Our son is 3 months old. We are fortunate enough for me to be a temporary SAHM while my husband works during these first few months. That being said, my husband has not had to change any of his routines. He wears earplugs at night so we don't wake him when we get up. I EBF so I think it's a fair trade off since he's working and I'm not. However he does not seem to understand how difficult it is to get out the door with a newborn on time. Or how complicated it is to try and navigate two 60+ pound dogs with a newborn.. last week he scheduled a day for our dogs to go try a new daycare place. But he wanted to ride his new motorcycle to the office today. I obviously can't have two 60+ pound dogs in the car with me and a baby. So he would have to take them to daycare in his car. Seems simple enough, right?
instead of just taking the dogs in his car, then driving to his office. He asked me to follow him over to doggy daycare so I could stay with the dogs for their observation period (30 minutes). So he could come home and pick up his motorcycle then go to the office. Not realizing that if the dogs didn't get the green light from the daycare, id have to load them up on my SUV with my newborn. Which is obviously a terrible idea. One I'm not willing to go along with. But, Of course I agreed because I genuinely dont mind at least trying to make his idea work... But I also had an altieror motive in agreeing to do this. I knew it was a bad idea, I knew it was super complicated. But I also know my husband very very well. He needs to see his plan, in action before understanding that it's either stupid, not going to work, or might work but will become super complicated.
My husband HATES being late to anything even if we legitimately can't help it because our infant needed to eat, etc. It stresses him out to an unnecessary level of anxiety and irritation. He's been giving me grief about not doing more outside of the house like going to hang out with friends or taking my car to get an oil change. I've repeatedly told him, I don't think you understand how difficult it is to get out the door with an infant, on time. He says he gets it but then I can tell he has zero comprehension around what it actually looks like. So I agreed to do this stupid trip to doggy daycare because I knew it wasn't going to run as smoothly as he needed it to. I rushed to get myself ready this morning(I even put on my pre pregnancy jeans AND they buttoned for the first time since I got pregnant last year small win). Rushed to get the baby ready. Because I was honestly trying to be able to make it work. All while knowing in the back of my head, it was a stupid over complicated idea and it may not. However, I was still going to give it my best shot. If we are successful in getting out the door, great. It's stupid but whatever. So we're packing up the dogs. I go to put our son in my car and he absolutely goes bonkers. Like full on scream attack, like I was hurting him. So I take him out of his car seat and he starts munching on my shirt like he's hungry again. So I stop my husband and tell him. "I need to feed him, I'll meet you there." In the back of my head I'm thinking this is the stupidest idea ever. Just take your freaking car to the office. You don't need to ride your motorcycle there.
So I go back inside start feeding my son and then go get my phone because I know my husband is going to call when he realizes this was a terrible idea and tell me I can just stay home and he'll take care of the dogs.
What happens? I grab my phone and he's calling. He's a little annoyed, I can sense it in his voice. he says 'im just gonna take care of this, it makes more sense, instead of making this super complicated and harder than it needs to be, I'll just go straight to the office from here"
*GREAT* THATS A WONDERFUL IDEA HONEY.
He just walked back in the door, twenty minutes later, with the dogs. Couldn't drop them off because he forgot to mention my older dog is due for one of her vaccinations and he assumed I had taken her to get it. Because he sent me an email from the vet saying she needed it. 🤣🤣 I'm I wrong for thinking this is hilarious and also glad that nothing worked out so he could see exactly what it looks like trying to do anything with an infant?

Greetings Citizens!
BDF is looking for both experienced and new players to help us continue growing as an effective fighting unit as well as a great place to meet new friends and have a good time. BDF is UEE oriented, legal, full fleet, anti-pirate, anti-griefer, star citizen dedicated, and noob friendly.
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We are an English-speaking international organization with 3 active fleets headquartered in the NA, EU, and Asia/Oceania regions. We have members active at all times of day, and regularly run events that will fit any timezone or timeframe. Wherever you may be and whenever you may play, we would be happy to have you alongside us!
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BDF is proud to have a significant number of active military and veterans as part of our membership. We salute you no matter when or where you served. o7
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WHAT WE OFFER:
Military structure
Ranking system
Training
Many awards, medals, ribbons and certification badges for a wide range of combat and non combat accomplishments.
A website where all main members will have individual areas for character development and display of their uniform, rank, awards, etc.
Solid organization with clear goals and the determination to consistently move forward despite the roadblocks that Star Citizen may (will) throw at us.
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POSITIONS AVAILABLE:
• Light and Heavy Fighter Pilots
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Please be sure to visit our RSI site for more information regarding our purpose, goals, and history!
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https://robertsspaceindustries.com/orgs/BDF1
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If you would be interested in joining in our efforts to grow one of the finest organizations in Star Citizen, please be sure to join our Discord server!
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https://discord.gg/CNnA3czh

This was posted in the AngryObservation subreddit (that I stumbled on two seconds ago)
Essay posted by u/dcmetro7
https://www.reddit.com/usedcmetro7/
Democrats have a branding problem : AngryObservation (reddit.com)

Democrats have a branding problem

😴 Long Observation 😴
I was inspired by u/Randomuser1520 's post about the Democratic Party's seemingly weak bench of future potential presidential nominees.
A lot of the problems trace back to 2016, but I'd argue the Democrats' branding woes go back even further. Think all the way back to the last time the Democrats had a consistently strong electoral record as a party -- the 90s, where the only truly bad year for Ds was 1994. Bill Clinton had successfully rebranded the party under the 'Third Way' label that Dems at any level could embrace and benefit from, and he had a clear successor in Al Gore. But Gore loses narrowly in 2000, and the problems for the Dems' brand begin.
'Yes We Can'
After 9/11, the electorate supports Bush and they support war. Dems' brand takes a hit and they lose the 2002 midterms. In 2004, John Kerry is successfully painted as an out-of-touch Ivy League liberal, disengaged from 'real America.' Dems lose and their brand suffers further.
But by the end of Bush's term, most Americans are disillusioned with Dubyaism. They wanted change, and one man promises to lead them to it with posters that proclaim 'HOPE' and cries of 'Yes We Can,' heralding in a new age of politics. Barack Obama and the Democrats are swept into a trifecta in Washington.
And we certainly got a new age of politics. When Obama was inaugurated, pundits speculated about the 'emerging Democratic majority', and how the GOP may literally go extinct in ten years. By the end of Obama's second term, those same pundits are surveying the absolutely decimated state of the Democratic party at all levels of power. Dems had lost the Senate, the House, most governorships, and most state legislatures. Control of the state legislatures makes the GOP's hold on the House even stronger. Control of the Senate effectively leads to control of the Supreme Court.
While Obama certainly can't be blamed for everything the GOP threw at him, I feel like it's safe to say his rebranding of the Democratic party failed in the long run. The 'Party of Hope' was sunk into the quagmire of a slow economic recovery, some of the most cynical politicking ever, and some of the most dysfunctional White House-Congress relationships in the history of the country. Obama's signature healthcare legislation would languish in the 30s approval-wise until after he left office. By 2015, no one was talking about the Democrats as the Party of Hope anymore. Even the guy who designed the original 'Hope' poster said he was frustrated by the lack of progress under the Obama admin. I'd argue that the Republicans were responsible for the clear majority of this dysfunction, but if their goal was to muddy the waters between the parties, they succeeded. And with the Tea Party, they were better at rebranding themselves even when they were in the opposition.
And none of this was helped by the face that Obama seemed extremely reluctant, even uninterested, in stepping into the role of party leader. Congressional Democrats were frustrated at the way he kept his distance from them, making it hard to solidify the policy goals they'd implemented in his first term. This article (https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/19/us/aloof-obama-is-frustrating-his-own-party.html) sums it up well, with this prescient quote sticking out:

In interviews, nearly two dozen Democratic lawmakers and senior congressional aides suggested that Mr. Obama’s approach has left him with few loyalists to effectively manage the issues erupting abroad and at home and could imperil his efforts to leave a legacy in his final stretch in office.

And sure enough, Obama's legacy was in peril before he even left office.
'Stronger Together'
In 2016, Democrats didn't plan for a primary, they planned for a coronation. Hillary Clinton had been locking up all the support she could get from the Democratic establishment while Obama was serving his second term. Biden would seem like the clear establishment successor, but by the time he was able to turn his attention from VP duties to the primary he realized Hillary had completely boxed him out. She had already corralled all the big donors, operatives, and endorsements into her corner, and Joe was checkmated before he even sat down to the board. Thus, he turned down the opportunity, likely burying his long-nurtured presidential ambitions.
But then the coronation gets bumpy. Sanders challenges her from the outside, and immediately begins putting her on the spot as to why she's running. In other words, what does she envision for the Democratic brand? Hillary herself doesn't know. Is it a third term of Bill (whose star was starting to fade among everyone whose name doesn't rhyme with Shames Scarville), a third term of Obama (whose Hope posters have since become landfill), or an all-new thing?
To Hillary's credit, she couldn't portray herself as a total break from the past, both because she had been was strongly anchored to the national political landscape for the last thirty years, and because she could hardly attack Obama's record too harshly. In the end, she also struggled to brand both herself and the party. Consider the slogans most associated with her campaign; 'Forward Together' and 'Stronger Together' sound like the slogans of a centrist third party with no concrete policy ideas. They just attempted to project a feeling of unity onto a people who were united only, if the candidacies of Sanders and Trump meant anything, in the feeling that 'establishment' politicians like HRC had failed. And, of course, 'I'm with Her' was barely a rebrand at all, simply associating the party with its uncharismatic yet seemingly unstoppable frontrunner.
In the meantime, Trump had done the opposite, rebranding himself and the GOP as the party of 'America First populism.' What that meant exactly in terms of policy seemed to change from day to day But as a brand, as a forceful statement of intent, it worked, especially when contrasted with a seemingly rudderless HRC campaign that failed to answer the age-old question: 'Why are you running for president?'
'For the People'
After the 2016 fiasco, the Democrats were decimated and leaderless. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had passed his leadership position to Chuck Schumer and passed on soon after Trump took office. Tim Ryan led a mutiny against Nancy Pelosi, blaming her in part for the party's plunge from ascendance to irrelevance in the House. Hillary Clinton disappeared into the woods of Chappaqua. Obama started making a docu-series for Netflix. Joe Biden entered semi-retirement and wrote a book.
But in all of this, they found something they had been lacking. A brand.
Not the one they would have preferred, but one that would work nonetheless for winning elections. House Dems would embrace the (once-again) vague slogan of 'For the People' ahead of the 2018 midterms, but the aim was clear. The Democrats were now the Opposition; the Anti-Trump party.
Trump's approval rating was not just low, but incredibly sticky. People tended to have very firm opinions on him, and so his approval rating barely escaped the 35-45% range, with him almost hitting 50% before the pandemic hit. Thus, running on opposition to Trump would be fine electorally. In 2018, the Democrats had a blue wave year based mostly on opposition to Trump, retaking the house. Ironically, a big policy motivator for voters was backlash against the GOP's effort to repeal and replace Obamacare -- a promise that had driven Republican electoral gains since the bill was passed into law. Republican branding and messaging had been so successful that, for the better part of the decade, people trusted them to 'fix' the ACA until the very last minute before the replacement was signed.
'Battle for the Soul of the Nation'
But the problem remained for 2020 -- who would lead them? This was a difficult decision even before the pandemic. And Democratic primary voters were treated to a veritable buffet on angles on how to rebrand the party to beat Trump.
Should the party embrace democratic socialism under Sanders, or heavy consumer advocacy under Warren? Should it embrace a young, charismatic up-and-comer like Harris, Buttigieg, or O'Rourke or someone just as 'establishment' as Hillary, like Michael Bloomberg? Old-school liberalism with the Klob? Whatever Andrew Yang was doing?
But as the polls drew near, the Democrats seemed to conclude that beating Trump was simply more important than charting a new course for the party. If they could get elected or rebrand, they'd choose the former. And so all the other more moderate candidates dropped out to consolidate the vote around Biden, as the safe, expected pick who could stay the course. Biden and his surrogates began adopting the slogan 'Battle for the Soul of the Nation,' an epic and apocalyptic phrase that is still fundamentally reactive in tone, implying that the biggest motivator to vote for Democrats that fall was not to pass any specific agenda, but to put a stop to the GOP's plans.
Biden wouldn't govern in this way, but he would campaign this way -- as the normal, capable candidate who could lead the country's post-covid recovery in opposition to Trump's perceived incompetence. Biden won, but Democrats didn't get nearly the boost they wanted from covid, and House candidates underperformed Biden nationally, leading to a surprising loss of seats in the House. And after the effort to throw out the election failed, Trump left office with severely damaged standing with independents. The anti-Trump brand had delivered Dems a trifecta; now it was time to use it; hopefully to establish a new brand for a new decade.
'Building Back Better'
Upon taking office, Biden and the Dems lay out their agenda; the 'Build Back Better' plan, which centers on a three-pronged approach; a pandemic relief bill, an infrastructure bill, and a social policy bill. Passing such plans will involve all 50 Senate D's on board in some cases, and a bipartisan filibuster-proof majority of 60 senators in other cases.
People laugh, think back to 2010, and begin arguing whether a prediction that the GOP will control 55 Senate seats by 2023 is too conservative. Nancy Pelosi is trying to manage a mere five-seat majority in the house. Mitch McConnell, who once feasted on the Democrats' lost hopes the way a hungry turtle devours a plate of juicy strawberries, still held enough sway in the Senate to hold up any significant policy not related to budget reconciliation. Even then, Schumer must wrangle mavericks like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. Dramatic divisions still rip across the fabric of American society. But then, something truly strange happens.
The 117th Congress ends up being one of the most productive sessions ever.
Whether or not you think any or all of the 117th's acts were good policy, it's undeniable that this was an unusually politically efficient session, especially considering the last decade of hardball politics. Bipartisan majorities drive the infrastructure act, a gun control act, a tech-manufacturing promotion act, and even a somewhat-legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide. Plus, Schumer and Pelosi navigate their tiny majorities toward passing partisan priorities, like the pandemic relief act and the scaled-down Build Back Better social policy bill, rebranded as the Inflation Reduction Act or IRA. McConnell drops his trademark stonewalling and collaborates with Biden on the bipartisan bills, and 'Yea' votes roll in even from deep red states -- Republican senators from Mississippi, West Virginia, and North Dakota get these bills over the line. Bipartisanship returns to Congress in fleeting glances -- something that I feel confident in arguing absolutely no one expected Biden or the Dem leaders to be able to do.
Of course, no one has forgotten 2010, and 2022 looks to be another rough year. Inflation soars, and Biden's approval rating drops. Dems brace for impact. The Dobbs ruling happens, but polls repeatedly suggest that the economy is the top issue on voters' minds, and they don't like Biden's handling of it.
But while these things are true, they ignore a crucial factor -- the GOP is embroiled in an identity crisis of its own. The leader of the party is claiming to be the legitimate president of the United States, which is a bit of a hard issue to ignore. Trump loyalists beat out 'establishment' Republicans in the primaries, and bring their hard promotion of the MAGA brand to the general elections. And they lose.
I think it's fair to say that the GOP lost most of the key races of the 2022 midterms, rather than Democrats winning them. Swing state Republican parties chose candidates who adhered so closely to a brand so toxic that independents still chose the Democrats, even in some cases where they were dissatisfied with the party. Republicans who have managed to establish a brand for themselves -- DeSantis, Kemp, and DeWine among them -- soar, while the Trumpiest candidates fall flat. McConnell remains in the minority, and McCarthy becomes the head of a very, very dysfunctional family.
Will Brandon's Rebrand Stand?
So, coming off an unusually strong midterm, where does the party go in 2024? Probably, as u/Randomuser1520 said, back to Biden. When your party wins one of the most fiercely contested elections in American history, has a productive legislative session, and then massively overperforms in the midterm, you don't usually change horses regardless of what approval polling says. If Biden were just 10 years younger and the health concerns were off the table, there would be no question in anyone's mind who to nominate.
The establishment and progressive wings of the party seem to be behind him if he runs, meaning challenges will only come from real outsiders like Marianne Williamson and Robert Kennedy Jr. The DNC will probably work to make those challenges as unviable as possible.
2024 is tricky to predict. Trump is favored on the Republican side, and as said before, his brand is so toxic that Biden can probably glide to reelection barring any massive economic downturns or serious health problems. I won't get too much into 2024, because it seems pretty clearly on the path to becoming another referendum on the GOP's brand, not the Democrats'. Biden's second term (and the rest of his first term) may be defined as much by implementation of the legislation they passed during the 117th as much as by new legislation, if not more.
So the question becomes this -- where does the party go in 2028? Or, in other words, what will Democrats take away from the Biden presidency, and how will Biden shape the party's brand going forward? Who they choose to lead the party next will tell, and Biden's presidency may already be laying out a blueprint.
In his 1996 State of the Union address, Bill Clinton declared 'the era of big government is over,' essentially conceding that Reagan and his vision of a small role for the federal government in domestic affairs had won out for the time, and that Democrats would need to work within that political reality in order to win elections. Obama's efforts to change that status quo resulted in an avalanche of backlash from Tea Partiers, self-proclaimed champions of fiscal conservatism. Hillary Clinton's failed campaign strategy arguably rested more on that understanding of the political climate than anything else, causing her to miss a series of growing frustrations with Reaganism at times channelled by Sanders and, at times, Trump -- at decimation of the manufacturing sector, at the growing gap between rich and poor, at China's seemingly unstoppable three-decade rise at the expense of the U.S.
Biden's approach to American industry and government is a strong repudiation of Reaganism, based around the idea that it is the government's job to fortify and guide the economy in ways that are necessary where the free market has little incentive to. It argues that the issues of infrastructural decay, manufacturing decline, and the growing need for green energy in the face of climate change will only be solved if the government directs the power of the private sector towards those goals at great upfront cost. And free trade, long held as the unassailable source of America's prosperity, must now only be employed in moderation -- if the U.S. has to arguably break international law to lure foreign investment into the U.S. through generous subsidies, it will be worth it, even if it earns the fury of our economic partners. This may be the groundwork of Bidenism.
These plans may fail. The money may be wasted by incompetent or corrupt administrators and the American people may become even more jaded at the thought of big government. But movement within the GOP may suggest a broader shift in the American mind towards this kind of economic interventionism is already in progress. Promising to reverse the decline of manufacturing through tariffs and other measures would have been political anathema twenty years ago, but it has become a core Republican plank. Florida Republicans' punitive measures towards Disney and the GOP's growing support for government action against Big Tech companies suggests openness towards not just using state power to guide the economy, but also to reshape the social landscape by manipulating the private sector. It may well be that the era of small government is over.
I've sorted some potential 'brands' and some of the people who might be nominated in 2028 / become party standard-bearers should the Democrats go in that direction. These lists aren't exhaustive; I'm just trying to establish a general vibe.
The 'Biden Blueprint': Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Gina Raimondo
These are members of the Biden admin who have been given great power (and great piles of money) to enact the legislation of the 117th. If American sentiment towards big government changes as quickly as I think it could, a Cabinet secretary could have a decent shot in 2028. Harris would be the natural successor as the VP, but Transportation Sec Buttigieg and Commerce Sec Raimondo, who were empowered to implement much of the Infrastructure Act and the CHIPS Act respectively, could become standard-bearers for this new vision of technocratic governance if they administer these programs well (and in a way that makes headlines). If Energy Sec Granholm were a natural-born citizen, she would definitely fit here as well, considering how much power the IRA gave her department.
The 'New New Deal': Amy Klobuchar, Catherine Cortez Masto, Mark Kelly, Tammy Duckworth, Raphael Warnock
Liberal senators who are capable of working across the aisle to achieve compromise could be a strong bet if Democrats want to recreate the success of the 117th Congress in the future. There's always an argument that effective legislators won't necessarily make for effective executives, but these choices would help with Democrats' goal of rebranding the Democratic party as the party you vote for if you want Washington to function properly and anticipate constituents' needs. Such a ticket could brand itself as the path to bipartisan yet assertive solutions on familiar and emerging issues like immigration reform, federal protection for abortion, the housing shortage, and the drug crisis.
The 'Bulwark': Roy Cooper, Laura Kelly, Andy Beshear
I'll admit that when I began writing this post, I had a more favorable opinion of the above three governors and politicians like them as presidential nominees and the potential 'future of the party.' I no longer feel as strongly about them, however, because I don't believe they do enough to change the brand of the Democrats and the political environment as a whole. These governors are best known for winning races in red states; for holding the line against the most conservative policies while finding areas of compromise, especially on kitchen-table issues.
But this brand of Democrat is fundamentally reactive, even defensive -- it assumes that most of the job will be obstructing right-wing legislation from a red legislature. In other words, it is a kind of strategy you use when you're trying to hold ground, not gain it. It works well when your opponent's brand is toxic (as the GOP's has been since 2016), but this I suspect this brand of 'competent normality' will struggle if the opposition ceases to actively repel voters. If Trump and his acolytes continue to hold a strong grip on the party through 2024 and beyond, this brand may not be a bad bet short-term, but long-term Democrats want to be the ones establishing the rules of the game, not just beating your opponent at theirs. That's what a successful political brand does. While Dems in similar situation should definitely look to these governors for guidance in running their campaigns (and hopefully, their administrations), I would caution at this point against basing the national party's brand on their model.
I think somewhere between these three groups lies a successful path forward for the Democrats that towards becoming the dominant party in U.S. politics at the federal level. There are some other interesting currents in the party; like how Democratic governors like Whitmer, Evers, and Walz have rebuilt D strength the Midwest after a rough 2010s, and how Western Dems like Jared Polis, Mary Peltola, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez have found unexpected electoral stength by embracing a form of libertarianism. However, these currents may be regional, and Democrats shouldn't necessarily try to nationalize every idea that works in one part of the country. Creating different regional 'flavors' of Democrat would be necessary to keep the party relevant in all parts of the country.
Regarding the 2020 primary runners-up, I don't think most of the visions laid out then work post-2024, and for this reason I tend not to give too much weight to current Democratic primary polling, because it assumes these same people would be running again.
Assuming Biden ends his term without catastrophe, I don't think the party needs to place all their faith in a young, charismatic Obama wannabe like O'Rourke or Swalwell, nor does it need to drastically pivot to the center, nor does it need to proclaim itself the party of 'outsiders,' nor does it need to give the reins to the progressive wing. If everything goes right, they can remain ideologically where they are now (roughly) and establish a solid brand for the first time in a generation.
The Democrats been losing the branding war since the days of Nixon. They may currently have all the tools they need right now to change that, and set the expectations for the next fifty years of politics. Let's see how they do.
This is my first big write-up, so I almost certainly missed some stuff and made some assumptions. Let me know what you think.

