Hello guys! I just wanna say thank you to everyone who keeps giving advice, suggestions etc. Yesterday I had a session where, basically, our group had to go and try to cut off supports arriving to an "enemy" city. In reality, 4 of the 5 PCs comes from the Theocracy ("enemy"), but for various reasons we found ourselves being a mercenary group for the Empire.
So, why I'm saying thanks to all of you? I had a plan for my PC and I didn't tell my DM, thinking that there was no reason to let him know. It was not something too crazy or against the rules. Then, I remembered what I read everyday here, and I told him my plan. He was happy, helped me thinking about the plan and what was going to happen. He also warned me that there could've been consequences, so to think carefully about the execution. I'm still waiting for this last part. After the game, where we had a fight against scouters, I gave him a ride and in the car I thanked him, because I enjoyed the session and I saw like a spark in his eyes. This was also due to what I read here, and me thinking that, yes, we as player should not give everything for guaranted.
So, again, thank you!

So starting off I(m20) want to say me and this girl (f20) matched on tinder about 6 months ago we immediately got along and liked eachother.
In the beginning of texting she asked and said some weird stuff one of the things she asked was if I was looking for a fling or a wife I responded to this saying I’m bored with flings but felt it was strange to ask me something like this but I took it as a joke.
Another thing she asked in the beginning of texting was my life goals and if I wanted kids and what would I call them I took all of this as curiosity but still felt it was strange.
Soon after this we went out on our first date she lives 2 hours from me but I made the trip up to see her and we had a really nice time.
Due to the distance and our work schedules for the month we spoke we only went on 3 dates and one of them was to a hotel in her city.
The night in this hotel she told me she was exhausted and just wanted to chill out I thought that was no issue.
While talking in the hotel she asked me if I would ever move to her city or consider it I felt put on the spot and just said yes maybe someday.
Soon after this she ended things abruptly and it kinda hurt me I really liked her and thought things were going well.
I seen her once after this and we argued at a bar for a while and after this I thought we were completely done.
However last week she texted me wanting to try again saying she’s less busy and has time her job was the reason we stopped talking the first time.
I was hesitant but decided to give her a chance I went up to her city and really enjoyed my time with her and had a nice night.
The next day she was poking fun that I missed her and I says I only missed her a tiny bit compared to how she missed me she responded saying that if she was honest she really didn’t and only thought of me once she quit her job and texted me cause we had a connection.
Hearing that kind of hurt me but I moved past it.
We then talked the next day and she told me that even though we’re gonna try have a relationship she doesn’t mind me seeing other girls I told her that’s not what I want and I asked if she was seeing anyone else she says she’s not but is just worried about her commitment issues and doesent want me to focus too much time on her.
I told her it won’t be like it was before as this is what I did and I asked was things ok she then told me she felt I got too intense with stuff when I says I was willing to move to her city.
I told her I felt some of what she says early on was intense and how I felt put on the spot by her question.
We agreeed from now on we’re gonna be more direct and talk about stuff which we have been doing.
I will say compared to last time she is showing more interest in me and talking more and being more interactive as last time the way she texted made me anxious and often worried.
But yesterday her replies were a bit slow but I didn’t think much of it but when on the phone last night i jokingly brought the thing about how she missed me and she got a bit quiet I think to be fair we were on the phone for a hour at this stage and it was late she then said she had to go and it was fine.
We haven’t spoken yet today but I want to know if I should be worried about her going quiet or if I’m just overthinking if anyone has suggestions on how I can make this work would be appreciated.

Hello docs, Here's my info: 25yo Female, taking no medications, had Covid 3-4 weeks ago, normally anxious but I've managed to control it, yesterday was something else tho.
Last night I was with my family in our car, driving back from a long trip, the car was silent and an incredibly random though went though my head. Something like "What if right now I shout out all my disgusting kinks and they all listen in horror" and then I felt like I'm saying to myself "You won't do that" but still I felt like I'll shout it out any second now, so I grabbed my water bottle in panic and filled my mouth with water so I wont be able to speak... Then i put on the radio so there will be some sound and I striked a convo so there will be even more sound.
The thought were still there and lurking like "This wont help, you will shout something sexual and disgusting". I had a full blown silent panic attack in this car and 30-40 minutes of the ride were with my mouth full of water.
Only thing close that has ever happened was two years ago, when I got high by myself at home and I said to myself "What if you jump from the balcony right now" and I panicked and started to close all the balcony doors and began pacing around the apartment so I can distract myself, because my mind was telling me to jump.. I know it sounds crazy, I haven't smoked since then.
So why is this happening? Life's been good recentry, anxiety was under control. Even as I'm writing this I'm thinking "So I'll go out in a few hours, what if I start screaming at the center of my city like a lunatic, what if my mind fucks me over", etc.
Thank you.

LPI (LP Information)' newest research report, the “PTO Driven Mud Pump Industry Forecast” looks at past sales and reviews total world PTO Driven Mud Pump sales in 2022, providing a comprehensive analysis by region and market sector of projected PTO Driven Mud Pump sales for 2023 through 2029. With PTO Driven Mud Pump sales broken down by region, market sector and sub-sector, this report provides a detailed analysis in US$ millions of the world PTO Driven Mud Pump industry.
This Insight Report provides a comprehensive analysis of the global PTO Driven Mud Pump landscape and highlights key trends related to product segmentation, company formation, revenue, and market share, latest development, and M&A activity. This report also analyzes the strategies of leading global companies with a focus on PTO Driven Mud Pump portfolios and capabilities, market entry strategies, market positions, and geographic footprints, to better understand these firms' unique position in an accelerating global PTO Driven Mud Pump market.
This report presents a comprehensive overview, market shares, and growth opportunities of PTO Driven Mud Pump market by product type, application, key manufacturers and key regions and countries.
https://www.lpinformationdata.com/reports/729663/pto-driven-mud-pump-2029
The main participants
NC Engineering
Newrock Engineering
Redrock Machinery
Paulmichl
Nuhn Industries
Schouten Machines
Agrometer
SlurryKat
CRD
Stallkamp
CRI-MAN
Jamesway Farm Equipment
LAKTO Dairy Technologies
Lothar Becker Agrartechnik GmbH
Vogelsang GmbH
Sveaverken
Storth
Major Equipment
Cadman Power Equipment
Bauer
Segmentation by type
Fixed
Mobile
Segmentation by application
Rail
Infrastructure
Garden
Farmland
Other
Key Questions Addressed in this Report
What is the 10-year outlook for the global PTO Driven Mud Pump market?
What factors are driving PTO Driven Mud Pump market growth, globally and by region?
Which technologies are poised for the fastest growth by market and region?
How do PTO Driven Mud Pump market opportunities vary by end market size?
How does PTO Driven Mud Pump break out type, application?
What are the influences of COVID-19 and Russia-Ukraine war?
LP INFORMATION (LPI) is a professional market report publisher based in America, providing high quality market research reports with competitive prices to help decision makers make informed decisions and take strategic actions to achieve excellent outcomes.We have an extensive library of reports on hundreds of technologies.Search for a specific term, or click on an industry to browse our reports by subject. Narrow down your results using our filters or sort by what’s important to you, such as publication date, price, or name.
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Hi! I arrived in Barcelona yesterday and am staying for three months. I am a blogger, 29F and looking for new people to hopefully make friends with, discover the city together, chat… Where can I do that? I don’t drink and don’t party often, but daytime outings are defo my jam :) Thanks guys! 🥰

