Dossur’s ability to perform his duties under stress. He had been diagnosed with “predator disease” which manifested as an extreme lack of fear response, which meant that he was capable of exchanging small talk over lunch with Kiref for three whole minutes before fainting. Krenshaw had been assured multiple times that the diminutive officer would be just fine in performing his duties as long as the enemies stayed on the other side of a screen, and the Dossur’s natural extremely fast reflexes proved Caysey was adept at identifying and distinguishing targets, so the captain was hopeful, if a bit cautious.
Caysey looked up from his screen, his field of view severely limited by his blinders. “Captain, the only thing that could have blipped into and immediately out of sensor range that fast was another ship passing dangerously close without announcing it’s heading, headed inbound for Earth.”
“An invasion fleet perhaps? Should we turn around?”
“I don’t think so, It would have skipped in front of us for a fraction of a second. The object was detected for over a second, at the speeds we’re talking about, in order to do that the ship would have to be literally light-seconds long, and wide too given the distance this thing seems to stretch on to the sides” The scanner officer looked back to his panel and took several deep breaths before continuing. “I think sensor error is the more likely option. Possibly also some sort of energy field orbiting a local sun at superluminal speeds, but that’s not supported by any scientific theories I know of,” Caysey hastily added.
“I think we’ll avoid examination of theoretical physics for now, drop a beacon and we’ll see if anyone wants to send out a science ship later, helm, continue at sunlight speeds until we clear this field.” The captain said, relaxing a bit. We were needed at the front weeks ago, every day we aren’t there, more people die in Arxur farms.
The ship slowly trundled forwards at sunlight speeds for a few minutes, all eyes were looking at their instruments. The bow punched into the zone, the bridge crew collectively taking deep breaths.
“We should be clear in twenty seconds” Wilson called out.
The whole ship was in the space where the disturbance had been now.
“Fifteen seconds…”
No objects on scanners within the collision warning perimeter
“Ten seconds…”
The bow had reached the far side.
“Five…”
With one and a half seconds to go, Caysey yelled out “WAIT-” but it was too late. Within half a second the entirety of the UNS Crazy Train was engulfed in a bizarre energy field. The standard lighting on the bridge cut out and the emergency bulbs burst from the power surge, plunging the ship into total darkness. The ship rocked violently as the engines gimbaled in random directions. Faster than even the Dossur could react, every electrical system on the ship was flooded with power levels dozens of times higher than what they had been designed to handle. The helmsman screamed as his hands were electrified by the absurd amperage traveling through the ship’s wheel. The ship's reactors tripped, dropping the control rods within another half second, triggering warnings on every panel on the engineering decks.
Within another second the energy had passed, leaving the Crazy Train drifting lifeless in deep space. The turbines slowly winding down triggered the emergency batteries to connect to the ships power, keeping the remaining systems functional, for now. The backup computer activated, rerouting power through backup conduits wherever possible, and developing a list of what needed to be replaced.
Captain Krenshaw was the first to get to his feet. “Is anyone injured?”
“Helmsman Jones' hands are burned pretty badly, should I escort him to sickbay?” said Commander Wilson, helping the injured man to his feet.
“Please do, then help Dr. Mulvan get a triage going.” The captain replied. “Is there anything on scanners, Caysey?
“No s-sir” panted Caysey slowly getting to his fleet. “I should be able to check the beacon we dropped just before we entered the field.” The Dossur was quiet for several seconds. “Sir our comms and scanners may be more damaged than the computer says, I can’t even establish that the beacon is there. Should I launch another?”
“If we have that functionality, then do so. It seems your superluminal energy field hypothesis may have some merit after all” replied the captain, still a bit shaken.
Caysey punched a few buttons before frowning. “The next beacon is launched, and it’s meeting all expected readings. It’s like the other probe just disappeared.”
Krenshaw didn’t give it much thought, contacting engineering to see when the situation on damage control was. The damage turned out to have been mostly superficial or to redundant components, mainly to lighting systems and some CIWS targeting systems. All things that could be replaced in-flight or swapped out quickly at the next port. The only crucial component the ship was missing was the long range communications array, leading to the captain's decision to continue on towards Venlil Prime. At least they have an approach vector lined up for us, we would be cruising into extremely heavy traffic with no comms and dodgy sensors if we head back to Earth. So much for a peaceful maiden voyage, although at least it’s not the worst thing that could have happened...

Thanks for reading, it means a lot! Again, thanks to SpacePaladin15 as well! Hope to see y'all next time on Gunboat Diplomacy!
(also did anybody else know disembarkation was the proper word? I just kinda assumed it was disembarkment until google and spellcheck corrected me)
submitted by PzKpfw_Sangheili to NatureofPredators [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 10:30 Terrible-Pollution90 Advice- Am I going insane or am I right?

Me and my s/o are planning to move in together in 3 months (at the point we'll be dating for 9 months). It makes sense because travel + finances of living alone < living together and splitting costs.
I lost my job recently and I'll be moving into my hometown till her lease ends and we'll move together to a new place in late may/early june. My lease ends this month. So we agreed my stuff will be moved to her house and then moved together with her things when we move to the new apartment.
It was her birthday a few days ago and she was busy with work too. We celebrated it, then she celebrated it with her friends last night, I was gonna stay at her place the entire day alone. Everything was fine. Yesterday I was moving things around to make space for my stuff to come (she knew I was gonna do this).
As everyone knows moving is dirty. It causes a mess and it caused some mess before she came home. I texted her it was a mess (she didn't see the text)
She blew up on me that I was making a mess of her house (her house wasn't neat or tidy to the slightest even before this happened). I told her it wasn't just "her house" anymore. It was going to be our house we both will share the space here. And it was in the process of getting cleaned. It takes time and I'm doing everything by myself. 100% by myself.
I asked her before for help and she just refused to help me. She said as it was my need to move my stuff here, all she'll do is provide the space but will not help me clean/move things around to actually make the space.
I told her point blank if she wasn't going to physically help me or atleast give me proper instructions then I will not listen to her rants. She said she'll break my phone and then threw a water bottle across the room which was right next to my phone. She also said she'll hit me and I just replied I'll like to see her try.
Her main issue is that there's a tiny room in the house that she doesn't want me to touch. It's filled with cardboard boxes. I want to move the stuff to the attic place and she hates that idea because she doesn't want to see cardboard boxes there???? I said then where will my cardboard boxes be?? And she said they'll be on the floor (further cluttering the entire apartment which I know she'll chew me out for).
I feel like I'll not win. I feel suffocated. I have so exhausted. I stepped on a cockroach when I was moving these things (very very unusual to find cockroaches at a house here unless it's just awfully dirty) I'm just tired now.
Am I right to leave??? I just do not know anymore.
submitted by Terrible-Pollution90 to BPD [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 09:43 CrimsonCloverwriter Chapter Two : Highly Illogical

Hey everyone, this is chapter two, for more info on what this is and other chapters click the link down below :
Reddit - Dive into anything
The collective walks. It waltzes. The collective screams. The collective loves. The collective stands still for a moment, looking around, and then continues to walk. Years pass by, the collective continues to walk, continues to waltz and it continues to scream, and yet every now and again the collective stops and takes a glance. It looks at everything, the people, the weapons, the lives that are lost, and he continues. All of it again and again, every time he looks it’s all the same, and time continues to pass. Time is meaningless to the collective, as there is no time from where the collective is from. Moments exist and pass, but that isn’t time leaving him but space.
The collective waits, attracted to something long since past. A voice that echoes something inside that was long since dormant. The collective runs, runs to the voice, through the crowds and towards the source of it. And that is when the collective sees him. An old friend, but time doesn’t exist and they were never really friends. He’s shorter than the friend recalls, however what is memory but false?
There he stands, alongside a group of faces, some nostalgic others not, looking up towards the sky. Osmundowne. The collective stops walking, halts their waltzes, and forces back the screams. And that old love, the one thing long left behind, begins to grow. The collective smiles, and begins to think.
Dundis was rather large for a castle, it was a landmark one could see from miles away, as if it beckoned to travellers who dared approach it. Stone bricks and mortar were laid in this place, the number of which was exuberant to say the least. Spires creeped to the skies above, observing the carnage that had been displayed. Even from here Osmund could see the shattered windows in many parts of the castle, in as little as half an hour the Alizian’s had reached even the tops of the Vaunghe base, and the battle was sure to be a swift one.
The other thing that stood out to Osmund about Dundis was the decadence. Statues lined every surface, shrubs depicting the gods were everywhere, and there was a strange metal rod poking out of the ground besides a lectern. Osmund approached the objects, and marvelled at the copious amounts of food that lay on the ground. Food of every description, from apples to cattle, were strewn at the foot of the metal pole. On the lectern was a message, scrawled on a yellowed piece of paper.
For now is the time of deepest sorrow, our lord King Kivok has graciously offered food to the gods, and we can now pray for them to smite our foes. Even in hunger we shall fight, for we are the servants of the gods.
Osmund read the message a few times, before placing it back on the ground. Now was the time to enter the castle, explore the passages and support the troops. Osmund approached the gate, now wide open, and removed the map of Dundis, ensuring he’d have the right path.
The group followed suit, pushing the gates open fully and revealing the site of further bodies. They were inside the building’s inner wall now, the sun still bearing down upon them. This was the location home to many of the more important stables and areas for battle preparation. The ruins of a barricade lay around the door, alongside the copious number of trainee bodies who failed to protect themselves. While there was no evidence of the wall’s debris assaulting this place, there was still a large amount of destruction here.
The remains of statues greeted the group, once magnum opus now a disfigured remnant of what was. They were made of marble, and once depicted the Vaunghe gods, although who each one was could not be discerned, due to the broken faces and pieces they had been split into. The statues lined the walls of this castle, with a new statue lining the wall every five metres. If they weren’t destroyed they would likely be the most impressive feat Osmund had ever seen, standing at almost double his nine and a half foot frame.
Moving forward, Osmund looked to the north, where the entrance of the tunnel system began. According to the map the entrance was hidden below the royal stable, and gave passageway into the complex’s vast tunnel system that could lead to several strategic positions. Motioning for his group to follow, they moved slowly around the curved walls of the inner wall. The bodies gradually stopped appearing, prompting the drawing of Osmund and the other’s weapons, save for Balmun who still lacked anything to protect himself with.
The royal stable was just as grand as Osmund expected, long silver poles supporting a twenty metre stable. Beside each pillar was another statue of a god, albeit these gods were untouched and in their full glory. First was the god of thought, Merculd, a figure of 19 ft who sat upon a throne of gold. Adorned with jewels and royal fabrics, the bearded man watched down upon those that approached, beckoning them inside. The man himself was crafted out of intricate copper and glass, an architectural marvel that Osmund couldn’t comprehend its creation.
Beside the father of thought was the mother of art Freya, whose statue was in opposition to the metals of Merculd. Freya was a wood carving, an intricate and detailed depiction of the woman who was 15 ft tall, standing up with beckoning hands towards any visitors. Her face was carved to the smallest detail, with each individual tooth lovingly crafted on her mouth. In contrast to the first statue Freya’s was carved alongside her body, a tight fitting tunic layered over hard to know pants, due to the lack of colour or texture upon them.
The last of the three statues was Zid, the proposed god of the wall, a 19 ft tall mass of flesh and muscle. There was nothing to this god but his muscles, they were the only trait he has, a blank, general male face looming over the entryway. It was made out of stone, likely being the oldest statue here and thus the simplest. That is not to say the statue wasn’t a work of its own, every detail to Zid’s veins had been lovingly placed, it’s just compared to the other two Zid felt… irrelevant to Osmund, past its time.
The stable was enclosed in intricately carved stone, helixes intersecting each other granting slimmers of light into the stable. There was no damage here, no bodies, no other people, this was Vaunghe architecture at its finest, and all of this hard work was spent on a singular, slightly inconveniently placed barn. The oddities of the Vaunghe never failed to surprise Osmund, and he braced to enter the barn.
Straw floors and hay bales greeted him, alongside a single lone steed. A fine horse, certainly of nobility, awaited patiently for its master to return. It had been alone for time unknown, and yet Osmund noticed it was still being fed quite well, a decent number of carrots awaiting on a plate. Osmund opened the gate to the horse and approached the fine steed. He slapped it on the behind, sending it out of the stable and into the inner wall.
“Sir, I’ve stepped into horse dung. May I have another pair of shoes?” Balmun’s voice rang through the room, echoing slightly. Osmund responded by throwing a carrot at his head. Balmun dodged with less than a second to spare, and the armed man behind him was hit dead on.
Reeling back from shock and surprise, the armed soldier moved his sword to his front, trying to shield any further blows. The man was tall, 8’5 ft to be exact, and dirty. His armour was coated in dirt and remnants of the smoke from the wall. Osmund could see the desperation in his eyes, and now charged the man.
Osmund met the man’s blade with his own, parrying immediately. A foot swept the enemy to the ground and Osmund stood above him sword raised. The man went for the blade only to find his hand was removed, spouting blood everywhere. Osmund grabbed the man and pushed him to his feet.
“There is a base for any injured troops at the entrance to Dundis, go now before you bleed to death.” The man’s face flashed in surprise, and he quickly scrambled out of the room, hand stump spouting blood.
“Hey sir?”
“What is it Balmun?”
“Can I have his sword now that he’s not using it?” Osmund proceeded to throw a washbucket at Balmun, this one doing a much better job at hitting him.
Osmund glanced at his surroundings, noting the strange way the straw seemed to be above the ground in one location. Sweeping it away Osmund found the small door, built directly into the floor since the creation of the stable. A rusted latch made way for the opening of the door, and the entrance of the tunnels.
A black, unlit expanse greeted them, stretching for length unknown. Gazing down into the tunnel the light from behind Osmund illuminated the ground slightly. Paved floors and stone walls made for a pathway that would likely be uncomfortable to say the least. Osmund could feel the coldness emanate from the expanse, and longed to stay in the warm outside of the world. But faced with no other option Osmund moved down the stairs swiftly, entering the darkness at a swift pace.
The others followed him inside, although with much more apprehension as to the contents of the black tunnel. Balmun briefly tried to leave, however he was penned in by the Enick twins.
Dark. Footsteps echo down the long and unseen halls. Dark. There was no light in this place, only the inky murk of nothingness. Dark. The blackness blanketed Osmund and the party, freezing them to their core. Dark. There was no warmth here, only the coldness that began to take over Osmund’s heart. Dark. Osmund reached a turn, he was meant to take a left, and he knocked on the wall to signal the party’s direction. Dark. The rasp was responded with by Balmun’s incessant questions of why no one was talking. Dark. The Enick twins muttered about breaking Balmun’s hands. Dark. The group continued their advance, confidence at an all time low. Dark. It was hard to gauge how much time had passed, however Osmund was sure it had been only a few minutes. Dark. Someone tripped, prompting the use of the word ‘fuck’. Dark. Everything was blackness, there was nothing, only the advancing. Dark. Osmund felt himself fading into the blackness, becoming one with it. Dark. Osmund kicked his iron plated boot onto the first step. Dark. Osmund trips on the stairs, feeling someone fall behind him, prompting further use of the word ‘fuck’ and its frequently used companion ‘shit’. Dark. Osmund regained his composure and slowly began his ascent. Dark. Hugging the wall the party ascended, occasionally tripping slightly until finally-
Light. It was slight, but Osmund slowly became aware of vague shadows playing before him. As he ascended there was more light, those shadows began to take form, and his sight slowly returned to him. There weren’t many stairs, although as the group came to a plateau he became aware of a second staircase, this one a wide spiral. They were likely just on level with the ground floor here, and the short staircase above was likely to the room directly above the tower’s entrance.
Osmund turned to his team, motioning for them to unsheathe their weapons, to which they swiftly obliged. Now advancing above the staircase Osmund saw the opening. A loose wall panel was all that barred Osmund from the enemy congregation. He could hear them now, active panic in their voices as a few steady voices spout commands from above.
Whatever forces left in this tower were evidently inexperienced, as anyone with a high enough rank would understand and evacuate via the tunnel, and yet there was no sign of knowledge as to its presence. That made it likely the stern commanding voice belonged to a trainer of some sort, and these were his pupils, now thrust into a bloody conflict they lie unprepared for.
Beyond the gap Osmund saw the shadows flicker and pass through, rushing between one place and the other. The sound of something being pushed signalled that the Alizian’s had somehow broken the initial barricade and this was the next front to be defended. Listening closer Osmund could hear the banging of his soldiers on the door, much to the fear of the panicking trainees.
Osmund readied his sword, placing it in front of him, and awaited a shadow that moved just close enough, just slowly enough for movement. The first shadow was close but too fast, however the next was just right. Osmund kicked through the wall, plunging his blade into the enemy. Blood burst before anyone could understand what happened, and the man’s head flew across the room.
The force of the head flying was so great it hit a comrade in the foot, prompting a loss of balance. For a brief moment nobody moved, just gazing down at Osmund, the headless Vaunghe, and then down to his head. One man raised his finger, pointing at the now emerging Alizian’s, and proceeded to scream.
This prompted panic from every Vaunghe in the room, every single one of these fresh faced troops was filled with a sense of fear and shock, sending some bumbling up the second entrance to the spiralling stairs. Osmund looked around, quickly noting the cleaning supplies and beds, and concluded that this room was in fact the maid’s quarters.
The men were barely armed, with one or two swords being dwarfed by the number of Vaunghe holding mops and glass objects. Osmund and the others all revealed their weapons to the group, and prepared to fight. The trainee’s swarmed the group, glass going everywhere, comrades hitting comrades and an entire clump of people together. The room was too small for so many people to use weapons, and as such the fight was a chaotic mess.
Osmund punched a young man in the face, sending teeth flying through the air. He pushed the man against his friends, who collapsed in a heap. Another man threw something at Osmund, and was dispatched with a kick to the side. More people appeared, with the room’s capacity doubling as people descended the stairs, ready for carnage. Osmund kicked, someone flew across the room knocking over even more, which in turn hit Balmun on the floor also.
As Osmund punched and dodged, swerving away from any injury, the rest of his party were slightly less proficient. Jumun had been hit in the head by a mop, sending her barrelling through a group of people. The Enick twins were throwing glass back at their enemies. Edmun still had the flail out, swinging it against his enemies, proceeding to hit Josmu in the arm and sending him to the ground.
Jab. Return. Sword. Dodge. Mop. Catch. Snap. Osmund’s mind raced, sending the Vaunghe to the ground in their tens. They crowded him, trying desperately to overwhelm him to no avail. Osmund had his back pressed to the wall, using it as a springboard against anyone trying to attack him. Osmund grabbed a Vaunghe and bowled the crowd to the ground using him as a makeshift battering ram.
Osmund kicked a Vaunghe to the ground, blood splattering across the room from a broken knee. The ground was covered in the Vaunghe trainees, sputtering blood and mumbling on the ground. And yet more still poured down the stairs, until finally it happened, a perpetual cycle of tripping.
For a brief few moments everyone was falling, Osmund, the party, the Vaunghe soldiers, everyone was tripping over everyone else, breaking bones and fracturing the body everywhere. Someone was just yelling perpetually, everytime he slowed down they just started back up again.
And it was as Osmund flew across this room, it was now that he remembered the gift of the gods. It had been about three days since it was gifted to him, a weapon to use in an emergency. It was a small handheld device, with a large pin sticking out of it. Upon removing the pin the device would combust, destroying everything around it. The one thing Osmund was told was to never be in a situation that risks removing the pin, or else he would explode.
Osmund had completely forgotten about the device, what he called god’s gift, until now. He scrambled into his pocket, feeling only two of the three gifts in his pocket, apparently the third had fallen out somewhere. Now beginning to sweat, Osmund called out to his soldiers around the room.
“Everyone, one of the gifts is missing! Move now!” The party began to panic, and now the squirming ocean of people became even harder to navigate.
Everywhere were bodies, Osmund attempting to wade through the field of people. He was halfway through strangling an obese man to death when he saw it. The god’s gift was lying on the floor between the mass of flesh this room had become. Osmund released the fat man and forced his way through the wide group of people, hand reaching for the gift. The string of Vaunghe had ended at this point, however it was at this point the Alizian military finally broke through into the room.
Flooding the room the force of their entry threw another Vaunghe into Osmund sending the gift flying directly towards Balmun, who appeared to be trying to climb the wall and escape the flood. Balmun unexpectedly caught the gift, and looked down at it in surprise.
“Hey Osmund, I have a very cunning plan!”
“No Gods be damned you idiot do not pull that pin!” Doubt came across Balmun’s face as he looked at the object, and then at the pin in his other hand.
Osmund then saw something fly through the air and back into the hole the group had entered from. Osmund looked back towards Balmun, who shrugged and raised the pin, embarrassment high on his face.
And then there was a loud bang, an explosion filled the room. Osmund was thrown against the wall alongside everyone else in the room, and for a brief second no one did anything. Reeling Osmund slowly clambered out of the mass of bodies he was now trapped inside of, looking around for survivors. There was a larger hole where the entrance used to be, alongside large bloody chunks of some poor sod who attempted to escape.
The Alizian’s reappeared in the doorway, noticing Osmund and approaching him with support. Everyone in the room was now bloody and beaten, save for Balmun who was for some reason running up the stairs, sword raised, issuing a battle cry. Osmund sighed, a loud ringing in his left ear silencing everything, and proceeded to follow the idiot upstairs. He was followed by one of the Enick twins and Jumun, with the other members of the party being unconscious amongst the heaps of flesh the room had become.
The group kicked in the top door of the tower, greeting the last few of the army. These men were older, and armed with real weapons. Osmund pushed Balmun forward with great force, stopping him from being hit by a sword and sending him tumbling into two of the soldiers.
Osmund dodged a sword swing, sending a gut punch in turn. The snap of bone and another Vaunghe was forced to the floor, blood spurting. Osmund’s hard rock fist shattered a man’s face in two, sending another Vaunghe down. Two more were taken out by Osmund’s party, with Balmun still on the floor.
A tall man, one of around 9 ft, charged Osmund to the floor, the impact deep on Osmund’s back. Osmund rolled, forcing the man to the ground and began pummeling him. Punching Osmund slammed through the man’s cheap armour, then his face, and Osmund kept punching until the man’s insides now coated Osmund’s outsides. Moving back, Osmund failed to see the man from behind him. By the time Osmund realised it was too late.
Something hard and metallic rasped off of Osmund’s head, sending him flying onto the ground, and as Osmund sweeped his feet he felt someone fall behind him. Blood rushed through Osmund’s nose and ear onto the floor, feeling the damage overwhelm him briefly. For a brief second Osmund forgot who he was, felt nothing but existence itself, and then his inner self focused on the pain, and came back to his senses.
Osmund turned, looking down at the man he’d tripped, now on the floor, and the item in his hands. It was silver, and oddly shaped, although Osmund felt he’d seen it before somewhere, although from where he knew it escaped him. Osmund crawled onto the man, pressing his hands against the man’s throat, and began to squeeze. The man’s resistance was futile, he spun around, kicking back at Osmund to no avail, until finally his windpipe gave way and caved in.
Slowly Osmund began to rise, the blood pouring out of him at an alarming rate. Covered in the blood and filth of himself and others, Osmund rose up and finally realised what hit him. The metal object was a bedpan, although hopefully not a used one, and Osmund picked it up, remarking at the dent his head had left on it. A lesser man may have been killed by such a weapon, however Osmund is by no means lesser.
He looked around to see the last Vaunghe soldier standing alone, surrounded by his allies. However there was something by the soldier’s feet that made Osmund freeze. The second gift of God was lying there, right beside the soldier’s foot. As the soldier moved for a valiant last fight he slipped on the gift, and Osmund heard the pin shoot out.
As Osmund moved to the stairs he grabbed anyone he could, two shapes clutched to his body, and jumped out of the room and down the stairs. The explosion rocked the tower, and as Osmund rolled down the stairs he took out a great number of Alizian’s trying to join the fight. As he rolled he also noticed the tower itself was also coming down, although Osmund knew he’d be dead by the time it hit the ground.
As Osmund and the two beside him hurtled to the ground Osmund’s vision began to fade, his eyes glossed over, and everything was black.
submitted by CrimsonCloverwriter to u/CrimsonCloverwriter [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 09:11 CrimsonCloverwriter Chapter One : This must be the place