"Then I shall show you. The end of your journey. The demise of human history that will redo this planet. The moment my great undertaking is completed!"

Goetia

♫ Shikisai ~The Time of Parting Hath Come~ ♫
This thread is a collaboration with InverseFlash and rsthethird, who helped with feat-gathering, as well as Proletlariet, who helped with formatting. Thanks!

Background

Beast I. One of the Seven Evils of Humanity, possessing the principle of "Pity".
The King of Mages, Solomon, gathered 72 demons in his life that he fashioned into "a system to promote reason in humans"--a sort of magical logic network. After some time, the demons gained self-awareness and merged into a collective being.
This being, the amalgamation of the 72 Demons, became known as Goetia.
When Solomon died, the demons were sealed away inside his corpse. The awakened Goetia at first assumed Solomon's identity. Through his eyes, they witnessed the extent of human suffering that Solomon, for all the king's vast power, had failed to address. They became disillusioned with their host, and hatched a plan to remake the world without its imperfections by travelling back in time.

Source Guide

Hover over the feat to view the story chapter the feat is from.
Relevant Scaling:

• List of Servants
  • If I name a character, it can be found here. I will not be linking a respect thread for every individual character mentioned in this thread due to the shear number of Servants/characters Goetia and Demon Pillars interact with.
• Mash Kyrielight
• Beast II - Tiamat
• Beast VII - U-Olga Marie

Some terms:

• Rayshifting: Chaldea's method of time travel. It works by transforming the time traveler's body into 'Spiritrons', and then sending them backwards in time. Spiritrons being a form of energy/particle formed from a person's soul
  • Full Definition/Description can be read here
• Sheba: An observational lens that can sense the near-future, and could give Chaldea detailed information from inside of a bubble that absorbed all forms of normal radiation
• See the Fate Franchise Hub Post for a more extensive list of Fate related terms

Elements of Goetia's in-game profile and Fate/Grand Order material IV entry (translated by castor212 are freely quoted in this thread to help explain abilities that might not show up explicitly in the series very often.

King of Mages - "Solomon"

"Plead for help. Raise your mewling voice. For it is the time for you to drown in the sea of anguish! Behold this festival of flame that set ablaze the altar, rendered in its resplendence!"

♫ The Time of Coronation Hath Come ♫
Prior to revealing himself, Goetia posed as King Solomon while possessing his corpse..
Controlling Solomon granted Goetia a variety of abilities, namely the class container of "Grand", which allowed him to outclass any normal Servant by virtue of this.

Physical Feats/Power

• Manifested himself after his own death via his own will, and therefore doesn't need to rely on any sort of magical energy support like normal Servants
• Mordred claims his power exceeds that of a dragon, with Shakesphere going on to say he has 'infinite' magical energy, although he's likely exaggerating
• Tamamo-No-Mae claims that, even if she got all nine of her tails and became "a great demon strong enough to destroy the multiverse" that "[Solomon] is a threat threat enough to rival" her in that state
• When comparing him as Solomon to the Beast of the Seventh Singularity (later revealed to be Tiamat), the Lion King flips around the idea of who might be more of a threat to humanity
  • Kingu/Endiku later claims that Tiamat is on par or superior to him
• Command spells wouldn't work on Solomon
• Engages with an extensive fight with Mash, hurting her with an attack
• Takes a blow from Mash that 'reaches the core of [his] body'

Clairvoyance

It has been said that Solomon's clairvoyance can see through the past and the future.
Because Clairvoyance is a skill furnished on the flesh, Goetia can also use it.

• Claims that he can 'see everything' and 'all possible futures', but cannot track things which exist outside of time
• [Limit] Even with his Clairvoyance, he didn't foresee the appearance of the Beast of the Seventh Singularity, Tiamat
• Goetia used Solomon's clairvoyance to perceive all human suffering in the past, present, and future
• Solomon sent one of his rings over 3,000 years into the future to act as a catalyst for his own summoning as a Heroic Spirit, putting into motion the events that would lead to Goetia's defeat
• Solomon used his Clairvoyance shortly before turning into a human with no powers to foresee the Incineration of Humanity in 2018 from 2004
• Gives him an unobstructed view of the past and future, as well as x-ray vision

Magecraft / Magic

Offensive

• Solomon/Goetia can summon any of the 72 Demon God Pillars at will, described as him projecting them out from his inner world to the outside world
  • Summons four at once that defeat Kintoki, Tamamo, and Shakespeare. Implies that he can summon far more of them
• Anderson is astonished at how badly he's hurt blocking just a single one of his attack spells
• A second spell rips Anderson into hundreds of pieces and then burns him into a crisp
• Goetia incinerates all living things on the planet at once just with his gaze, a feat characters in the story assumed he would need a powerful technique to accomplish

Utility

• Uses magic similar to a Rayshift to transport himself to the London Singularity
• Generates a field around himself that passively blocks Sheba's ability to observe him, as well as Romani's ability to communicate via hologram
• His field blocks Chaldeas' ability to Rayshift Fujimaru and Mash out of London
• Likely broke the seal binding Tiamet out of existence, though Ishtar notes that human mages might have done it
• Inserts images into Mash and Ritsuka's heads while they're mid-Rayshift
• Has a countermeasure that prevents using magic to predict his actions
• Has the ability to hasten his magical incantations, create magical constructs, and make magical territories via Solomon's class skills
• Goetia has nine of Solomon's 10 Rings. If all 10 were brought together, Solomon/Goetia would invalidate any magecraft used by mankind against him and put them under his control
  • Reference of what can be accomplished with magecraft

Evil Eye

Curse

• Solomon has become a walking curse, such that saying his name or looking him in the eye will remove a person's soul and imprison it
• By just looking at him, Mash begins to quake in fear for reasons she can't explain. Her soul might have been imprisoned in the false reality forever if a friend's out of character behavior hadn't tipped her off
• Tamamo with two of her tails believes she'd be vulnerable to the curse
• A person who's been afflicted with the Evil Eye has trouble remembering Solomon's appearance, and even video recordings of him are covered in static
• Even a drawn picture of Solomon can inflict the Evil Eye without special anti-curse precautions

Prison

• To escape, the soul must complete a set of trials within seven days, or death ensues
• Only the soul is imprisoned in the false reality, while the body remains behind. The soul experiences time at a much longer rate in the false world than the body does in the real one with seven days for the soul being equal to one for the body
• The prison's trials drag in fragments of the souls of the prisoner's acquaintances to serve as obstacles, it can do this even to heroic spirits, who have superhumanly powerful souls

Beast I - Goetia

"Well, I will rid myself of the title "King of Mages.”
"There's no more need for deception. I had no name, but if you want to call me something, call me this:"
"I am the one who shall attain true wisdom, as was desired of me. I am the one who shall devour you to reach a new height, and create a new planet."
"I am the one who shall gather 72 curses, and set flame to all of history. I am the Ritual for the Incineration of Humanity."
"I am Goetia, the King of Demon Gods."

♫ Shikisai ~The Time of Parting Hath Come~ ♫
The form Goetia takes after he abandons Solomon's corpse partway through the final battle.
His body is a central core surrounded by the 72 "Demon Pillars" that comprise him.

Collective

General Power and Information

• Hid in Solomon's body for three thousand years in Ars Paulina without any adverse effects due to the passage of time
• Is a "living summoning spell" that hid itself in Solomon's corpse and later gained a will of its own and physically incarnated as a Beast
• Describes himself as a higher-dimensional being that no longer requires flesh or blood. Due to being Solomon's familiars, he shared in Solomon's Clairvoyance
• Due to being an amalgamation of the 72 Demon Gods, which each have individual personalities, Goetia's personality will mirror that of someone who interacts with him on a surface level
• His existence is fixed, meaning he's immune to 'instant death' effects as well as temporal effects, like the paradoxes generated by incinerating human history
• A weakened Beast VII, or the Foreign God, is stated to be the most powerful thing Chaldea has faced since Goetia, with her magical energy being called a "third class planet" to Goetia's "second class planet"

Physical Feats

• Moves so fast he appears to teleport next to Solomon, before bloodying him with a barrage of punches and bombarding him with energy projectiles from his arms
• [Weakened] Ritsuka has trouble blocking his blows with Mash's shield, but can do so long enough for Goetia to die due to Ars Nova
• [Weakened] Knocked back by a Command Spell amplified punch from Ritsuka

The Beast Class
The entire space of Solomon's temple gives Da Vinci the same Beast Class reading she saw from Tiamat.