IGSRep
Looking to trade my spares. SEA region Humble account here, keep in mind when trading with me as keys I open for trading might be country-restricted. Also to be safe I won't be trading gift links. Last traded 3 years ago, witnessed the ban wave sooooo I wanna be extra careful lol
Have:
Humble keys:
1 screen platformer
112 Operator
2dark
911 Operator
A mortician's tale
Adom
Age of wonders 3
Alien spidy
American fugitive
Animal super squad
Armello 3x
Atomicrops
Backbone
Banners of ruin
Barony
Batman enemy within telltale series + shadows mode
Batman telltale series + shadows mode
Bioshock remastered
Bioshock the collection
Blood fresh supply
Bloodstained ritual of the night
Borderlands 3
Borderlands game of the year enhanced
Borderlands handsome collection
Boundless
Broken age
Brutal legend
Calico 2x
Carnival games vr
Children of Morta
Civilization 6 platinum edition
Command and conquer remastered collection (origin)
Control Ultimate Edition (from Humble Heroines)
Crown trick
Crowntakers
Darksiders 2 deathinitive edition
Darksiders 3
Darksiders warmastered edition
Darkwood
Deadly days
Death squared
Deathloop
Desolate
Detention
Disjunction (gog)
Distraint 2
Doom eternal
Draw your game
Darksiders genesis
Duck game
Dusk
Earthnight
Elderborn
Elex
Endless space collection
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Evan's Remains
Fahrenheit indigo prophecy remastered
Fallen enchantress legendary heroes
Farmers dynasty
Figment
Forager 2x
Forgive me father
Framed collection 2x
Frog detective
Fury unleashed
Garage bad trip
Garden Paws
Geometry wars 3 dimensions evolved
Goat of. Duty
Goetia
Going under
Gonner
Greedfall
Guts and glory
Hacknet 2x
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
Hiveswap act 1
House flipper
In between
Just cause 4 complete edition
Katana zero
Killing floor 2
Killing floor 2 digital deluxe edition
Knights of pen and paper 2
Lake
Lego batman 3 beyond gotham
Life is Strange 2: Complete Season
Lovecraft's untold stories
Machinarium
Mafia definitive edition
Mafia 3: Definitive Edition
Magicka
Mass effect legendary edition (origin)
Metro exodus
Monster train first class
Mordhau
Mount and Blade: Warband
Mr shifty
My memory of us
My time at portia
Neo cab
Neon abyss
Never alone
Newt one
No time to explain remastered
Nomad Survival
Orwell ignorance is strength
Overlord 2
Pacify
Pacman championship edition 2
Paper fire rookie
Paradigm
Party hard
Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition
Payday 2
Pesterquest
Pikuniku
Planet Zoo
Popup dungeon
Psychonauts
Rebuild 3
Red horizon
Regular human basketball 2x
Remnants of Naezith
Reventure
Scarlet Tower
Shadows awakening
Simulacra
Sins of a solar empire rebellion
Spec ops the line
Starcrossed
State of Decay 2: Juggernaut Edition
Staxel
Stick Fight
Strange brigade 2x
Summer in Mara
Super chicken catchers
Super hexagon
Survivalists
Syberia 3
System Shock Enhanced Edition
System shock 2 2x
Tales of monkey island complete pack
Teacup
Textorcist
The adventure pals
The darkness 2
The haunted island, a frog detective game
The Long Dark: Survival Edition
The tear
Think of the children
This war of mine
Throne of lies
Tilt brush
Timeshift
Tower of guns
Tropico 4
Uncertain last quiet day
Valkyria chronicles 4 complete edition
Vampyr
Vikings wolves of midgard
Vvvvvv
Warsim realm of aslona
Wasteland 3
Where the water tastes like wine
Wingspan
Worms Rumble
Wrath aeon of ruin
XCOM 2
Yakuza 3 remastered
Yonder: Cloud Catcher Chronicles
Fanatical keys:
198x
Agatha christie abc murders
Alekhine's gun
Ancestors legacy
Anomaly warzone earth
Beholder 2
Bientot Iete
Big dipper
Book of demons
Call of juarez gunslinger
Castaway paradise
Codex of victory
Darkwood
Deep sky derelicts
Dirt rally 2.0
Do not feed the monkeys
Dread x collection
Dungelot shattered lands
Eternity the last unicorn
Fantasy versus
Fatale
Footlol epic fail league
Four sided fantasy
Garfield kart
Gemcraft
Gift of parthax
God's trigger
Going under
Graze counter
Grip combat racing
Guts and glory
Heavy burger
Heroes of normandie
Hitman go definitive edition
Hue
Hyperdrive massacre
Indivisible
Iris and the giant
Kingdom Two Crowns
Kingdom wars 2 definitive edition
Learn japanese to survive hiragana battle, kanji combat, katakana war
Lethal league blaze
Lichdom battlemage
Lucius
Monster slayers
Mordheim city of the damned
Murder by Numbers
Neverwinter nights enhanced edition
Out of the box
Override mech city brawl
Postal 2
Postal redux
Rain world
Red riding hood star crossed lovers
Redout enhanced edition
Return to mysterious island
Rise of industry
Rise of insanity
Road redemption
Salammbo battle for carthage
Shadows awakening
Shadwen
Shark attack deathmatch 2
Showtime 2073
Sir you are being hunted
Songbringer
Spacecom
Spiritfarer
Steampunker
Steel Rats
Strange Brigade
Strawberry vinegar
Sunset
Synergia
Tales from candlekeep tomb of annihilation
Teacup
Technomancer
Tenta shooter
Tesla vs lovecraft
The descendant complete season
The graveyard
The light keeps us safe
The signal from tolva
The vagrant
This strange realm of mine
This war of mine
This world unknown
Through the woods
Toki
Train valley
Two worlds 2 velvet edition
Two worlds epic edition
Vendetta curse of raven's cry
Vikings wolves of midgard
Walking dead final season
Walking dead: a new frontier
Warhammer 40000 Gladius - Relics of War
White Day - A Labyrinth Named School
Windscape
World's dawn
Yesterday origins
Yooka laylee and the impossible lair
Steam gifts:
Bombernauts
Duck game (3 copies)
Metal gear solid v phantom pain
Pyre
Want:
In Case You Missed It: Gems of 2022:
ZERO Sievert
Supraland: Six Inches Under
Powerslave Exhumed
Haiku the Robot
Submerged: Hidden Depths
Or games I'm interested in! Gimme your lists!