Hi everyone, this is the first chapter of my debut novel. For information and links to other chapters click the link down below :
Reddit - Dive into anything
The Great One sat on his throne, gazing longingly into the hearts of man. Something was coming and he could feel it. Destiny riding on a white steed, like the tales of man long ago, coming to uncover his secrets. He could see it all, the wall, the castle, and the so-called gods that built it all. The ego of these creatures was laughable, if only the Great One could still laugh. He could still speak sure, but only through means not of man’s common means. Vocal cords were a commodity long since lost in this place.
As the Great One observed the coming destiny he could feel the approaching storm, in a hail of flesh and blood, the only things that the Great One lacked. He would never give up, never retreat to these things as they approached, for this was the Great One. He looked back to the castle, viewing the scene in its entirety, and he felt something like happiness enter him.
Divinity. That is what connected the walls surrounding Dundis castle, not stone or metal, this was not a mere wall but a divine gift from ones above. Divinity sealed the wall, made it whole, the walls sealed together without mark or blemish, something no man could ever replicate. The wall had stood for a century, and would likely last ten more, there was no weakness, no flaw in design. 50 metres tall the wall was unscalable, unbreakable. No man could break the wall, it was the Vaunghe empire’s crowning gift, their wonder of the world. Those that were hired to clean the wall’s dirt and grime were heralded as the truly faithful, and all longed to help the gift of the gods. And yet despite this the Alizian’s watched, standing with armies around the great wall, waiting to breach its crust and destroy the core.
The Vaunghe had watched their foes throw everything they had, hundreds of men attacking the steel doors of the wall to no avail, an attempted archer attack quickly squashed by the wall's height. The Alizian military was strong, a blend of the Alizian warriors and Strolim blacksmiths made for a truly terrifying army. The army was so terrifying that the Vaunghe inside the castle doubted there were any more Vaunghe troops left, this was the end to a long battle between man and man. Even the soldiers left weren’t particularly important, just those lucky enough to guard the king and a few trainees. But the Vaunghe felt their luck running out.
The food supplies had run low, even if the nobles weren’t in the castle there was no chance of resupply. The few men who had eaten in the past few days stood alert, gazing down from the ramparts at the enemy. The soldiers knew they had to either surrender or fight, but the Vaunghe were passionate people, they could never leave behind their identity in favour of life. So the men waited, bows and arrows at the ready, for the next attack. Heavy items such as ingots and chairs lined the rampart, ready to be thrown off at a moments notice.
They had waited in this position for many cycles, and as day turned to night, and night turned to day the Vaunghe were exhausted, finished with whatever feeble attacks these barbarians had planned. They could throw whatever armies and arrows they wanted at the wall but it would remain unphased, forevermore. When the Alizian’s next attacked they would be met with the last strength of the Vaunghe, and it would be a story remembered for milenia by man and the gods.
As the morning sun rose over the wall, the enemy was revealed in all their glory. Even from so high above the Vaunghe could see the glint of silver from the Alizian military. The bright greens of the Alizian armour created a dazzling sensation that they were one with the grass, which blended in so perfectly with their clothes. They stood in their thousands, armed with whatever they could find, and even on the wall the men could see him.
The slaughterer, the murderer, the man, the myth and the legend Osmund stood alone on an overlooking hill. The fiend was well known by the Vaunghe, he was likely the greatest foe that had come from the opposing sides. Vaunghe generals often fled at his coming, or surrendered first, but rumour had it that Osmund gave no mercy. Overseeing his army to destroy everything that was left, the Vaunghe soldiers knew today really was the end. The figure on the hill moved closer to his army and screamed. The battle-cry of the Alizian’s shook fear into each of the Vaunghe atop the rampart, being so loud that it even reached so high.
The hundreds of troops began to move in sync, forming three individual groups of soldiers, with 10 metre spaces between each. Each contingent comprised six hundred men, easily dwarfing the 82 Vaunghe soldiers that were left. But the Vaunghe were not afraid, at least not afraid of a breach anytime soon. These walls were built to withstand any damage, no man could breakthrough one.
Between the troops was movement, indeed there seemed to be movement down all three rows of men in blue. The Strolime empire had finally revealed themselves, with their short stature and mental prowess the Strolime were gifted inventors not expected to appear on the battlefield. And yet here they were, almost one hundred of them hauling forth three large metallic objects. The sun bounced off of these objects into the Vaunghe’s eyes.
None of the men had ever seen objects like these, seemingly composed of pure metals and on wheels. Some thought they were a testament to the gods, some holy objects, others believed it to be some new invention from the Strolime, however none of them could say anything for certain as they were pushed closer and closer to the wall. The Strolomites stopped in their advance, approximately 20 metres away from the wall. The purpose of these objects had yet to dawn on the men, although one of the younger men on the rampart claimed he could see small objects poking through the metal, which was now aimed at a forty-five degree angle towards the wall.
As the Strolimites halted their advance many began to move away into the safety of the Alizian wall, likely afraid of any precautionary Vaunghe archers. One of them, a rather short and plump soldier, stayed with the object, placing a hand on it and turning to the wall. It was a fleeting moment, but for a second it seemed the man was gazing at the Vaunghe soldiers in shame. One last condemnation to the ones that began this war, before it would all come crashing down. But then the moment passed, and the short man moved as the rest did, doing a slight zig zag to avoid arrows.
And now, just as quickly they had come, the Strolomite’s were gone in the ranks of the Alizians, still waiting in their groups for something, and then they came. Three figures, two women and a man, moved between the lines just as the Strolimites before them. These three wore no armour, only the greens of Alizia upon their tunics. They stood beside the objects and began to reach their arms into the underside of it. Before the Vaunghe’s eyes the objects began to turn slightly, aiming even more directly at the wall.
One of the Vaunghe had enough of this display, and raised his bow. There were low winds on this day, and he was a good enough shot to reach at least one of the Alizian soldiers. He aimed his bow, finger on the drawstring, and released. It is likely that this arrow would’ve drawn first blood in this battle, however the arrow never reached its target.
In the split second before the release of the bow, the Vaunghe noticed the smoke billowing out of the bottom of the devices, the flames that shot out, and finally they noticed for not even a fraction of a second the object that shot out of the metallic thing, something white and red that hit the wall in an instant.
The wall shook, and the following barrage of these objects shattered any notion of divinity. Crashing and crumbling the rampart was launched, sending soldiers flying everywhere. The Vaunghe beside the wall were subject to the falling rubble, both the crumbling stone of the walls and the miscellaneous objects they had left upon the wall. All of the objects crushed the few Vaunghe left, save for the few sickly starving soldiers left inside the castle’s inner walls.
Down went the walls, such a harsh strike against the wall that nothing stood in the path of this monster. The roaring splattered through the castle, the screams of the falling wall waking the King himself from his slumber. Such a vast creation had fallen in seconds before the might of the Alizian’s, and now there was nothing left but to watch the battle unfold.
Smoke flooded the inner walls of the castle, casting the few remaining into fits of coughing and blindness. The walls finished their crumbling, and yet the roars didn’t stop. These were not the roars of the wall but the war cries of the soldiers outside, and they began to get louder, echoing through the walls of Dundis and into the ears of the weak nobles and soldiers.
Through the smoke they came, weapons raised and charging the weak. The few that tried to fight were slaughtered, cut down by a sea of green soldiers. Those that were choking, sputtering or raising their hands in defeat were spared, hauled through the hordes and into one of the stables facing the inner wall. They were to be tried and jailed, for no human regardless of their crime should be killed. It is simply not the Alizian way.
Out of the one hundred and fifty two people who were in Dundis, forty two had died in the wall’s destruction, and a further eleven were detained by the Alizian military. There was nothing that the Vaunghe could do, save for locking their doors, shield themselves and hold out for as long as possible. The Vaunghe forces built barricades in their castle, locking away the Alizian combatants for as long as possible. And during all of this Osmund waited. Waiting for his time to end this war, this travesty of battle that had gone on for too long, and that time finally came.
* * * *
Osmund stood alone atop the hill, and watched the madness unfold. The walls crumbled at the face of these weapons with no more effort than a straw house, and the plumes of smoke assaulted his men, although not to the extent of the inner wall. After a few moments of sputtering and choking the men cheered, for this was the moment that they had been waiting for, the end of such a long war now in the Alizian’s favour.
The Vaunghe capital was in shambles, their military long crushed underneath Osmund’s almighty power, and all that was left was the King. Hiding behind his walls as if he didn’t deserve this loss, this final failure in his life. Osmund was willing to spare as many people as he could, it was the Alizian code, but there would be no mercy for the King. This wasn’t one final battle between two great armies, that conflict happened weeks ago, this was the last breaths of a psychotic monarch being silenced amongst the last of his troops.
Osmund gazed longingly at Dundis, the ruined walls and advancing soldiers and doubted. He felt something was off, something was very wrong with all of this. His heart began to thump, as Osmund’s eyes turned every way to understand what was wrong, what abnormality was here. It grew and grew, Osmund began to shake at what was about to happen, nothing was right here Osmund should be somewhere else helping someone, there’s something wrong here something very-
Peace. Osmund’s heart stopped thumping, body stopping its perpetual shaking. He looked again to the marching troops, now almost entirely inside the walls, and looked back to his back, and the reserve Strolomites that now stood. They were cheering, marvelling at the success of the assault, and how the god’s gift had saved so much effort on their part.
Such strange creations composed of metal and flame, Osmund marvelled at the power the gods possessed. These devices were so unique in design Osmund doubted if any army could defeat them. The large red tubes they released could easily destroy an entire village by itself, but with one hundred of them an entire valley could be bathed in flames. Something truly abnormal in this world, something so parallel to the code of battle that no army would ever think of it.
The Vaunghe were once considered to be the greatest fighters, with the tournaments they created bringing forth the greatest warriors from throughout the land. Their dedication and power were unmatched in ferocity and violence, some called the Vaunghe the standing due to their unmatched will to always get back up. Osmund recalled his days in the tournaments, those peaceful days when he was not yet a hero to people, but a simple military man. He was still only Osmu back then, and yet even those of the time knew he would be something special. As Christoff used to say, ‘Ozzie you’re going places, big ones’. Osmund missed Christoff, It had been so long since their last meeting, and all Osmund wanted was to meet again one last time.
Osmund’s assistant came to him, a younger Strolomite by the name of Gizmu. Gizmu was rather muscular for a Strolomite, a strong figure contrasting his associates' plumper bodies, and stature was fairly tall for one of his people at 6’5 ft tall. Hazel hair protruded through a blue helmet, and for the first time Osmund considered what his assistant could look like. Gizmu was one of the many Strolomite’s who refused to show their face until military success, a tradition that Osmund respected. He had no doubt that Gizmu's true face would one day be revealed to him, as the man possessed genuine prowess in the fields of agriculture, something sorely missed in the modern military.
“Osmund, your team is preparing now, they’ll come soon. I advise you to prepare your armour sir, as it won’t be long before you’re sent in.” Osmund sensed mild concern in Gizmu’s voice, but didn’t pursue it.
“Thank you Gizmu, my friend. I’ll begin my preparations, tell the guests to meet me here when they are fully prepared. And do ensure they understand that there is still risk of injury on this mission, ensure each of them wears their armour.” Osmund’s voice was deep and echoed his long life, commanding a sense of authority amongst all Alizian forces.
Osmund left the hill, passing the cheering Strolomite’s and the peasant farmers who supported the army, and entered the rows of tents. They stretched out on either side, one for every four soldiers, until he reached his own tent. Entering Osmund was surprised to discover a fellow commander still asleep in his bed, snoring away peacefully.
Osmund removes his upper clothing, the clean tunic falling to the ground. While removing these clothes Osmund kicks the sleeping man in the leg, which doesn’t actually amount to anything rather than halting his snoring. Osmund kicks the sleeping soldier again, this time in the buttocks, which does a far better job of riling him. The man looks around wide-eyed, before settling onto the sight of the giant Osmund.
“Hey, why'd you kick me? I almost had a bleedin’ heart attack don’t you know not to meddle with a sleepin man?”
“Don’t you know that you were meant to be on the battlefield at the crack of dawn? I don’t know what kind of promotion you’re expecting when you aren’t even going on the battlefield. Do you really want to be Balmun forever?” Osmund spoke coldly, now reaching for his chestplate.
“Well no sir. But the thing is I actually have a very cunning plan, I thought of it all myself.” A smile falls upon the man’s face, whose head bears an uncanny resemblance to a potato.
“And what is that?” Osmund halted his preparations briefly.
“Well if I say I was there but didn't actually go, who’d think I wasn’t? I can just sleep through it all until the battle is won and no one would be the wiser.” Osmund puts a hand onto Balmun’s fleshy shoulder.
“A fine plan, if I wasn’t your commanding officer you buffoon. By the gods I believe some divine creator mistakenly put a turnip in your head instead of a brain because no noble’s son has ever been as frankly idiotic as you have. You’re coming with me to the battlefield, and I suggest you get dressed or you’ll be facing the last of the Vaunghe army with your flopping cock dancing for all to see.” Balmun stood and began to slip some clothes on, as Osmund completed his own set of armour.
Osmund’s armour bore the mark of a noble family, some rich fools who wanted their family crest to be associated with a bloody conflict and a dangerous murderer. Osmund wore it because of the armour’s quality, customfit to encompass Osmund’s 9’5 ft tall body, something no other armour was able to achieve. Osmund’s height was always an oddity, reaching far above the average 8ft heights of most Alizian’s, and making him one of the tallest figures in the lands. It was this height and his skin’s colour that earned him the name of the black death, which he wasn’t particularly fond of due to the mention of his skin. And even then Osmund certainly didn’t feel like a black death, whatever that was meant to be, rather he felt like death itself. Osmund was to be fifty years old by the end of the week, and it showed on his body. The hair that was left on his head was grey, and while still possessing an impressive form Osmund’s body was not in its prime, he was old.
Osmund looked at himself in the full body mirror, grabbing his longsword and leaving the tent, dragging a half dressed Balmun with him. Back through the tents they travelled, back past the now eager Strolomite’s and atop the hill where Osmund’s infiltration team stood. In any other battle Osmund would’ve despised the one that left this group with him, a collection of subpar and mediocre soldiers with all the military future of an Otter in a stew. But then again Osmund’s battle history did feature a lot of important people dying under his watch, so perhaps this was for the better.
The force began with Edmun, a cross between a prostitute and a noble who unfortunately takes more from the noble. An egotistical brat, as well as a greedy goblin of anything that isn’t bolted down, Osmund had borne the unfortunate duty of his company for months, since the initial assault on the capitol. The man could barely hold a weapon, save for slight skill with a flail of all things which he wore by his side. It was a gold plated flail as well, specifically made for beating in the heads of the poor Vaunghe soldiers stupid enough to get close. Blonde hair obscured blue eyes that spoke to his red-light mother, in fact for a noble’s son Edmun had all the appearance of an incestuous dullard. The man had survived by pure luck, and was the only casualty that Osmund wanted his side to suffer.
The Enick twins Humun and Eumun were up next, named after their family crest of the god of alcohol Enick. In contrast to Edmun these were a pair of real soldiers, Osmund had seen the fruits of their labour many times. They were great at the art of flanking, Humon’s greataxe paired alongside Eumun’s spears proved to be an unbeatable combination. The only issue that Osmund had with the pair was their… peculiar relationship. While the two were great fighters, whenever they were together anything else became impossible to comprehend. Osmund had once caught the pair attempting to seduce a goat wearing a knight’s helm, and while they were drunk there is still clear evidence of idiocy amongst them. The pair were identical in appearance, burly figures of 8’5ft, short cut black hair and overgrown beards stretching down their faces, however the distinguishing feature between the two was Eumon’s cleft lip, which gave his speech a lisp.
Josmu was far more a scholar than a soldier, although Osmund enjoyed his presence greatly. Since they first met the pair had hit it off, often discussing each other’s lives in Alizian taverns across the kingdom. A gifted archer, Josmu was the son of two aspiring poets and enlisted into the military voluntarily to assist in the war efforts. Osmund had a great deal of respect for the man, and hoped that the two would one day have a drink together, and ruminate on the past once more.
And then there was Jumun, a gifted soldier and one of the few Osmund thought could take him in his prime. Long strands of red hair ran down her rough face, a pointed nose and peculiar eyebrow shape giving her a perpetual look of disappointment. At a height of 9’2 ft she stood almost toe to toe with Osmund, in fact there were many aspects about her that reminded Osmund of himself. The first was her attitude, she treated every war as a tragedy of its own, and yet she would never fail to perform against her enemies. Skilled in most weapons Jumun’s life had been long and arduous, her worn out armour covered in patches and dents. Osmund had offered her a new set of armour once, to which she vehemently refused, telling Osmund that she wished to end the war in the armour she started it in. Currently she held a single large sword nearly identical to his own, and Osmund predicted that she couldn’t wait for the battle to be over.
The group stood facing the smoking walls, watching the now descending Strolomite’s retrieve the three gifts from the gods. Pushing them back up the hill would take tremendous strength and a long time, which is why nearly double the number of Strolomite’s assisted in the endeavour. Osmund cleared his throat, prompting the looks of the team. All of their eyes were of Balmun, who was somehow already panting after a 2 minute drag through the ground. Osmund released the man and pushed him towards his new comrades, to which he sulked.
Osmund could see through the smoke of the ruins now, noting the strangely high number of bodies present from Osmund’s view. It appeared that there were more forces than originally estimated, as it was initially guessed there were around one hundred and fifty soldiers inside. Judging by the number of corpses inside those numbers clearly forgot to account for the possibility of trainees inside of the castle. This may be a slightly larger fight than initially predicted, although even supposing there were another hundred or so trainees locked inside rooms there were things Osmund could do against that.
“Alright then, good to see that some of you actually bothered to wake up today, Balmun, and I think we all know that this mission is going to end the war.” Balmun raised his hand.
“Yes Balmun?”
“Sir I have a very cunning pl-”
“Shove your plans up your slacker buttocks, you idiot. Now then, I’m gonna say this once, because quite frankly the more chances I give Balmun to interrupt the more likely I’ll butcher myself with this sword. Now then we are the backbone to the forces, our mission is to help take individual points of conflict from alternative points. We will accomplish this with the leaked maps of the castle gained from Vaunghe intelligence. Now then, originally it was believed that we were dealing with only around one hundred and fifty troops, but it looks like someone didn’t remember the number of rookie troops that are trained here, so we could be looking at a few more troops than expected.” Osmund saw the hand raised but tried to ignore it. The man with the potato for a head seemed adamant however, and raised his hand higher. When that didn’t work he raised both arms.
“By the gods what is it?”
“Well sir, what kind of weapons do you think they have?” Osmund stopped in his tracks, not expecting anything even related to an actual important question. A smile formed on his face, it seems that even fools can think every now and again.
“Decent question my friend, we can probably expect the basic mix of swords and axes, likely shields also, but we may have one or two archers running around however it’s unlikely any survived the wall’s collapse.”
“That is good Osmund, once we take a few down I need a weapon, I like the swords myself.”
“What’s wrong with your sword?”
“I left it in the tent sir.” Osmund cupped his hands into his face, cringing against the stupidity of this man.
“Listen…. just everyone follow me please, I mean by the gods man. Come on. Listen I don’t think we will need any armour with us today, we have the single thickest piece of meat just over there as we speak.” Osmund points towards Balmun, who turns to see what everyone is looking at. Without another word Osmund begins to walk down the hill towards the castle, muttering things that even the gods consider a little racy.
* * * *
The ruins of Dundis stood firm in their strength, with the ruined walls blemishing what was once a grand fortress that none had penetrated. Tall spires protrude from the shapeless stone complex. Along the gateway was a path leading directly into the Dundis entrance, which stood slightly ajar. Fragments of the wall had crushed many parts of the outside, with simple wooden stables and trees crushed by the weight of the plummet of the debris. The architecture that remained spoke to the complexities of the Vaunghe, as spiralling patterns adorned the walls of the castle, interlaced with rare jewels that coated the walls. The Vaunghe were so fortunate with minerals that one could find them coating their walls, despite the fact that no one other than a fellow Vaunghe was ever meant to see such a thing.
A veil of embarrassment and determination clashed as the group descended the hill, weapons at the ready. The group had reached the ruins of the wall now, debris coating the grass and the bodies that were surely there. Even destroyed Osmund still felt some of that divine power the Vaunghe always babbled about, he felt the strength in the walls and not for the first time wondered why the gods would bestow such a gift upon such a vile group.
The group began clambering through the ruins, over the cracked pieces of stone and through the divine walls final remains. There was a smell here, the remnants of smoke colliding with the smell of blood, but there was a third smell, one that Osmund knew well. It was the smell of inevitability, heavy in the hair. That which is unlikely to happen always will happen, and when it does the smell adds to it all, the smell of fate and destiny runs through this place.
Inevitability hides everywhere, in the trees and the skies, carried by the wind through it all. From nature it was born, but in man it thrives, the building’s will one day fall, the kingdoms will fade away, and everything will one day lead to something else. From every beginning comes an end, and each end becomes a beginning, this is how it has always been. This place thought itself against such things, and inevitability infected its walls, creeping along slowly rotting the once great walls into a hellish nightmare. Now the bubble has burst, and the smell of inevitability crowds the world, taking over everything.
Moaning. A low whimper. A cry for something. Calls for assistance. A terrified yell. Osmund approaches the source of these noises, his team close behind. At the source of these screams is a Vaunghe soldier, somehow alive after the rampart’s collapse, covered in piles of stone and smoke. His outstretched hand reaches towards Osmund, who in turn takes it.
The man mutters something, sputters blood, and begins to fade. As he does, Osmund moves towards the rocks, feeling against it. Somehow the rocks aren’t as heavy as they should be, and Osmund slowly moves the rocks. The first and second rocks move, and after some struggling Osmund moves the third rock, revealing a bloody leg, spurting forward. Osmund realises how the man survived, the remains of a metal box squashed around him. As the rampart fell the man landed inside, narrowly missing an immediate demise. Now he sat, bleeding in and out of consciousness, and moaning for help. Osmund put his hands around the man, slowly lifting him, and moving forwards into the inner walls.
There are running medics here, and as they see Osmund’s approach they run to him, taking the injured man and placing him onto a table. The man may survive, they told Osmund, however his bleeding may take too much from him. As Osmund turns to leave he hears the voice, the message of the man.
“T-t-th-than-” It was shaky, interrupted by coughs and convulsions, but bore strength, and Osmund felt the ghost of a smile play upon him.
“It wasn’t an issue.” And with that Osmund left the tent, admiring the surroundings in focus for the first time. Eyes bore into him from his party, and yet no one said anything, they couldn’t. Many had called Osmund a monster in his time, they had seen him do bad things to bad people, and yet none would call him a monster, for there is no such thing. Osmund is not some black death, he’s another beast entirely.
For the first time Osmund admired his surroundings, the inner walls were now filled with wreckage, and looked back to the tent. It was amazing how quickly the medics could establish tents, the battle had occurred for less than an hour and already there were three tents established side by side. Besides the wounded Vaunghe soldier were three other injured soldiers, each seeming to be hit by a minor injury likely from the smoke inhalation.
The captured and surrendered were lined up against the castle's wall, being carefully monitored by over sixty members of the contingent. There were only around twelve or thirteen of the captured, smoke-covered and sputtering. On the ground were bodies, those rookies that tried so valiantly to protect what they cared for. They now lay, looking up to the sky blindly.
Osmund saw the bodies and felt his stomach turn. The desire came back. The shaking returned, alongside it the painful sharp stabbing thoughts. Everything changed, he forgot who he was. What kind of person would approve of this, what even was Osmund was he real or fake, how is he even conceiving things like this. What is reality and why is it real, why can’t he understand-
Silence. Peace. Osmund returned to himself, the shaking never happening at all. He looked down at the bodies and continued to walk. There was nothing he could do for them, not anymore. The eyes of his group bore into him, shattering something that had broken a long time ago. He raised his hand and motioned for his team to follow, leaving this travesty of death and life behind.
Footsteps. Osmund turned to their echoing sound, the way they bounced through the place was unbelievable, the way it echoed between the walls and the castle structure itself. Through open castle gates he ran, a messenger in green, sword in its scabbard and now approaching Osmund. The man tripped on something, a large rock of some sort, before standing, dusting himself off and reaching the group.
“Osmund, we have hit the enemy’s points of defence.” The man was young, maybe twenty, and no more than twenty five.
“And? Where are they?”
“There are three fronts, the first is in the scout’s tower where a group of Vaunghe are amassing weapons and barricades fast. We can no longer enter the tower, as the amount thrown down makes common entrance impossible. The second location is the garden, where we believe the last of the nobles and the King himself are. We’ve faced harsh opposition from the enemies, who have formed a wall of shields to protect the door. Finally we have the guard’s quarters, where a few amount of Vaunghe are in active combat as we speak, although that will likely be taken without need for intervention.”
“Good job soldier.”
“Thank you sir.”
Osmund removes a slip of paper from his garb, and admires it in the sunlight. It was a complex map of Dundis, including the secret passages and escape routes of the entire place. It cost the annulment of many Vaunghe men and women, but was worth all the effort. Consulting the map Osmund noted the existence of an escape passageway inside of the tower. It was obscured behind a wall, thus explaining the lack of windows on that side.
“Report back to your commander that we’ll begin with the tower, there are several clear passages into an alternative staircase. Launching a pincer attack we’ll defeat the enemy and allow for the redistribution of forces. By that time I expect the guard’s quarters to be taken, allowing us to completely overflow any opposition protecting the garden.”
“Yes Osmund, I will inform her now.” And with that the young warrior ran back through the castle’s long iron gates.
And thus, the final battle was upon them. Osmund looked upon Dundis, the last symbol of the people who had taken everything from him, the ones who had slaughtered so many innocents, so many that Osmund cared for, and now the end was finally in sight. But it didn’t feel like the end, Osmund could feel no conclusion approaching, it felt like something else, as if this was all leading into something more, some grand massacre the likes of which Osmund had never seen. There’s a darkness ahead, something far worse to come than the echoes of a fallen monarchy, and as Osmund stands he can feel it inside of him, gesturing sensually, awaiting his return to the beginning. In a mental prison of nonexistent existence lies the mother, a slight smile on her lips. She awaits the grasp of Osmund forevermore.
submitted by CrimsonCloverwriter to u/CrimsonCloverwriter [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 09:08 Most_Worldliness9761 Some notes on identification of Deism