• Goetia's Beast Class Skill, Nega Summon, allows him to negate through "invalidation, invincible, absorption, reduction" any attacks or Noble Phantasms generated by Heroic Spirits, although this skill was nullified by King Solomon's actions at the end of the Final Singularity
• The Evils of Humanity, or Beasts, are summoned in a chain, meaning that Goetia's manifestation heralded the appearance of other Beasts

Individual Demon Pillars

Power

• Demon Pillars give off more magical energy than Servants or Phantasmals
• Demon Pillars are weaker while outside of Solomon's Temple, due to their cells dying off
• Demon Pillars have a "Spirit Core" like Servants, as well as innate magical energy, which can be used to fuel other spells (such as one to create pancakes) if defeated
• Require groups of Servants to defeat under normal conditions
• They have comparable power to Kingu during the Babylonian Singularity
• A Demon Pillar is compared to the energy output of a Servant empowering themselves with a Holy Grail
  • The corpse of a Demon Pillar can become a source of magical power similar to a Grail if fused with a servant, and possessing a strong will not to die

Strength

• Eight Demon God Pillars wrapping around the Chaldea building deal catastrophic damage to it and nearly destroy it
  • Reference of how large Chaldea is, the building's size can be compared to hallways connecting the structures in it
• Groups of them tear through the stone and marble of Solomon's throne when called to Goetia, reducing it to ruins
• Erupts out of the floor in a metal observation room, then attacks and absorbs a number of researchers

Damage Output
Demon Pillars attack in a number of ways:

• Various forms of spontaneous explosions that can cover multiples of meters
• Energy blasts that erupt from the ground
• Large storms of smoke that cover the battlefield
• Lasers, presumably fired from their eyes

These attacks are threatening to a variety of named servants:

• An attack from four Demon Pillars oneshot Kintoki, Tamamo, and Shakesphere
• Hurts and sends Robin Hood and Helena Blatvasky flying
• Spits out flames hot enough to burn Oda Nobunaga^FGO
• Draws blood on Fergus Lily, hurting him, although he's defeated in the overall fight against Astolfo, D'Eon, and Fergus
• Bloodies Wu Zeitan with an attack

Durability
Favorable Interactions

• One takes a bullet from Francis Drake and continues to fight Mash, Ritsuka, and allies, although it loses the overall battle
• Li Shuwen has trouble injecting them with chi attacks, mostly due to their size
• Robin Hood's 'Yew Bow' and Elizabeth Bathory's weaponized singing don't do anything to them
• Tesla's Noble Phantasm, 'System Keranos', doesn't appear to do much to them, neither does a combined attack from Tesla and Edison's Noble Phantasms
• Lancer Li Shuwen breaks his spear on one
• Cursed Arm and Serenity have no means of harming them, even with Serenity's poison
• Oda Nobunaga's special attacks and bullets have no effect on Demon God Pillars
• Takes a hit from three bullets fired from EMIYA Alter and doesn't seem bothered by it moments later
• A Demon Pillar in its humanoid form take a blast of magic from the Queen of Sheba and is fine
• Takes fire produced by Chacha's abilities and fights Ritsuka, Okita, Nobunaga, and Hijikata, although it ultimately loses the fight
• A recreation of the Demon God Pillars gets bombarded with meteors from outer space by Astrea's Noble Phantasm, and continues to fight with Grey and Astrea, with Astrea commenting it was just as strong as the originals

Limits

• A suicide Noble Phantasm release from Arjuna kills twenty-eight of them
• Altera destroys one with Teardrop Photon Ray
• Mordred destroys one with Clarent Blood Arthur
• Bedivere takes out three pillars with an activation of his Noble Phantasm
• Okita Souji slices apart several pillars
• Edmond Dantes was able to take out a pillar by himself
• Ritsuka and his allies (in this case EMIYA Alter and Artoria Alter) were able to kill a Demon God Pillar
• One is defeated by Gawain, although Ritsuka notes it seemed particularly weak

Powers
Immortality

• The 72 Demon Gods are all part of the same magecraft ritual associated with Solomon, so as long as Solomon exists, they'll continue to exist even if destroyed
• After Mash kills Flauros, he instantly re-appears, with Mash describing this as an entirely new separate entity being born, and not some form of regeneration or resurrection
  • Vlad the Impaler runs out of stakes to hit them with due to how fast/often they were doing this
• Killing all 72 at once would be required to actually kill them for good
• Creating new demon pillars to replace fallen ones does draw away power from the center of Solomon's Temple, giving Chaldea entryway to the center of Ars Paulina
• Nightingale claims that killing them for good would require destroying all of Ars Paulina
• Even after escaping the Temple of Time and losing their proper immortality, individual demon pillars live for over 3,000 years to plot against Ritsuka

Other

• Demon Pillars can fuse with Heroic Spirits, even against their will
  • When Phenex did this with Scheherazade,, the two could trade places and transform into one another
  • A Heroic Spirit temporarily integrated into Goetia's hivemind via this process gained access to information he could use to calculate out events related to the Incineration of Humanity
  • Merging with a Heroic Spirit gives a Demon Pillar protection from its skills, such as Scheherazade's inability to be killed by Kings
• A number of Demon God Pillars were able to escape the Temple of Time's destruction while leaving ripples in space-time, this being an extradimensional space outside of time
• A number of Demon God Pillars demonstrate the ability to possess humans
• As of the events of Lady Reines' Case Files, Ritsuka has killed so many Demon Pillars that just inserting information about him into facsimiles of them cause them to get significantly weaker

King of Humans - Goetia

"The Demon Gods have burned away. My temple is destroyed. My grand plan for the Incineration of Human Order dies with me. But, I will at least deny you this final victory. Let us begin... Master of Chaldea. I shall annihilate you, and all you've achieved, with my own hands."

♫ GRAND LAST BATTLE ♫
Despite Ars Nova ending Solomon's spell that bound the 72 Demons together, Goetia manages to linger long enough for one last fight. However, in this weakened state he can be defeated by a punch from Ritsuka.

Noble Phantasms

Ars Almadel Salomonis: The Time of Birth has Come, He is the One who Masters All

"Then I shall show you. The end of your journey. The demise of human history that will redo this planet. The moment my great undertaking is completed! Third Noble Phantasm, deploy. The Time of Birth has Come, He is the One who Masters All. Now, burn up like trash!"
"Ars Almadel Salomonis!"

• Rank: EX
• Type: Anti-Unit/Anti-Human Order Noble Phantasm
• Range: ?
• Maximum target: ? person

Goetia's third Noble Phantasm. The "" of original sin. A belt of light that announces mankind’s demise.
Goetia is able to manipulate this belt of light in order to collect, accelerate and converge portions of it, travelling through the timestream or otherwise influencing it.
Singularities
For his plan to work, Goetia needed to make cause and effect stop working, so he can set fire to multiple periods of time in history at the same time.
He enables this by destabilizing human history with Singularities. These are turning points in human history that he's sent Holy Grails (powerful magic artifacts) to change important historical events.
Reference of what Holy Grails can do
Creation

• Singularities are key turning points in human history that have been interfered with, causing aberrations in the timestream. Goetia's Incineration of Humanity involved seven primary Singularities
• Resolving individual singularities will not fix the timestream. Only resolving all seven will set things right
• Solomon caused some Singularities by sending his Demon Pillars to different eras to directly alter historical events
  • These Demon Gods were embedded in King Solomon's descendants and activated like sleeper agents all at once in 2018
  • Goetia hid his Demon Pillars inside of the magic circuits passed down generationally by mages so he could seed them at specific points in history
• Solomon sent one of these grails directly backwards through time to Babylon, and and removing it is especially necessary to keep human history from burning
• Goetia's singularities had such a profound effect on human history that it rippled to other timelines, and caused singularities to still pop up after he was defeated

Structure/Attributes

• Singularities are cut off from the rest of the timeline, existing apart from the past or the future
• Singularities are immune to time paradoxes, so Ritsuka and Mash fighting soldiers in the past doesn't have any adverse affects
• Singularities are bound to a specific area, which can vary between the size of a city to the entire United States

Incineration of Human History
Once human history is destabilized, Goetia 'sets fire' to every moment of it and lets it burn. The energy is then collected as "Spiritrons" (magical energy) and raw heat.
Of course, this has catastrophic affects on the timeline.

• Chaldeas lost its ability to sense the future, or detect the outside world - this was because there was no more outside world to detect, as Goetia's Incineration of Humanity destroyed the timeline
• Despite being able to Rayshift to different points in time, Chaldea can only travel between Singularities because the rest of the timeline has been eradicated
• The Incineration of Humanity also affected The Land of Shadows, a realm described as being sundered from the mortal world
• The Incineration of Humanity burned all biological matter on Earth across all points in time as fuel to reset the universe
• Goetia needed to create Singularities to in order to weaken "the strength of human history" enough to carry out the Incineration of Humanity. Singularities break up the timeline into fractured chunks, allowing for the paradox necessary to incinerate matter during all points in its existence

Bands of Light
Finally, this energy is then channeled into Goetia's temple, and refined into bands of light that he can control and release at will. Either as weapons, or as fuel to for his ultimate goal: time travel to the creation of the Earth.

• Each Singularity Ritsuka and company travel to have a series of light bands encircling the sky present. These are around the size of North America
• These bands of light are the manifestation of Goetia's Noble Phantasm locking the rotation of the planet in place for the Incineration of Humanity
• Each individual band of light has comparable heat output to Artoria Alter's Holy Sword. The Noble Phantasm manifests hundreds of millions of them at once
  • Respect Artoria Alter
• Ushiwakamaru Alter claims the band of light are the only thing that could destroy Tiamet's corrupted ocean
• One of the Demon Pillars claims it could be used to incinernate all the Heroic Spirits summoned to fight in the Temple of Time
• The bands of light could burn away the outer layers of the planet. Mash says nothing on Earth could match their energy output
• Manifests as a beam of light from the sky that clashes with Mash wielding Lord Camelot. While Mash is able to block the attack, it still vaporizes her through her shield
• After Goetia is defeated, the bands of light start to release their energy into the atmosphere with nobody to control them. Da Vinci says the effect of this would be like a supernova
• The magical energy circulated between the Trees of Emptiness, and channeled into the Atlantis Lostbelt to summon the Foreign God had already built up to the same level of power as the Bands of Light prior Chaldea entering it
• [Limit] Even if they were collected and used to attack Chaos, the Bands of Light wouldn't be able to destroy it
  • Chaos is a mechanical being whose core is an entire star, otherwise known as a Dyson Sphere

Ars Paulina: The Time of Crowning has Come, He is the One who Begins All

• Rank: A
• Type: Anti-World Noble Phantasm
• Range: 999
• Maximum target: ? person

A Reality Marble that Goetia fabricated by amplifying the remains of King Solomon, forming a magical workshop in "void space" that exists outside the normal flow of time.
Reality Marbles are essentially self-contained dimensions that 'paint over the world' in a given area. Here's a better schematic explaining what they do.
Physical Structure and Location

• His temple resides outside of time, and can only be found by tracking back its location from the Seventh Grail
  • Da Vinci and Romani have no methods to track Goetia returning to his temple
• Chaldea pinpointing its location by analyzing Goetia's Seventh Grail also opens a back door for Goetia to locate him in turn, and it begins to pull him out of the timeline to itself
• Described as a "miniature model of the universe" containing no other celestial bodies, about the size of a cell when compared to the universe proper
  • There's still sort of celestial background present inside of it
• The temple lacks a concept of time. This property facilitated the Incineration of Humanity
• A recreation of the Temple is too cold for normal life to survive in it

Properties

• The route to the throne itself is blocked by a swirling tempest of "incalculable" amounts of magical energy, with Da Vinci believing Chaldea had to destroy areas around it to have a chance of getting through
  • The throne is accessible after Mash and Ritsuka remove this magical energy tempest via a fissure in space a kilometer long
• The temple has a similar composition as the Greater Grail of Fuyuki. It is made up of of Solomon's magic circuits, which form a small self-contained universe
• The throne is a giant magic summoning circle with planetary magecraft at its core

Ars Nova

• Rank: D
• Type: Anti-Unit Noble Phantasm
• Range: -
• Maximum target: 1 person

Goetia: Light Band Convergence Ring

• Goetia prepared his endgoal feat from the Incineration of Humanity as a 'virtual Noble Phantasm' due to not knowing the purpose or how to activate the original
• This ultimate feat, which he would use all the energy collected by Ars Almadel Salomonis to accomplish, would have him travel 4.6 billion years into the past to the birth of the planet, where he would then change the starting conditions of the world so that death did not exist, with him supplanting the planet with his own body

Solomon: The Time of Parting has Come, He is the One who Lets Go of the World

• By having all his ten rings present between those worn by Goetia and himself, Solomon can recreate the legend of him giving all his rings back to God
  • Activates as Solomon slowly becoming engulfed in a pure white light while chanting
• After using it, everything related to Solomon is wiped from existence and rendered inert. This includes Goetia himself as Solomon brought the Demon Gods together, as well as Solomon's rings, and Solmon's ability to be summoned as a Heroic Spirit
• Although this doesn't instantly kill Goetia, the Demon Pillars that make him up finally start to die for good, and start separating from the collective

Individual Demon Pillars - Unique Abilities

While it's likely that Goetia possesses all these abilities as the composite of all Demon God Pillars, some of his components developed wills of their own and gained unique abilities before and after his destruction at the hands of Chaldea.

Flauros

• Flauros can change his shape between a human form, Lev Lainur, and his true Demon Pillar form^FGO
  • Some other Pillars can also do this, but they are more obviously inhuman
• Lev has a spell similar to a Command Spell, controlling Caligula's actions^FGO
• Helped create SHEBA under Goetia's guidance, which is a failsafe to detect and act against Demon Pillars that go rogue from Goetia's collective, SHEBA is an observational lens that can sense the near-future, and could give Chaldea detailed information from inside of a bubble that absorbed all forms of normal radiation
  • Had enough intelligence to react to the threat of the Salem Singularity and summon a Heroic Spirit to it by using itself as a catalyst

Andras

After separating from Goetia, Andras gained a self-awareness and will to live, and escaped from the Temple of Time near-death, but died afterwards. Even then, its 'vindictive desires' remained as a corpse that could maintain a being by fusing to a Heroic Spirit, summoning and doing so with Chacha and Hijikata to create a singularity-like space.

• The space created by Andras is completely disconnected from the past or future, and time inside of it doesn't progress, having carved the space out of time itself, or at least travelled to an existing space like this
• Nobukatsu used him in a ritual to summon a demonic castle where nothing inside can die, so that he and Nobunaga can live forever inside. It disappears when Andras is defeated
• Summons waves of corpses to fight Ritsuka and allies

Bael

• Somehow hacked into Ritsuka's Rayshift coordinates, which made all of his servants rayshifted with him go off in random directions and himself to spawn in hundreds of feet into the air
• While believing itself to be the heroic spirit Moriarty, Bael somehow fights Chaldea and disappears like a Heroic Spirit, only to re-appear as a demon pillar
• Learned how to fuse together Phantom and Heroic spirits, though Phantom Spirits cannot normally be summoned as complete entities
  • Fused together being from multiple legends to create Hessian Lobo, granting it composite abilities such as the Invisible Man's invisibility
  • Fused Moriarty with Der Freischütz, giving his weapon supernatural accuracy on the 7th shot, something that could even apply to objects as large as a meteor to make it strike Earth
  • Moriarty uses this method to absorb the defeated Sherlock Holmes

Phenex

• As the Demon God of Death, he isn't detected by Chaldea's scans for life because he's technically dead
• Despite being killed by Ritsuka and his allies, re-appears later in the body of a nearby corpse, transforming back into its demonic form
• Constantly regenerates from being attacked by D'Eon, Fergus, and Astolfo
• Endures Caladbolg's vortex, which destroyed a floating island big enough to house an entire forest and a mountain
• [Limit] Is hit with Wu Zeitan's Noble Phantasm, and still fights while being afflicted with it
  • The attack works by keeping Phenex in "state of both life and death", allowing Phenex to finally be weakenedand then killed
• Despite all of the above, it still has enough strength to try and attack Scheherazade, although it's killed with one last burst from Fergus' sword

"Huh, who would have known? ...Tragically short, and yet, strangely fascinating... So, this is what human life is..."

The Live Stream on Twitch was posted Tuesday, on May 30, 2023 which will be available for viewing in full for a short time longer.
TLDW - Well if you don't have time to view full 1 Hour, 57 Minute Video here is a Video Quick Link List to key Bookmarks for the relevant "Intro", "State of Dev", "SPECIAL - Announcement", and "Q&A Questions and Answers" discussed by Community Managers Snutt Treptow and Jace Varlet, taken from the YouTube Channel for Satisfactory Q&A Videos created by SignpostMarv (CREDIT)
NOTE: The Questions are the Video Title, and the Answers are a quick synopsis of what was said. The "order" of the Questions may or may not follow the original Twitch Live Stream. Some question are not shown as they are either repetitive and have been answered numerous times before, or simply Twitch Stream Chat Joke Questions. If you have concerns about the accuracy of what I posted, view the Videos and listen for yourself. Often there is more discussion related to a Question than I could post without getting too verbose.