We had three cases of hindus being lynched and murdered for their identity IN A SINGLE DAY, yesterday.
First we have Sahil, who posed as hindu to lure a minor hindu girl and then brutally murdered her when she tried to refuse his advances -
https://m.timesofindia.com/city/delhi/man-stabs-minor-girl-over-20-times-smashes-head-with-stone-in-delhis-shahbad-dairy/articleshow/100587405.cms
Second we have a case of a pregnant dalit woman who was raped and murdered by Mohd. Naved for refusing to convert to Islam -
https://m.timesofindia.com/city/agra/pregnant-dalit-woman-raped-poisoned-to-death-for-refusing-to-convert-2-held/articleshow/100575515.cms
Third, we have the usual weekly lynching of a Kashmiri Hindu, no biggie -
https://m.timesofindia.com/india/circus-worker-from-jammu-killed-in-anantnag/articleshow/100602670.cms
Had the religions been reversed in these cases, there would be global outrage. But this is a daily occurrence in India, even under so called hindu nationalist BJP.
How can any self respecting hindu say with a straight face that this is not a problem?
If this is the condition of hindus when we have a considerable demographic advantage, what kind of future are our grand-kids or great grand-kids looking at?
It's fascinating to see Hindu liberals go on about how love jihad is hindutva propaganda when you have weekly, if not daily, cases like the ones mentioned above.
I do not have any expectations from minorities since they will look out for their community.
But Hindu liberals have always intrigued me, they too refuse to acknowledge that a problem even exists - and even if it does, they seem to subtly insinuate that it's the hindus fault somehow. Or they will go 'eNoUgH oF tHiS hInDu-mUsLiM vRoOo' are just rug it under the carpet.
Why are hindus like this? Is it a gandhian hang over?

Hello, I just made an alt account to ask for safety reasons.
Few days ago I had a car accident. It was 100% my fault I was parked backed and couldn’t see another car parked waiting to leave the parking lot. I apologized, we called the police, we got our Accident report and we exchanged information and left.
My bumper cracked a little bit and his left door was left with a small dent (he was on the right side driving of course) and he didn’t have any passengers with him on the left side.
I believed we were all good as we both seemed to be cool about it considering he had private insurance and I also have with full coverage.
Today and yesterday i kept in touch with my agent to find what would be best and my strategy was originally to pay out of the pocket to prevent downgrading 3 classes for such a small accident.
Today I got the news that he is claiming hospital fees while we were at the parking lot he was completely talkative and normal.
My insurance now is asking me, pay him with my insurance and all covered but I’ll lose 3 ranks or risk it and go with jibaiseki.
I paid for the plus of lawyer fees, should I ask my insurance company if it’s possible to use it? I believe that he is just trying to get free money out of me which seems exaggerated considering the accident level

F
Current Weight: 192 Goal Weight: 170
Ok so here it goes, the past two years I was in a toxic relationship on top of Covid and stressful life issues. Before all the madness started I weighed 165 pounds, my normal weight i maintained throughout college. I didn’t notice it because it was a very even weight gain until it was too late. Around 185 I started trying to workout out but ignorantly I went about it all wrong. I would go everyday aimlessly but just super stressed all the time and did not lose any weight. Also during this time I was binge eating a lot, I was just very stressed due to some situations a car accident my cat died lost my job. Fast forward to January i broke up with my ex and moved to LA my first mission was learning to love myself again by starting to take care of my body. I went to the doctor first because it felt like everything I tried wouldn’t work. I had watched a lot of TikTok and learned about PCOS and just hormone health in general and how it affects weight gain. My doctor didn’t find any issues that made her want to screen for PCOS but I still heed some PCOS advice because I know my body and many of the things online felt applicable to me especially knowing my history with my period and birth control. I started learning about supplements and infused Ashwaganda, Berberine, l Glutamine, omega 3, and probiotics. Anyways from March onwards I started to go to the gym 6-7 days a week twice a day at Equinox. When I started all of this I weighed 202 pounds to start. With going to the gym I felt great and I loved it! I also am eating healthy I cut out carbs and processed foods and incorporated a lot more vegetables. I keep my calorie intake under 1000 calories a day. As of end of April I’ve been on vacation on an island with my fiancée when I came I was 196 when I started now I’m fluctuating between 189-192. I eat healthily and exercise about twice a week here (yesterday I ran 2 miles and walked 3 with my friend). I’m new to all this weight loss stuff and I guess I just feel like after two months I should have lost more than just 10 pounds eating the calories I am. Can anyone help?

I recently started doing uber eats just as a hobby (I like biking around the city in the weekends, so why not make some bucks for it). Most of the time it's fine but yesterday I noticed one of my trips was a lot longer than average. The customer ordered KFC at Den haag center, but his address was somewhere in Voorburg, I am pretty sure that it's outside of Uber eat's zone. From KFC to his address was more than 20 min. And I saw "customer has changed his address" message on the app, so my suspicion is that he cheated his address by: first selecting a random address that's in side Uber eat's zone, then changes to his real address when he saw that the order was confirmed.
Have you experienced something similar? What did you do?

Fanfic name: Pokemon A(sh)/S(erena)
--------------------Continuity and Placement-----------------
After 1 years of MPM Epsiode 11
For Liko and Roy: Somewhere After Pokemon Horizon Epsiode 6-8 and it's subject to change
--------------------Character settings--------------------
Protagionist: Ash and Serena (Of course)
Main Cast: Clemont, Bonnie, Misty, Brock, Gary Oak
Everyone will receive the Mega Evolution
Gary Oak become Professor before the fic starts.
Both Dawn and May become Top Coordinator before the fic starts.
May and Dawn will become Serena's rival.
Chloe is May, Dawn and Serena's apprentice
Pokemon Master scaling from best to worst: Ash >>>> Leon > all 6 Masters
Pokemon Coordinator scaling from best to worst : Dawn = May > Serena > Chloe > Miette > Drew = Zoey
Pokemon Performer scaling from best to worst :Serena > May > Dawn > Aria > Chloe > Miette> Jessie
​
​
--------------------Change from Anime in this fanfic--------------------
-Ash:

• become smarter and more mature at beginning, but still a dense shell (slowly breaks)
• Use Aura and his superhuman strength very often
• Ash will not release any non Pikachu pokemon at beginning, Regularly use his old pokemon and keep switching his party except Pikachu, because in this fanfic, Ash want to spent more time with their old pokemon. However, as the times comes by, Ash will slowly have the fixed team that features with few Paldea Pokemon.
• Some of his Pokemon like Bayleef and Gable will be fully evolved
• Acknowledge that Team Rocket Trio have heart and will display Sympathy to them

**-**Serena:

• will slowly become a better battler than anime counterpart (become as strong as Clemont) , joining battle way more often and will even features with several back-to-back action with Ash