I think it's generally concerning that we're all -myself included- having a bit of a struggle where to put "Deism" in the grand spectrum of religious and philosophical affiliations, what identifying as a Deist implies concerning our idea or description of God and what makes it unique compared to others. I want to say a couple of things based on my reading in the last 4 years. You can jump to TL;DR for a two paragraph summary.
In some conversations I come across remarks like "this is the Christian idea of God, Deism does not propose such and such". I don't think any of us are an authority on what Deism "requires" but it's certainly easily conflated with cultural atheism in the name of distinguishing it from religiosity. Also naturalist pantheism being labeled as Deism seems commonplace just because it's anti-Biblical.
To summarize my personal understanding of it, Deism is nothing more or less than Philosophical Monotheism (stripped of divine mission or intervention):
The idea that the universe (nature, time, space, matter, energy, laws of physics and motion) has an absolute literal beginning before which there was nothing, there was no 'before', but there was the Creator only, and the Creator (the transcendent but personal and intelligent being that is above and beyond the confinements of the universe, the only self-existent/uncaused entity) is responsible for the emergence of the universe.
We're talking about the "emergence" of time and space itself, which is incomprehensible to our minds, but logically provable with the Uncaused Cause argument which states that the chain of causality can not go back forever in an infinite regress, and the arrow of time must have been fired at some point or else it would never have reached this very moment. (Another argument, called the ontological argument, states that the Highest Idea Conceivable can not possibly not exist as in that case we wouldn't have been able to conceive its idea in the first place.)
Many variants of opposition to this stance is a gigantic consensus of a plethora of theistic and atheistic religions that have dominated much of history really, which all believe in unoriginated, eternal, self-existent universe. This point is important. I included atheism in 'religions' to the surprise of some because from the deistic pov it is considered illogical hence superstitious.
From the widespread ancient creation myths of the earliest civilizations to modern atheism, to name a few, in the Babylonian Enuma Elish, Hindu Vedas, Aristotelian cosmology, Hebrew Bible (specifically the Book of Genesis), and the Qur'an (verse 11:7 etc.) (also the recent quantum theories alternative to the Big Bang); the uncontested idea was eternal cosmos.
The cosmos, the interwoven fabric of time and space, had existed since forever, going back to an eternal past without a beginning, ever been filled with chaotic primordial oceans that is the essence of matter (and of the age of agricultural settlements), and one day a Demiurge (Craftsman) with his pantheon who are all inhabitants here decide to bring shape, form, and order to this disordered watery realm. He uses this pre-existing matter, water, to sculpt a habitat called by the ancients "heaven and earth", a dome shaped planet with a stretched flat ground and hemispheric cover. Just like he will sculpt Adam from mud later. The reason the sky is blue is because there are waters above just like upon the earth, but confined behind a solid transparent platform held up by invisible columns. When the oceans were originally split in two, that's how the sky and the earth were distinguished. There are actual resting places of the sun and the moon in the far off edges of the world, and geographic locations in direct exposure to them. The stars are stations of heavenly beings. The highest layer of the sky above the clouds houses the Heavenly Court, the pantheon of divine royalty who established themselves there after the creation was done, reigning over the earth, managing natural affairs.
This is the Biblical and more or less all of the ancient cosmology (Mormons and earth flatters got it right). In short, although there is a mighty royal figure responsible for crafting the dome-planet earth and bringing order to anarchy, the "universe" (time and space) that encapsulates it have no mention of being originated out of nothing here. Contrary to popular belief, the Genesis never claimed or was interested in any creator or creation of nature, it merely gave a mythological account of how the observable world earned its current shape and state. It didn't say that the "heaven and earth" was the entire universe or spacetime spectrum itself; or that matter(waters), the raw material of the world, needed to be created by a higher power.
Rather, the Demiurge and his minions had been living in space for quite some time, spending their days not knowing what to do with all the watery chaos, until one day they begin a construction that takes 6 working days plus 1 resting day.
It's the Scholastic and Kalam philosophy that first proposed an absolute origin for nature/spacetime and attributed Supreme qualities to the non-anthropomorphic higher power responsible for it. Later, 17-18th century Enlightenment thinkers divorced this Creator from scriptural religion altogether. But rationalist philosophy that developed even among scriptural scholars had ever been contra-Biblical which is why they had been debating how to reconcile reason and revelation for centuries since Thomas Aquinas and before.
In short, Monotheism in this modern sense emerged with philosophy articulated among clerical circles and developed further by Enlightenment Deism by being stripped of mythological aspects.
It is important to have the right idea about what organized religion (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) really is to distinguish it from Deism. With their scriptural tenet of eternal cosmos, a pantheon of multiple divine figureheads or demi-gods called angels or triune persons, anthropomorphic/material chief deity, deified priest-kings called prophets; they are surviving remnants of "Monolatristic Henotheism" -a hardened, centralized, more coercive form of Polytheism- rather than Monotheism.
Sure, they are a unique brand that put much more emphasis on the head of the pantheon, and obsessively iconoclastic (except when their holy sites and symbols are concerned that is), but that's pretty much it. That is why it's called Monolatrism, and to our surprise, the Babylonian cult of Marduk was just as much Monolatristic that we might as well call it Monotheistic by the prevailing understanding of this term. (Marduk was named the Creator of the heaven and earth, and the King of the gods whose will is only subordinate to his.)
Modern urban religious societies do not realize how rationalized and modernized their outlook on God actually is, like an unlabeled de facto Deism, compared to scriptural orthodoxy they conveniently ignore. Today, the legit religious lifestyle is preserved by extreme traditionalists on the peripheries, not the usual Church going aunt, not even conservative politicians. Groups like Mormons and Muslim Salafis advocate for literalist interpretations of fundamental texts, cleansed of apologetic metaphors and obscurations, which reveal the texts' true cosmology and view of divine hierarchy.
Between soft paganism (scattered and tolerant) and hard paganism (centralized and coercive), the three big heavenly religions fall under the latter category, but their modern adherents are closer to Deism in their view and way of life than either.
That is not to say this anti-Monotheistic religiosity rooted way before the three big doesn't continue to poison our thoughts and behavior. Although ritual worship is allegedly only dedicated to a chief deity, we have lesser divine beings and holy spirits venerated with just as much piety, temples and shrines to make Communion with said divine powers, offerings to please them, priests to confess our sins to and intervene on our behalf, and countless other pagan superstition dedicated to the skies and royal Morgan Freeman up there. Muslims still pray towards a cube that houses a black meteorite (representing a moon deity) five times a day. Religious societies still vaguely 'divinize' charismatic politicians as chosen saviours for swearing by the holy book and promising unity and protection of their traditional values.
The believer's heart is not alone in a spiritual relationship with a singular Divine authority who is stripped of all human faults, alone in Its presence without involvement of self-appointed intermediaries, nor is his/her mind satisfied about belief since established theology isn't interested in reducing Divinity to oneness from all the additions and extensions and inventions justified under labels like 'only intercessors' or 'persons/faces of the one and the same essence'.
Rather the establishment is interested in apologizing for the inerrancy of its book, reconcilation of doctrinal inconsistencies, or indisputability of its leaders, like a one-party dictatorship ideology. You could say, it values paranormality over spirituality, religiosity over faith, if that makes sense. So the anti-logical mystery of triune godhead, divine offspring or genealogy, or finite mortals receiving literal historical words from an infinite and transcendent entity, or angels (malak=mighty one) being blatantly disguised remnants of Canaanite/Greek/Arab pantheon ... all pass as inconsistencies of Monotheism in need of explanation while they really have Polytheistic mentality and tradition going millenias back. "Divine Decree Manifest" on paper and in human language was invented by pagans and so was divinely ordained rulers. What did a Jewish Messiah do or believe different than Hammurabi exactly?
Opening the door to divine mission or intervention has always been about making a church, a spiritual demagogue, look infallible and indispensable, not about sincerely understanding or loving or exalting the Divine. My issue is, why should we refrain from having God in our lives and minds just because of those who exploit Its name?
When it comes to creating and designing nature, these religions have no concept of nature or inviolable natural laws to begin with. When it comes to Omnipotence, Jehovah or Father or Allah are anything but, as they need constant assistance and collaboration of Angels (Mighty Ones) (let's just call them Gods already) to be able to manage cosmic affairs. Each Angel/God is entrusted by The God (Allah in Arabic is literally Al-Ilah) with governance of a particular natural/cosmic function like weather, soil, fertility, death, guidance, judgment in afterlife etc. When it comes to Omnibenevolence, you don't need to be reminded that the scriptures have zero concern of proving their god's goodness with all the atrocious militaristic commandments and even sending humanity to earth as a punishment! Adam and Eve's banishment can be interpreted as Misotheistic (hatred of God and depiction of God as cruel) even --- he is not portrayed as loving or merciful in any way, but perhaps as a necessary evil or benevolent tyrant. As a Deist I would much rather considering being here as a blessing rather than punishment, for men and women alike, but the authors of Genesis were closer to Nietzsche than me in that respect. Or what about being All-Just? Having my sins atoned for with the sacrifice of someone else instead of my remorse and change is not fair. Not to mention that an All-Powerful Being should not be able to be born or killed. Worship of mortals flesh and blood is not worship of God.
But all these attributes - Creation, Omnipotence, Omnibenevolence etc. - are so culturally wed to the rhetoric of organized religion, it's as if one has to defend every dogma and tenet of these religions the moment they take a step into the realm of Monotheism. (And quickly it turns into a cultural dog fight between theists and atheists, false dichotomies between creationism and evolutionism and other things. Someone want to tell atheists they still have the same cosmology -a universe without a beginning- as Sumerians and Mormons, and that the biological evolutionary laws indicate intelligent design with no reference to Christianity, or that the Watchmaker they're trying to discredit is not even found in the scriptures?) This among others if you ask me is the greatest burden and confusion caused by organized religion and part of the reason Deists struggle to define themselves or pinpoint their position in relation to others.
Organized religions do not only spread so many lies and paradoxes, but blend the truth with superstition and cause the truth to be discredited among their nonsenses like a jewel lost in a bag of coal.
TL;DR, from my pov, Deism is simply belief -whether it be a rational conclusion or heartfelt knowledge- in One Supreme God, Starter of the universe (and its independent order), Moral Authority, while denying the existence of other divine entities or supernatural forces of any kind as well as divine intervention - miracles, revelations, vicegerents/spokespersons. This does not mean God has to be impersonal, disinterested, spiritually insignificant, morally indifferent, and most certainly not that It is nature or a part of nature (Creator =/= creation).
The main point of this article is that Deism proposes a Watchmaker whose idea is born in philosophical thought, and contrary to popular belief, not found anywhere in ancient Scriptures that actually propose as a divinely decreed tenet of faith that the Watch was never set to begin with, but had always been there.
Superstition consists of rejecting reason, mystifying creatures, mythologizing natural phenomena, deifying human beings and human-like images.
Let's be confident in saying that the flaw of religious institutions has never been proposing a Supreme Creator, but on the contrary, 1. undermining It, and 2. speaking from Its mouth to deify themselves, their own ideas.
submitted by Most_Worldliness9761 to deism [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 08:11 ripred3 MicroChess Update: Money for Nothing..