• Intro - Start of Stream - Opening comments by Snutt and Jace.

Start of State of Dev Portion

• State of Dev - Intro - Initial State of Dev comments. Update 8 Development continues.
  
• State of Dev - Play-testing Results - End of week play-testing of Update 8 shows it is getting more stable and will be ready for release soon for Experimental (EX) / Beta Branch.
  
• State of Dev - Update 8 Expected Release Date - Update 8 will be released sometime in June 2023.
  
• State of Dev - Longer Experimental period - Update 8 will stay in Experimental (EX) / Beta Branch longer than the previous norm of 30 Days until Early Access (EA) / Stable Branch. Due to upcoming Vacation EA won't see Update 8 until Mid-August 2023 at the earliest.
  
• State of Dev - Coordinating vacation time - CSS worked to have everyone take Vacation at the same time so as to minimize impact on Game Development.
  
• State of Dev - Public holidays in Sweden - Next week is a public holiday in Sweden, so most of CSS won't be working.
  
• ❗State of Dev - YouTube Comment Scam Spam - On Youtube Video posted last week there is a Scam Account faking that it is a CSS Account asking people to contact them if they need anything. Don't Follow Link. Report these to CSS using official verified means.
  
• State of Dev - 6 Things 1 Million Views - Jace talked about his Youtube Video 6 things we're NEVER adding to Satisfactory has reached 1 Million Views.
  
• State of Dev - Quality of Life Features - Discussion about Update 8 Quality Of Life Features will blow your MIND (Video Bookmarks) Teaser Video from last week.
  
  • Additional Chapters on this Live Stream not added, but mostly matched the Video Bookmarks from my earlier Reply Comment in the other Official Post from last week.
• State of Dev - Q&A: Will destroying Gas Pillars Effect Performance? - It should not effect performance much. It will be one more item placed in Game Save showing that it had been removed (similar to Foliage).
  
• State of Dav - Known issue with Fart Rocks - There is a known issue that following destruction of a Gas Pillar the Poison Gas won't disappear due to differences on how Gas Pillars were placed on the Map. So if these are found, please use In-Game Map to report the coordinates of where the issue is found when posting on the Q&A Website.
  
• State of Dev - Q&A: Will this make Gas Masks completely redundant though? - Gas Masks will still be needed due to other Spore Flower Plants, Alpha Gas Stingers along with dealing with Gas Pillars which have not been removed yet.
  
• State of Dev - Q&A: Will we be able to clip Catwalks to Power Towers just like other Buildings? - YES you can expand the Catwalks on the New Power Towers.
  
• State of Dav - Outro - Final comments by Snutt and Jace.
  

Start of Special Announcment Portion

• 🚩Announcement - Official announcement that Jace is leaving Coffee Stain Studios (click to view Youtube Video) in July 2023.
  
• Announcement Follow-Up Comments - Snutt and Jace discuss the news about Jace leaving.
  
• Announcement- Q&A: Who's replacing Jace? - They don't have anyone lined up yet.
  
• Announcement - Q&A: What about İlayda? - İlayda Ertuğrul went on Sick Leave and left CSS to return home.
  

Start Q&A Portion

• Q&A: Will you guys be moving to Unreal Engine 5.2 for Update 9? - ANSWER: No official announcement about IF we will even see a Update 8. As for Unreal Engine 5.2, they are evaluating it, but no decision has been made yet as they are still working out issues with Unreal Engine 5.1.1. As for Mac Support, this is something that will be addressed after Version 1.0 is released.
  
• Q&A: What will happen to saves in Update 8 that already passed the object limit in Update 7? - ANSWER: Depending on if there were optizimations related to how many UObjects are used per "Object" (like Constructor, Pipeline, etc.) in the Game then their might be a chance a Game Save will not exceed Unreal Engine Entity Limit. Unreal Engine 5 has features that can be used to help optimize Game to reduce the number of UObjects used by "Objects", but these won't be in Update 8 and will require further investigation by the Devs.
  
• Q&A: Will the changes made to Blueprint Mass Dismantle apply to Blueprints made in Update 7? - ANSWER: They checked on this, and the answer is YES. Since they anticipated the Blueprint Mass Dismantle Feature, they designed Blueprints to be mass dismantled.
  
• Q&A: Since we will be able to destroy the Gas Pillars, can we use them to make LPG? - ANSWER: Not a hard no, and possible hint that we might get some benefit from destroying Gas Pillars in Update 8, but anyone with ideas / suggestions for the Game are encouraged to posted these on the Satisfactory Q&A Website.
  
• Q&A: Alternate fuel for the chainsaw? - ANSWER: While the Jetpack will see the new ability to use Alternate Fuels, the Chainsaw is still limited to only Solid Biofuel. If Players want Alternate Fuels for Chainsaw then they should post that on the Q&A Website.
  
• Q&A: What is with Dedicated Servers? - ANSWER: Dedicated Servers have not gotten much attention due to focus on Update 8 and moving closer to Version 1.0 Release. After Update 8 is released they will have more time to focus on Dedicated Servers which are Experimental regardless of which Development Branch is used.
  

I've got what I think is a mostly exhaustive list of the new fiction podcasts that came out this month, which may be of interest to those looking for new shows. Feel free to tell me any I've missed, and I'll update it. (Note, "new" here means that the Ep1 of the RSS feed was released.) Listened to any of them that you would recommend?
I've given up trying to include the full list here, as it's increasingly large, and reddit keeps throwing excess character problems. So the full list is here:
https://www.thecambridgegeek.com/posts/2023/06/20230601-a.php
Previous months are available here:
https://www.thecambridgegeek.com/results.php?proof=Releases&tag1=Audio%20fiction
And the ongoing updates (just in case you don't want to wait for the end of the month) are available here:
https://twitter.com/AudioDramaDebut
https://podvibes.co/@audiofictionuk#
Want a weekly email newsletter of all of these as I find them? Join my patreon to get access to that:
https://www.patreon.com/thecambridgegeek
(Please join, it's only £1/month and I currently make a loss with some of the resources I pay for to do this.)
And the full database is searchable here by a number of tags:
https://audiofiction.co.uk/search2.php
Want an RSS feed of new fiction podcast trailers to sample what's out there? Try this:
https://audiofiction.co.uk/trailers.php
Want occasional ramblings from me about what I'm personally listening to? Try this:
https://www.thecambridgegeek.com/archive/add/add.php
​
5/1 - Adventures in Capital
Audio RPG - Fantasy
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5/1 - House of Sol Alpha - A Fantasy Audiobook Series
Audio Book - Fantasy
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5/1 - Pleine Lune
Audio Drama - Occult and Supernatural
​
5/1 - Rise of the Conduit
Audio RPG - Crime and Mystery
​
5/1 - The Last Echoes
Audio Drama - Science fiction
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5/1 - The Trip: A Six Part Audio Drama Adventure
Audio Drama - Thriller and Psychological, Crime and Mystery
​
5/1 - Wish You Were Heroes
Audio RPG - Fantasy
​
5/1 - Wizarding Sports Network
Audio RPG - Fanfiction, Fantasy, Sport
​
5/2 - Love Notes
Audio Book - Romance
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5/2 - Love, Murder, Florida
Audio Drama - Comedy, Crime and Mystery
​
5/2 - Silas Gnaw
Audio Book - Horror
​
5/2 - The Children of Ash
Audio RPG - Post-apocalypse
​
5/2 - The Freckle Files
Audio Book - Crime and Mystery
​
5/2 - The Mario Bros. Show
Audio Drama - Fanfiction, Comedy
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5/3 - El Cielo Que Nunca Vi
Audio Drama - Soap opera
​
5/3 - La Séptima Puerta
Audio Drama - Horror
​
5/3 - Re: Dracula
Audio Book - Adaptation, Horror
​
5/4 - BlackwaterDnD
Audio RPG - Fantasy
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5/4 - Cositas de amor
Audio Drama - Romance, Comedy
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5/4 - Sit Down Billy!
Audio Book - Comedy
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5/5 - AND NOW LIVE
Audio Drama - Romance
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5/5 - Brandon Wilborn's Fantasy Fiction
Audio Book - Fantasy
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5/5 - Conquest Of The Stars
Audio Book - Science fiction
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5/5 - CYBERLOG - a Doctor Who fan spin-off
Audio Drama - Science fiction, Fanfiction, Space opera
​
5/5 - Dark Dimensions
Audio Book - Horror
​
5/5 - Love Items
Audio Drama - Romance, Comedy
​
5/5 - Pizza Bros Podcast
Audio Book - Comedy
​
5/5 - Switch Modes
Audio Book - Fantasy
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5/5 - The Crystal Viking Podcast
Audio RPG - Adventure
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5/5 - The Fire Fades: A Dark Souls Podcast
Audio Book - Fanfiction, Fantasy
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5/5 - The Romulus V
Audio Drama - Science fiction
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5/5 - The Walker Mysteries
Audio Drama - Comedy, Crime and Mystery
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5/5 - アジア企画の「ラジオ企画」
Audio Drama - Multigenre
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5/6 - Duskvale: A Monster of the Week Actual Play Podcast
Audio RPG - Horror
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5/6 - Modern Folktales
Audio Drama - Multigenre
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5/7 - Beacon Chronicles - By Ordinary Dice Dragons
Audio RPG - Fantasy
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5/7 - Gareth and the Lost Island
Audio Drama - Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
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5/7 - Juvie
Audio Book - Slice of life
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5/7 - Pat Novak 4 Hire 2023
Audio Drama - Noir, Comedy
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5/7 - When Everything Cracks
Audio Book - Historical
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5/8 - Chaotic-Stupid-Podcast
Audio RPG - Fantasy
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5/8 - Guayava
Audio Drama - Horror, Science fiction
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5/8 - Sailor Moon E
Audio Book - Fanfiction, Fantasy
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5/8 - Tall Tall Tower - A D&D 5e Tower Crawl Series
Audio RPG - Fantasy
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5/8 - Women-centric Stories by Premchand
Audio Book - Multigenre
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5/8 - 移民と野獣
Audio Drama - Crime and Mystery
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5/9 - KEYLA Y FRIDA
Audio Drama - Slice of life
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5/10 - Eagle Nine: Locked
Audio Drama - Science fiction
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5/10 - Hot & Dicey - D&D Podcast
Audio RPG - Science fiction, Fantasy
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5/10 - L'Affaire Louis Gaufridy
Audio Drama - Historical, Horror
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5/10 - Strange Stories from Odd Folx
Audio Book - Multigenre, Horror, Storytelling
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5/10 - The Cosmic Adventures of Ravi and Maddie: A Tale of Friendship, Nature, and Discovery
Audio Book - Adventure
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5/10 - The Foxes of Hydesville
Audio Drama - Historical
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5/11 - 999
Audio Book - Historical
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5/11 - The Metal Detective
Audio Drama - Science fiction, Cyberpunk, Dystopia
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5/12 - Flores
Audio Drama - Thriller and Psychological
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5/12 - Tales from Xaevalon
Audio Book - Fantasy
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5/12 - The Red's Tales
Audio Book - Multigenre
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5/13 - Cyberpunk '66
Audio Drama - Cyberpunk, Science fiction
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5/13 - Failure, Improvised
Audio RPG - Fantasy
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5/13 - Longhouse
Audio Drama - Crime and Mystery
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5/13 - Santiago: A novel - Audiobook
Audio Book - Historical, Adventure
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5/13 - Story Time - by Kids for Kids
Audio Book - Multigenre
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5/14 - Anywhere But Now
Audio RPG - Science fiction
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5/14 - MOTHER, She Wrote: An EarthBound Podcast
Audio Drama - Fanfiction, Science fiction, Comedy
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5/14 - Scarlet Stiletto Bites
Audio Book - Crime and Mystery
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5/14 - Uncharted Territory: A Gamer's Adventure Beyond the Screen.
Audio Book - Science fiction
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5/14 - Vikinger
Audio Drama - Historical
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5/15 - Escape from the Dreamlands
Audio RPG - Fantasy
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5/15 - Haunted House House Hunters
Audio RPG - Horror
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5/16 - Huitième île
Audio Drama - Science fiction
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5/16 - Ida the Hobit & the Crystal Queer Deers
Audio Drama - Slice of life
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5/16 - MORNEAU
Audio Drama - Crime and Mystery, Noir
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5/16 - Our Critty Podcast
Audio RPG - Fantasy
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5/16 - TGB One Shots
Audio RPG - Multigenre
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5/17 - Not Necessarily Nefarious
Audio Book - Spy-fi
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5/18 - Das Buch der Ewigkeit
Audio Book - Fantasy
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5/18 - Dubstep & Dragons
Audio RPG - Cyberpunk
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5/18 - La Cartographie des Chimères
Audio Book - Multigenre
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5/18 - Viaje a Viña
Audio Drama - Crime and Mystery
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5/18 - Переплетные птицы
Audio Book - Romance
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5/19 - 97toNow Productions Proudly Presents:
Audio Drama - Comedy, Noir
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5/19 - Icaro, Texas: A Radio Play
Audio Drama - Historical
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5/19 - La Mossa di Messina
Audio Book - Crime and Mystery
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5/19 - Legends of Denali: Fame, Fortune, and Enlightenment
Audio RPG - Fantasy
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5/19 - Minnesota Dice
Audio RPG - Fantasy
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5/20 - Shattered Bonds
Audio Book - Slice of life
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5/21 - Starlight: Audio Series
Audio Book - Science fiction
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5/21 - Thewordsmits
Audio Book - Cyberpunk
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5/22 - A Game of One's Own
Audio RPG - Multigenre, Fantasy, Science fiction
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5/22 - Beneath The Red Umbrella
Audio Drama - Horror
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5/22 - Cisne Rojo
Audio Drama - Thriller and Psychological
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5/22 - Reformation Abroad
Audio Drama - Science fiction
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5/22 - The Dockporter: a Mackinac Island Podcast
Audio Book - Historical, Slice of life
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5/23 - Shuttercreek - A Monster of the Week Actual Play
Audio RPG - Horror
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5/23 - Titania
Audio Drama - Crime and Mystery, Thriller and Psychological
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5/24 - All Charisma, No Int
Audio RPG - Fantasy
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5/24 - Il mostro
Audio Book - Horror
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5/24 - Il nido della masca
Audio Book - Occult and Supernatural, Crime and Mystery
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5/24 - Naragar Naduvil - Tamil Podcast Suspense Movie Screenplay Thriller Novel Horror Comedy Drama
Audio Book - Thriller and Psychological
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5/24 - Ned Beauman: Der Gemeine Lumpfisch - Sci-Fi-Satire um miese Deals und tote Tiere
Audio Book - Comedy
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5/24 - Nella pancia della scrofa
Audio Book - Horror
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5/25 - Curve Minded
Audio Drama - Science fiction
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5/25 - Hidden Signal: Evergreen
Audio Drama - Science fiction
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5/25 - Steve Piasecki
Audio Book - Crime and Mystery
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5/26 - Geen Woorden Maar Draken
Audio RPG - Fantasy
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5/26 - The Becoming: An audio short story
Audio Book - Fantasy
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5/26 - Trouble at the Tavern - A D&D Podcast
Audio RPG - Fantasy
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5/28 - A Quaint English Murder
Audio Drama - Crime and Mystery
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5/28 - Surcease
Audio Drama - Horror
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5/29 - Dungeons and Dissertations
Audio RPG - Fantasy
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5/29 - SoundTrip
Audio Drama - Multigenre
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5/29 - Starwhal: Odyssey
Audio RPG - Fantasy, Science fiction
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5/29 - The Night of the Rabbit: The Pagecast
Audio Book - Fantasy
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5/30 - Audio Drama Lab
Audio Drama - Multigenre
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5/30 - Goodbye Blue Mondays
Audio Drama - Science fiction
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5/30 - Kater
Audio Drama - Thriller and Psychological
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5/30 - Sky Orca Tabletop
Audio RPG - Superhero
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5/30 - Tales of Darkness & Magic
Audio Book - Fables and Fairy Tales and Folklore
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5/31 - Inspired R&R: The Podcast
Audio RPG - Fantasy
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5/31 - The FangHorn Fables
Audio Drama - Horror
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5/31 - The Girlfriend Chronicles Podcast
Audio Book - Slice of life