​
-While Bond Transformation is exclusive to Greninja in anime ,in this fanfic bond transformation can also be accessed if the Trainer have unusual high relationship with their Kalos Starter (might subject to change in future) such as Serena-Delphox and Clemont-Chesnaut
​
-Clemont's Chespin will evolve to Chesnaught because of some Lab accident which also blow up the Prism Tower(lol!)
-Up to 6 on hand Pokemon Limit still applys here, but can use some device to replace members in their party as they wish before entering battle, and it can be bypassed by simply befriend with other pokemon rather than caught them in pokeball
-Introduce various of team finisher move which will not be considered as one of the "4 moves"
-4 moves limit are still applies here, but trainers can bypass it by create their very own charge move on their pokemon
-Trainers can use all 6 pokemon at the same time
-Features tons of OC enemy, pokemon or the antagionist that are neither Pokemon nor Humans.
-Bonnie will become part of the team instead of Tagalong Kid and use squishy to help saves the day more often.
-Clemont will become more successful Scientist because he now got the more competent assistant (Clembot MKIII and his Chesnaught)
-Clembot will be upgraded to Clembot MKIII in this fic
-Arceus become way more loyal to Ash into the point that will makes Arceus angry enough to personally
--------------------Miscellaneous--------------------
Everyone will have their official age +1, except Ash who is still stucking at 10 years old (There'll be the story arc which explains why Ash was still 10 years old)
Team rocket trio will be sent to jail at ending of Team Rocket Arc because I feels like they're superfluous in the fanfic. But they might return if I can make use of them and appears as reformed person because they're not entirely bad person I think
Liko and Roy will appear as side characters
Greninja will be actively used, but there'll be few chapter where Ash didn't bring his greninja in his party
Almost everyone will get Mega evolution
Serena will move to Pallet Town and live with Ash, while Clemont, Bonnie and Meyer will temporary living with Ash as well
Calem will appears in this fanfic as cameo alongside with Serena's Game counterpart) , who will appears with Anime Serena at the same time
I might consider to make the Pearlshipping Side Story which will take place before
--------------------------------------Season 1--------------------------------------
--------------------Arc 1: The dream begins and reunion (ep 1-6)--------------------
Type: Storytelling, Action, Romance, Amour
Ash recieved the invite that will makes him reunite with his girlfriend, but he must deal with the plant from giant rock which will eventually not only makes him reunite with his girlfriend, but also reassamble the entire XY cast and makes the story looks like XY sequel (lol!)
Episode 1: Story begins with Ash saw the nightmare where the world being destroyed and even Arceus unable to do anything about it. Then Ash wake up and he just realized that he was invited to see the Pokemon Contest final (Serena Vs Aria) in Kalos, but when Ash went to Kalos, he saw his Greninja being unconscious because of being overworked for cutting wood so many years non stop without taking any break (Lol!)
Episode 2: It's only 1 hours before Pokemon Contest final starts, Ash had sent his Greninja into Pokemon center. Meanwhile Bonnie and Clemont calls Ash that the plant from Giant Rock had nearing the Luminse City. Ash and Lucario attempt to sense where's the source of those plant are but unable to. Meanwhile at this time, Greninja had been fully recovered and returns to Ash!
Episode 3: Greninja had been recovered! With Greninja's help, Ash was finally able to find the source of the Giant Rock- on underground. Clemont used the newly devloped drill to make the tunnel so that Ash (with Pikachu, Lucario and Greninja), Clemont (with Luxray) and Bonnie (With squishy) will able to reach the underground and saw the core of those plants. With the combined effort of Pikachu, Lucario, Greninja, Luxray and Squishy, they was able to destroy the core and stopping the Giant Rock plant once and for all.
Episode 4: After the Giant Rock Plant Core had been Destroyed, Ash had found that the Pokemon Contest final had already begin. Ash was tried to reach Pokemon Contest as soon as possible. At first, Aria's excellent Contest skills makes Serena begin to self-doubt if she could made it, but Ash was eventally managed to arrives and cheers Serena, allowing Serena to unlock Bond Transformation on Her Delphox to become Serena-Delphox and become Kalos Queen (Yes, I made her Kalos Queen that early because I have struggle to write Pokemon Contest chapters)
Episode 5: At last, Ash and Serena had finally reunion! To celebrating Serena become Kalos Queen, Ash was going to buy the new clothes for Serena as suprise gift so that Serena can put her Blue Ribbon back on her chest, but Ash have struggle to do so because Ash know nothing about clothing style, but thanks to Diantha's help, Ash was eventally able to find the clothes that fits Serena and fits her Blue Ribbon.
Episode 6: Ash and Serena say goodbye to Miette, Diantha and May and moved to Pallet town. But at the next day, they found themselves had been trapped inside the crowd as both are now become the celebrity and all of the billboard had their own face! Diantha will teach Ash and Serena must find the way to move around in public
--------------------Clemont single chapter (ep 7)--------------------
Type: Storytelling, Action, Humor
I made this chapter so that I can give Clemont bond transformation form
Episode 7: Clemont was devloping the devloution device which allows the Pokemon to devolve if they accidentally evolved against their will. However, like most of Clemont's device, his devlution device went malfunction and begin to explode and accidentally fully evolved his Chespin into Chesnaught as well! Everyone was managed to escape, but the explosion was so huge that it blows half of the Prism Tower, leaving them homeless and have to temporary move to Pallet town to live with Ash until the Prism Tower had been fully restored. Meanwhile, Xerosic managed escaped from jail and separated Clemont from Bonnie and Meyer. Xerosic's power protector easily overpowers all of his pokemon and his chesnaught! Xerosic was teasing that Clemont's science is terrible, but Clemont determination that the science was supposed to be used for justice allows his chesnaught to unlock the bond transformation to become Clemont-chesnaught, allowing Clemont to defeat Xerosic and sent Xerosic back to jail. Unfortunately, Xerosic was managed to damage the Prism Tower which forcing Clemont, Bonnie and Meyer to living in Ash's house temporarily until the Prism Tower had been rebuilt.
-------------------Ash pidgeot single chapter (ep 8)--------------------
Type: Action
Despite Ash's pidgeot had officially returned to Ash, it's another questions of how long can his pidgeot live with his trainer.....
Episode 8: Tons of Fearow had invaded and caused the huge chaos in Pallet town and steals Serena's blue ribbon! Ash's Pidgeot had found that those Fearow are came from Viridian Forest. Ever since Pidgeot had reunited with Ash, those Fearow had rapidly reproduce, quickly take over the Viridian Forest and begin to spread out of nowhere! Those Fearow demands Ash's Pidgeot in exchange for those Pidgey and Pidgeotto's life and the Blue Ribbon. Ash and Pidgeot arrived Viridian Forest but those Pidgey and Pidgeotto told them not to leave his Pidgeot here because they thinks that the Pidgeot was belong to Ash and Ash refuse to leave his Pidgeot here. Those Fearow now attempt to hurt those Pidgey and Pidgeotto and ate the Blue Ribbon! Ash Mega Evolved his Pidgeot to fight against those Fearow but being slowly outnumbered by those Fearow. On the verge of Ash's Pidgeot's defeat, those Pidgey and Pidgetto had evolved into Pidgeot and helps Ash's Pidgeot to defeat those Fearow and give Ash back the Blue Ribbon, ending those Fearow's threat once and for all! Ash and his Pidgeot was bid farewell to those Pidgeot and give the Blue Ribbon back to Serena, now Ash's Pidgeot can live with Ash forever!
--------------------Ash single chapter (ep 9)--------------------
Type: Adventure
Ash will caught Dunsparce in this episode
Epsiode 9: After 27 years of failure, Ash had finally caught his most longed wanted Dunsparce ! (which will later evolve into the rare 3 segment dundunsparce by TM him Hyper Drill)
​
--------------------The Muted Princess of Hoenn Arc (ep 10-12)--------------------
Type: Adventure, Humor
May, the Princess of Hoenn had been diagnosed spasmodic dysphonia and become inability to speak like Red) did! Meanwhile, Ash and Serena being sent to Hoenn in very funny way and reunited with May and Max! This epsiode also features
​
Epsiode 10: Team Rocket trio caught Ash's Pikachu once again! Ash jump to the Team Rocket ballon to save Pikachu while having Serena caught his feet, but Ash had end up makes the Team Rocket ballon explodes and sent Ash, Pikachu and Serena to Hoenn! (lol!). May and Max meet Ash and Serena once again and was surprised why Ash would hugging Serena so tight and lying on the ground (lol)! Ash and Serena attempt greets May and Max but May didn't speak and respond with sign language! Max then told Ash and Serena's sad news about May become inability to speak because of the spasmodic dysphonia! Knowing that Jirachi will took 980 years to become useable again, Max decided to find which pokemon can cure May.
Serena will get Absol in this epsiode
Epsiode 11: While May and Max was staying at their home to find if there's any pokemon to makes May can speak again, Ash and Serena went outside and saw the Absol laying down outside and end up seriously injured.
Epsiode 12: After Serena caught Absol, Max had found that the only way to makes May can speak again is to find the Unown, and Molly is the only person who can use Unown to make May speaks again. Ash, Serena, May and Max went to greenfield and found Molly to use unown to spell "May Speak" so that May can speak again
------------------Arc 3: Team Rocket invasion (ep 13-21)--------------------
Type: Action
XY/XYZ cast had finally reassambled! But let's not forget about that they must deal with the very first and longest lasting villain organization-Team Rocket!
Epsiode 13: Gary had reunited with Ash, where former had become the Pokemon Professor. Gary brings Ash and Serena to visit the extension of Professor Oak's laboratory (Clemont and Bonnie was here too!). Meanwhile, Giovanni had arrived the laboratory and defeated Professor Oak. Gary came out and fight against Giovanni once again and.....lose once again. Meanwhile, the Team Rocket Grunts kidnapped Professor Oak while they're battling and Giovanni had left the laboratory!
Epsiode 14: Giovanni kidnapped Professor Oak to Team Rocket base to make Professor Oak works for him. Ash and Gary was thinking about how to save Giovanni. Meanwhile, the Team Rocket trio appears once again and attempt to steal his Pikachu, but Misty and Brock arrives and saves Ash's Pikachu. Ash respond with a heavy heart as Ash aware that this might be their last time to prepare for trouble as Ash had decided to destroy Team Rocket once and for all (Yes, he feels sympathy for those Team Rocket Trio because he aware that Team Rocket Trio have heart) and Ash's pikachu sent Team Rocket Trio flying once again like usual!
Epsiode 15: Thanks to Clemont's science, Ash, Misty, Brock and Gary was able to track down the location of Team Rocket base. Clemont gives Ash the device which allows Ash to freely switch his Pokemon party anywhere and anytime. Ash, Misty, Brock and Gary went to Team Rocket base while leaving Serena, Clemont and Bonnie at Ash's house. Ash, Misty, Brock and Gary charging towards Team Rocket Base and begin the final battle against Team Rocket!
Epsiode 16: Ash, Misty, Brock and Gary fight against thousands of Team Rocket Grunts who "Welcomed" them. But they slowly outnumbered by those Team Rocket Grunts and they realized that those Team Rocket Grunts are here to buying Giovanni's time! Misty and Brock decided to stay here and clean the road for Ash and Gary to reach Team Rocket Base! Meanwhile, Professor Oak had been tied into the chair which extract his knowledge about the pokemon.
Epsiode 17: Ash and Gary was finally managed to find Giovanni and Professor Oak. Giovanni transfer his consciousness into the Armored Mewtwo (this Mewtwo is different from the first movie one and it's nothing more than Giovanni's new body) while Gary was going to save Professor Oak. Serena, Clemont and Bonnie saw the news about Ash is fighting Armored Mewtwo and decided to head to Team Rocket base together with the help of met Korrina, Alain and Diantha. Meanwhile, Ash had been defeated by Giovanni and being tied outside the Team Rocket base!
Epsiode 18: Clemont, Bonnie and Serena met Korrina, Alain and Diantha to rescue Ash, but being interrupted by the artifical pokemon army. Meanwhile Giovanni was about to end Ash's life, but being stopped by Gary. Inside Ash's mental world, Aaron was teaching Ash to master Aura power. After Ash mastered the Aura power, Ash breaks free with his newly mastered Aura power and team up with Gary to fight against Giovanni.
Epsiode 19: Thanks to Ash and Gary's excellent teamwork, in addition of Ash's mastered Aura power, Giovanni had been easily defeated and Giovanni's mewtwo armor had been teared apart. At the same time, Misty, Brock, Serena, Clemont, Bonnie, Korrina, Alain and Diantha had defeated al of the grunts and artifical pokemon army and reunited with Ash and Gary. Meanwhile, Giovanni still refused to give up, he used the knowledge that being extracted from Professor Oak to create the gigantic ultimate pokemon called Chimera. Giovanni insert his consciousness into Chimera and razed half of Pallet Town into ground!