This is the 4th post in a series about writing a chess engine for the Arduino platform. Here are the first, second and third posts.
This is a quick update about some of the data structure and algorithmic changes that I am making as I clean up the program and implement the minimax algorithm. I came up with this structure yesterday and it works extremely well in terms of the speed improvements and the reduction of the RAM requirements of the program.
Throughout the code there are a lot of places where we need to convert from the board index (0-63) and the row and column that the location represents using one or more of these formulas:
 // convert a column and row into a board index index = col + row * 8; // convert a board index to the column col = index % 8; // or col = index & 7; // convert a board index to the row col = index / 8; // or col = (index >> 3) & 7;
So the code is full of places where all 3 variables (index, col, and row) are needed just in order to calculate these values. This also takes up extra stack space or executes calculations that I wish I didn't have to pay for in terms of the memory used and the additional runtime execution. So I came up with this data structure:
/** * @brief conv1_t struct represents a single chess piece location in 8 bits. * * The struct cleverly packs the data for a chess piece location into 2 bytes. It * uses a union of two structures to allow for easy access to the data in two * different formats. The first structure, pt, is a bitfield that is laid out as * † follows: * * 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 * +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+------+ * col row type side * +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+------+ * * The second structure, ndx, is laid out as follows: * * 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 * +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+------+ * index type side * +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+------+ * * The idea behind the design is that the col and row fields are easily accessed * when scanning the chess board in row-major order, while the index field is * easily accessed when looping over an array of pieces. Additionally, assigning * to the col, row, or index fields automatically / magically performs the * calculations `index = col + row * 8` and `col = ndx % 8, row = index / 8` * implicitly, thanks to the clever use of the union and the resulting alignment * of the bitfields! * * Let me say that again: The math and conversion between the (col,row) * pairs and the 0 - 63 index automatically happens without having to apply * the `index = col + row * 8`, `col = index % 8`, or the `row = index / 8` * expressions! To understand this realize that dividing by 8 or multiplying by * 8 is the same operation as shifting a value 3 bits up or down. By aligning * the bitfields the way we are, we are forcing the 3 bits that store the row * to implicitly be 3 bits to the left of the col bitfield when viewed from * perspective of the ndx.index field! Man I love programming haha, and binary * numbers are cool! * * The struct provides a set of getter and setter methods to safely access the * bit fields, as well as constructors to initialize the values of the fields. * * Forcing all access to go through the the setters and getters is not just * there to ensure that the fields cannot be accessed except through the * methods; they serve a higher purpose. All bitfields should be able to be * accessed in two§ bitwise assembly instructions: A shift operation (<< or >>) * and a masking AND instruction. By providing these accessors we guarantee * that all code produced by the compiler will use two assembly instructions per * access worst-case when accessing any of these fields. Without this it is * possible for the compiler to generate some inefficient code such as loading * the entire structure into memory just to perform an operation on one of the * fields and then throwing the temporary stack object away. * * † The actual layout with respect to the order of the fields in memory is * up to the compiler based on the processor architecture. The intent and * optimal storage is still achieved however regardless of the order in * physical memory. * * § actually to be technically accurate, worst-case it could take 4 * instructions if the value was split across byte boundaries in memory * requiring access to two separate memory locations. */ struct conv1_t { private: union { struct { uint8_t col : 3, ///< The column value of the position. row : 3, ///< The row value of the position. type : 3, ///< The type of piece (pawn, knight, etc.) at the position. side : 1; ///< The side (white or black) of the piece at the position. } pt; ///< A struct used to compactly store the values and to access /// the member fields of the union in a type-safe manner. struct { uint8_t index : 6, ///< The index of the position in the board array. type : 3, ///< The type of piece (pawn, knight, etc.) at the position. side : 1; ///< The side (white or black) of the piece at the position. } ndx; ///< A struct used to compactly store the values and to access /// the member fields of the union in a type-safe manner. } u; ///< A union used to store the position information in two /// different ways, for different use cases. public: conv1_t() : u{ 0, 0, Empty, Black } {} conv1_t(uint8_t index) { u.ndx.index = index; u.ndx.type = Empty; u.ndx.side = Black; } conv1_t(uint8_t index, uint8_t type, uint8_t side) { u.ndx.index = index; u.ndx.type = type; u.ndx.side = side; } conv1_t(uint8_t col, uint8_t row) : u{ col, row, Empty, Black } {} /** * @brief Setters for the structure. * */ void set_index(uint8_t value) { u.ndx.index = value; } void set_col(uint8_t value) { u.pt.col = value; } void set_row(uint8_t value) { u.pt.row = value; } void set_type(uint8_t value) { u.pt.type = u.ndx.type = value; } void set_side(uint8_t value) { u.pt.side = u.ndx.side = value; } /** * @brief Getters for the structure. * */ uint8_t get_index() const { return u.ndx.index; } uint8_t get_col() const { return u.pt.col; } uint8_t get_row() const { return u.pt.row; } uint8_t get_type() const { return u.pt.type; } uint8_t get_side() const { return u.pt.side; } }; // conv1_t /** * @brief Struct representing a chess move. * * The struct contains two `conv1_t` members, `from` and `to`, representing the * starting and ending positions of the move, respectively. */ struct conv2_t { private: conv1_t from, to; public: conv2_t() : from(), to() {} conv2_t(uint8_t from_index, uint8_t to_index) : from(from_index), to(to_index) {} conv2_t(uint8_t from_col, uint8_t from_row, uint8_t to_col, uint8_t to_row) : from(from_col, from_row), to(to_col, to_row) {} conv2_t(const conv1_t& from_, const conv1_t& to_) : from(from_), to(to_) {} void set_from_index(uint8_t value) { from.set_index(value); } void set_from_col(uint8_t value) { from.set_col(value); } void set_from_row(uint8_t value) { from.set_row(value); } void set_from_type(uint8_t value) { from.set_type(value); } void set_from_side(uint8_t value) { from.set_side(value); } void set_to_index(uint8_t value) { to.set_index(value); } void set_to_col(uint8_t value) { to.set_col(value); } void set_to_row(uint8_t value) { to.set_row(value); } void set_to_type(uint8_t value) { to.set_type(value); } void set_to_side(uint8_t value) { to.set_side(value); } uint8_t get_from_index() const { return from.get_index(); } uint8_t get_from_col() const { return from.get_col(); } uint8_t get_from_row() const { return from.get_row(); } uint8_t get_from_type() const { return from.get_type(); } uint8_t get_from_side() const { return from.get_side(); } uint8_t get_to_index() const { return to.get_index(); } uint8_t get_to_col() const { return to.get_col(); } uint8_t get_to_row() const { return to.get_row(); } uint8_t get_to_type() const { return to.get_type(); } uint8_t get_to_side() const { return to.get_side(); } }; // conv2_t
All the Best!
ripred
submitted by ripred3 to arduino [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 06:55 Important-Photo7628 Tick Tick Fruit

Tick Tick Fruit
The Tick Tick Fruit is a paramecia type devil fruit that allows the user to manifest a cylindrical space known as TICK in which they can manipulate time.
Strengths
By conjuring a cylindrical forcefield that is centered around the user, they gain control over everything inside that territory, from living beings, including themselves, to nonliving objects. This space is characterized by a large clock painting suddenly appearing on the ground encompassing the entire affected area. The size of TICK can vary from a few meters wide to surrounding entire buildings and mountains, although larger TICKs require more effort to maintain. Since the forcefield is cylindrical, it affects everything within range no matter how high in the sky it is. As long as the user's chosen targets are inside their TICK, they are within range of the user's techniques.
Within their TICKs, the user can either slow down or speed up the flow of time by a factor of 50. This means that anything inside can either be up to 50 times faster or 50 times slower. The user can choose to apply the effects of TICK to either only themselves, to select targets, to everything within, or to everything within but themselves. Anything that enters the field will immediately succumb to the effects of TICK. Objects that are slowed down will have all forces applied and experienced by them slowed down as well. These forces will all be reinstated when TICK is deactivated. Objects that are speed up will have a massive increase in speed. This increase in speed will bring forth an equally massive increase in momentum. If the user only applies the effect of TICK on themselves, the effect will spread to things they are touching until they move a certain distance from them. Inversely, the user can negate the effects of TICK on a target within the field by directly touching them, with the effect applying once they move a certain distance from them
TICK can also be used for medical purposes as well. Speeding up a target will amplify and quicken their targets' healing process by simulating cell division. Whenever the body's tissues are damaged or an organ is destroyed, the injury will instantly heal regardless of the severity. The healing effect is so strong that it can heal broken bones and several limbs. With this speed up, some grave injuries requiring months to heal can be healed completely in a matter of seconds. The immune system is also stimulated, allowing a target to heal from illnesses and toxins they normally wouldn't have survived. The slow down can also be used to buy a person extra time when performing life saving surgery, delaying the negative effects of their injuries.
The user can redirect the motion of anything inside by pointing at the target and then pointing in another direction parallel to the ground. This will cause the minute hand of the clock to point in the direction of the target and the hour hand point in the direction the user is pointing at. The velocity vector of the target will be immediately redirected to the direction of the hour hand, regardless of how much momentum was behind it. For example, they can move something coming towards them from 12 o'clock to 3 o'clock, causing it to suddenly turn 90 degrees to the right. The seconds hand can be used to facilitate movement in the z-axis, with 12 to 6 being 0 to 180 degrees, and 6 to 12 being 0 to negative 180 degrees. The seconds hand will point in the direction the user's leg is pointing at.
Awakening
The user gains the ability to create and manipulate "time stickers" which can be thrown at objects and people, either having a slowing down or speeding up effect on the target depending on the type of time sticker that affects them. The time stickers appear like miniature versions of TICK that can be adhered onto any surface, including the air itself. A time sticker will immediately take effect on contact. This awakening allows the user to bypass the range limit of TICK.
Weaknesses
The fruit's most obvious drawback is that the user of the Tick Tick Fruit can only use its powers within a specific area that they have to summon themselves, so if the target moves outside the area, they are unaffected by its powers. The fruits effective range is also obvious to anyone who isn't completely blind as it is difficult to ignore the giant clock on the ground. When the user creates their TICK, it remains stationary until the user dismisses it and creates another one. Summoning multiple TICKs at once is impossible. While the user can deactivate a TICK at will, it can be forcefully deactivated if they are rendered unconscious or forcibly from the field. The user can only apply one time effect when a TOCK is made. To apply a new effect, they must deactivate the current TICK and create a new one. Those with strong Haki will resist the time altering abilities of the fruit.
A major weakness of this fruit is that usage of the fruit's abilities depletes the user's stamina. Larger instances of TICK use up a lot more stamina than smaller ones. This results in situations where the user must rest after or avoid long or multiple enemy confrontations in order to use his powers further down the line. Over-usage and exerting to the range limit can even result in shortening of the lifespan. The time stickers can also be washed off with water.
Another weakness is that the user must point at an object to redirect it's movement. Failure to do so will cause the redirection to fail. As such attacks that are too quick for them to track or sneak attacks will not be redirected. In addition, loosing limbs will reduce the ability to redirect an objects motion as long as their is a stump left. A complete loss will remove the ability to redirect motion with that limb.
Using the speed up effect of TICK to heal people does come with its own risks. Speeding someone up does not repair their old cells, instead hastening the creation of new ones through division. Because a body's cells can only split a certain number of times, the user shortens their patients natural lifespan whenever this technique is used. As such it is possible to accidentally kill a person while trying to save them. Only a skilled doctor can make full use of this healing ability.
Trivia
This is meant to be the counterpart to the Ope Ope no Mi, manipulating time instead of space. Layering a ROOM and a TICK together will not cause their effects to interfere with each other as time and space exist parallel to each other. This means affecting one will have no effect on the other.
submitted by Important-Photo7628 to DevilFruitIdeas [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 06:42 Shanedugg 6 days of great eats in NYC..

Coming all the way from Vancouver, Canada I recently had the great blessing to be able to stay in NYC for 6 days and here is the list of places I ate at and my short reviews:
Night 1
NR ramen cocktail bar in the UES. We went there last year and had a bit more enjoyable of an experience then due to the great service (thank you Ray!) but as per this time, the ramen was still good (nice chewy noodles and rich broth) and the cocktails inventive and on point. Wish they would do dessert. Really busy spot and I was happy to see others enjoying this fun ramen bar. 7/10.
Day 2
Rule of Thirds in Brooklyn. Brunch with cocktails, Japanese breakfast for my daughter and the souffle pancake for myself. Wife had... I forget. Everyone was happy. I really loved the cucumber side dish. The pancake was not as good as what I have had at a Japanese chain place called Gram but it was decent. Overall the room was great, service nice and the location a hit as we did a bunch of vintage shopping in Williamsburg right after. 7/10.
Night 2
Atomix. Wow. Just wow. Dream like atmosphere and the service was fantastic. The food was inventive, challenging and at all times delicious. There was a tuna, caviar and snap pea dish that blew my mind. They also made sea cucumber delicious. How is that even possible? The matcha cocktail was another scene stealer. And the rice cream dessert with fresh black truffle shavings, come on. Pure heaven. I have been a fan of Korean food for a long time. This version of Korean fine dining was something special. 10/10. Highest recommendation. I will never forget this meal.
Day 3
Hop Kee in Chinatown for lunch. This was a misstep. The portions were big but not delicious. Thr service was laughably atrocious but at least endearing. The server delivered the wonton soup and then began to dig around in it after it was on the table to make sure we got duck meat. We had in fact but wish we hadn't. The duck tasted gamey. The salt and pepper squid dish was rough. The prominent flavors here were salt and grease. The rest of the meal went about the same. We left wondering how any one could recommend this place. Is this the typical quality of Chinese food in NYC? If so, Vancouver blows it outta the water. 2 outta 10 as the free tea was nice as it helped us digest all the grease. Kinda cool to get fortune cookies too. Reminded me of when I was a kid.
Night 3
Keen's Steakhouse. We absolutely loved the meal and the experience of eating at this NYC institution. I took on the challenge of the mutton chop and did my best with that delicious beast of a dish. My wife and daughter split a massive T-bone and barely got through it. Creamed spinach and mashed potatoes for sides were both perfect and the Pimms went down smooth. House made carrot cake for dessert was a hit. Our server Thomas was fantastic. The place is fun. The prices more than fair. I cannot wait to return someday. 10/10.
Day 4
Off to Washington DC for the day but we did Liberty bagels for breakfast and those were well enjoyed on our Amtrak ride. I won't grade bagels though as I am not an expert. I pretty much have never had a bad bagel from a bagel shop that serves them fresh.
Day 5
Clocktower restaurant for breakfast. This was a mistake. Overpaid for a really sad excuse of a breakfast. I have had better instant oatmeal. Coffee was nice and regularly refilled. But I would never go back. 15 dollars for a smoothie in a oversized shot glass. What was I thinking. Yikes. 1/10.
Sushi 35 West for lunch number 1. Wow. Best sushi I have had in North American including a recent Michelin star winning place in Vancouver. We scoffed down this amazingly delicious fresh and fast food find in Herald Park. Every bite was superb. If I lived in NYC, I would be eating here 5 times a week easily. And for the prices, it is probably the best deal in town. 10/10.
Chick fil-A for lunch number 2. Daughter had to have the nuggets. Hey it is what it is. 5/10.
Papaya King for lunch number 3. The special combo with the Papaya drink, all scoffed down super quickly so we could get outta here and back to the hotel to rest up for our late dinner. It was my third visit and I place I will religiously return to every time I am back in NYC. It is a damn good hot dog and drink. Simple as that. 7/10.
Night 5
Eleven Madison Park. The all plant based menu had me hesitant to book EMP but given its proximity to our hotel I felt like I should book it since I kept asking myself when would we have the chance to do it again. I am so glad we did. Although the meal had some dishes far better than others, the room itself, the elite level of service (thank you Brandon) and the overall experience was one of a kind. The abundance of truffles on the menu and the truffle cocktail (called the mushroom) were heavenly. And the granola gift at the end is a perfect way to end a one of a kind experience. I appreciate you plants! I truly appreciate you. 10/10.
Day 6
Katz's Deli. Best pastrami this side of Schwartz's in Montreal. Loved the space and the experience. Price is crazy at 26 bux but we split the sandwich in 3 and all felt full leaving. The cherry sodas and the pickles were also great. 8/10.
Russ and Daughters for bagels and an egg cream. Loved this place and don't regret that egg cream no matter my lactose intolerance. Totally worth it.
Shake Shack at the airport for burgers and fries. Perfect way to end the trip. I have yet to eat a bad burger from SS. 7/10.
If you got through all that, thanks and also I hope some of these reviews help others in deciding where or where not to eat when visiting the amazing food mecca that is NYC. I will be back someday and Sushi 35 West better still be there!! Mama Mia, that sushi....
submitted by Shanedugg to FoodNYC [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 05:59 ssube another UI for Stable Diffusion for Windows and AMD, now with LoRA and Textual Inversions

another UI for Stable Diffusion for Windows and AMD, now with LoRA and Textual Inversions
I've been working on another UI for Stable Diffusion on AMD and Windows, as well as Nvidia and/or Linux, and recently added support for blending LoRA and Textual Inversions using the prompt: https://github.com/ssube/onnx-web/releases/tag/v0.9.0
​
The API needs Python 3, a few libraries, and about 50GB of disk space to get started (although it will share models from the HuggingFace cache, if you have one). You can download and convert models from the HuggingFace hub and Civitai: https://github.com/ssube/onnx-web/blob/main/docs/user-guide.md#adding-your-own-models
The GUI is hosted on Github Pages and runs in most modern browsers, including on mobile: https://www.onnx-web.ai/v0.9.0/index.html
It has a tab for each mode, persistent and private image history using localStorage, and some basic internationalization.
​
This is using ONNX for hardware acceleration, so it works on all combinations of AMD and Nvidia, Windows and Linux, FP16 and FP32 - even FP16 on AMD on Windows. I found a way to blend the LoRA and Textual Inversion models in-memory so you can include them in the prompt, with different weights, and tweak them as you go. It also supports hardware acceleration for SD upscaling, which should land upstream in the next release of diffusers: https://github.com/huggingface/diffusers/pull/2158
Once a model has been blended and loaded, it stays in VRAM and can be pretty fast. There are a few downsides, FP32 memory usage is a little bit higher and you have to convert the SD models to ONNX ahead of time, but you can load the LoRAs and Textual Inversions directly from the safetensors, no conversion needed there.
There are containers available for CPU, CUDA, and ROCm - I couldn't find the right packages for a DirectML container. I've run it on RunPod and it should work on HuggingFace as well, but you may want to convert the models ahead of time and copy them up/from S3.
​
Please give it a try and let me know how it works!
​
​
https://preview.redd.it/xocbh788plqa1.png?width=1204&format=png&auto=webp&s=a77e0594a71125c0b714f353e4581584d21acd32
https://preview.redd.it/trjby788plqa1.png?width=1204&format=png&auto=webp&s=07907b103a6fcf0e7ee77116f3cb20156b3e5755
https://preview.redd.it/7il5h788plqa1.png?width=1203&format=png&auto=webp&s=19b98556f5a91c10006a5fd9ba4d015a69e5dcc8
https://preview.redd.it/rysqs988plqa1.png?width=1202&format=png&auto=webp&s=ec3bce0019bbdd7947275f581dbff544351dd019
https://preview.redd.it/a9w2h688plqa1.png?width=1203&format=png&auto=webp&s=ef897777f3a9029f7ebf4d1f50548bbb025af969
submitted by ssube to StableDiffusion [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 05:57 beekeeperoacar Karissa already not monitoring AndePande channel? Already appealing to a skeevy clientele?

So after seeing someone call thr AndePande channel "the latest hostage video", I got curious and looked the channel up on yewtu.be in order to not give any actual views and am already worried about the content.
Video "The Real Ande" features Andersyn doing splits and stretches up close and personal to the camera, to show off how flexible she is. She's wearing little shorts so there isn't anything actually inappropriate, but it feels worrying as an adult. We know predators scour kids videos for shit like this.
She's just being an innocent little kid- Andersyn's behavior isn't inappropriate at all, but considering how predators operate in these spaces, it really feels like Karissa should be editing that out. I don't think Karissa watched this video at all. There's zero editing, just Andersyn messing around with the camera.
The content seems like Karissa is already not monitoring the channel, and I'm worried for Andersyn. Am I overreacting?
submitted by beekeeperoacar to FundieSnarkUncensored [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 05:43 blahblah_2588 Travelling with Cremated Remains and the 12-ounce Powders Rule

For those who find themselves in the unfortunate situation to travel with the cremated remains of a loved one, you're perfectly allowed to do so as long as the TSA can successfully screen the remains/container. (AA does require cremated remains to be carried in the cabin rather than in the hold. The TSA doesn't care either way.) The 12-ounce rule for powders only stipulates that there will need to be additional screening, not that powders in excess of 12 ounces are forbidden.
Rant incoming for those who wish to read at their leisure.
I just had the displeasure of being seated in domestic First with a gentleman who seemingly had nothing better to do than to complain about anything and everything. This passenger was irritated that he "could not spread his legs" because the box containing my late fiancé's remains were allegedly in his way. They were not. I made sure to put the temporary urn on my side of the underseat space (those who travel in First may notice the awkward location of the seat mounts which split the space into thirds despite there being only two seats... the seat mount rails are in the same position as that of Main Cabin).
This fella proceeded to remove the remains from under the seat, handed them to me, and told me to put the box someplace else since I am allegedly "in his space". I politely asked him not to handle the cremated remains and told him that they were perfectly on my side of underseat space.
At that point he told me that I should not have been allowed on with cremated remains... that passengers are not allowed to have more than 12 ounces of powder goods... that "dead bodies always go in cargo". He then proceeded to loudly tell flight crew that he's "not comfortable with" me on the flight. I (along with my parents and my would-have-been-in-laws) then get pulled to the front plane to explain ourselves to the FAs and a gate agent. I explain, the staff are satisfied, and we're allowed to return to our seats. From then on, for the duration of my flight, this guy continues to glare and make remarks all throughout the flight. And, as we disembark after arrival, he checks me with his roll-aboard in the jet bridge and says some choice words.
Some of the precious people I encounter on an airplane never cease to amaze me, I reckon...
submitted by blahblah_2588 to americanairlines [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 05:27 boredlord865 AITA for challenging long distance GF’s demands to pay half of all bills when visiting?