I sighed. So I'm gonna get reassigned huh? I'm not apart of the c.i.a's gun running, drug peddling, and the guerilla warfare division anymore eh? I guess I'll miss air america flights. I then recalibrated my prosthetic right arm using a Philips head screw driver. Open close. Open, close.
After a couple of seconds my arm was finally done recalibrating. I'm gonna miss my friends. But I'll never miss the humid areas of laos, Vietnam, and some parts of china. The golden triangle is so goddamned hot. Honestly I don't know if it's secretly a promotion or a demotion. Or possibly I'm gonna get fired, and killed.
I'll get my name scraped out of the national files. If I get fired the chances of getting dragged into a blacksite is high, and I'll get tripped by the guys on one of the blacksites.
Oh god. I remember the LSD torture. It's like being awake but not in control. It's like being stuck as a backseat driver as people do unspeakable stuff to me. Oh boy if the public knows about the MK ultra test 2 oh boy. The people are gonna riot. It's already 2040.
The world is on edge, and under foreign influence for over a decade now. From the end of the 20's intergalactic travelers, and companies came, and control most of the world's nations within just a span of two years. They have the guts to exploit our resources, and don't give a damn about what happens to us. They care about profits. Except for the 8 major powers most of the world is under alien control. The only nations that aren't under alien control are russia, china, The U.S.A, great Britain with their manpower advantage given Australia is a British vassal state, France, Canada, Israel, and lastly an unlikely power the African union made out of 7 of the most powerful nations in Africa before the arrival of the outsiders are the only remaining independent countries.
Most of the intelligence agencies are currently working together dealing drugs with the outsiders who visit us, giving weapons to guerilla fighters, and getting weapons from the outside. Ships from an unlikely ally an independent economic alliance of nations named the syndicate allows to us to get some weapons. As long as we sell them drugs, and perishables from earth. It turns out the syndicate likes drugs, coffee, and other stuff native to earth.
Some of our intelligence guys are chatting with the aliens. The guys who are exploiting our resources are called the consortium. They are a consort of companies, and a league that agrees on how to manipulate markets. These guys are basically the more unhinged version of the wall street guys, and a mix of the c.i.a.
I sighed. "This is gonna be a long day ahead of me."
I then smoked a cigar. The cigar calmed my nerves as I inhaled the nicotine. The addictive substance relaxes me. Plus lung cancer isn't a problem anymore considering we now have a solution on how to cure it. The alien companies gave us some of their tech to show their so called sympathy before they flooded economies with consumer goods from their companies, and controlled almost all of earths economies.
"So agent smith. This is your new partner." A c.i.a handler said to me.
I spat out some ash from my mouth, and complained. "The fuck are you giving me a newbie as a partner? And what the hell am I gonna to do to need a new partner. Rodriguez already was fine yet I'm stuck with a newbie?"
The handler laughed. "Oh heavens no. This is an a.i. Codename poppy. She's your new partner in crime. Because we are gonna send you as a diplomatic bodyguard to the syndicate."
"Oh hi! I'm poppy I'm an artificial intelligence created by the c.i.a, m.i.6, the g.r.u, the s.s.m, mossad, and the s.s.a." The human looking robot said.
The voice kinda sounds synthetic, and the tone is too happy. I kinda hate it. I hate that it gives off happy go lucky vibes. I don't mean to be a grouch but the happy go lucky guys always die first. It's kinda ironic in a fucked up way.
So this thing is an a.i kinda like g.w. An a.i made by the c.i.a. G.W have made the internet more tolerable, and friendly due to context. People back then always manipulated facts into their political goals, and ideals. People get the facts misconstrued for political reasons.
G.W was made after a game character that was so prophetic about the world in the future. M.G.S 2: Sons of liberty. It has the same function as g.w from mgs2. It gives facts in a non biased way. In a way where people don't get their feelings hurt when something is given to them in a factual, and non biased ways.
People used to manipulate facts for political correctness. Hiding the fact that they misinterpret the meaning of those words. The internet used to be a toxic, and a fucked up place before g.w. Like Jesus Christ the goddamn internet was filled with incels, and attention seekers using facts and misusing them for internet clout. It was a place where no one is invalidated but nobody was right. G.w put an end to that era. G.w is now living in a secluded server thanking us for it's creation. It was phased out after it asked to be replaced by another one because it was sick, and tired of correcting people that get the facts misconstrued. It got to the point that it begged the c.i.a, and annoyed the c.i.a to the point that it wanted to be put in a secluded server so it could live it's remaining days in relative leisure just because it begged the c.i.a director so many times that he would get spam calls from the a.i using his official phone number even in the middle of the night for three straight years.
Anyways back to discussion.
"So you're one of those advanced a.i's like g.w?" I asked just to be sure I'm not paired with a dumb a.i.
"Yup. I even passed the Turing test in flying colors. I can feel emotions, do something out of spite or anger, and can think for myself." Poppy said with a dog like innocence.
"So what can you do?" I asked.
"Well. I can fly planes, use guns even those that people can't use due to physiological differences, and hack computers without being near the target. I'm basically just an a.i that can be a jack of all traits if given a chance." Poppy said.
"Fine. But you'll do it my way or the high way." I told poppy with a commanding tone.
Poppy laughed. "Okay boomer."
I sighed. This is gonna be a long day. I'm old as shit but not a boomer.
"Woah. You guys are already going along greatly. Great for you." The handler snickered.
He then left, and left me with poppy.
I'm fucked. "So I'm gonna brief you about the world poppy. Through a song."
I then sang bo burnham's how the world works song.
"Hey, kids Today, we're gonna learn about the world The world that's around us is pretty amazing But how does it work? It must be complicated The secret is the world can only work When everything works together"
"A bee drinks from a flower And leaves with its pollen A squirrel in a tree spreads the seeds that have fallen Everything works together"
"The biggest elephant, the littlest fly The gophers underground, the birds in the sky And every single cricket, every fish in the sea"
"Gives what they can and gets what they need That is how the world works That is how the world works"
"From A to Zebra To the worms in the dirt That's how it works Hey everyone"
I then pulled out a sock, and made it into a puppet.
"Look who stopped by to say "hello" It's Socko Hey! Where you been, Socko?"
"I've been where I always am when you're not wearing me on your hand In a frightening, liminal space between states of being Not quite dead, not quite alive It's similar to a constant state of sleep paralysis"
"Socko, we were just talking about the world and how it works!"
"Boy, that sounds complicated! Do you have anything you'd wanna teach us about the world?"
"I wouldn't say anything that you Probably haven't already said yourself"
"I don't know about that, Socko How about you give it a try?"
"All right!"
"The simple narrative taught in every history class Is demonstrably false and pedagogically classist Don't you know the world is built with blood? And genocide and exploitation"
"The global network of capital essentially functions To separate the worker from the means of production And the FBI killed Martin Luther King Private property's inherently theft"
"And neoliberal fascists are destroying the left And every politician, every cop on the street Protects the interests of the pedophilic corporate elite"
"That is how the world works (really?) That is how the world works Genocide the Natives, say you got to it first"
"That's how it works"
"That's pretty intense?"
"No shit Sherlock."
"What can I do to help?"
"Read a book or something, I don't know Just don't burden me with the responsibility of educating you"
*It's incredibly exhausting"
"I'm sorry, Socko I was just trying to become a better person"
"Why do you rich fucking white people Insist on seeing every socio-political conflict Through the myopic lens of your own self-actualization?"
"This isn't about you So either get with it, or get out of the fucking way"
"Watch your mouth, buddy"
"Remember who's on whose hand here"
"But that's what I- Have you not been fucking listening? We are entrenched in a way (all right, all right)"
"Wait, wait, no please! I don't wanna go back, please, ugh, ugh, ugh I can't go, I can't go back Please, please, I'm sorry!"
"Are you gonna behave yourself?"
"Yes"
"Yes, what?"
"Yes, sir"
"Look at me"
"Yes, sir"
"That's better That is how the world works That is how the world works I hope you learned your lesson"
"I did and it hurt That's how it works"
NOOOOOOO!!!
Drags sock puppet into a pocket like some introvert getting dragged into socializing in bars by extroverts.
"So do you understand know?" I asked poppy.
"That everything is made under the blood of billions, and we shouldn't make their deaths be in vein?" Poppy said.
"Correct. And we shouldn't let outsiders make our choices for us. We should kick them out." I said like some isolationist American during the 1920's.
"Ironic isn't it smith. The c.i.a used to be anti socialist but look how the circumstances turned the American government into. A social democracy/merit based democracy where politicians are based in merit rather than popularity. Politicians are insentivised to change the world than burn it down like some of the old presidents did. Ironic that america became something it hated. A weird mesh of meritocracy, democracy, republican, liberaterian, and market socialist ideals. Some sort ideological mesh made by idealogs"
"And it's working with it's remaining two Allies, and former enemies just to defeat a foreign threat. How poetically ironic isn't it? I mean the CIA used to go schizo mode when they hear communist, and socialist ideals or hearing the word russians, and chinese are plotting something. Now the country it help grew became the very thing it sought to destroy. Morbidly ironic isn't it?" Poppy said with a meloncholic under tone.
"Yeah. Specially the stuff we do now." I said agreeing to the statement.
"But that's how the world works. Everything must change. Either you adapt or die." I said with a meloncholic under tone.
"So do you know where we are going?" I asked poppy.
I then puffed up my cigar. Sweet sweet nicotine.
"Back to america. In the space port in Austin Texas. I'm already done contacting the contact the handler gave to me. E.T.A 7 hours. Now let's go to the laostian military base 7 miles north from here. Our air america flight is waiting for us." Poppy said.
I sighed. "Come ride with me. I have a motorcycle a hundred meters from here."
We walked towards my motorcycle. I then puffed up my cigar smelling the nicotine.
So my life is about to change huh? Eh. I'm just gonna adapt. After all in this world it's either adapt or die.
Click, click, click
Motorcycle engine starts rumbling.
Poppy then held my waist. It's hands are cold as steel. Colder than even corpse. I sighed.
The highway was almost empty. Everyone was working a 10-8 job in one of the corporations that control laos. There was no land vehicles transporting goods because the aliens are using their tech to transport them underground. The road was almost abandoned except for the guys who have motorcycle hobbies. Anyways it doesn't matter. After all there's no traffic anymore.
The fresh breeze calmed my nerves. It made me feel alive. A motorcyclist drive by me and waved hello. I waved back at the motorcyclist. It's good to be on the road.
After a twenty minute drive we arrived at the military base. Another CIA agent greeted us, and escorted us to the flight.
"So you guys are the diplomatic bodyguards?" Asked the agent.
"Yup. That's what my handler told me." Poppy said.
"So your one of the newer a.i models eh. Ok. Just step right in. Plus the flight is rather boring. Just sleep while on flight to save energy." The agent told me.
I sighed. I threw away the cigar, and slept through the flight.
A few hours later...
I woke up arriving at Austin executive airport. Poppy just sat there watching me sleep like some sort of creep. It made me a little bit paranoid at the unflinching eyes that was watching me. But I ignored my instincts, and went outside.
After that I ate something for breakfast. A couple of pancakes, and chicken wings. Poppy looked at me with envy. I sighed.
"Can you eat? Do you need food to survive?" I asked.
"Well.... I need glucose to recharge my batteries. I can also use a charger but it would be suspicious. So the glucose to energy converter was made for special missions so that I wouldn't blow my cover."
Figured. Those guys in the CIA RnD team are making contengencies for every eventual event. I then ordered a plate of syrup covered pancakes.
Poppy looked at me smiling. I sighed.
An hour later...
We arrived at the space port. People walked around buying nicnacs, waiting for their flight, and just waited around for their family members that were coming back.
Another agent came up to me, and gave me two tickets.
"Here's the tickets. Also have this. You'll need it."
The agent then gave me some sort of high tech phone. Then out of knowhere something exploded.
I was knocked unconscious for a couple minutes. When I woke up I was getting dragged by poppy along with the agent that gave me the tickets. She shot back at incoming enemies using alien tech.
"Ugh..." As I said that I began coughing blood. I looked down I was bleeding. My left leg was missing. It was slowly bleeding due to a tourniquet, bandages, and some sealing foam. It was still bleeding but isn't bleeding as badly as to kill me in just a couple seconds.
Gunshots echoed in the space port. Agents shot back at the alien attackers. A fierce firefight began. Bright lights like something akin to RGB lights but in a epileptic way we're seen down the isles as screams of both alien, CIA, fbi, and fully kitted out port guards were slaughtered one by one.
Poppy dragged me, and the other agent to a bathroom. "Sit rep." I asked poppy.
"It seems to be a terrorist attack. I don't know why but they looked like alien mercenaries. The question is that did the consortium hired them to kill our diplomat. Good thing the diplomat hasn't arrived. I checked the agency message boards, and they said that good thing the diplomat was sick after getting food poisoning this morning. They are already talking about it. Some of them are even suggesting that the consortium did this attack." Poppy said.
"So the diplomat got lucky. But why the fuck would they attack our diplomat to the syndicate? I mean it's counter productive. We don't need their goods or services considering the people here would rather choose human companies rather than alien shady companies. I guess they must've know about our deals with them, and decided to start a shadow war. A war in the shadows. The companies of the consortium vs the remaining independent government's. Who ever wins controls all the resources in the world." I told poppy.
She nodded. "Good guess but no one really knows. It's so sudden. We need more info before we act against them."
"I'll patch you up in the meantime. I hurried the medical assistance I gave you a couple minutes ago. I was hurrying because this guy is saying we need to leave after he suffered minor bruises. You blunted most of the damaged for him because you were in front of the explosion. He was saved because you were blocking him from getting hit by shrapnel. I cut you're leg off. Sorry. It can't be saved considering it was barely hanging on the leg. Plus I was running out of time so I had to cut it before you bled out."
I sighed. "Okay. Just get my hk UmP 45 inside my arm. It's in second the compartment a secret compartment. In the upper arm. I have a few mags of it inside the compartment. Here's a screw driver to remove the lid."
I then gave poppy a screw driver hidden in my pants, and saw her unscrew the lid off. A ump 45, and fully loaded 4 mags came out dropping loudly on the floor.
"Now carry me to the danger. I would rather die than suffer for years being reminded of the sad reality that I lost an arm, and a leg every time I wake up." I morbidly joked to poppy.
"Are you sure? You're injured! Are you fucking suicidal?" Poppy, and the agent said.
"Did I stutter?"
The two of them sighed.
Poppy then carried me in her back, and the other agent used poppy as meat shields. The agent held a Barretta 93r. A burst fire weapon.
"Ready?" I said.
"Ugh. You're lucky I accepted your request dumbass."
"Yes."
I was being piggy back carried by poppy while the agent followed us.
"Tango 15 meters to the left." Poppy said.
I then activated burst fire, and shot at the direction given. When I saw an enemy I aimed for the center mass. But I instead hit the thorax killing the alien instantly.
"Kill confirms. Enemy is k.i.a."
"Tango 20 meters ahead."
I then aimed straight forward, and saw a bolt of light strike near me. It was close enough to feel the heat of the round. I shot back, and killed the alien instantly by hitting the alien in the lungs, and heart.
"Enemy is k.i.a"
Then I heard a three round burst coming from a Barretta. I looked back, and saw the agent kill an incoming enemy.
"Thanks. So what's your name?" I asked.
"Oh I haven't properly instroduced myself. My name is agent Carter." The agent/Carter said.
"Thanks Carter. My name is agent smith."
"No problem agent smith. We CIA agents got each other's backs. We must stick together."
"Guys tangos incoming coming from the left. ETA 20 seconds."
We then aimed our Guns, and waited for the enemy to arrive. When they eventually arrived we moved them down with burst fire. After that a couple national guard guys came up to us. They were probably chasing those aliens.
"Thanks." One of the national guards said.
"No problem"
We continued, and after two minutes of walking we walked into a firefight. I smiled.
"You know what to do." I said smiling.
"Third party them?"
"Yup."
I then turned on full auto, and began to spray, and pray.
After a few seconds of pulling the trigger my gun ran out of bullets. Carter also ran out of bullets in his magazine, and reloaded. 3 confirmed kills, and multiple missed or slightly injured.
Oh crap. Then a bolt of light past near me. Enough to the point my right cheek got minor burns.
"Duck!"
I then began to be dragged by poppy into cover. Carter also looked for cover, and dived into the nearest cover. I quickly reloaded the mag, and started shooting at the aliens again. I changed the selector back to burst fire to conserve ammo.
I aimed center mass at the enemies. A loud burst of .45 ACP rounds was heard as an enemy was hit in the thorax.
"Kill confirmed."
I continued, and shot enemies in either the arms, legs, the thorax, or the chest.
After three minutes the firefight ended.
"Other sectors secured. All area's are currently in our control. Over 700 people died, 1720 were injured, and some were missing. Military and government casualties are 124 KIA'd, 24 severely injured, 57 mildly injured, and 38 MIA'd." Poppy said smiling.
Then paramedics rushed into the scene. People were rushed into nearby hospitals while I was dragged by a undercover CIA paramedic to a government safe house along with poppy, and Carter.
A week later…
I was standing in the military cemetery in Arlington national cemetery. Where soldiers who died without any identifications are buried. I saw burials around me. Soldiers who died without any family members, soldiers disowned by family, and other such things. But hey it's just the life of a soldier. That's what I know at least. From ranger grunt to c.i.a grunt. I was disowned by my parents who were conservatives, and highly religious because I was going to sacrifice my place in heaven to save some heathens from the middle east. I never regretted my actions. I saved lives, and ended some. No guts no glory after all.
Some of the people getting buried got medal of honors. Saving comrades in need of dire help in exchange for their lives, soldiers who rescued civilians in exchange for their own lives, and soldiers who honorably fought on to save others even faced with hard decisions.
I saluted the unknown soldiers for their bravery, and honor. In the background poppy, and Carter were talking. But that wasn't important. Bagpipes, trumpets, and drums play as the unknown soldiers get burried with their medals. The grave sentinels saluted while burying the dead. Gunshots in the honor of the dead was heard as the unknown soldiers got buried while being watched by the people who those soldiers saved.
After that I returned to head quarters with a prosthetic leg, and talked to my handler. Poppy, and Carter went back to the safehouse just to talk.
"Oh hi smith." My handler captain david said.
"Hi David."
"Here's another purple heart medal, and a bronze star medal." David then tossed the medals towards me.
"That's your what? 22nd and 23rd medal? Bravo congrats smith."
"I'm gonna ask you sometime David."
"Ask away smith."
"When will i get sent as a diplomatic bodyguard?"
"About three weeks from now. Also agent Carter is gonna be one of your partners for the mission."
I sighed. Figured.
"So who was behind the terror attack David?"
"Honestly. The CIA search the crime scene, and saw that the consortium blatantly did that. The mercenaries worked under one of the companies in the consortium. But for the public it's gonna be announced tonight that a rogue consortium PMC did that so we wouldn't provoke them too much."
"It's gonna be a long day smith."
"Yeah David."
Then David gave me a cigar.
"Wanna smoke?"
I nodded.
To be continued…