Epsiode 20: Despite the combined effort of Ash, Gary, Misty, Brock, Serena, Clemont, Bonnie, Korrina, Alain and Diantha, Chimera was proven too much for those heroes to handle! Chimera then begin to cover the entire sky with the black smoke which will slowly turns all pokemon all over the world into shadow pokemon! Seems there's nothing to stop him, the real mewtwo appears and helps those hero to fight against Chimera. Meanwhile, Ash's Greninja was managed to use his extrasensory to emulate almost all of Pokemon moveset while his Lucario's aura power had been enchanced which allows his Lucario to create the spirit bomb sized aura sphere. Ash, his pikachu, Greninja and Lucario eventally able to blown Chimera to pieces and sent Giovanni's consciousness back to his human body. Ash came in front of Giovanni and about to kills him with Aura sphere, but Serena, and later the newly arrived Team Rocket Trio pleding Ash not to. Following Giovanni, Team Rocket Trio and rest of Team Rocket member being arrested, Team Rocket had finally being taken down for good. Korrina, Alain and Diantha say goodbye to Ash, Gary, Misty, Brock, Serena, Clemont and Bonnie as Korrina, Alain and Diantha head back to Kalos. Ash and Team Rocket Trio made the promise that they'll be travel together once the Team Rocket Trio served their sentence
Epsiode 21: Few days after Team Rocket being taken down, Ash, Gary, Misty, Brock, Serena, Clemont and Bonnie made the celebration for that.
--------------------------------------Season 2--------------------------------------
--------------------Arc 4: Ash being dense shell (ep 22-24)--------------------
Type: Storytelling, Action, character building, emotion
The world had back to it's peace following the shut down of Team Rocket. However, Ash's dense shell kick in ane he'll will learn the the hard way about what will happen for being dense shell
Epsiode 22: Ever since Ash become much stronger since the Team Rocket fight, he begin to become arrogant and addicted in Pokemon Battle! (Yes, typical dense shell Ash for ya) He begin to refuse other people's help and even end up having Quarrel with Serena! Ash ragequit his house and being attacked by Damian, who is looking for revenge of his charamder's betrayal. Despite Ash become lot stronger since they last met, Damian's newly obtained Psychic power and his Charizards army (Mega charizard X and Y, Gigantmaxed Charizard and Shadow Charizard that Damian created with his Psychic power) was proven even more ahead of Ash, but Ash's bond between pokemon quickly turns the table! While Ash was about to defeat Damian, his Pikachu suddenly unleashed the large amount of power and went berserk!
Epsiode 23: Having his pikachu went berserk, Ash had slowly realized that he's only care about Pokemon and become megalomaniac had corrupted his bond with pikachu! He begin to feels sorry about how he treat his friends especially Serena. Ash was later apogoized to Serena and his friends and slowly reconcile with each other and discuss how to bring his pikachu back to control. With the combined effort of Serena and his friends, Ash was eventually able to bring his pikachu back to sense.
Episode 24: Those evil Malamar had finally returned to present and attempt to brainwash Ash and Serena once again, but Clemont used his device to prevent the brainwash from happening! **Ash and Serena was quickly blows those evil Malamar into ashes but the energy crystals absorbs those evil Malamar's body and activated and quickly defeated all of their pokemon except Pikachu. That energy crystals attempt to shoot laser on ground and Ash have only pikachu left to stop that energy crystal! Ash's feelings resonance with pikachu which allows pikachu utilized that power once again to **create the deadly new move for pikachu: Ragnerok!
--------------------Single Pokeshipping chapter (ep 25)--------------------
Type: Story telling, Action
Misty must find the balance between traveling with Ash and her gym.
Episode 25: Misty had been tired of her having to do all three jobs from her 3 Irresponsible sisters, which making her leave her gym behind and went to Ash's house. Ash was suprised how Misty would willing to give up her gym for that Meanwhile, Damian hijacked Misty's gym and kidnapped Daisy, Lily, and Violet, to demands Misty in exchange her gym and her sisters. Ash and Misty worked together to defeat Damian and saved all 3. Misty's 3 sisters apogoized for over-reliance the gym operation to Misty alone and promised Misty that they'll become more responsible for their gyms. Misty give her gym back to her sisters and says goodbye to them.
--------------------------------------Alola Arc -------------------------------------
Ash,Serena, Misty, Clemont, Bonnie and Brock will go to Alola and meet Ash's classmates.
Lillie will merge with the Shiny Nihiliego with same name#Lillie) in this Arc
Ash,Serena, Misty, Clemont, Bonnie and Brock went to Alola for vacation and reunited with Ash's classmates. Meanwhile, the parallel version of Lusamine (from Pokemon Sun and Moon game) had went to this universe using the Ultra Wormholes and kidnapped the Shiny Lillie#Lillie) for parallel Lusamine's evil deed! Ash and his Alola classmate must find the way to recuse the Shiny Lillie and stop the Alola from being invaded by the Ultra Beast army!
--------------------------------------Planned Future story Arc:--------------------------------------
Pokemon Contest Arc (Mittie vs Serena) or:
Features with May vs Dawn, but I don't know who should win the contest. If May wins, Serena will encounter May and if Dawn wins, Serena will encounter Dawn. Serena will lose either way.
Wallce Cup Arc(May vs Dawn, Chloe vs May, Chloe vs Dawn, Dawn vs Serena) or:
countine the romance amour with Ash arc: (Should I? But I really suck at writing those)
--------------------------------------Oizys Arc (adopted from this one shot): --------------------------------------
Type: Action, Deconstruction Fic, drama, passion, Original Story, Fantasy, Meta
Warning: Starting at this Arc, the typical Amour and even anime Pokemon logic will be thrown out the window and replaced with the original plot that you might not asked for!
Warning: This Story Arc features with full of ridiculousness, rather dark story, in-face towards TPC and filled with heavy irony and even fourth wall break etc. Please watch at your discretion! If you want something closer to Pokemon Anime, skip to Paldea Arc.
Ash teachs Goh how to take care of Pokemon, but Goh's dark side came to manifest as its own entirely separate, physical entity called Oizys, Goh's evil counterpart who is the psychopath pokemon hunter (a parody of many chinese amourshipping fic features with Goh as antagionist), Goh was paralyzed with fear after witnessing his evil counterpart's cruelty and end up in coma for a while. Oizys steal all Serena's pokemon, all Ash's ace (including his Greninja) and almost managed to steal his pikachu but his pikachu managed to free all of Ash's ace and Serena's pokemon, Ash and Serena got the upper hand and defeats Oizys, but Ash being posessed by Oizys in front of Serena's eyes and defeated almost every single Ash's traveling partner, all 7 Pokemon Masters , Gary Oak and Serena. But Serena was eventally managed to free Ash from Oizys control. After defeating Oizys, Goh finally wake up and learned the harsh lesson about how to take care of his pokemon.
--------------------------------------Season 3--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------gossip Arc (adopted from this one shot): --------------------------------------
Type: Deconstruction Fic, drama, Original Story, Break Fourth Wall, humor
​
Warning: Another original plot which full of ridiculousness, filled with heavy irony and even fourth wall break sans Action. Please watch at your discretion! If you want something closer to Pokemon Anime, skip to Paldea Arc.
Ash and Serena must find a way to debunk various of the fake news (like Liko is Ash and Serena's daughter) that damaging their reputations and free Liko from being cyberbullied. In addition, they'll also met Nemona marks the first appearance in this Arc and will join Ash's team!
--------------------------------------Paldea Arc 1--------------------------------------
Ash and Serena finally went to Paldea for first time, Liko, Roy and Necoma finally join Ash's team in this Arc.
Ash, Serena, Roy, Liko and Nemona will meet Steven to obtain the Tera Orb to Terastalize their Pokemon.
Ash will also caught the Paldea flying type Pokemon here
--------------------------------------Kalos Queen defend Arc --------------------------------------
The new season of Pokémon Showcase begins! Can Serena Defend her Kalos Queen title?
--------------------------------------"Shipping War" Arc (adopted from This one shot): --------------------------------------
Warning: This Story Arc features with full of ridiculousness, rather dark story, in-face towards TPC and filled with heavy irony and even fourth wall break etc. Please watch at your discretion! If you want something closer to Pokemon Anime, skip to Paldea Arc.
Type: Deconstruction Fic, drama, Original Story, Break Fourth Wall, humor
After The giant blue bird had makes Serena and Misty , all Ash's female travel companion and even all humans in pokemon kills each other until there's only 1 left against their will! Ash was able to free all of his friend before any tragic happens but that giant blue bird absorbed Serena and begin to spread all over the world! The only way to save Serena is to have Ash insert the feelings toward Serena into the water shuriken to open the hole out of Twitter's physical body so that Ash can save Serena.
--------------------------------------Season 4--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------Ash's 10 years old truth Arc Prequel (adopted from this one shot**):**--------------------------------------
Type: Deconstruction Fic, drama, Original Story, Amour, Break Fourth Wall, romance, character building, Action
Warning: Another original plot which full of ridiculousness, rather dark story, in-face towards TPC, filled with heavy irony and even fourth wall break! Please watch at your discretion! If you want something closer to Pokemon Anime, skip to Paldea Arc.
After Ash and Serena discovered the truth about Ash's being cursed with eternal 10 years old which might potentially eventally wipe away his character development and revert him back to the 10 years old stupid dense shell like in Uvona, Ash and Serena got psychological shadow and escape from reality by living in their own dream and refuse to wake up. However, Ash and Serena would eventually overcome their fear and . It'll also features with the cameo appearance of Calem and Game Serena.
--------------------------------------Fanfic Flashback Special Single Epsiode--------------------------------------
Type: Crossover, Flashback
After Calem being freed from Camel's possessing, Ash, Serena, Calem and Serena (Game) will meet each other and share their life experience before sending Calem and Serena (Game) back to their own universe.
​
--------------------------------------Tobias Arc:--------------------------------------
Type: Deconstruction Fic, drama, Original Story, Amour, Break Fourth Wall, romance, Amour, character building, Action
Warning: This Story Arc features with full of ridiculousness, rather dark story, in-face towards TPC and filled with heavy irony and even fourth wall break etc. Please watch at your discretion!
Tobias was revealed to be the "Ash's dream crusher", so strong that not even the combined effort of 7 Pokemon Master can stop him! This Arc features with the return and the final battle against Oizys and Damian.
--------------------------------------Ash's 10 years old Arc: --------------------------------------
Type: Deconstruction Fic, Original Story, Amour, Break Fourth Wall, romance, Humor
Warning: This Story Arc features with full of ridiculousness, rather dark story, in-face towards TPC and filled with heavy irony and even fourth wall break etc. Please watch at your discretion!
Last Story Arc where Ash is still 10 years old
Ash finally defeated Tobias, but Ash's 10 years old curse had finally reverted Ash back to the tough dense shell. Ash's friend and Serena must find the way to break that curse to stop Ash from being 10 years old and bring the mature Ash back.
​
--------------------------------------Oshi no Ko crossoveIdol industry dark truth Arc:--------------------------------------
Type: crossover, drama, Break Fourth Wall, Humor
Warning: This Story Arc features with full of ridiculousness, rather dark story, heavy irony, fourth wall break etc. Please watch at your discretion!
Ash finally grown up! Serena was being invited to went to Japan for the performance but eventually rejected after she discovered the shocking, ugly truth of the idol industry in Japan. Officer Jenny gives the secret mission for Ash, Team Rocket Trio (served their sentence), Latias and Team Rocket Trio's Ditto will camouflage as Serena, Dawn, May and Chloe to sneak into those idol industry and debunk the dirty act in idol industry in Japan, while the real Serena, Dawn, May and Chloe will appeals to her fans all over the world to boycott such dirty act in idol industry in Japan.
--------------------------------------TBA Arc--------------------------------------