First ever post. Sorry if this is long, but I could use some outside opinions.
I (M31) and gf (F30) are in a long distance relationship (>2000 miles). We’ve known each other since high school, which is the prime reason why the long distance is even feasible. She moved to CA after college, and we started dating during COVID when she came back to the midwest to quarantine/work remotely at her parents’. She is now back in CA.
Long distance has been challenging, and we decided that we need to start working to close the gap. I’ve moved long distance for a gf in the past and got burned, so I was wary to just move across the country. It took some searching, but I ended up finding a remote job that would enable me to visit her more frequently and for longer periods than a weekend. The idea is to prove out living real life together, since we’ve only ever spent time together in “vacation/weekend mode”.
Before my first visit with the new job, she started talking about how I’m going to have to start paying for half of all bills. She says my presence will increase her electric bill since I’ll be using my laptop during the day. She also wants me to pay for half of the internet and gas bills and half of the rent. I currently have a condo with its own full set of bills.
I’m leaving my friends, family, hobbies, and cat to visit. I feel like I’m going to have to put my personal life on hold to visit, but plan to slowly integrate and build up a joint life over time. To start, I plan on visiting for 2 weeks at a time. Even though that’s half of a month, she still wants a full 50% for all bills.
Part of me feels like I’m getting nickeled and dimed (or more) just to come visit. I have my own bills, plus it costs anywhere from $500-$800 for airfare and luggage, depending on how early I book flights. I have no problem splitting groceries 50/50, and I always pay for gas if we go on a weekend joint venture.
Obviously if we lived together full time there would be no question, but since I am only visiting for two weeks at a time I don’t feel this is fair, especially considering my cost and sacrifice to visit her. Assuming my visits grow in length I’m open to contributing something, however I don’t think I should pay 50% across the board until we decide officially to go in on a place together of our mutual choosing. She currently lives downtown in the most expensive place she can afford in a city 50% above the national average. While visiting, I live out of my travel bag as there is no space in her apt.
When I challenged her demands she got very upset and told me I’ll have to go work in a coffee shop and that I can’t stay with her if I won’t pay. She said she’s not a free ride. Am I not thinking correctly? AITA?
submitted by boredlord865 to AmItheAsshole [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 05:15 mosharishi Mr. Slim w/o compressor....JUST as a fan - how to power w/remote or without

Crossposting here from /HVACadvice, since my question is largely electrical, but happens to involve an HVAC split head unit.
Greetings and salutations electrical experts...I am hopefully lobbing a softball into the mix here, but can't seem to find anything definitive on the topic. I am asking the question up front to save from any TL:DR, but the details are below for anyone who can possibly help a very capable fellow human who does not want to bork a device.
I have a Mr. Slim unit (model number MS09NW) from some time ago (lets say before 2010, so def nothing new with features or anything) that has sat in storage for some time, and now I have recently acquired a new room where HVAC is provided, but has no fan or temp settings. Because it is a space where I manipulate sound, I want to use Mr. Slim as a quiet fan as I know from its previous installation it provides for a lot of air movement with minimal noise.
Is it possible to just run some simple AC power to this thing, put a battery in the remote, mount it on the wall, and expect that it can just be used as a fan? As a bonus, without the compressor unit, would it dehumidify?
If I am reading things correctly, it is proper installation that its powered remotely from the head compressor unit. Granted I didn't look very deep into it, but that's what the instructions seem to indicate. However, it is not feasible to put the compressopower unit anywhere, so including it in the picture is not an option. I am in a basement with multiple rooms and its a rental work space, so there is no means of mounting the compressor outside, running power, etc. My only option is to plug it in, with the (less safe) option to run power off of one of the ceiling light junction boxes which I can reach from a ladder, and I have access to a breaker box to shut power down to wire it in. Although, building management might not love for me to do that without their approval, and being as I'm not a licensed electrician, I don't love it either. So I'd rather just give it a cable to plug in.
So, in short...I just want to mount the head unit on the wall, plug it into a protected and isolated power strip with a built in 15 amp breaker, and if possible, operate it entirely with the remote. That being said, I would concede to being able to turn it off and on with just a power switch if the remote options are also located on the compressor unit, I didn't dig too deep into how all that works. I'm assuming by virtue of cost and simplicity that the logic circuity that runs the device is located in the head unit, and sends commands to the compressor when its supposed to do things by the 12v DC wiring connections. But if it was simply and only able to be on full blast or off, I would accept this and still use it, and just turn it off and on manually as needed.
Yes, I can hear you saying, just buy a different fan! But I don't want to and/or would rather not spend the money on a quiet studio grade fan when I already own this unit. A unit as quiet as this would likely send me towards a Dyson or something of that nature, which I love, but this also exists, and its wall mountable up high, right under the incoming air vent. This is purely for the movement of air in a soundproofed room which gets a bit stuffy once all the gear is powered up.
I am planning to add a in-ceiling vent fan to the outtake vent, which I know will help matters some or a lot as well, but I am also aware that those don't tend to be on the quiet side, and I need quiet for this to work. If you have any recommendations on one of those that doesn't sound like a gas station bathroom or a speed boat, I'm all ears!
Thank you in advance, HVAC is definitely not my world, and I appreciate any and all help or information, and hell, even snark. What would the internet be without snark?
submitted by mosharishi to askanelectrician [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 05:10 FraudCommission Alibaba’s Cheap Valuation Shows Big Room to Grow With Overhaul [Bloomberg]

ByJeanny Yu March 29, 2023 at 9:23 AM GMT+8
The potential is huge for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to unlock its value through the historical reorganization, given its cheap valuation that currently prices the Chinese e-commerce leader below peers.
With its Hong Kong shares trading below 10 times of its estimated earnings for the next 12 months, Alibaba’s valuation trails that of major rivals JD.com Inc. and PDD Holdings Inc., which have double-digit multiples. The stock is even cheaper than utility firm CLP Holdings Ltd. and is valued on par with China Telecom Corp.
The company announced plans to split its $220 billion empire into six business units, a major restructuring that heralds several initial public offerings. Investors say the move will spur a revaluation of the tech empire by allowing individual units to raise funds separately and make swift business decisions amid intensifying competition in China.
“We believe it will lead investors to reassess the valuation methodology of Alibaba,” Citigroup Inc. analysts including Alicia Yap wrote in a note, adding that the move to unlock the underlying value of each business came as an earlier-than-expected surprise.
Here are three charts that show the upside potential for Alibaba: https://imgur.com/a/r6pT6rk
Investors have been giving utility-like valuations to Alibaba shares, reflecting concerns that the company’s high-growth era is over. The reorganization could be deemed as a way to change such perception. Daiwa Capital Markets analysts including John Choi expects the revamp to enable quicker response to market changes, allow greater external fund raising, while also helping to improve employee morale via individual stock option plans.
The valuation of Alibaba has more than halved since November 2020, when China’s shocking decision to halt Ant Group Co.’s initial public offering marked the beginning of a years-long crackdown on the sector. Although earnings-per-share have been revised up since mid-2022 as investors factored in benefits from China’s reopening, the company’s valuation multiple has received limited boost.
Investors have been betting on a revival of Alibaba’s rivals such as PDD amid fierce competition in China’s e-commerce space. PDD’s US-listed shares have gained 64% over the past year even after a recent pullback, while Alibaba is down more than 25%.
-END-
submitted by FraudCommission to baba [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 03:21 Ok_Dragonfruit9420 (PA) wife refuses 50/50 custody of 3

Long story short, I am the breadwinner and my wife is stay at home, with 3 kids all under 4 (youngest 6 months). I make very good money and have provided my family with what they need. I have been a part of their lives everyday, cooking, changing, baths, all the basics. My wife wants a divorce because in her mind I haven’t done enough in the past to help her (eg I didn’t help her enough with baths or kids). I work 15 hours a day and I did take a step back to allow her to run the household, as that is what we agreed on.
Of course I know I could have done more to help, but I think that is true for all relationships, and I even said I see how this could have affected you, and I will do better. Three kids is rough, but in now way shape or form was I not a loving and caring father and part of their everyday lives. Kids are very well off and there isn’t a want we can’t get them.
I know for a fact her mom is in her head and pushing this along to leave, saying she will help her and you don’t need him. I know this because she paid for and went to the lawyer consultation with her. She is a narcissist and wants me gone so she can move in since she hates her husband. Validated this as she has 2 sons that won’t speak to her because of her ways. My wife has essentially chosen her family over ours.
We went to counseling a total of 4 times before she threw in the towel, and states their is no reconciliation at all. I am fighting to keep family alive, and to at least exhaust all options before we walk away. I think that is reasonable enough given three small kids, and we can then walk away knowing we tried. I have let people walk all over me my entire life, and have lost my sense of self worth.
We are still living under same roof and sleeping in same bed, as I won’t leave the marital home. I have offered to nest and split time with kids to give her space, but she says she will not sleep somewhere where her kids aren’t. I told her she better get comfortable with that because if you want a divorce, that is inevitable….
That brought up the custody conversation, where she is not coming outright and stating what she wants, but says we will let lawyers hash it out. She left her legal paperwork on the kitchen table and she wants me only to have every other weekend with kids. It is absolutely insane of her to think of me with such disgust to take the father of her children out of the picture to the full extent of the law.
I just want 50/50 of the kids. I work from home so no problem. I don’t want this divorce, but I can’t stop it and she is a good mom and I believe what is best for the kids is equal parenting in their lives.
I wouldn’t put it past them to try and paint a picture of me being the worst father in the world. My question is, I live in Pennsylvania (Montgomery county). What are my chances of 50/50. I am willing to go bankrupt to fight for that. I won’t agree to anything less. Just because I didn’t do as much as the stay at home mom did when I was working, shouldn’t mean that I am unfit or unable to care for them in the future.
I am terrified so would love some insight to what I may expect.
submitted by Ok_Dragonfruit9420 to CustodyForFathers [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 03:16 Ok_Dragonfruit9420 (PA) wife refuses 50/50 custody of 3 kids

Long story short, I am the breadwinner and my wife is stay at home, with 3 kids all under 4 (youngest 6 months). I make very good money and have provided my family with what they need. I have been a part of their lives everyday, cooking, changing, baths, all the basics. My wife wants a divorce because in her mind I haven’t done enough in the past to help her (eg I didn’t help her enough with baths or kids). I work 15 hours a day and I did take a step back to allow her to run the household, as that is what we agreed on.
Of course I know I could have done more to help, but I think that is true for all relationships, and I even said I see how this could have affected you, and I will do better. Three kids is rough, but in now way shape or form was I not a loving and caring father and part of their everyday lives. Kids are very well off and there isn’t a want we can’t get them.
I know for a fact her mom is in her head and pushing this along to leave, saying she will help her and you don’t need him. I know this because she paid for and went to the lawyer consultation with her. She is a narcissist and wants me gone so she can move in since she hates her husband. Validated this as she has 2 sons that won’t speak to her because of her ways. My wife has essentially chosen her family over ours.
We went to counseling a total of 4 times before she threw in the towel, and states their is no reconciliation at all. I am fighting to keep family alive, and to at least exhaust all options before we walk away. I think that is reasonable enough given three small kids, and we can then walk away knowing we tried. I have let people walk all over me my entire life, and have lost my sense of self worth.
We are still living under same roof and sleeping in same bed, as I won’t leave the marital home. I have offered to nest and split time with kids to give her space, but she says she will not sleep somewhere where her kids aren’t. I told her she better get comfortable with that because if you want a divorce, that is inevitable….
That brought up the custody conversation, where she is not coming outright and stating what she wants, but says we will let lawyers hash it out. She left her legal paperwork on the kitchen table and she wants me only to have every other weekend with kids. It is absolutely insane of her to think of me with such disgust to take the father of her children out of the picture to the full extent of the law.
I just want 50/50 of the kids. I work from home so no problem. I don’t want this divorce, but I can’t stop it and she is a good mom and I believe what is best for the kids is equal parenting in their lives.
I wouldn’t put it past them to try and paint a picture of me being the worst father in the world. My question is, I live in Pennsylvania (Montgomery county). What are my chances of 50/50. I am willing to go bankrupt to fight for that. I won’t agree to anything less. Just because I didn’t do as much as the stay at home mom did when I was working, shouldn’t mean that I am unfit or unable to care for them in the future.
I am terrified so would love some insight to what I may expect.
submitted by Ok_Dragonfruit9420 to DivorcedDads [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 03:13 wtfwafflezor (Selling) 800 Titles Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) (MA/4K) $3 Godzilla (2014) (MA/4K) $3