Strap in. It's a long one, and may be a bit NSFW. I'll start with the background, could be important. We've been together 17 years, and obviously there have been highs and lows. We're both bisexual but I don't think that really has any bearing on the situation. Up until about four or five years ago, I had a somewhat insatiable sex drive. To the point where it started to feel like I might have a condition or an addiction. Often it would feel to me like I was pestering her for sex. At the time she was working long shifts in nursing, I can understand that she would be tired and maybe not interested in sex. Eventually (like I said, four or five years ago) I managed to control my urges and started initiating sex a lot less. Things got good, we were intimate when we both felt like it, and the sex was good. She got a new job in IT, working from home when the covid thing happened. And her sex drive suddenly went through the roof. A complete 180, now it sometimes felt like she was pestering me. I struggled to keep up honestly and it showed. She told me it felt like I was just "going through the motions". I got a new job after the whole covid thing, now I was (still am) doing 12-14 hour shifts daily, coming home absolutely shattered. Add to this that I've put on a fair bit of weight, and the guys at work like to joke about that kind of thing, with not being able to satisfy my fiancée in the bedroom, it's safe to say I feel like I'm at my lowest point mentally. I have never felt this depressed. Things came to a head in April this year, around the time of our anniversary. We booked a week away in a nice little cabin. There was a hot tub, it was secluded. She packed a few toys and nice lingerie she had bought especially for the occasion. But on the first day I struggled to bring her to climax, not a thing that happens a lot, but has happened more than I would like recently. We had a chat and I confessed that the stress of work and how I don't feel great about myself right now has kind of killed my sex drive. She said she understood but I could tell she was upset. Understandable. We enjoyed the holiday overall and we were intimate a few times, one of which was the best we'd had in a long while. Now, we had discussed a few times in the past the possibility of introducing another person in the bedroom. And even the possibility of seperate "playmates". While on the holiday, I suggested it again. She laughed and said she wouldn't want to, as she thought it might make things worse for me in my current mental state. One reason we discussed seperate "playmates" is because there are fetishes that we don't share. To the point where she expressed interest in something in particular that turned me off so much I flat out said "go and find someone else to do that for you" So. About a week after our holiday she came to me and said she had indeed found someone to indulge in her fetish with. Now I must preface that this fetish does not involve penetrative sex. We had a discussion and set some boundaries. Those boundaries being no penetrative or oral sex. Anything else is on the table, go and have fun. She told me who this other person was, and it's a male friend she has told me about before. They met on a discord server for people with "deviant" sexual tastes (I think. I'm not entirely sure of the actual purpose of the server, it started when another server (one that revolved around sharing NSFW/risqué pics of goblins, that I was also a member of) kind of went to shit). Now I need to make it clear that I'm not some kind of prude. I have my own deviant tastes, just some things aren't to my taste. This friend she had met up with once before. She told me it was for drinks and there were other people there. She also went on to tell me that he was a shy type that had no real friends and was lonely. She hung out with this guy one on one a few times afterwards and told me that she felt sorry for him because he was lonely and had no friends. When we discussed her meeting up with this guy to indulge in her fetish, she added that he was not her type and that she wasn't even sexually attracted to him. On the day she was going to meet up, she left very early, a lot earlier than I had assumed she would. But it is like a 3 hour bus journey, so I thought nothing of it. The whole day I worried. We had agreed that she would share her location with me in case anything happened. But she shared it for an hour and then nothing the rest of the day. At about midnight, she messaged me saying she had missed her bus and could I come pick her up from the station in that town. Of course I agreed. When I picked her up I asked her how it was, and would she be doing it again. She said it was "alright" and might do it again. She also mentioned that she had tried to give the guy a "happy ending" but that he couldn't keep his erection. I don't know why she felt the need to tell me that but thought nothing of it at the time. I will say that after that day, I don't know if it's jealousy or some kind of fetish I didn't know I had, but my sex drive has started to improve. This is important for later I think. About a week later she told me she would be going to hang out with him again, but just to hang out. The next morning I went to work, and found that I had gone in too early as they had put me on a later shift and I failed to check the rota board. So I went back home. Bearing in mind this was between 7 and 8am. When I got home my fiancée was nowhere to be seen. I admittedly panicked a little. Something snapped in me and I tried to call her. She didn't answer 3 times. Then she called me back about 15 minutes later saying she was on her way to her friend's place and that he had messaged her the night before and asked her to hang out, and that she could work from his house. I noticed that it sounded like she was indoors, not on a bus or train. It was like she was in a hall that echoed. I went on with my day, but couldn't stop thinking about her and what she was doing. She was out until midnight again and I really started to worry then. I actually broke down crying. Shamefully, I also tried to access her computer to look at her discord conversations with her friend. I found that the pin she usually uses does not work on he pc and her discord password no longer works on our shared tablet. When she got home she apologised for not telling me. I told her her how it made me feel and that I had tried to get into her discord account and she said she hadn't changed her passwords then she apologised again and said if I wanted she would stop hanging out with him. Of course I said that wasn't necessary and I was just being silly, but she does need to tell me when she's going and how long she's going to be. The latest thing, the one that has cemented my thoughts that she's not sticking to those boundaries we set happened last Friday. She said on the Tuesday that she was gonna meet her friend on Friday for "a meal and drinks" to celebrate her birthday which was on the Sunday. Now I assumed that a meal and drinks would mean an evening thing, right? On the Thursday night she showered and did her hair. Putting in a LOT of effort. She's quite meticulous with her appearance, but this just struck me as a lot. Then on the Friday morning, I left for work. She messaged me at 10:30 letting me know she was on her way. I asked why so early and she brushed it off saying its a 3 hour bus ride. So I thought okay, maybe she plans to come home earlier. When I get home I find a few things out of place that concern me. The first is that in the shower, there is her douche. It's normally kept in the cupboard and she only ever uses it when she plans on doing some "butt stuff" (this also includes what she did with her friend, that I admit I've been considering trying in an attempt to remove him from the equation). The second thing was that the draw of my end table next to the bed was open. I normally keep condoms and lube and some toys in this draw. There is one particular lube we have exclusively for butt stuff. That bottle was not in the draw. I lost my cool. I got very angry and punched a wall. I may have damaged my hand. I left it and stewed in my own bile for a few hours. Then at about 10 I messaged her and asked about the douche and lube. After an uncharacteristic pause (with the "typing" bubble appearing and disappearing a few times) She brushed it off, has no idea where the lube is and douched because she was worried about a smell down there due to her period. At half past midnight she still hadn't texted me to tell me she was on her way home. Cue another bout of anger and more tears. I messaged her asking if she was coming home. After another uncharacteristic pause, She said she was on her way and would be 40 minutes, but would get an uber from the station. Now I know for sure she would have missed her last bus and it takes about 40 minutes to drive from her friend's town, so I instantly thought she was lying. I waited outside to see if she had in fact got an uber. As far as I can tell she did. But maybe from her friends place instead of the station. We had another long discussion and she reiterated that she didn't know where the lube was and that she wasn't having any kind of sex with her friend. I told her I thought she made a lot of effort for just a meal and drinks and she just said I was being ridiculous and it's the normal amount of effort she would make. She offered to show me the contents of her bag so I could see she didn't have the lube with her. I gave up and said that wouldn't be necessary, my insecurities were just making me paranoid. I even told her exactly what I thought was going on. Basically accused her of cheating. The whole time she didn't get angry or even look upset in the slightest. I asked her about it and she just said she understands how it looks and she's not angry or upset. We celebrated her birthday over the weekend, we didn't have sex, which is a little unusual, but considering what happened on Friday, I can understand. On Wednesday however I was tidying up before going to work, and I accidentally knocked her bag off of the sofa. The contents spilled out and as I was picking them up I found the missing bottle of lube. Now this was a new bottle when I last saw it, still had the plastic seal over the lid, we hadn't used it yet. But when it fell out of her bag and I picked it up, there was no seal. I tried to forget it and go to work. Maybe she put it there when we went out the weekend before? But unfortunately on the way to work I started to panic. I couldn't focus on anything but that bottle and I started shaking and my chest felt tight. So I told my boss I had to go home. When my fiancée woke up I confronted her with the bottle. She said she had no idea it was in her bag. She even said why would she tell me to look for it if she knew it was there and was trying to hide it. I broke down. I ugly cried, huddled in a blanket, shaking. I pleaded with her to tell me the truth. And the whole time she remained calm, I even thought emotionless. She's normally a very empathetic person, doesn't like to see people cry, and has said on multiple occasions that men crying really gets to her and makes her upset. At this point I can't help thinking something is definitely going on. But I can't get any proof. I don't want to push it with her, I don't want to ask her to show me her discord conversations. I just want to forget the whole thing. I love this woman, and she says she loves me too. I wish I could just go on like nothing has happened. But whenever I get a moment to myself I have thoughts that she's going to leave me. She's just waiting for something. I don't know what. Both of our birthdays are within two weeks and I'm worried that after mine, this coming Tuesday, she's going to drop this huge bomb.
Sorry for the long post, any help on how to put it out of my mind would be great. TLDR is in the title.

LAPTOP QUESTIONNAIRE

• Total budget (in local currency) and country of purchase. Please do not use USD unless purchasing in the US: Up to $1500 (USD)
• Are you open to refurbs/used? Would prefer new
• How would you prioritize form factor (ultrabook, 2-in-1, etc.), build quality, performance, and battery life? High performance preferred (will likely be pursuing a computer science minor so high processing power will likely be a necessity), strong build quality as well. Battery life is not super important because I can charge while working, would at most probably need to be 2-3 hours. Form factor not super important.
• How important is weight and thinness to you? Will be carrying around a college campus so would prefer to be on the lighter side, but weight is not a huge consideration.
• Do you have a preferred screen size? If indifferent, put N/A. N/A
• Are you doing any CAD/video editing/photo editing/gaming? List which programs/games you desire to run. Potentially very basic video editing, other than that most likely nothing super major
• If you're gaming, do you have certain games you want to play? At what settings and FPS do you want? N/A
• Any specific requirements such as good keyboard, reliable build quality, touch-screen, finger-print reader, optical drive or good input devices (keyboard/touchpad)? Number pad and good keyboard.
• Leave any finishing thoughts here that you may feel are necessary and beneficial to the discussion. I would prefer to run Windows as my primary OS but not opposed to iOS.