I am a 27M 250lbs, have no medical issues, I take no drugs, do not smoke, occasionally have a rum and coke . Only medications I've taken is 200mg ibuprofen twice today to keep off inflammation and as pain med, also got what i believe was lidocaine as anesthesia today. I'm from Belize, Central America.
I don't know how to make this short. So thankyou in advance to everyone who replies and reads this. So I had an accident today. I was loading sheet metal sheets 28g (20' 8'') on a trailer with a coworker today. I didn't have any gloves with me. I do like to wear proper ppe when possible and available.
I live in Belize a third world country so not all gear is available or affordable here. Still not an excuse...
Anyways one of the sheets wasn't all the way forward on the trailer. So I grabbed the end to pull it forward, my coworker saw i was struggling and quickly pushed from the other end.
the sheet suddenly moves forward and i get no time to move my hand resulting in the sheet sliding forward suddenly and my left middle finger gets caught between the sheet and a bar at the end of the trailer.
I knew immediately that i would have a cut since i felt my bone stopped the sheet. Got a small deep laceration across the bottom of my finger. I immediately checked for movement in my finger and found the bottom segments moved but couldnt get the top segment (fingertip) to move.
Finger quickly turned slightly pale and felt a little numb settle in fast but I had full contact feeling everywhere. Went straight to the local clinic they did a great job stitching it up, got 3 stitches. They didnt seem to think any tendons were cut.
My finger has feeling in it but still has felt numb the entire day. happened at 930 this morning. My question is, is it even possible that the tendon is cut? With the cut being so low i thought the tendon would start further up? If i need to get the tendon reattached I'm planning to drive an hour to the city tomorrow to a hospital that i can trust and one that i trust to do quality work.
Do i need an x-ray or ct scan? I know a hospital 20min away that id trust to do the scans but not to cut and search for the tendon and reattach it. I'm also thinking with the whole area kinda numbed. I may just be paranoid. To me their in-action seemed to imply that i was mostly just being paranoid at the clinic. The nurse said she could barely get the head of her q-tip in the cut... but i know its my bone that stopped that sheet.
I'm not faulting the nurse in the least, she said I should wait and see once the anesthesia wore off and i gave it a day to heal. its been over 12hours and I still cant seem to move my fingertip. Is there any more info you need? I'll see if it works to add 2 photos in the comments, otherwise i may need to upload to imgur :-/.
I appreciate all replies...