Prices FIRM - CashApp/Venmo/PayPal Friends & Family
Disney/Marvel titles are split codes. Only redeem what you pay for. Thank you.
1917 (2019) (MA/4K) $6 (MA/HD) $3.50
2 Guns (2013) (MA/HD) $4.75 (iTunes/HD) $3.50
21 Bridges (2019) (iTunes/4K) $3
22 Jump Street (2014) (MA/HD) $4.75 (MA/SD) $1.75
3 From Hell (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $3.50
3:10 to Yuma (2007) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $6.50
31 (2016) (Vudu/HD) $2.75
47 Meters Down (2017) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.50
47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/4K) $4.75
8 Mile (2002) (MA/4K) $3.25
A Bad Moms Christmas (2017) (iTunes/4K) $3
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $5.75
A Clockwork Orange (1972) (MA/4K) $5
A Cure for Wellness (2017) (MA/HD) $4.25
A Dog's Purpose (2017) (MA/HD) $4 (iTunes/HD) $3
A Dog's Way Home (2019) (MA/HD) $3.75
A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $4.25
A Monster Calls (2016) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3.50
A Most Wanted Man (2014) (Vudu/HD) $3.75
A Quiet Place (2018) (Vudu/4K) $4.50 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $1.50
A Simple Favor (2018) (Vudu/4K) $5 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $3.25
A Single Man (2009) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Abominable (2019) (MA/HD) $6.25
About Time (2013) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5.50
Addams Family (1991) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $6.75
Addams Family 2 (2021) (iTunes/4K) $5.50
Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) (MA/HD) $5.75 (GP/HD) $4.25
Adventures of Tintin (2011) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.50
After Earth (2013) (MA/HD) $2.50
Age of Adaline (2015) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3.75
Aladdin (1992) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $3.25 (GP/HD) $2.25
Aladdin (2019) (MA/4K) $6.25 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $4.25 (GP/HD) $1.50
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014) (MA/HD) $4.75
Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) (MA/HD) $5.75 (GP/HD) $4.25
Alien (1979) (MA/4K) $7.25 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $5.25
Alien 3 (1992) (MA/HD) $5.75
Alien Collection 1-6 (MA/HD) $19 1-4 (MA/SD) $9
Alien Resurrection (1997) (MA/HD) $5.75
Alien: Covenant (2017) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $2.50
Aliens (1986) (MA/HD) $5.75
Aliens Ate My Homework (2018) (MA/HD) $4.75
Alita: Battle Angel (2019) (MA/4K) $5.50 (MA/HD) $4.25
All The Money In The World (2017) (MA/HD) $4.50 (MA/SD) $1
Allied (2016) (iTunes/4K) $4.50 (Vudu/HD) $4
Almost Christmas (2016) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $6.25
Almost Famous (2000) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $6.25
Aloha (2015) (MA/HD) $2.75
Alpha (2018) (MA/HD) $4.25
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip (2015) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.75
Amazing Spider-Man (2012) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD) $4.75
Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD) $5.75
American Gangster (Extended Edition) (2007) (MA/4K) $7.25 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $6.25
American Psycho (Uncut) (2000) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $5
Amy (2015) (Vudu/HD) $6
Anastasia (1997) (MA/HD) $6.25
Angry Birds Movie (2016) (MA/HD) $3.75
Anna (2019) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $4.50
Annihilation (2018) (Vudu/HD) $2.50 (iTunes/4K) $2
Antlers (2021) (MA/HD) $4.75
Apollo 11 (2019) (MA/HD) $6.25
Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm (2022) (MA/HD) $5
Arctic (2019) (MA/HD) $5.75
Art of Self-Defense (2019) (MA/HD) $6.25
Artist, The (2011) (MA/HD) $6
ATL (2006) (MA/HD) $5
Avengers (2012) (MA/4K) $7.75 (iTunes/4K) $6.75 (GP/HD) $3.75
Avengers 1-4 (iTunes/4K) $19 (GP/HD) $7.75
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) (MA/4K) $7.75 (iTunes/4K) $6 (GP/HD) $1.75
Avengers: Endgame (2019) (MA/4K) $4.75 (iTunes/4K) $3.75 (GP/HD) $1
Avengers: Infinity War (2018) (MA/4K) $5.50 (iTunes/4K) $3.75 (GP/HD) $1
Baby Driver (2017) (MA/HD) $4
Back to the Future (1985) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $4.25
Back to the Future 3-Movie (MA/4K) $12.50 (MA/HD) $7
Bad Boys 1-3 (MA/HD) $12
Bad Guys, The (2022) (MA/4K) $8.25 (MA/HD) $4.50
Bad Lieutenant (1992) (Vudu/HD) $4.75
Bad Moms (2016) (MA/HD) $3.50 (iTunes/HD) $2.75
Bambi (1942) (MA/HD) $6.25 (GP/HD) $4.50
Band of Brothers (2001) (iTunes/HD) $7 (GP/HD) $3.50
Bank Job, The (2008) (Vudu/HD) $3.25
Basic Instinct (Unrated Director’s Cut) (1992) (Vudu/HD) $6.25
Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons (2022) (MA/HD) $5
Batman Returns (1992) (MA/4K) $5
Batman Year One (2011) (MA/4K) $5
Batman, The (2022) (MA/4K) $5.50 (MA/HD) $3
Batman: The Complete Series (2004) (Vudu/HD) $12.50
Batman: The Long Halloween Deluxe Edition (2022) (MA/HD) $6
Beauty and the Beast (1991) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD) $5 (GP/HD) $2.25
Beauty and the Beast (2017) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD) $3.50 (GP/HD) $2.25
Beguiled, The (2017) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4
Beirut (2018) (MA/HD) $5.25
Belly (1998) (Vudu/4K) $5.25
Ben-Hur (2016) (Vudu/HD) $2.50
BFG, The (2016) (MA/HD) $5.75 (GP/HD) $4
Big (1988) (MA/HD) $6
Big Hero 6 (2014) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $4.75 (GP/HD) $1.75
Big Wedding (2013) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3.75
Billy Elliot (2000) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.25
Birth of A Nation (2016) (MA/HD) $4
Birth of the Dragon (2017) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.25
Black Adam (2022) (MA/HD) $4.25
Black Mass (2015) (MA/HD) $2.50
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $3.75 (GP/HD) $2.50
Blacklight (2022) (MA/HD) $4.50
Bleed for This (2016) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4
Blood Father (2016) (Vudu/HD) $4
Bloodshot (2020) (MA/HD) $4
Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland (2016) (Vudu/HD) $5.25
Blues Brothers (1980) (iTunes/4K) Ports to MA $6
Blumhouse's Truth Or Dare (Unrated) (2018) (MA/HD) $4.75
Bodyguard, The (1992) (MA/HD) $5
Book Club (2018) (Vudu/HD) $2 (iTunes/4K) $1
Book of Henry (2017) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5
Book of Life (2014) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.50
Book Thief, The (2013) (MA/HD) $5.75
Boss, The (Unrated) (2016) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $2.75
Bourne Collection 1-5 (MA/4K) $25 (iTunes/4K) $18 (MA/HD) $13
Bourne Identity (2002) (MA/4K) $5.50 (iTunes/4K) $4.50 (MA/HD) $3
Bourne Legacy (2012) (MA/4K) $5.50 (iTunes/4K) $4.50 (MA/HD) $3
Bourne Supremacy (2004) (MA/4K) $5.50 (iTunes/4K) $4.50 (MA/HD) $3
Bourne Ultimatum (2007) (MA/4K) $5.75 (iTunes/4K) $5.50 (MA/HD) $4
Boxtrolls, The (2014) (iTunes/HD) $4.75
Boy Next Door, The (2015) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $5.25
Boy, The (2016) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3.75
Brahms: The Boy II (2020) (iTunes/4K) $2.75
Brave (2012) (iTunes/4K) $6.50 (GP/HD) $4.50
Braven (2018) (Vudu/HD) $3.50
Breakfast Club (1985) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5.25
Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (2008), Sixteen Candles (1984) (MA/HD) $11
Break-Up, The (2006) (MA/HD) $3.25
Bridge of Spies (2015) (MA/HD) $5.50 (GP/HD) $4
Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.25
Bring It On (2000) (MA/HD) $3.25
Bring It On: Worldwide #Cheersmack (2017) (MA/HD) $3.25 (iTunes/HD) $1.25
Broken City (2013) (MA/HD) $3.50 (iTunes/SD) $1.25
Bros (2022) (MA/HD) $6.75
Buffy, the Vampire Slayer (1992) (MA/HD) $5.75
Bullet to the Head (2013) (MA/HD) $3.25
Butterfly Effect, The (2004) (MA/HD) $3.50
Buttons: A Christmas Tale (2018) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.50
Bye Bye Man (Unrated) (2017) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $2.50
Cabin in the Woods (2012) (iTunes/4K) $2.75 (Vudu/HD) $2
Cantinflas (2014) (Vudu/HD) $5
Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014) (MA/4K) $7.50 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $6 (GP/HD) $2.25
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017) (MA/HD) $3.25
Case for Christ, The (2017) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.50
Casper (1995) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $3.75
Castle Rock: Season 1 (2018) (Vudu/HD) $7.25
Cat in the Hat (2003) (MA/HD) $3.25
Catch Me If You Can (2002) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $6.25
Catwoman: Hunted (2021) (MA/HD) $3.50
Central Intelligence (2016) (MA/4K) $5
Change-Up, The (2011) (Unrated) (2011) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $5.75
Chappie (2015) (MA/HD) $3.75
Charlie St. Cloud (2010) (MA/HD) $3.25
Chasing Mavericks (2012) (MA/HD) $5
Chicago (2002) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5.25
Child's Play (2019) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $6.50
Chronicle (2012) (MA/HD) $4.50
Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) (MA/HD) $7
Cinderella (2015) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $5.50 (GP/HD) $2.50
Cinderella II: Dreams Come True (2002) (MA/HD) $6.50 (GP/HD) $5
Cinderella III: A Twist in Time (2007) (MA/HD) $6.50 (GP/HD) $5
City of Lies (2018) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5.75
Clerks III (2022) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $5.50
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013) (MA/HD) $3.50 (MA/SD) $2.25
Clown (2014) (Vudu/HD) $6.50
Clueless (1995) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.25
Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $6.25
Colombiana (Unrated) (2011) (MA/HD) $4.50
Colossal (2017) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $5.50
Constantine: The House of Mystery (2022) (MA/HD) $3.25
Contraband (2012) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $2.25
Contractor (2022) (Vudu/4K) $7.50 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $4.75
Counselor, The (2013) (MA/HD) $3
Countdown (2019) (iTunes/4K) $3.75
Cowboys and Aliens (2011) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $2.50
Crash (2004) (Vudu/HD) $5.25
Crawl (2019) (Vudu/HD) $3 (iTunes/4K) $2
Croods (2013) & A New Age (2020) (MA/HD) $7
Croods (2013) (MA/HD) $3.50
Croods: A New Age (2020) (MA/HD) $5.25
Cult of Chucky (Unrated) (2017) (MA/HD) $3.75 (iTunes/HD) $2.50
Daddy's Home 1-2 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $5
Daddy's Home 2 (2017) (Vudu/4K) $4.50 (iTunes/4K) $2 (Vudu/HD) $2.25
Dances With Wolves (1990) (Vudu/HD) $6
Daniel Craig Collection 5-Movie (Vudu/4K) $19
Dark Knight (2008) (MA/HD) $5
Dark Tower (2017) (MA/HD) $3
Darkest Minds, The (2018) (MA/HD) $4.75
Dawn of The Planet of The Apes (2014) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $4
DC League of Super-Pets (2022) (MA/HD) $5
Dead Man Down (2013) (MA/HD) $4.75
Deadpool (2016) (MA/4K) $6.50 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $2
Dear Evan Hansen (2021) (MA/HD) $4.25
Death on the Nile (2022) (MA/4K) $7.25 (MA/HD) $5.25 (GP/HD) $3.50
Deepwater Horizon (2016) (Vudu/4K) $5 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $2.50
Den of Thieves (2018) (iTunes/HD) $1.75
Dentist 1-2 Collection (1996-1998) (Vudu/HD) $6
Descent, The (2005) (Vudu/HD) $5.25
Detective Knight Collection 1-3 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $13 $5.50 Each
Devil Inside (2012) (Vudu/HD) $3.75
Devil's Due (2014) (MA/HD) $2.75
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010) (MA/HD) $4.75
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (2017) (MA/HD) $2
Die Hard (1988) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD) $4
Die Hard 1-5 (MA/HD) $15
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) (MA/4K) $6 (MA/HD) $2.75 (GP/HD) $2
Dog (2022) (Vudu/HD) $3.50
Don't Breathe (2016) (MA/HD) $5.50
Don't Let Go (2019) (MA/HD) $4
Don't Tell a Soul (2021) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5
Don't Worry Darling (2022) (MA/HD) $5.50
Doors (1991) (Vudu/4K) $4 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $3.75
Dope (2015) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $5.75
Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019) (Vudu/HD) $5.25 (iTunes/4K) $4.25
Downsizing (2017) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $1.25
Downton Abbey (2019) (MA/HD) $5.75
Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022) (MA/HD) $4.25
Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (2012) (MA/HD) $3.50 (iTunes/HD) $2.25
Draft Day (2014) (Vudu/HD) $3.25 (iTunes/HD) $2.75
Dragged Across Concrete (2019) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $3.25
Dragonheart 5-Movie (MA/HD) $14
Drugstore Cowboy (1989) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Duff, The (2015) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.75
Dumbo (2019) (MA/4K) $6 (iTunes/4K) $5.25 (GP/HD) $2.50
Dune (2021) (MA/4K) $5 (MA/HD) $2
Earth Girls Are Easy (1988) (Vudu/HD) $5.75
Easter Sunday (2022) (MA/HD) $6.75
Edge of Seventeen (2016) (MA/HD) $3.50 (iTunes/HD) $2.25
El Chicano (2019) (MA/HD) $5
Elvis (2022) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD) $4.50
Emoji Movie (2017) (MA/HD) $2
Emperor's New Groove (2000) (GP/HD) $5.50
Empire Records (1995) (MA/HD) $6
Empire State (2013) (Vudu/HD) $5
End of Watch (2012) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $5
Ender's Game (2013) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $3.25
English Patient (1996) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.75
Epic (2013) (MA/HD) $1.75 (iTunes/SD) $1.25
Escape from Planet Earth (2013) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Escape Plan: The Extractors (2019) (Vudu/HD) $3.75
Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998) (MA/HD) $5.25
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) (Vudu/4K) $7.75
Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $3
Expendables 1-3 (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Extreme Prejudice (1987) (Vudu/HD) $5.25
Fabelmans (2022) (MA/HD) $6.75
Fantastic Beasts Collection 1-3 (MA/HD) $8.50
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022) (MA/4K) $5.50 (MA/HD) $3
Fantastic Four (2015) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $4.50
Fast & Furious Collection 1-8 (MA/4K) $26 1-9 (MA/HD) $10
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $6
Father Stu (2022) (MA/HD) $5.75
Fault in Our Stars (2014) (MA/HD) $1.75
Fences (2016) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $1.75
Ferdinand (2017) (MA/HD) $3.50
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $6
Fifty Shades of Black (2016) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $3.50
Fifty Shades of Grey 3-Movie + Unrated (MA/HD) $10
Fighter, The (2010) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5.25
Fighting with My Family (2019) (iTunes/HD) $3.25
Finest Hours, The (2016) (MA/HD) $6.50 (GP/HD) $4
First Cow (2019) (Vudu/HD) $6.50
First Man (2018) (MA/HD) $4.25
First Reformed (2018) (Vudu/HD) $5.25
Flight (2012) (Vudu/HD) $3.75 (iTunes/HD) $3
Footloose (2011) (Vudu/HD) $5 (iTunes/HD) $3.50
Founder, The (2017) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Frank & Lola (2016) (MA/HD) $4.75
Frozen (2013) (MA/4K) $5.75 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $3.75 (GP/HD) $1.75
Frozen 2 (2019) (MA/4K) $4.75 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $4 (GP/HD) $1.75
Frozen Sing-Along Edition (2014) (MA/HD) $3.75 (GP/HD) $1.75
Future World (2018) (Vudu/HD) $4
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $3.75
Gambler (2014) (Vudu/HD) $3.50 (iTunes/HD) $2.75
Game Night (2018) (MA/4K) $5
Gate, The (1987) (Vudu/SD) $4.50
Get Him to the Greek (Unrated) (2010) (MA/HD) $3.25
Get on Up (2014) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $4.50
Get Out (2017) (MA/4K) $7 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $3.75
Ghost In The Shell (2017) (Vudu/HD) $2 (iTunes/4K) $2.75
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012) (MA/HD) $6.75
Ghostbusters (1984) (MA/HD) $3.50
Ghostbusters + Extended (2016) (MA/HD) $3
Ghostbusters II (1989) (MA/HD) $3.50
Girl In The Spider's Web (2018) (MA/HD) $4.50
Girl on the Train (2016) (iTunes/4K) $2.25 (MA/HD) $2.50
Girls Trip (2017) (MA/HD) $1.50 (iTunes/HD) $1
Glass (2019) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $4.50
Godfather Trilogy (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $13
Godfather, The (1972) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $4.75
Gods of Egypt (2016) (Vudu/4K) $5.25 (Vudu/HD) $2 (iTunes/4K) $1.50
Godzilla (1998) (MA/4K) $8
Godzilla (2014) (MA/4K) $3
Gold (2016) (Vudu/HD) $1.75
Gone Baby Gone (2007) (Vudu/HD) $5
Gone Girl (2014) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $5.75
Good Dinosaur (2015) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $5.75 (GP/HD) $3.25
Goosebumps (2015) (MA/HD) $5.25
Grease (1978), 2 (1982), Live! (2016) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $13
Great Wall (2016) (MA/HD) $2.50
Greatest Showman (2017) (MA/HD) $2.25
Green Book (2018) (MA/4K) $7.50 (MA/HD) $5
Green Lantern: Beware My Power (2022) (MA/HD) $3.50
Green Mile, The (1999) (MA/4K) $6
Grumpy Old Men (1993) (MA/HD) $6.25
Hail, Caesar! (2016) (MA/HD) $3.75 (iTunes/HD) $2.25
Halloween Ends (2022) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $4.75
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Resurrection (2002) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $10
Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.50
Happy Death Day (2017) (MA/HD) $5.50
Happy Death Day 2U (2019) (MA/HD) $5.25
Happy Feet (2006) (MA/HD) $4
Hard Candy (2005) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Harriet (2019) (MA/HD) $4.25
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) (MA/HD) $3.50
Hateful Eight (2015) (Vudu/HD) $2
Haunting in Connecticut (2009) (Vudu/HD) $6.50
Heat, The (2013) (MA/HD) $2.25 (iTunes/SD) $1
Heat: Director's Definitive Edition (1995) (MA/4K) $6.25 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $5.25
Hell or High Water (2016) (Vudu/4K) $5.50 (Vudu/HD) $2.25 (iTunes/4K) $3.75
Hercules (1997) (MA/HD) $6.50 (GP/HD) $5
Hereditary (2018) (Vudu/HD) $3.75
Home (2015) (MA/HD) $2
Home Alone (1990) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $4
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) (MA/HD) $3.50
Hop (2011) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $2.25
Hot Fuzz (2007) (MA/HD) $3.50 (iTunes/4K) $4
Hotel Transylvania (2012) (MA/HD) $6.25 (MA/SD) $2.50
Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) (MA/HD) $6.75
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $4.50
House of 1,000 Corpses (2003), Devil's Rejects (2005), 3 From Hell (2019) (Vudu/HD) $6
House of 1000 Corpses (2003) (Vudu/HD) $4.75
House of the Dragon: Season 1 (2022) (Vudu/4K) $9 (Vudu/HD) $5
How to Train Your Dragon (2010) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $4
How to Train Your Dragon Collection 1-3 (MA/HD) $7
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019) (MA/4K) $6 (MA/HD) $4.25
Hugo (2011) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4
Hunger Games Collection 1-4 (Vudu/HD) $6 (iTunes/4K) $12
Hunt, The (2019) (MA/HD) $6
Huntsman: Winter's War - Extended Edition (2016) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $3
Hurricane Heist (2018) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $3.25
Hurt Locker (2008) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $6.25
I Can Only Imagine (2018) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.50
I See You (2019) (Vudu/HD) $4.50 (iTunes/HD) $2.50
Ice Age (2002) (MA/HD) $5
Ice Age: Collision Course (2016) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $4.25
Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) (MA/HD) $4.50
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) (MA/HD) $5.25
Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) (MA/HD) $6
Ides of March (2011) (MA/HD) $5.25
I'm Not There (2007) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
In the Heights (2021) (MA/4K) $5 (MA/HD) $2.25
Independence Day (1996) (MA/4K) $7.75 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $5.50
Indiana Jones 1-4 (Vudu/4K) $24 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $19
Inferno (2016) (MA/HD) $3.50
Ingrid Goes West (2017) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $5.50
Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) (MA/HD) $5.25
Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) (MA/HD) $6.50
Insidious: The Last Key (2018) (MA/HD) $3.25
Instant Family (2018) (Vudu/HD) $2 (iTunes/4K) $1.50
Instructions Not Included (2013) (Vudu/HD) $3.75
Insurgent (2015) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $4.25 (Vudu/HD) $3.50
Internship (2013) (MA/HD) $3.25
Interview, The (2014) (MA/HD) $3.50
Into the Woods (2014) (MA/HD) $4 (GP/HD) $2.25
Invitation, The + Unrated (2022) (MA/HD) $6.50
Iron Man (2008) (MA/4K) $7.25 (iTunes/4K) $7 (GP/HD) $3
Iron Man 1-3 (MA/4K) $20 (iTunes/4K) $15 (GP/HD) $7
Iron Man 2 (2010) (MA/4K) $7.25 (iTunes/4K) $6.50 (GP/HD) $3
Iron Man 3 (2013) (MA/4K) $7.25 (iTunes/4K) $3.25 (MA/HD) $2.75 (GP/HD) $2
Iron Man and Hulk: Heroes United (2013) (MA/HD) $5.50
Isle of Dogs (2018) (MA/HD) $4.75
It Comes at Night (2017) (Vudu/HD) $6.25
It Follows (2015) (Vudu/HD) $4.75
Jack and Jill (2011) (MA/HD) $3
Jack Frost (1998) (MA/HD) $5
Jack Reacher Collection 1-2 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $7
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016) (Vudu/4K) $5.75 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $2.75
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $3.25
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3
Jane Got a Gun (2016) (Vudu/HD) $5.75
Jaws (1975) Jaws 2 (1978) Jaws 3 (1983) Jaws: The Revenge (1987) (MA/HD) $15
Jexi (2019) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $3.50
Jigsaw (2017) (Vudu/4K) $5.25 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $2
Jingle All the Way (1996) (MA/HD) $5
JOBS (2013) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.75
John Wick Collection 1-3 (Vudu/4K) $15 (iTunes/4K) $13 (Vudu/HD) $7
Jojo Rabbit (2019) (MA/HD) $7
Joseph: King of Dreams (2000) (MA/HD) $5.50
Jumanji: Next Level (2019) & Welcome to the Jungle (2017) (MA/HD) $7.50
Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) (MA/4K) $7.75 (MA/HD) $5.50
Jungle Book (2016) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $5.25 (GP/HD) $2.75
Jungle Book 2 (2003) (MA/HD) $6.50
Jurassic Park III (2001) (MA/4K) $6.50 (iTunes/4K) $3.75 (MA/HD) $3.50
Jurassic Park: The Lost World (1997) (MA/4K) $6.50 (iTunes/4K) $3.75 (MA/HD) $3
Jurassic World Collection 1-5 (MA/4K) $19 (iTunes/4K) $17 (MA/HD) $10
Jurassic World Collection 1-6 (MA/4K) $23 (MA/HD) $11
Jurassic World: Dominion + Extended Cut (2022) (MA/4K) $7.25 (MA/HD) $4.50
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) (MA/4K) $5.75 (MA/HD) $1.75
Kicks (2016) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $5
Kidnap (2017) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3.25
Kill the Messenger (2014) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $5
Killer Joe (Director's Cut) (2012) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Killing Kennedy (2013) (MA/HD) $6.50
Killing Them Softly (2012) (Vudu/HD) $2.75
King Richard (2021) (MA/HD) $2
Kitchen, The (2019) (MA/HD) $2.50
Knight and Day (2010) (MA/HD) $6.50
Knives Out (2019) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $5.25
Kung Fu Panda Collection 1-3 (MA/HD) $12
La La Land (2016) (Vudu/HD) $2.25 (iTunes/4K) $3.75
Last Christmas (2019) (MA/HD) $6.50
Last Witch Hunter (2015) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $1.50
Last Word (2017) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $5
Lawless (2012) (Vudu/HD) $3.75
Lawrence of Arabia (Restored Version) (1962) (MA/HD) $5
Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013) (Vudu/HD) $2.25
Leprechaun Returns (2018) (Vudu/HD) $2.75
Les Miserables (2012) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.75
Let's Be Cops (2014) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $2.75
Liar Liar (1997) (MA/HD) $3.25
Life (2017) (MA/HD) $2.50
Light of My Life (2019) (Vudu/HD) $2.50 (iTunes/HD) $2
Lightyear (2022) (MA/4K) $5.25 (MA/HD) $2.75 (GP/HD) $2
Lilo & Stitch (2002) & Stitch Has a Glitch (2005) (MA/HD) $11 (GP/HD) $6.50
Lilo & Stitch (2002) (MA/HD) $6.25 (GP/HD) $4
Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (2005) (MA/HD) $5.25 (GP/HD) $3
Limey, The (1999) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $5
Lincoln Lawyer (2011) (Vudu/4K) $5 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $4.75
Lion (2016) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Lion King (1994) (MA/4K) $7 (iTunes/4K) $4.50 (GP/HD) $2.75
Lion King (2019) (MA/4K) $6 (iTunes/4K) $4 (GP/HD) $1.25
Lion King 1 1/2 (2004) (MA/HD) $6.50
Little Fockers (2010) (MA/HD) $5
Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea (2000) (MA/HD) $6.75
Little Mermaid III: Ariel’s Beginning (2008) (MA/HD) $6.75
Little Women (2019) (MA/HD) $4.25
Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow (2014) (MA/4K) $5
Lodge, The (2019) (MA/HD) $5.75
Lone Ranger (2013) (MA/HD) $4.75 (GP/HD) $2.50
Lone Survivor (2013) (iTunes/4K) $2 (MA/HD) $1.50
Long Shot (2019) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $4
Lord of War (2005) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $5
Lords of Salem, The (2012) (Vudu/HD) $4.75
Lost Boys, The (1987) (MA/4K) $5 (MA/HD) $3.50
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (2022) (MA/HD) $6
Ma (2019) (MA/HD) $5.25
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1982) (MA/4K) $5
Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome (1985) (MA/4K) $5
Mad Max Collection 1-4 (Vudu/4K) $19
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2
Mallrats (1995) (MA/HD) $3.25
Mama (2013) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $3.75
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $1.75
Mamma Mia! The Movie (2008) & Here We Go Again (2018) (MA/HD) $6.50 $4.50 Each
Man On Fire (2004) (MA/HD) $6.50
Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) (MA/HD) $6.25
Many Saints of Newark (2021) (MA/HD) $2.25
Margin Call (2011) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $6.25
Marshall (2017) (MA/HD) $4.75
Martian (Theatrical) (2015) (MA/4K) $7.25 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $3.25
Mary Poppins (1964) (MA/HD) $4.50 (GP/HD) $3
Mary Queen of Scots (2018) (MA/HD) $5.75
Matrix (1999), Reloaded (2003), Revolutions (2003), Resurrections (2021) (MA/HD) $7.50
Matrix: Resurrections (2021) (MA/4K) $5 (MA/HD) $2.25
Maze Runner (2014) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $5.50
Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018) (MA/HD) $6
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $6
McFarland, USA (2015) (MA/HD) $6.25 (GP/HD) $4.50
Meet the Parents (2000) (MA/HD) $3.25
Megamind (2010) (MA/HD) $5.50
Men in Black (1997) (MA/HD) $6.75
Men in Black II (2002) (MA/HD) $6.75
Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Menace II Society (Director's Cut) (1993) (MA/HD) $5
MIB: International (2019) (MA/4K) $5.75 (MA/HD) $4.75
Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers (2004) (MA/HD) $6.50
Midsommar (2019) (Vudu/HD) $5.75
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $4.25
Mile 22 (2018) (iTunes/4K) $1.75
Million Dollar Arm (2014) (MA/HD) $4.25
Minions (2015) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $2.75
Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022) & Minions (2015) (MA/HD) $8.25
Miracles From Heaven (2016) (MA/HD) $4.50
Miss Congeniality (2000) (MA/HD) $6
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2015) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $2
Missing Link (2019) (MA/HD) $4.25
Mission: Impossible Collection 1-6 (Vudu/4K) $24 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $19
Mission: Impossible Fallout (2018) (Vudu/4K) $2.75 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $2.50
Mistress America (2015) (MA/HD) $5
Molly's Game (2018) (iTunes/HD) $2
Moneyball (2011) (MA/HD) $2.75
Monster Trucks (2016) (Vudu/HD) $2
Monster's Ball (2001) (Vudu/HD) $6.25
Monsters, Inc. (2001) (GP/HD) $4
Monuments Men (2014) (MA/HD) $2
Moonlight (2016) (Vudu/HD) $4
Mother! (2017) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $3.50
Mother's Day (2016) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5
Mountain Between Us (2017) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $1.50
Mr. Peabody & Sherman (2014) (MA/HD) $3.25
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) (MA/HD) $3.75
Much Ado About Nothing (2013) (Vudu/HD) $4.25
Mud (2013) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.75
Mule, The (2018) (MA/4K) $5
Mummy, The (2017) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $2.75
Muppets Most Wanted (2014) (MA/HD) $6.25 (GP/HD) $4.50
Murder on The Orient Express (2017) (MA/HD) $2.75
My All American (2015) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.25
My Boss's Daughter (2003) (Vudu/HD) $6.25
My Dinner with Herve (2018) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.50 (GP/HD) $3
My Fair Lady (1964) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $5.50
My Girl (1991) & 2 (1994) (MA/SD) $6
My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3.25
Natural, The (1984) (MA/4K) $5
Nebraska (2013) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.25
Neighbors (2014) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $2
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $3.50
Nerve (2016) (Vudu/HD) $2.50
Never Grow Old (2019) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.50
Night at the Museum 3-Movie (MA/HD) $13 $6 Each (MA/SD) $9
Night Before (2015) (MA/HD) $4.75 (MA/SD) $2
Night Of: Season 1 (2016) (Vudu/HD) $7.25
Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) (GP/HD) Ports to MA $3
Ninth Gate, The (1999) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
No Country For Old Men (2007) (Vudu/HD) $5.50 (iTunes/HD) $6.50
Nocturnal Animals (2016) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $3.25
Non-Stop (2014) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.75
Nope (2022) (MA/4K) $8 (MA/HD) $6.25
Notting Hill (1999) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3.25
Nut Job (2014) (MA/HD) $2.50 (iTunes/HD) $1.75
Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature (2017) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.75
Office Christmas Party (2016) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $2.50
Olaf's Frozen Adventure Plus 6 Disney Tales (2017) (MA/HD) $4.75 (GP/HD) $3.25
Olympus Has Fallen (2013) (MA/HD) $5
On the Basis of Sex (2019) (MA/HD) $4.50
One Direction: This is Us + Extended Fan Edition (2013) (MA/HD) $3.25
Only God Forgives (2013) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Operation Finale (2018) (iTunes/4K) $2.75
Ouija (2014) & Origin of Evil (2016) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $9
Ouija (2014) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.50
Over the Hedge (2006) (MA/HD) $6.25
Pain & Gain (2013) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3.25
Paper Towns (2011) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $2.75
ParaNorman (2012) (iTunes/HD) $5
Paterno (2018) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.50 (GP/HD) $3
Patriots Day (2017) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $2.50
Paul (2011) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $4.50
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (2015) (MA/HD) $4.25
Peanut Butter Falcon (2019) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.50
Pearl (2022) (Vudu/HD) $6
Peppermint (2018) (iTunes/HD) $1.75
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010) (MA/HD) $6.75
Pet Sematary (2019) (Vudu/4K) $4.50 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $2.50
Peter Rabbit (2018) & 2 (2021) (MA/HD) $10
Peter Rabbit (2018) (MA/4K) $5.75 (MA/HD) $5
Phantom Thread (2017) (MA/HD) $3
Pinocchio (1940) (MA/HD) $5.75 (GP/HD) $4
Pirate Fairy (2014) (MA/HD) $3.25 (GP/HD) $1.75
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) (MA/HD) $3.25 (GP/HD) $1.75
Pitch Black - Unrated Director's Cut (2000) (MA/HD) $6
Pitch Perfect 2 (2015) (MA/HD) $2.75 (iTunes/4K) $3.75
Pitch Perfect Collection 1-3 (MA/HD) $11
Planes (2013) (MA/HD) $2.50 (GP/HD) $1.50
Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) (Vudu/HD) $5 (iTunes/HD) $3.75
Planes: Fire & Rescue (2014) (MA/HD) $4 (GP/HD) $2
Planet of the Apes 1-3 (Newer) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $11
Playing For Keeps (2012) (MA/HD) $4.75
Point Break (2015) (MA/HD) $1.75
Poltergeist (1982) (MA/4K) $5
Poms (2019) (iTunes/HD) $2.50
Popeye (1980) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5.25
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016) (MA/HD) $3.25
Post, The (2017) (MA/HD) $2.50
Precious (2009) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $6.25
Predator (1987) (MA/HD) $2.75
Predator (1987), 2 (1990), Predators (2009), Predator (2018) $10
Predator (2018) (MA/4K) $6.25 (MA/HD) $2.50
Pretty in Pink (1986) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $4.75
Prey for the Devil (2022) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $6.25
Priceless (2016) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $5
Prince of Egypt (2002) (MA/HD) $5.50
Princess and the Frog (2009) (iTunes/4K) $5.50 (GP/HD) $3.25
Prometheus (2012) (MA/HD) $1.75
Prophecy Collection 1-5 (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $14
Psycho (1960) (MA/HD) (iTunes/4K) $5
Public Enemies (2009) (MA/HD) $6.25 (iTunes/HD) $4.75
Punisher: War Zone (2008) (Vudu/4K) $6
Purge: Election Year (2016) (MA/4K $5.50 (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $3
Puss in Boots (2011) (MA/4K) $7
Queen & Slim (2019) (MA/HD) $3.75
Queen of Katwe (2016) (MA/HD) $3.50 (GP/HD) $2.50
R.I.P.D. (2013) (MA/HD) $3.25 (iTunes/HD) $3
Railway Man (2013) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Rambo Collection 1-5 (Vudu/HD) $13
Rambo Last Blood (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $2.75
Rambo: First Blood (1982) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $6
Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) (Vudu/4K) $6.75 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $5.50
Rampage (2018) (MA/4K) $5
Ready or Not (2019) (MA/HD) $6.50
Rear Window (1954) (MA/4K) $4.75
Red Sparrow (2018) (MA/HD) $4.50
Requiem for a Dream - Director's Cut (2000) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $6.25
Rescuers Down Under (1990) (MA/HD) $6.50 (GP/HD) $4
Rescuers, The (1977) (MA/HD) $6.50 (GP/HD) $4
Reservoir Dogs (1992) (Vudu/4K) $5 (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5
Richie Rich (1994) (MA/HD) $5
Riddick Collection 1-3 (Unrated) (MA/HD) $13
Ride Along 1-2 (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5
Rings (2017) (Vudu/HD) $2.75 (iTunes/HD) $1.50
Rio 2 (2014) (MA/HD) $2.25
Road to El Dorado (2000) (MA/HD) $5.50
Robin Hood (Animated) (1973) (MA/HD) $3.75 (GP/HD) $2.75
Robots (2005) (MA/HD) $6.75
Rock Dog (2016) (Vudu/HD) $4.25
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) (MA/HD) $5.25
Room (2015) (Vudu/HD) $5.25
Russell Madness (2015) (MA/HD) $4
Safe (2012) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $1.75
Same Kind of Different as Me (2017) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2
Santa Clause (1994), 2 (2002), 3 (2006) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $10.50 (GP/HD) $6.50
Savages (2012) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $2.25
Saving Mr. Banks (2013) (MA/HD) $4.75 (GP/HD) $2.75
Saw (2004) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $5.50
Saw Collection 1-7 (Vudu/HD) $10
Scarface (1983) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $5.25
Scary Movie 3 (2003) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $3
Schindler's List (1993) (MA/HD) $5
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010) (MA/4K) (iTunes/4K) $5.75 (MA/HD) $5.25
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015) (Vudu/HD) $3.75 (iTunes/HD) $2.75
Scream 5 (2022) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $4.25
Scream Collection 1-3 (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $13
Scrooged (1988) (iTunes/HD) $3.75
Second Act (2018) (iTunes/HD) $1.50
Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015) (MA/HD) $4.50
Secret Headquarters (2022) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/4K) $6
Secret Life of Pets 1-2 (MA/HD) $7.50
Secret Life of Pets 2 (2019) (MA/4K) $6.25 (MA/HD) $5
Secret Life of Pets, The (2016) (iTunes/4K) $3.75 (MA/HD) $2.75
Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) (MA/HD) $1.75
Secretary (2002) (Vudu/HD) $5
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $4.50
Serenity (2005) (MA/HD) $3.50
Seventh Son (2015) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $1.50
Sex Tape (2014) (MA/HD) $3
Shack (2017) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $1.50
Shallows, The (2016) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD $4.25
Shape of Water (2017) (MA/HD) $3.50
Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), World's End (2013) (MA/HD) $10
Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015) (Vudu/HD) $4.25
Shawshank Redemption (1994) (MA/4K) $5
She's Having a Baby (1988) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.50
She's the Man (2006) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3.25
Shooter (2007) (Vudu/HD) $5.75
Sicario (2015) (Vudu/4K) $6 (Vudu/HD) $1.75 (iTunes/4K) $3
Sideways (2004) (MA/HD) $5.25
Silent Night, Deadly Night: 3-Film Collection (1989-1991) (Vudu/HD) $6
Sin City (2005) (Vudu/HD) $5.75
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) (Vudu/HD) $6.50
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2007) (MA/HD) $6.50
Sing (2016) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $2.75
Sing 2 (2021) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $3.75
Sinister (2012) (Vudu/HD) $3 (iTunes/HD) $2.75
Sisters (Unrated) (2015) (MA/HD) $4 (iTunes/HD) $3.25
Sleeping Beauty (1959) (MA/HD) $3.50 (GP/HD) $2.75
Sleepless (2017) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $1
Smile (2022) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $6.75
Smokey and the Bandit (1977) (MA/4K) $6.75 (MA/HD) $3.75
Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017) (MA/HD) $3.25
Snatched (2017) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $1
Snitch (2013) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $1.75
Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (1937) (MA/HD) $6.50 (GP/HD) $3.75
Snowden (2016) (MA/HD) $3.50 (iTunes/HD) $4
Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.50
Son of God (2014) (MA/HD) $1.25
Sorry to Bother You (2018) (MA/HD) $5
Sound of Music, The (1965) (MA/HD) $6
Source Code (2011) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $5
Space Between Us, The (2017) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $5
Space Jam (1996) (MA/4K) $5
Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021) (MA/4K) $5
Spider-Man (2002) (MA/HD) $5.75
Spider-Man 2 + Extended Edition (2004) (MA/HD) $5.75
Spider-Man 3 (2007) (MA/HD) $5
Spider-Man Collection 1-8 (MA/HD) $24
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) (MA/HD) $4.25
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) (MA/HD) $1.75
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018) (MA/HD) $5
Spies in Disguise (2019) (MA/HD) $3.75 (GP/HD) $2.75
Spirit, The (2008) (Vudu/HD) $3
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2003) (MA/HD) $5.25
Spy (Unrated) (2015) (MA/HD) $2
Spy Game (2001) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $5.75
Star Trek 1-3 (Vudu/4K) $18 (Vudu/HD) $9 (iTunes/4K) $13
Star Trek Beyond (2016) (Vudu/HD) $1.75 (iTunes/4K) $3.25
Starsky & Hutch (2004) (MA/HD) $6
Step Up Revolution (2012) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3.25
Still Alice (2015) (MA/HD) $3
Stillwater (2021) (MA/HD) $5
Stir of Echoes (1999) (Vudu/HD) $4.75
Straight Outta Compton (Unrated Director’s Cut) (2015) (MA/4K) $7.50 (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.50
Strange World (2022) (MA/HD) $5
Stronger (2017) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.75
Stuber (2019) (MA/HD) $4.25
Suburbicon (2017) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $3.25
Suffragette (2015) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $3
Suicide Squad, The (2021) (MA/4K) $5
Super 8 (2011) (Vudu/4K) $5.75 (Vudu/HD) $3.25 (iTunes/4K) $5
Super Buddies (2013) (MA/HD) $5.75 (GP/HD) $4
Super Troopers (2002) (MA/HD) $5.75
Super Troopers 2 (2018) (MA/HD) $3
SW: Force Awakens (2015) (MA/4K) $5.50 (iTunes/4K) $3.75 (GP/HD) $1.50
SW: Phantom Menace (1999) (MA/4K) $7.50 (iTunes/4K) $6.50 (GP/HD) $3.50
SW: Revenge of the Sith (2005) (MA/4K) $7.50 (GP/HD) $3.50
SW: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) (MA/4K) $6.75 (iTunes/4K) $4 (GP/HD) $1.50
Sword in the Stone (1963) (MA/HD) $6.25 (GP/HD) $3.75
Taken (2009), 2 (2012), 3 (2015) (MA/HD) $9
Tangled (2010) (MA/HD) $5.25 (GP/HD) $4
Tarzan (1999) (MA/HD) $6.50 (GP/HD) $5
Ted (2012) (Unrated) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $3.25
Terminator: Genisys (2015) (Vudu/HD) $1.75 (iTunes/4K) $3
Terms of Endearment (1983) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $5
Theory Of Everything (2014) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $4
Thing, The (2011) (MA/HD) $6.25 (iTunes/HD) $5.75
Think Like a Man (2012) & Two (2014) (MA/HD) $9
This Is 40 (2012) (MA/HD) $3.75 (iTunes/HD) $2.50
Thor (2011) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $7 (GP/HD) $3.50
Thumbelina (1994) (MA/HD) $6.25
Till (2022) (iTunes/4K) $6.50
Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast (2014) (MA/HD) $6.25 (GP/HD) $4.50
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $4.25
Titanic (1997) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.75
TMNT Out of the Shadows (2016) (iTunes/4K) $4
Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003) (Vudu/HD) $6
Tomorrowland (2015) (MA/HD) $5.50 (GP/HD) $3.50
Top Five (2014) (Vudu/HD) $5 (iTunes/HD) $3.75
Top Gun (1986) (Vudu/4K) $5.25 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Total Recall (1990) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $5.25
Total Recall + Extended (2012) (MA/HD) $5.25 (Theatrical) $4.25
Tower Heist (2011) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $4
Toy Story of Terror! (2013) (MA/HD) $3.75
Trading Places (1983) (Vudu/HD) $4 (iTunes/4K) $5
Trainwreck (2015) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $1.50
Transformers 1-5 (Vudu/4K) $29 (Vudu/HD) $22
Transformers: Last Knight (2017) (Vudu/4K) $4.75 (iTunes/4K) $2.25 (Vudu/HD) $2
Trauma Center (2019) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $3.25
Trick 'r Treat (2009) (MA/HD) $5
Triple 9 (2016) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $2.50
Trolls (2016) (MA/HD) $1.50
Trolls Collection 1-2 (MA/HD) $6.50
Tully (2018) (MA/HD) $5.75
Tyler Perry Presents Peeples (2013) (Vudu/HD) $1.75
Unbanned: The Legend of AJ1 (2019) (Vudu/HD) $5.50
Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $6
Unbroken (2014) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3
Unfinished Business (2015) (MA/HD) $4.50
Unhinged (2020) (Vudu/HD) $4
Up in Smoke ‘Cheech and Chong’ (1978) (Vudu/HD) $3.25 (iTunes/HD) $2.50
Upside, The (2017) (iTunes/HD) $2
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017) (Vudu/HD) $2.75
Venom (2018) (MA/4K) $7 (MA/HD) $3.50
Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) (MA/4K) $7.25 (MA/HD) $3.50
Vice (2015) 'Bruce Willis' (Vudu/HD) $2.75
Vow, The (2012) (MA/HD) $3.25
W. (2008) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
Walk the Line (2005) (MA/HD) $4.75
Walk, The (2015) (MA/HD) $5
Walking with Dinosaurs (2013) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.50
Wanted (2008) (iTunes/HD) Ports to MA $6
Warm Bodies (2013) (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $2
Warrior (2011) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/HD) $4
Watch, The (2012) (MA/HD) $4.25
Way, Way Back, The (2013) (MA/HD) $5.25
Wayne's World (1992) (Vudu/4K) (iTunes/4K) $6.50
What Men Want (2019) (Vudu/HD) $1.75 (iTunes/4K) $1.25
What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.25
Where the Crawdads Sing (2022) (MA/HD) $5
Whiplash (2014) (MA/HD) $5.75
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $2.25
Why Him? (2016) (iTunes/4K) (MA/HD) $2
Widows (2018) (MA/4K) $6.50 (MA/HD) $1.50
Wild Card (2015) (Vudu/HD) $4.25
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) (MA/4K) $5.50
Wind River (2017) (Vudu/HD) (iTunes/HD) $4.50
Wings (1927) (Vudu/HD) $4
Witch, The (2016) (Vudu/HD) $3.50
Wizard of Lies (2017) (Vudu/HD) $5 (iTunes/HD) $4.25 (GP/HD) $3
Woman in Gold (2015) (Vudu/HD) $2.75
Woman King (2022) (MA/4K) $7.25 (MA/HD) $5.75
Wonder (2017) (Vudu/4K) $5.75 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $3.25
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) (MA/4K) $3
Won't Back Down (2012) (MA/HD) $3.75
Woodlawn (2015) (MA/HD) (iTunes/HD) $3.75
World War Z (2013) (Vudu/HD) $3.50 (iTunes/HD) $1.50
Wraith, The (1986) (Vudu/HD) $5
Wrath of Man (2021) (Vudu/HD) $3
X-Men (2000), X2 (2003), The Last Stand (2006) (MA/HD) $14.50
X-Men: First Class (2010), Days of Future Past (2004), Apocalypse (2014) (MA/HD) $11
xXx: The Return of Xander Cage (2017) (Vudu/4K) $5.50 (iTunes/4K) (Vudu/HD) $1.25
Youth in Revolt (2009) (Vudu/HD) $4.50
submitted by wtfwafflezor to DigitalCodeSELL [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 02:52 Lymilark Descendant Character Concept-Benjamin