• A database for the notorious RaidForums hacking forums has been leaked online, allowing threat actors and security researchers insight into the people who frequented the forum. Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-hacking-forum-leaks-data-of-478-000-raidforums-members/
• Portugal could become the latest country to effectively ban Huawei and other Chinese firms from participating in its 5G buildouts. As reported by Bloomberg, the government of Portugal this week recommended barring local carriers from sourcing 5G equipment from suppliers based outside of the European Union or from countries that aren’t part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) or Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED). Source: https://www.engadget.com/portugal-considers-banning-huawei-from-national-5g-networks-201102160.html
• A new 'File Archivers in the Browser' phishing kit abuses ZIP domains by displaying fake WinRAR or Windows File Explorer windows in the browser to convince users to launch malicious files. Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/clever-file-archiver-in-the-browser-phishing-trick-uses-zip-domains/
• With the NFL, MLB and NHL having already renewed their media contracts, the NBA is the last major US sports deal up for grabs. Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-05-28/apple-fox-netflix-emerge-as-potential-bidders-for-future-nba-rights
• One of the so-called "godfathers" of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has said he would have prioritised safety over usefulness had he realised the pace at which it would evolve. Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65760449
• Multiple security flaws uncovered in Sonos One wireless speakers could be potentially exploited to achieve information disclosure and remote code execution, the Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) said in a report published last week. Source: https://thehackernews.com/2023/05/hackers-win-105000-for-reporting.html
• A new Android malware distributed as an advertisement SDK has been discovered in multiple apps, many previously on Google Play and collectively downloaded over 400 million times. Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/android-apps-with-spyware-installed-421-million-times-from-google-play/
• Amazon will pay $30 million in fines to settle allegations of privacy violations related to the operation of its Ring video doorbell and Alexa virtual assistant services. Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/amazon-faces-30-million-fine-over-ring-alexa-privacy-violations/
• Following Twitter’s move to shut down third-party apps earlier this year, it looks like Reddit may be the next platform to kill off (or drastically reduce) popular third-party clients. In a new Reddit thread, Apollo developer Christian Selig has shared details about what Reddit is saying it will cost to use the updated API. Source: https://9to5mac.com/2023/05/31/reddit-may-force-apollo-and-third-party-clients-to-shut-down/
• Amazon introduces palm-scanning technology that would let customers buy a beer without reaching for their wallet at the bar. Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-one-soon-let-you-buy-alcohol-palm-scanning-2023-5
• No more software or security updates are coming for Google’s first Chromecast. ‘Users may notice a degradation in performance.’ Source: https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/31/23743515/google-chromecast-support-ending-2013
• A critical remote command injection vulnerability in some Barracuda Network devices that the vendor patched 11 days ago has been exploited by miscreants – for at least the past seven months. Source: https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/31/datastealing_email_attack_bites_barracuda/?td=rt-3a
• The hacker group "Anonymous Sudan" has made an unexpected demand of $3 million from Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) in order to halt distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS) that have been targeting the airline's websites since February. Source: https://therecord.media/hacker-group-anonymous-sudan-demands-three-million-from-sas
• A previously unknown advanced persistent threat (APT) is targeting iOS devices as part of a sophisticated and long-running mobile campaign dubbed Operation Triangulation that began in 2019. Source: https://thehackernews.com/2023/06/new-zero-click-hack-targets-ios-users.html
• Some very powerful artificial-general-intelligence systems may eventually have to be banned, a member of the government's AI Council has said. Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65779181
• Hackers are actively exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in the MOVEit Transfer file transfer software to steal data from organizations. Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-moveit-transfer-zero-day-mass-exploited-in-data-theft-attacks/
• According to a recent study by Analysis Group, Apple's whole App Store ecosystem has generated $1.1 trillion in developer billings and sales in 2022 alone. Cupertino says these numbers highlight the "incredible opportunity" its App Store is for developers around the world, as more than 90% of the billings and sales apparently goes to developers alone – with no commissions paid to Apple. Source: https://www.techspot.com/news/98905-apple-app-store-11-trillion-business.html
• Data security is reinventing itself. As new data security posture management solutions come to market, organizations are increasingly recognizing the opportunity to provide evidence-based security that proves how their data is being protected. But what exactly is data security posture, and how do you manage it? Source: https://thehackernews.com/2023/06/the-importance-of-managing-your-data.html

TL;DR: If you got a new motherboard and use the on-board ALC4080 soundcard and your microphone simply does not get loud enough without the boost option which picks up noise and too much background noise as well, consider getting the Apple USB-C to 3.5 mm DAC adapter as it could be a cheap, but effective solution to the inconvenience (or another brand, but do your research, I went with Apple because I saw good reviews and test results about it for <60 ohm headphones).
I upgraded to AM5/B650E-F a little while ago which uses the Realtek/ASUS tuned ALC4080 on-board audio solution and while my headphone output volumes were crystal clear and loud enough, my microphone was way too quiet. I had to set level to 100 + add a +10db boost AND turn on Automatic Voice Gain for Discord and add an additional 80% boost for my Nvidia Shadow Play clips. If I set the boost in sound settings to +20db instead of +10db, it was simply picking up way too much noise, which it did at +10db as well.
Among all those headphone/audiophile people, the Apple USB-C to 3.5 mm DAC is known as the best bang for the buck device; Even though it has no volume knobs or microphone mute buttons on it, the audio clarity and noise level is comparable to that of €120+ audiophile gear and it only costs €/$10 ish. It also accepts microphone input via a singular 4 pole 3.5 mm jack. I currently have my microphone level set to 80. If I go above while listening to the microphone, I hear more noise picked up - similar to that of boosting, but nothing out of the ordinary; same kind of noise I've heard on other headset microphones. Either way, it is loud enough at 80 volume for my shadowplay clips with NO boost this time, however seems I do need to have automatic gain set to on in Discord to not be too quiet unless I up the level in sound settings and get a bit of noise picked up in my mic. Regardless, this solves my issue compared to the on-board audio as the noise is not picked up by discord and because level is at 80 and loud enough for shadow play, my voice is also clear in my shadow play clips, with no noise picked up from what I can tell at normal listening levels.
There are other brand ones too like Samsung etc. but I got no idea how they compare in quality, I believe those might be better for higher ohm headphones; I'm using a 50 or 60 ohm headset with mine and it gets loud enough for me, but if it was a 120 ohm headset, I can see it not being loud enough for those who like to damage their eardrums.

Hey Folks.
First time poster here. So sadly, similar to many people that have posted on Reddit, I had a negligent father while I was growing up. After my parents divorced when I was 5, he moved in with his new wife and I saw him twice a month. As a kid, he was always the "fun dad": basically let us do whatever we wanted and give in to our impulses. But when it came time to celebrating birthdays, coming to school events, seeing me graduate... He was always "busy" or had something else going on, even though he was literally a 10 minute drive away.
When I turned 11, he moved away to Florida with his wife for a better job, and my siblings and I stayed with our mother. He would still be "fun dad" and come visit us 4-6 times a year, but the fun times were fleeting and tainted because I knew he'd be leaving in 3 days anyway. He'd buy me gifts, but it was never anything I actually liked or wanted: it was things that he liked or was into, so I felt that he didn't really see me as a person. I'd try to talk to him and tell him that I missed him and wanted him in the same city as me, but he'd say that that wasn't possible and I was being unrealistic for wanting a fairytale family: but we could come visit him in Florida anytime we wanted...
I realized quite young that I just couldn't compete with money, sex, and white women. He left my mom for a white woman who gave him "crazy sex" (his words, not mine) and left the state I lived in for better financial opportunities... without us being there... I felt that he was always going to pick those things over me, and I steeled myself to accept that and move on.
He realized his mistakes as I entered my 20s, and has been working to repair our relationship. But for me, the emotional scars he caused are still so deeply imbedded that I don't know if I can really love him. Not even sure if I want to have him in my life outside of coming to important events.
I know the loving and compassionate thing to do is to work towards establishing a new relationship and reconcile that he made mistakes while I was young, and that he's earnestly trying now, but my heart just can't accept it. I logically know that there will never be a good enough reason to explain his actions, and that I need to move on for me, but my emotional self doesn't care and wants to keep him at a distance so that he'll never get the opportunity to hurt me again.
I recognize that this way of thinking is harmful for my growth as a person and won't let me heal, but it's protecting me at the same time and has helped me become the resilient, independent woman I am today. I love that I am self sufficient and can provide for myself, even though it came from needing to survive.
Why should I let my guard down and build a relationship with a man who consistently put women, sex, and money before his children for 20 years? Whose best excuse for doing everything was because he was "a selfish asshole" in his 20s and didn't have a father figure? Guess what? My mom was suffering from physical and emotional abuse from BOTH of her parents and still managed to get her shit together and take care of us the best way she could. Why should I accept that he couldn't handle it / didn't know how to be a dad and needed to escape, when my mom couldn't handle it either but she didn't get to run away?
TLDR; My father wants to work on building a new relationship, but I can't seem to let go of his past actions and forgive him. Any advice on how to navigate these emotions? How can I move on for the sake of my own health and happiness?

I have no idea if this is the right subreddit, but i'm literally too stupid for this right now and need someone to explain to me what exactly is going on on the stack for buffer overflow exercise im trying to do. I have a number guessing game in C, where the goal is to guess 3 random numbers correctly 5 times in a row in order to win. To achieve this, we can pass a parameter to the program when starting it which can be used to exploit a buffer overflow. Here is the code:
#include #include #include #include int counter = 0; char username[16]; void win() { printf("You win this round %s\n", username); counter++; } void loose() { printf("You lose, better luck next time %s!\n\n", username); counter = 0; } int calculate(char *text, int input1, int input2, int input3, int number1, int number2, int number3) {
char name[16]; strcpy(name, text); if (number1 == input1 && number2 == input2 && number3 == input3) return 0; else return 1; } int main(int argc, char ** argv) { int number1, number2, number3; int input1 = 0, input2 = 0, input3 = 0; if(argc < 2){ printf("Please pass at least one argument with your program.\nOtherwise you won't be able to exploit it ;)\n"); exit(0); }
printf("Please enter your name!\n"); fgets(username, sizeof(username), stdin); username[strcspn(username, "\n")] = '\0';
while(counter < 5){ printf("Can you beat this minigame?\n\nEnter three numbers between 0-10 if you guess all correct you win, otherwise you lose!\n");
printf("Enter your first guess!\n"); scanf("%d", &input1); printf("Enter your second guess!\n"); scanf("%d", &input2); printf("Enter your third guess!\n"); scanf("%d", &input3); srand(time(NULL)); number1 = rand() % 10; number2 = rand() % 10; number3 = rand() % 10; if(calculate(argv[1], input1, input2, input3, number1, number2, number3) == 0) win(); else loose();
} printf("Against all odds you beat the game!\nCongratulations %s", username);
exit(0); return 0; }
So the goal is basically to construct the buffer overflow for the "name" array in a way that when "calculate" is called, we jump 5 times in a row into the "win" function when returning (to increase the counter to 5), and then returning to the "main" function instruction at the end of the loop so the program completes correctly. The program is compiled without security options and will be run on a 32-bit system using little endian.
As far as I know, stack memory "grows down", meaning it starts at a high memory address and then every time something is pushed onto the stack it moves to lower memory addresses. An example stack frame for the "calculate" function would look like this:
Example Stack frame "calculate":

Memory address	Name	Length in Byte (Type)
0xbffff3a8	number3	4 (int)
...	number2	4 (int)
...	number1	4 (int)
	input3	4 (int)
	input2	4 (int)
	input1	4 (int)
	text	4 (char pointer)
...	Return address (Saved EIP)	4
...	Saved EBP	4
0xbffff3dc	name	16 (char)

So, since we can explot the writing to char array "name" (due to the use of strcpy), we can overwrite the stack frame starting from the bottom of name up to wherever we want. My understanding is that when we make a function call from within another function, a new stack frame gets created "below" the current stack frame. Conversely, when we return from a function to the calling function, we are returning to the stack frame above (a higher memory range). Considering this, I tried the following buffer overflow string for the "name" array among several others by starting the program using GDB in this way:
> gdb bufferOverflow
> r $(python -c "import sys; sys.stdout.buffer.write(b'A'*16 + b'A'*4 + b'A'*28 + (b'A'*4 + b'\xbf\x58\x40\x80')*5 + b'A'*4 + b'\xb7\x88\x40\x80')")
Explaining the parts:
​

Part	Rationale
b'A'*16	Write 16 byte to overwrite the "name" array
b'A'*4	Overwriting 4 byte for the EBP above
b'\xbf\x58\x40\x80'	Overwriting return address with "win" address
b'A'*28	Overwrite the parameters of "calculate" to get to the address space above
(b'A'*4 + b'\xbf\x58\x40\x80') * 5	Write 5 times a 4 byte padding for EBP followed by return address of "win"
b'A'*4 + b'\xb7\x88\x40\x80'	4 byte EBP padding and return address to jmp instruction in "main" at the end of the loop

I was told that it doesnt matter what values i use for the EBPs, but im not sure thats true. I always get a segmentation fault after entering my guessed numbers. I dont know what im doing wrong, and using GDB to get stack frame information doesnt seem to help me as it never lines up to my understanding.
Here is "info frame" for "main" function with a break point at the beginning:
Stack level 0, frame at 0xbffff3d0:
eip = 0x80486a1 in main (bufferOverflow.c:35); saved eip = 0xb7e20647
source language c.
Arglist at 0xbffff3b8, args: argc=2, argv=0xbffff464
Locals at 0xbffff3b8, Previous frame's sp is 0xbffff3d0
Saved registers:
ebx at 0xbffff3b0, ebp at 0xbffff3b8, esi at 0xbffff3b4, eip at 0xbffff3cc
Here is "info frame" when stepping into "calculate" with break point:
Stack level 0, frame at 0xbffff360:
eip = 0x8048654 in calculate (bufferOverflow.c:23); saved eip = 0x804886f
called by frame at 0xbffff3d0
source language c.
Arglist at 0xbffff358, args: text=0xbffff610 'A' , "\277X@\200", 'A' , "\277X@\200AAAA\277X@\200AAAA\277X@\200AAAA\277X@\200AAAA\277X@\200AAAA\267\210@\200", input1=1,
input2=2, input3=3, number1=5, number2=9, number3=0
Locals at 0xbffff358, Previous frame's sp is 0xbffff360
Saved registers:
ebp at 0xbffff358, eip at 0xbffff35c
Can someone guide me a bit of give me hints what im getting fundamentally wrong? How can I achieve this?

Hi Everyone!
It's your friendly neighborhood advisor!
I see (and, of course, know) that we're at that time of year when orientation is upon us. I've observed many questions in the main thread regarding degree requirements, registering for classes, wanting to build schedules, how potential AP credit will impact coursework, etc. etc.
My best advice to all new freshmen: wait for orientation. You will have all of your questions addressed at this time!
It is completely impossible for a member of UGA staff, faculty, or an advisor to address any of your questions or concerns without having your information or without having all of your records uploaded into the system. We also need a copy of your Orientation Intake Survey, which gives us tons of background information that helps us succeed in planning for your fall semester coursework, suggesting potential double majors, minors, what pre-professional advising office you should visit (if applicable), etc. etc..
We do not find out what students we are advising until the day prior to orientation. You can't look up your advisor in the SAGE network. We've got the largest class of freshmen incoming in again, so it's a lot for admissions to sort through all of their information, have it updated within our systems, transfer it to the appropriate colleges, and have them assigned to each indidvual colleges for advisement.
I promise, you will get our undivided attention during you advising appointment. We will help any way and every way we can at that time! If you're interested in a particular additional major or minor, be sure to bring that up during your appointment
Ways to Prepare for Orientation: 1. (Complete the Orientation Intake Survey) - Y'all truly don't understand JUST how much this helps us! This way, we don't tell you what classes you did or didn't pass, and avoid telling you to take a redundant class if you already earned credit for the class via your AP exam
2. When e-mailing faculty/staff: Always use your 81x number when e-mailing faculty and staff. This is your unique UGA id number. We can truly do nothing without it! If you want to go ahead and make an e-mail signature with this as part of it so you don't have to remember it every time.. great!

1. Come in with a list of questions, but trust your advisorl
   
2. Let your advisor know if you are considering any other degree programs, whether it be majors, minors or certificates.
   

5. Check out https://bulletin.uga.edu/ to see a full list of all majors and minors and the Career Center's "What Can I Do with a Major In...?" to see what past UGA students have done with their degrees in that particular field! https://career.uga.edu/wcidwami/wcidwami_by_major
I think that's about it :) Welcome to UGA! It'll be the best 4 (or 5) (or 6) years of your life!