So first of all I hope you all are doing well and have a beautiful day💜
Today May 30th is the birthday of my gf and Moass would be a pretty good present but even if not, yesterday I had a long and vivid dream where me, my brother and other friends shipped a rocket and later lived in a futuristic city on the moon reminding me of Japan.
Took me a long while to realise how many parallels my dream had with Moass, but it would just be unnecessary to list all the small points.
Nevertheless my Ape fam I'm jacked to the tits and I always said I want to have dream about moass once its happening 🔥
How was your Moass dream and how did you feel after waking up?
Edit: haha who reported me for having harmful thoughts?

Hi all, Me and my wife arrived in Cappadocia yesterday evening and we did the ATV tour which was amazing. We were expecting to do balloons, however these were cancelled due to weather conditions. We have a car we’ve hired from the airport. Could you kindly recommend any places that I can drive up to and enjoy I’ve already got the underground city on my list Many thanks!

TLDR: I broke up with him 2 days after his mom’s wedding. He never really showed me appreciation and never even brought me flowers or anything sweet. Apparently he is always broke and personally i am not. I have a salary job where he still works dead end jobs in the city. I felt like his life wasn’t going anywhere. However i liked him very much and the breakup was hard for me. We got into an argument and he said the last time we had sex was clarity. I ended up blocking him on everything. He ended up blocking me back on twitter about 5 days after I blocked him. He just unblocked me yesterday and now is tweeting about spoiling his new girlfriend with money and gifts. Knowing he didn’t do any of that with me. So what do you think, any advice ?