This character was made because I really wanted to see one specific mechanic come to life in a Descendant. It’s a mechanic that isn’t seen in that many shooters period and is by far my favorite thing of all time, but admittedly in my attempt to make that mechanic work there may be some flaws in the design. I hope this remains an interesting read regardless.
Appearance wise they’re a small slovenly character with droopy dark purple hair. They wear a heavy trench coat with a strange interdimensional portal inside of it that he can communicate with. The general inspiration for this design is supernatural noir detective.
Passive(Hidden Arsenal)-Whenever Benjamin swaps weapons the gun he swapped into will be instantly reloaded if it has an empty magazine. This ability will have a 20s cooldown. Additionally he has one more passive that increases his Weapon Swap Speed by 40% if the weapon he is changing out has an empty magazine. If he swaps out a weapon while this condition is fulfilled the animation for the weapon swap will be changed to the gun disappearing in a puff of smoke only to be replaced with a different gun.
Notes: This mechanic is largely inspired by games like Sanctum 2 where reloading occurs while a gun is unequipped, but is slightly weaker due to the fact it will only reload one weapon and has a cooldown assigned to it. I adore the momentum that this could bring to him as stops to reload would become more infrequent.
First Ability(Disposing Evidence)-When activated Benjamin will reach into his trench coat to pull out a strangle clock to chuck it into the air. From there it will begin floating and taunt enemies to move towards it. The clock will explode after 6s. Alternatively, if he shoots it out of the air the bullet will split into 12 other bullets that each do 30% of the original bullets damage that will randomly target nearby enemies. This ability will have a 12s cooldown.
Notes:>! I love the idea of abilities creating objects the player can interact with, and since his passive is all about constantly shooting why not have the main mode of interaction be by shooting it. The explosion would be a better AOE tool while shooting the clock would be better for single target elimination since it would massively increase the damage of just one bullet.!<
Second Ability(Open Doors)-Once activated Benjamin will fold in on himself and collapse into the trench coat's hidden portal so he will teleport a short distance away. He will specifically teleport in the direction he is looking at, but if the ability is held down he will instead teleport a short distance directly behind him. Either way he teleports, doing so will reduce the cooldown on “Hidden Arsenal” by 10s. This ability will have a 20s cooldown.
Notes: This would be his main survivability/mobility tool. It’s simple, flexible, and effective while also having the added utility of reducing the cooldown on “Hidden Arsenal” so that instant reload can proc more consistently. The idea of a sniper constantly changing their position after every shot was part of the inspiration for this ability.
Third Ability(Locked Doors)-Upon activation he will throw out a key straight into the air where it will begin to descend back into the ground. Any enemies within an 8m radius of the key will be unable to move outside of that zone until the key hits the ground and unlocks it, which will occur after 6s of it being tossed into the air. Alternatively, if Benjamin shoots the key out of the sky it will fire off chains that seek out those nearby enemies to bind them together, this binding does not hinder their movement. While they are bound, damage is linked between all targets, so if one target gets headshot that damage will then also be inflicted to all other targets at 40% of the original damage. This ability will have a 25s cooldown
Notes: The first effect, depending on which enemy types find themselves in its zone, can be a life saver or entirely useless as it does not stop them from attacking or using abilities. It’s a simple Root ability but not in its purest form since they still have some space to run in. The second effect was the main effect I wanted to focus on. As it currently works now, if one enemy is hit by 200 damage every other target linked to them will take 80 damage. This will be his main burst AOE tool.
Ultimate(My Friends from the Other Side)-When this is activated Benjamin will release two ghost-like creatures from the portal within his trench coat. These creatures will use copies of his current weapon and deal 60% of his current damage. Additionally if he is aiming down sights they will shoot exactly where he is shooting to set up a firing squad, otherwise if he is hip-firing they will shoot at a different target instead if at all possible. Then if he is sprinting the ghosts will break off from him to collect pick-ups for him like additional ammo. Finally, if Benjamin attempts a melee attack while the ghosts are out he will instead command the ghosts to have one drag an enemy to him while the other shanks them while Benjamin is free to pop their head off afterwards if they survive the shiv. This ability will last for 20s with a 60s cooldown.
Notes: Main idea with this ability is to setup a firing squad that he can command to amplify his damage. Puppet characters in shooters aren't super common and tend to have very limited commands, and while I tried to give more variety in how Benjamin can influence the ghosts I still feel there's something missing.
submitted by Lymilark to TheFirstDescendant [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 02:43 Icy_History_4728 Report

People ask me how was your trip. I'm much better at describing what happened than at giving a response. I could actually use your help. How would you describe the experience after reading it? I read other people's reports and admire how they can be concise and insightful. I'm also jealous when I see these blissful, healing, and peaceful moments described. But it is what it is. I also was a bit self-conscious during the writing because I was thinking about the possibility that the people involved may end up reading it. I tried to be as honest as I could to reflect my own experience.