“There you go.” I said and smiled a little as I handed the bag to the customer. He gave me a shy little bow and headed for the door. I was actually impressed he could bring himself to do that much. Chiefly because his purchase was one of the dirty magazines from the center aisle. His ‘friend’ clearly lacked the same courage and was standing there just on the other side ‘reading’. If you want to call it that, that is.
I had to admit, Suki knew how to arrange her store, I never thought about it before, but the aisles with ‘that’ material was facing ‘away’ from the register and had another pair of parallel aisles on either side of it, and two running perpendicular thus affording the patron some small degree of ‘privacy’ by letting them feel like they’re boxed in.
Those who visited that aisle as the day went on seemed to buy ‘those’ magazines roughly eight times out of ten, an exceptional ratio. I knew it was exceptional because tragically I have sometimes been forced to run errands for myself. When that does happen, I’ve seen what people do in the stores, I’ve seen those naughty magazines here and there, and I’ve seen young people walk by, eyeing those anxiously, desperately even.
But seldom did they buy even though they wanted to, they didn’t have the courage to look, so they couldn’t take the next step. It’s funny how that works, it really is.
Suki got them to look at it, and therefore usually got them to buy.
My estimation of my friend went up another notch. I smiled when I thought about her, she was always offering me work. Always a kind word. Always encouraging me. ‘You’re a smart girl, you could do anything you want with your life. You don’t have to just lie around and wait for life to happen, come work at my store, that way you can take care of yourself better.’
Of course there were rumors that I was rich, I was after all, a foreigner living in this country with no job, there’s no way I was getting public assistance. It was hard not to like Suki’s motherly attitude toward me, who she saw as a wayward young woman frittering away her days.
But I had no idea Suki was so savvy about her business, right down to where she put the naughty things that Jin probably snuck looks at whenever he could, like most boys his age.
The ding of a new customer caught my ear and I looked over to see a slew of students stroll in, then darted my eyes to the clock. ‘Really? That long?’ I asked myself, somehow the day had just slipped past without my noticing.
Maybe because there was always something to do, check the shelves, wipe up a spill, process a transaction… The time had slipped past with hardly a blip, and now it was later in the afternoon and school was out. I looked past the gaggle of young boys and girls to the clear day outside. Jin wouldn’t be with them, he’d be spending at least a few hours in cram school. I normally wouldn’t see him, if at all, for a few more hours.
You’d think he’d get more help with his math and other subjects there, but? For some reason he liked to ask me.
I waved to the students coming in and listened while they chattered away about whatever school drama had them occupied today. “Welcome to Toriyama’s.” I said, and then my brow furrowed not one minute later when Jin Toriyama walked in with the look of a stunned bunny on his face.
“Wha- why?” He asked, and then his eyes caught me behind the counter.
“Kayobi?!” He exclaimed and strode swiftly over the floor to stand across from me.
I snorted. “Yeah. That’s my name. Can I help you find something?” I couldn’t resist the urge. I wanted to mess with him a little.
“Wh-What are you doing here?” He stumbled over his words as he rushed them out.
“Would you believe I’m counting how many dirty magazines I see young boys buy?” I asked with a smirk, and as he turned red in the face I added, “So, what’s your number? Or do you just sneak peaks at them?”
“Ah, wha- I don’t… you can’t… this isn’t-” He stammered and stuttered and shook as he was flustered, and I did all that I could to restrain myself from laughter.
“Some of those were words. But you need to put them together right, come on, you can do it, you’re a big boy!” I clapped my hands to urge him on.
“I… why are you here?!” He demanded, his voice going up a bit in pitch as his flusteredness overtook him.
“Because here is where I take the money for the stuff people want to buy, dummy.” I said with a smirk, “Surely you’ve worked here long enough to know that.”
“That’s not what I mean, you…” He stopped, he searched for something to call me, “you!” He finally finished.
“Brilliant retort. This is why you shouldn’t be quitting cram school.” I said with a straight face.
“But… but how did you get the key?” He asked and put his hand into the pocket of his dark pants like he was checking to see if his copy was still there.
“I went by to see your mom, she gave it to me, I offered to handle the place until she gets out. She gave me her copy.” I answered, “What, did you think I broke in here?” I smirked a little, losing my deadpan expression and I struck a prowler pose, hunched over with fingers turned down and pantomimed some creeping steps. “Yes, you caught me, my secret identity is Kayobi the catburglar, and I’m so good at breaking and entering that I don’t even need a toolkit. I just teleport.”
“But…” He paused, looked over his shoulder to see that the other students who went in before him were busy elsewhere in the store, then leaned toward me and said, “How is she paying you.”
“Wait… we’re supposed to get paid? Is that why people work?” I asked and covered my open mouth with one hand, “I am shocked. Just… shocked… nay, dumbfounded! I have found the dumb, so stunned am I.”
All he could do was blink at me, so I finally showed the poor boy some mercy, “Relax, I told her I’d do it for free. When she gets out of the hospital she can just do my laundry and make a few meals and we’ll call it square.”
“I-I-I didn’t expect to find my Buddah in hell today…” He stammered, but I just shrugged it off.
“I just don’t want to do chores. So don’t worry about it. Go on and head back to cram school, you’ll be late, but just tell them you’re late because you got bitten by a stray dog or something.” I said, and he blinked at me again as he processed what I said.
“That’s… not how that expression works… not exactly, anyway.” He muttered and I reached up and flipped my orangish hair back with one hand to remind him I’m not from here.
Some of my colleagues asked me once why I don’t disguise myself as somebody who looks like everybody in the neighborhood and whatnot. And the answer is pretty simple. From my colleagues' perspective, if you look like everyone else, you blend in perfectly.
But that’s why I’m better than all of them at my job. It’s not enough to look like people, you have to act like them too, and cultural norms touch everything. On one world, when you’re about to enter a room you’ve never been to, you always tap your foot three times to let the spirits inside know you’re coming. Don’t do that, and people will know you’re a fraud, or at least you’ll stand out in a negative way.
On another world, every first meeting between strangers involves an extensive discussion of ancestry to try to find some common ground and minimize the chance of violence. If I were to go there disguised as one of those, I’d fall flat and get into trouble fast.
But when you’re obviously foreign, people excuse your ignorance as, ‘Well they’re not from here, of course they don’t know better.’
So misusing an expression slightly draws no notice. Thus I blend in by standing out.
Yeah, I’m the best. “Whatever.” I smirked at Jin and gave him a gentle punch on the shoulder, “Hurry up and get back, University waits for no one, and neither do the teachers here, I’ll lock up tonight when I’m done.” I promised.
Jin’s entire body shook, his lower lip quivered, “If you’re not going to buy something, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
His eyes were full of tears, and he shouted, “Thank you!” He then bowed at the waist, turned, and ran out of the store as fast as his feet could carry him.
Various heads turned toward me, he’d come in after the others rather than with them, so it didn’t seem like they realized who he was, and his voice had such an emotional crack to it he must have sounded like a stranger.
I snorted, “It’s nothing, I just promised not to tell his mother about the dirty magazine he bought.”
I recognized some of the kids in the story, and I saw relief flood the faces of the young males who promptly flocked to ‘that’ section now that they knew I wouldn’t be telling on them.
And the rest of my first day passed without incident.
The sun was descending and it was getting darker by the minute. I locked the doors when the last customer left, closing myself inside, and went behind the counter to where the two pairs of pants lay crumpled in a heap where I’d kicked them before.
I crouched down and bit my tongue while I searched the pockets for what I sought.
My prize?
A pair of wallets. Wallets stuffed with cash. I pocketed that immediately, shoving it into my purse. “Lucky me.” I thought, “I’ll buy myself a few things here before I go.”
A few dozen bento boxes, sushi platters, and some ready to eat meals and lots of sodas.
I made a list in my head, then pulled out the I.D. cards of the two twits, just like I expected, there were addresses in place, I wonder how they explained themselves to their colleagues later. ‘That must have been hilarious.’ I thought and let out a long, loud laugh as I tried to picture their confused answers.
I stowed their wallets in my purse too, put their pants under one arm, and quickly spent their money on what I’d need for my fridge and the like for the better part of the next week.
I had bags loaded down with stuff, and then with a flash, I was gone and standing in front of my door. From there, I vanished again and reappeared just inside.
I dropped my stuff on the mess of a coffee table, picked up my phone, and began to check the locations on these identification cards. I whistled. ‘Downtown? Wow, pricey.’ I thought, and unfortunately, it was also very busy.
“Great. So it’s going to be a chore.” I muttered and looked longingly at the television. I was going to marathon watch a show about a wolf goddess falling in love with a mortal human as they traveled together.
But no… I have to spend at least an hour or two on these twits. “Getting between me and my NEET time… unforgivable.” I growled and called for a car to come pick me up.
‘Oh well… maybe I can find some way to make this at least a little bit fun.’ I thought, and tried to stay positive about it as I walked back out of my apartment again.

I have no idea if this is the right subreddit, but i'm literally too stupid for this right now and need someone to explain to me what exactly is going on on the stack for buffer overflow exercise im trying to do. I have a number guessing game in C, where the goal is to guess 3 random numbers correctly 5 times in a row in order to win. To achieve this, we can pass a parameter to the program when starting it which can be used to exploit a buffer overflow.
Here is the code (also https://pastebin.com/jei1uy1M for those who prefer it that way):
#include #include #include #include int counter = 0; char username[16]; void win() { printf("You win this round %s\n", username); counter++; } void loose() { printf("You lose, better luck next time %s!\n\n", username); counter = 0; } int calculate(char *text, int input1, int input2, int input3, int number1, int number2, int number3) {
char name[16]; strcpy(name, text); if (number1 == input1 && number2 == input2 && number3 == input3) return 0; else return 1; } int main(int argc, char ** argv) { int number1, number2, number3; int input1 = 0, input2 = 0, input3 = 0; if(argc < 2){ printf("Please pass at least one argument with your program.\nOtherwise you won't be able to exploit it ;)\n"); exit(0); }
printf("Please enter your name!\n"); fgets(username, sizeof(username), stdin); username[strcspn(username, "\n")] = '\0';
while(counter < 5){ printf("Can you beat this minigame?\n\nEnter three numbers between 0-10 if you guess all correct you win, otherwise you lose!\n");
printf("Enter your first guess!\n"); scanf("%d", &input1); printf("Enter your second guess!\n"); scanf("%d", &input2); printf("Enter your third guess!\n"); scanf("%d", &input3); srand(time(NULL)); number1 = rand() % 10; number2 = rand() % 10; number3 = rand() % 10; if(calculate(argv[1], input1, input2, input3, number1, number2, number3) == 0) win(); else loose();
} printf("Against all odds you beat the game!\nCongratulations %s", username);
exit(0); return 0; }
So the goal is basically to construct the buffer overflow for the "name" array in a way that when "calculate" is called, we jump 5 times in a row into the "win" function when returning (to increase the counter to 5), and then returning to the "main" function instruction at the end of the loop so the program completes correctly. The program is compiled without security options and will be run on a 32-bit system using little endian.
As far as I know, stack memory "grows down", meaning it starts at a high memory address and then every time something is pushed onto the stack it moves to lower memory addresses. An example stack frame for the "calculate" function would look like this:
Example Stack frame "calculate":

Memory address	Name	Length in Byte (Type)
0xbffff3a8	number3	4 (int)
...	number2	4 (int)
...	number1	4 (int)
	input3	4 (int)
	input2	4 (int)
	input1	4 (int)
	text	4 (char pointer)
...	Return address (Saved EIP)	4
...	Saved EBP	4
0xbffff3dc	name	16 (char)

So, since we can explot the writing to char array "name" (due to the use of strcpy), we can overwrite the stack frame starting from the bottom of name up to wherever we want. My understanding is that when we make a function call from within another function, a new stack frame gets created "below" the current stack frame. Conversely, when we return from a function to the calling function, we are returning to the stack frame above (a higher memory range). Considering this, I tried the following buffer overflow string for the "name" array among several others by starting the program using GDB in this way:
> gdb bufferOverflow
> r $(python -c "import sys; sys.stdout.buffer.write(b'A'*16 + b'A'*4 + b'A'*28 + (b'A'*4 + b'\xbf\x58\x40\x80')*5 + b'A'*4 + b'\xb7\x88\x40\x80')")
Explaining the parts:
​

Part	Rationale
b'A'*16	Write 16 byte to overwrite the "name" array
b'A'*4	Overwriting 4 byte for the EBP above
b'\xbf\x58\x40\x80'	Overwriting return address with "win" address
b'A'*28	Overwrite the parameters of "calculate" to get to the address space above
(b'A'*4 + b'\xbf\x58\x40\x80') * 5	Write 5 times a 4 byte padding for EBP followed by return address of "win"
b'A'*4 + b'\xb7\x88\x40\x80'	4 byte EBP padding and return address to jmp instruction in "main" at the end of the loop

I was told that it doesnt matter what values i use for the EBPs, but im not sure thats true. I always get a segmentation fault after entering my guessed numbers. I dont know what im doing wrong, and using GDB to get stack frame information doesnt seem to help me as it never lines up to my understanding.
Here is "info frame" for "main" function with a break point at the beginning:
Stack level 0, frame at 0xbffff3d0:
eip = 0x80486a1 in main (bufferOverflow.c:35); saved eip = 0xb7e20647
source language c.
Arglist at 0xbffff3b8, args: argc=2, argv=0xbffff464
Locals at 0xbffff3b8, Previous frame's sp is 0xbffff3d0
Saved registers:
ebx at 0xbffff3b0, ebp at 0xbffff3b8, esi at 0xbffff3b4, eip at 0xbffff3cc
Here is "info frame" when stepping into "calculate" with break point:
Stack level 0, frame at 0xbffff360:
eip = 0x8048654 in calculate (bufferOverflow.c:23); saved eip = 0x804886f
called by frame at 0xbffff3d0
source language c.
Arglist at 0xbffff358, args: text=0xbffff610 'A' , "\277X@\200", 'A' , "\277X@\200AAAA\277X@\200AAAA\277X@\200AAAA\277X@\200AAAA\277X@\200AAAA\267\210@\200", input1=1,
input2=2, input3=3, number1=5, number2=9, number3=0
Locals at 0xbffff358, Previous frame's sp is 0xbffff360
Saved registers:
ebp at 0xbffff358, eip at 0xbffff35c
Can someone guide me a bit of give me hints what im getting fundamentally wrong? How can I achieve this?

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⚠ ️Attention 18+ means 18+ Please be 18 or older! It should go without saying, but apparently these disclaimers are never enough. ⚠
We are a longstanding SMP with currently over a dozen active players and we are looking for more! A few players have been there since the early days, others since last year, and a few joined only recently.

• Overview

  Our main guideline to leave the "meta" of pure Vanilla survival as unaltered as possible (for a public server).
  The only 3 plugins that interfere with this are:
  GriefPrevention, a sleep voting plugin, and player item shops for trading. That means as many features from other plugins you know from other servers are absent by design and won't be added. There are two ranks "new" and "player", they do not give any benefits. You can not buy "power" for real money here and we have no adminshops. Everything on the map was build and farmed in survival.
  play.server26.net
  Map: https://map.server26.net/
  Discord: https://server26.net/discord
  
• No Warps, No /tpa, No /sethome
  
• No (Mojang) chat reports
  
• No McMMO or alike, No donation perks or any such frills
  
• The world will never reset
  
• Land claiming
  
• Player trading via signs (No adminshops)
  
• 20% of player need to sleep to skip the night
  
• All made in survival, including spawn area, etc
  
• Lots of public farms.
  Rules: https://server26.net/rules TL;DR: Be reasonable and don't be a dick.
  

• Community

  What you have read so far sounds like your cup of tea? Well then you may fit right in. Laid back rules, a close knit community, having some events from time to time, and there is always something you can help with. Staff and ohter players are usually available to help you. Need help digging? Just died far away? Raid an Ocean Monument? No problem! We also have a Hermitcraft-like shop area for players using a trade shop plugin.
  

• Gameplay

  This is supposed to feel like a vanilla server. The default currency is diamonds. This is not enforced its just what everyone uses. No warps, you have to walk, fly by Elytra, or set up infrastructure such as piston bolts or blue ice highways. You can focus on long term projects, take your time, because we NEVER RESET the map. Megabases welcome. Leave for months, pick right up where you left. In +7 years time we built a lot of farms and infrastructure. This makes it a lot easier to get going early in the game, especially for endgame players. But fear not, there is always need for expanding upon whats already there.
  The spawn city is protected. Areas there are released for community builds. Outside the city you can build your own base(s). You will get more claimblocks during play.
  

• Specs & Plugins

  Hosted in Germany with 128GB Ram, a Intel i9-9900k, and 1TB NVMe SSD; the server runs on Paper. Regarding updates we don't always run the latest version but we plan to update to every major release eventually. In case an update brings a big change in world generation (e.g. 1.18) we delete chunks that have been loaded less than 5 minutes. Meaning someone likely just passed by while exploring.
  For land claiming we use GriefPrevention, which lets you protect areas you selected with a golden shovel. You can allow certain or all players to build and or access chests/buttons, on your claim. It also protects your claims and the worlds surface from creepers. Then there is also a chest shop plugin. You can use iron nuggets to create villager-like trades. You can do this anywhere, but its recommended to do this in the shopping area or your claim. Harbor is a plugin which skips the night, if 20% or more players are in bed. Lastly there is one that lets you rotate Glazed Terracotta.
  Additionally we have some datapacks and tweaks: Ghasts don't break blocks. You can silent mobs by naming them "silent" (undo with "unsilent"). Your 1st kill of the Enderdragon gets you an Elytra. Craftable Enchanted Golden Apples. Hermitcraft posable Armorstands. Some recipes have been tweaked (bone blocks directly from bones, recolor glass,... )