Did it on a naturalist beautiful setting. With a facilitator I didn't know beforehand and overheard about him a day earlier. He was a bit of an hectic dude. Never really with you, always doing many things at once, as well as sudden stops while driving to the setting. I was hesitant but felt that his intentions are good and when the lights will be on, it will be fine.

I talked to him a night before and he said a doctor is going to be there, his friend. On the way to the setting, we were all in the same mini van (not the tidiest / comfortable and trust inducing I've seen), and the guy said he never graduated but worked In a hospital. He didn't want to say what he did there but he was talking about the hotrible dids of big pharmaceutical. All this didn't add to the trust. I still felt it's alright, his hurt was In the right place. Oh, and there were 2 big black restless barking dogs.

It was the facilitator and a few others holding space with instruments. He said he has done +200 ceremonies. I did it with another participant who was also in his head and scared, and critical. I was told each one will do it separately when the other one is watching.

I was anxious but was feeling OK that i am handling it. Was doing deep breathing. Wrote my intentions. Then the other participant kind of shove a lighter in my head without asking me, while both I'm busy writing and self reflecting just befor its my turn. Felt inconsiderate and disrespectful but I was too pre occupied to pay attention and understand what's going on.

Now, as a usual pattern, I was blaming myself for that (beaten wife syndrome?). Because just befor that, he was loudly and anxiously sharing with the facilitator, that he had an emotional breakdown last time he took psychedelics. It's the second time I heard him sharing that with another person, not me, but right in my ears. Since it was just before my turn to smock, and i was writing my intentions, I felt the need to move away. But I immediately felt bad and scared he will feel rejected when he is already as he is. So I came back and did a bit of weird turn to pretend i wasn't trying to move away. All showing uncertainty, indecisiveness amd weakness.

I asked him what to do with the lighter (it was for burning the paper of what I want to let go), he madly bursts at me: idk ask the facilitator! That didn't feel right to enter in that state but I didn't know what else to do. In my reflecting later I understood how this is one of the things I wanted to manifest: assertiveness and standing up for myself. Fucking stand up for myself when someone pisses on you. This is so hard for me to do. Especially with men, due to unresolved trauma with a mad, jealous and abusing brother.

So yes. Stand up, even before a ceremony, it doesn't matter! It won't make things worse or what ever excuse I had in my head. I could stand up for myself using I statements. Or anything that isn't necessarily confrontational. But boy was that hard. Confronting that scared man who didn't seem to be mindful of the impact of his actions and body language at all, or just didn't care. Before entering my mat, I looked at him and said good luck. I was trying to appease things and get some acknowledgment of mutual support. He briefly replied but it didn't really help. I guess that was me trying to control things, or rather actually solve things which is good and could have worked in other circumstances.

I stepped in my mat, preparing to smock a light dose, I was very worried about that guy, trust me, it didn't feel good having this severe scowling face, standing in the supposed to be his designated area, the participant area on my left. I could feel his energy and I was as tense as it can get. He was in my energy field. And an energetic split has occurred. I had a few people support me on my side, and this guy on my left. I started feeling anxious and bad, damn if I say something damn if I don't.

I moves the facilitator away and told him he was aggressive, he sais he is just scared. I stepped back to my mat, and for some very odd reason, the facilitator decided to call that guy to my mat. Explaining us something about the setting. He already explained befor to both of us, so, thinking afterwards, it felt like a forced attempt to "bring us together", or to not make him feel isolated. Which it shouldn't. It was set in advance to be every one doing it separately.

So this caused my anxious state to go to the roof. He stayed behind me on my mat, standing there, with his not calming state /energy to say thr lease. I felt trapped. Didn't want to create "separation or fear ". For me it feels like a awful accusation," to spread fear instead of love". But this absulit bullocks! Self care and bounderies is everything's but fear. Its beautiful. Its pure bliss. Its life preservation. Was judging myself all this spiritual chatter that I should create oneness not fear, hence crating more guilt and shame to the all plate, also wondering if the others judge me for that. But I felt very unsafe so I had to set bounderies. There was no choice. I was afraid that setting this boundery will make the trip worse because he will feel rejected and I'll be responsible for that.

But no time, here we go. I just hinted to the facilitator about it, and his response was sub optimal. He asked everyone to move back. No dumbass! I need these guys and feel their support! You just need to say to that dude to back off to his designated area as fucking agree upon!

I just turned around and said thanks to all of them, making eye contact with them, hinting to them that my issue is not with them! I love them and their calming presence. It was very confusing. As is the character of the facilitator. I didn't want this guy to feel excluded so I looked at him and said to him thanks too. He just very briefly looked back, it wasn't the kind of energy I needed that moment. The last interaction befor smocking, what I needed was support and acceptance. Why was I looking for that instead of protecting myself?
But, I guess, hello people pleaser?! Hello self sabotage pattern.

Anyway, I smocked a light dose, sitting down. It was bliss. A very good experience. But that split was there. Him on that left side. Made it hard to let go and feel at ease and comfortable. I stood up back pretty fast. Got another dose. 30mg. Lied down. It was bliss. Not sure how to describe it. I was still feeling self conscious at some points because of that person's present and my fears around it. But for some brief moments I was gone. Then back. Then gone again.

At one point I felt one with everyone but I was resisting it because I felt like I need to protect myself from feeling one with everyone including him. And his struggles. That I will take it as mine, as well as his ancestors, and that will be too much. I know myself and my sensitivity. And indeed it was too strong and had to consciously get back to myself to tap my feet and shake myself of it, to get back thre sense of self. Having his mad image in my head at that point was extremely terrifying, I literally had a panic attack and I had to fight it off.
I tried recalling my intentions, positive self talk being one of them, and felt an instant relief. I could finally surrender to bliss. Had a slight smile on my face. I was very quickly back up. Was dancing a bit. The facilitator asked if I want to go deeper. I barley knew what he is talking about but I felt like going with his instincts. Let's go! I am here for a breakthrough and become free of this same anxiety and stress and social anxiety that it is killing me. That Is causing me to be lonely, no friends or partners. So let's go!! It's time!!! I can do it!
Did this time 60mg. I had no idea how much is in there, found out later. I inhaled and lied down, exhaling just a bit. He was telling me "hold it hold it". I was afraid of having a bad one because of not feeling comfortable. So exhaled unintentionally just a bit then kept holding.
Lied down, I was gone. It was pretty much the same as last time. But more used to it, I was gone a bit far more this time. Surrendering. But also felt like surrender makes me not live the experience, just subcomining to what ever comes. Like a lifeless body. But I was mostly just letting anything happen. It was peaceful, it was slight disappointment of coming back quickly.
One thing I noticed is that focusing on calming techniques like counting breaths or remember intentions or anything from the mind was sometimes helpful but sometimes felt strange and counter productive.

They were pouring water on my face which felt good. Tapping my body. I was scared I am dying or that I passed out and they are trying to keep me alive.

Shortly enough I was happy to get back to my senses. I sat down in lotus position. Peace and calm. Stood up and felt very alive and happy to be back. That it's over. And I'm ok.

After math :

I think I got a bit more anxious then I used to be, a week later. I'm tapping myself on my chest very often in social situations. Without even noticing! Very susceptibile and sensitive to others state, feeling nasua and obnoxious when a women is standing over my shoulders on a long ride bus because she has a feet issue, although there are plenty of free sits. I can feel her sickness and energy and / suffering and i struggle with not feeling sick myself.

I felt very vulnerable and not good for a while, had some romantic failure, an extremely hot women was showing romantic interest in me in the day of the ceremony. I was giving off very good and fun energy I guess. She wanted me to join her travels, I did, then I fell back in my anxiety and stress (if she will reject me or not, will i fuck it up or not), and she lost interest, so that was a long painful free fall as we were both in the same hostel for a few days. It's a trigger because it's a patten, hot women find me initially attractive then quickly abandon me).

On the first few days I felt out of sorts and couldn't do my self care routines. Was eating unhealthy. Couldn't journal or meditate coherently. Was escaping to my phone a lot. But I caught myself and trying to not fall back to theee habits. Rather continue my good habits and healthy lifestyle I started a few months ago. Sunlight exposure, workouts, healthy food, sleep, social connections.

My online new psychologist said: "can we be more careful next time, not causing more emotional harm on the our quest to heal, which only causes more harm"? I don't know if she is right, could be just a matter of how I look at it and what I focus on. Positive or not positive aspects of the experience.

I'm hanging in there. And full of hope that the realizations and benefits, besides those I already had, can be manifested in the long run. Aho.

What I learned. To be more assertive. More empathetic. But I already new that.

I can't control other people's thoughts or states. As painful as it is to discover this..

My own well being is a big priority. Without self care. Bounderies. I can't take care of anyone else and am good to no one. So shame can go out the window.


TL;DR (feels a bit impersonal, but good enough, made by CHATPTG): I attended a ceremony in a natural setting, facilitated by a hectic but well-intentioned individual, along with another participant who was struggling with his own fears. The experience was marked by my anxiety, self-consciousness, and the need to assert boundaries with the other participant. Despite these challenges, I experienced moments of bliss and oneness. After the ceremony, I felt more vulnerable and sensitive, but I'm focusing on self-care and healthy habits. Key lessons include the importance of assertiveness, empathy, and prioritizing my own well-being
submitted by Icy_History_4728 to 5MeODMT [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 02:19 Receplenn How do i only change the main_menu into a hbox

Hey guys I'm pretty inexpierence so I would be very happy for help
I want to change the buttons in the main menu, but only in the main menu. I like to change the VBOX into a HBOX. That way the buttons are all lined up nice and horizontal.
screen navigation(): hbox: style_prefix "navigation" if renpy.get_screen("main_menu"): xalign 0.5 yalign 0.9 spacing gui.navigation_spacing if main_menu: textbutton _("Start") action Start()
But now every other menu is also horizontal. For every other menu, I would prefer the menu to just be the default menu, as if I never changed anything.
I hope you can help me as I am completely clueless about programming
So if you try to explain something to me, imagine I'm a toddler.
​
Thank you guys.
PS: english is my secound language so i hope you can read my text without getting a headache.
submitted by Receplenn to RenPy [link] [comments]

2023.03.29 02:02 MerkadoBarkada MPI buys 16% of SPNEC for P2-B, with option for more (W:Mar29)

Happy Wednesday, Barkada --

The PSE gained 8 points to 6603 ▲0.1%

Shout-out to all the Bojack fans that I unearthed with my Mr. Peanutbutter meme: chie, Jing, Lance Nazal, Dan Villegas, boombappV, and **John. There are literally dozens of us. Hahah. But seriously, it's a good show.
Thanks to Atot and John for the nice testimonials and recommendations, and to Ollie Tan for the positive feedback on the IPO analysis, and the great suggestion to include dividends in the next one.
Thanks also to Fruitas Holdings [FRUIT] for stepping up to sponsor the UPSON IPO Allocation Poll. FRUIT heard about Market Babbler's suggestion for the prize to be some delicious delivery, and they offered to deliver, by Cocodelivery, 2 Boxes of Ling Nam Fried Siopao and 1L of Fruitas Buko Juice to the raffle winner on Monday morning, for free!
Click here to enter: UPSON IPO Allocation Poll
Shout-outs to avenmicjohn, PF JTor Realtor, TiymRyvt, Jonathan Burac, Ragnar, Harry Lego, Jean Luc, kaecon, Waldooo, Cathay Pacific Boarding Music is enchanting, Mors Mihi Lucrum, JET, Evolves Capital, Inc., Pesoses, Vito @ insomia hell, Jon-eee, Miguel R. Camus, MiUMaO, Dividend Pinoy PGG, Chip Sillesa, Justn, Jay Agonoy, arkitrader, CHARToons, Palaboy Trader, meloi, Rolex Jodieres, Antonio Javier, and Jing for the retweets, and to Froilan Ramos, Jayvee Menil, Genesis Umali, Camp Carmen, Evolves.co, and Mike Ting for the FB shares!

▌In today's MB:

▌Daily meme Subscribe (it's free) Today's email

▌Main stories covered:

  • [NEWS] Metro Pacific buys 19% stake in SPNEC for ₱2-B... Metro Pacific Investments [MPI 3.82 ▲4.1%] [link] bought a 16% stake in SP New Energy [SPNEC 1.74 ▲3.6%] in an all-secondary share block sale for a total purchase price of ₱2 billion. The block sale was conducted at a 25.6% discount from SPNEC’s Monday close of ₱1.68/share, and a 16.7% discount from SPNEC’s SRO price of ₱1.50/share that buyers just finished paying off.
    • Follow the money: The deal is between MPI and SPNEC’s parent company, Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings (SPPPH), for 1.6 billion common shares of SPNEC that were owned by SPPPH. None of this money is going directly to SPNEC, though MPI’s disclosure did mention that SPPPH would “advance” the proceeds of the sale to SPNEC to fund the Nueva Ecija project, which would be the largest in the world if/when completed.
    • What else did MPI get? Quite a lot, actually. Aside from grabbing a 19% stake for a huge discount, MPI was able to take over the Chairmanship of the SPNEC board, which will go to Manny V. Pangilinan. MPI was also able to secure some kind of option agreement that gives MPI a path to increase its stake in SPNEC to 43% and become the single-largest shareholder in SPNEC, once the asset-for-share swap with SPPPH is completed.
    • Why in that order? The asset-for-share swap is the transaction that lays the foundation for SPNEC’s increase in authorized capital stock (ACS) from ₱10 billion to ₱50 billion. The swap will result in 34.3 billion shares issued and outstanding, leaving up 15.7 billion ACS shares available for purchase by MPI to add to its stake. It appears as though that ACS increase is funded by the swap, so the swap has to happen first before SPNEC’s board can unlock the ability to sell those authorized (but unissued shares).
    • But why MPI? Who knows! From MPI’s perspective, this purchase doesn’t appear to align comfortably with its recent pivot into the agri-business sector. That said, MPI is a conglomerate with significant interests in the energy sector, and the renewable energy sector is one with a higher growth potential than just about any other. From SPNEC’s perspective, Leandro Leviste (SPNEC’s current owner), said, that SPNEC has “long seen a partnership with MPIC to be the key to unlock the potential of [SPNEC’s] project pipeline.”
    • MB BOTTOM-LINE: If I didn’t know anything about the parties or the context to this situation, I’d probably think that this was some kind of distressed asset sale. MPI feels like it is in the driver’s seat. It feels bonkers to give up Chairmanship to an outside company, especially one that only bought a 16% stake, and then to also give it a very near-term path to taking constructive control. This does not sound like the type of team-up that SPNEC was telegraphing as part of its original joint venture-centric approach to monetizing its holdings on a project-by-project basis. It feels like something has clearly gone wrong. We can speculate all we want about what might have happened behind the scenes with Enrique Razon, or about the potential finances of SPPPH, but the truth is that we just don’t know. Nothing about how SPNEC has done anything has been normal. This is no exception. Again, I’m not saying that anyone has done anything wrong, or that something isn’t as it seems. Is this good for shareholders or bad for shareholders? I don’t know. If this deal is necessary to save the “world’s largest solar farm” project, then I’d say that it’s definitely a good deal for shareholders. But we don’t get that kind of insight.
  • [NOTES] Quick takes from around the market...
    • BDO [BDO 125.50 ▼0.8%] [link] acquired 100% ownership of the Podium Complex, which includes BDO’s Corporate Center Ortigas, the West Tower, and the Podium Mall. BDO acquired the holding company that owns the assets, called SM Keppel Land (SMKL), which was owned by Keppel Philippines Properties [KEP 3.70 ▲32.1%] and another company in the KEP ownership orbit. The disclosure mentioned that BDO will pay KEP and the other company in cash when the deal closes.
      • MB Quick Take: BDO already owned half of this company, so they’re really just consolidating ownership. Since BDO itself occupies 63% of the office space in the complex, maybe they just got tired of splitting the rent with KEP and brought the whole operation in-house. Not sure what KEP will do, considering this was (according to my experience) KEP’s main operational asset.
    • Asia United Bank [AUB 43.60 ▼0.7%] [link] teased FY22 net income of ₱6.3 billion, which is 56% higher than AUB’s FY21 net income. Net interest income was up 18%, and AUB’s total loan portfolio grew 12% to ₱195 billion. AUB reported a Q4 net income of ₱1.7 billion, which was 54% higher y/y and 1% higher q/q.
      • MB Quick Take: It’s a pretty good time to be a bank in the Philippines. Higher rates will be beneficial to the banks going forward, and even better considering that the higher rates don’t seem to have really impacted demand for the loans. I don’t know the long-term implications of the rise in consumer loans to make ends meet, but in the short and medium term, it appears to be a great situation for banks.
    • Alternergy [ALTER 1.19 ▼4.8%] [link] face-planted on its third day of trading, dropping 5% to fall 7% beneath the newest IPO’s offer price. Volume was roughly half of its listing day, but triple the volume of its second day. The price action yesterday was a fairly straight line, down and to the right.
      • MB Quick Take: Again, we will have to wait to see how active the stability fund is being behind the scenes, but shareholders and IPO buyers should not count on a stability fund to protect against losses. It merely provides artificial demand, according to the whims of the stability fund agent, if the market price is below the IPO offer price. As yesterday’s analysis shows, there’s evidence that it leads to better outcomes, but those outcomes aren’t necessarily in the green.
MB is written and distributed every trading day. The newsletter is 100% free and I never upsell you to some "iNnEr cIrClE" of paid-membership perks. Everyone gets the same! Join the barkada by signing up for the newsletter, or follow me on Twitter. You can also read my daily Morning Halo-halo content on Philstar.com in the Stock Commentary section, and in the Saturday edition of the Daily Manila Shimbun.

Subscribe here

Read today's full newsletter here

submitted by MerkadoBarkada to phinvest [link] [comments]