I just got approved to be a wag walker yesterday, but there is nobody looking for a dog walker in my area. I'm pretty disappointed since I paid $50 for the background check and now I'm not even going to break even. Anyone have any suggestions? Part of me wonders if I'm just using the app wrong since I don't see anything on the available services page but I feel like there must be at least one person signed up for wag in my area. (for context i live in Palm Beach County, Florida. So not a huge city but definitely not rural)

Memorial Day weekend has come and gone, and if you weren't in any of the big crowds for Blink 182, Paramore, Taylor Swift/Phoebe Bridgers, or the musical festivals happening on along the east coast, you might itching for some live music this week. June means beach season is here and that means beach shows, with Rippers opening this weekend. Plus, Paramore is still in town, playing a pair of shows with Bloc Party, not to mention tour stops by AJJ, Thrice, Panchiko and Young the Giant, and yet another sellout for Bill Joel, who returns to make up December's cancelled show.
If you're new to this sub or just passing through, each week I try to highlight the "best" upcoming rock, punk, indie and alternative shows. I scour the web and social media for concert announcement, booking, rescheduling, etc., and then pick which shows are vying for my time and money (or which would've been if they weren't sold out). This is not intended to be an exhaustive list as there are other non-reddit resources that cast a wider net on live shows, including pop, hip hop and comedy shows, but feel free to add any missing shows using the comments (especially for other genres).
As usual, listed times are approximate start times (not door); prices are estimates for door tickets, and do not include online fees and taxes.

TUESDAY MAY 30

Brutus + Trixie Whitley @ Gramercy Theatre, 7pm ($20)
^LPR15 Panchiko + Horse Jumper of Love + LSD & the Search for God @ (le) poisson rouge, 7:30pm (SOLD OUT)
Paramore + Bloc Party + Genesis Owusu @ Madison Square Garden, 7pm ($185+)
Voice of Gowanus Fundraiser @ Public Records, 7pm ($50+) feat. Yo La Tengo + Marc Ribot + The Martin Bisi Collective
Peppermint + Sheer Curtains + Scout Gillett @ Purgatory, 8pm ($15)

WEDNESDAY MAY 31

Mega Bog + Mary Jane Dunphe + Shallowhalo @ Baby's All Right, 7pm ($15)
Cinema Stare + Leisure Hour + Good Looking Friends + Fear Not Ourselves Alone @ Bar Freda, 8pm ($15)
Leor Miller's Fear of Her Own Desire + Mt. Worry + Fat Trout Trailer Park + Bedridden @ The Broadway, 8:30pm ($15)
Unwed Sailor + Caravela + Spa @ The Kingsland, 8pm ($15)
^LPR15 Panchiko + Horse Jumper of Love + LSD & the Search for God @ (le) poisson rouge, 7:30pm (SOLD OUT)
Paramore + Bloc Party + Genesis Owusu @ Madison Square Garden, 7pm ($185+)
Heart Attack Man + Super American + Arm's Length + Photocopy @ Racket, 7pm ($20)
Bridge City Sinners + Crazy and the Brains @ Saint Vitus, 8pm ($20)
Michael Ian Cummings^{EP release show} + Alex Orange Drink + CUTTTERS + SUO @ The Sultan Room, 8pm ($17)
Pons + Dolly Spartans + Consumables + Bosco Mujo @ Union Pool, 8pm ($15)
AJJ + Oceanator + Gladie @ Webster Hall, 8pm ($25)

THURSDAY JUNE 1

Jelly Kelly^{album release show} + Skorts + Le Big Zero + Brodeo @ ALPHAVILLE, 9pm ($12)
Pride Month Kickoff Party @ Brooklyn Made, 8pm ($20) feat. partygirl + Laura Danae + Monarch + Tula Vera + LEONE
Big Wreck + Mick's Jaguar @ Gramercy Theatre, 7pm ($30)
Atlas Engine + Diary + Lukka + Endearments @ Rubulad, 8:30 ($12)
Tristen + Colatura + BenBen @ The Sultan Room, 8pm ($15)
Thrice ^{The Artist in the Ambulance 20th Anniversary tour} + Holy Fawn @ Terminal 5, 8pm (SOLD OUT)

FRIDAY JUNE 2

Massa Nera + Trophy Hunt + Common Sage @ The Broadway, 9pm ($15)
Onesie ^{"What You Kill" single + music video release show} + Nite Music + The Roulettes @ East Williamsburg Econolodge, 9pm ($5)
Dreamers + Robert DeLong @ Elsewhere - The Hall, 7pm ($25)
Billy Joel @ Madison Square Garden, 8pm (SOLD OUT) ^{Rescheduled from Dec. 19, 2022}
Fenne Lily & Christian Lee Hutson + Why Bonnie @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, 8pm ($25)
Climates + No Kill + North by North + AK & the Hallucinations @ Our Wicked Lady, 8pm ($15)
Wince + Bleary Eyed + Screenager @ Trans-Pecos, 8pm ($12)
Jeromes Dream + Elizabeth Colour Wheel + Venus Twins @ TV EYE, 8pm ($15)
Gorgeous + Gold Dime + Fred Cracklin + Free Casino @ The Windjammer, 9pm ($15)

SATURDAY JUNE 3

The New Colossus Festival presents Summer Saturdays @ 18th Ward Brewing, 1pm (FREE) feat. The Big Easy + Abby Jeanne + Sara Devoe + Telescope Club
New Pope + Tiers La Familia + parlor walls @ Mama Tried, 4pm (FREE)
Bueno ^{single release show} + Zero Point Energy + Rebecca Ryskalczyk + Scarlet @ ALPHAVILLE, 9pm ($15)
Monarch + The Poster Child + North By North + Amalia Juliane @ Berlin, 7:30pm ($12)
L.O.T.I.O.N. + Multinational Corporation + Abuso de Poder + Abism @ The Broadway, 9pm ($15)
Miracle Sweepstakes + Phantom Handshakes + Harper Love @ East Williamsburg Econolodge, 9pm ($5)
^{LPR15 - IN THE ROUND} Pissing Jeans + Carnivorous Bells + Shop Talk @ (le) poisson rouge, 7:30pm ($20)
Wunderhorse + Glom @ Mercury Lounge, 9:30pm (SOLD OUT)
Young the Giant + Milky Chance + TALK @ Pier 17 - Rooftop, 6pm (SOLD OUT)
Blue Note Jazz Festival Presents Bruce Hornsby & The Noisemakers + John Scofield + Kenny Garrett + Christian McBride @ Town Hall, 8pm ($60+)
^{Fear City Presents} OH BONDAGE, UP YOURS! - Night 1@ TV EYE, 8pm ($20/30) feat. Baby Shakes + Natalie Sweet + Josephine Network + The Out-Sect + The High Kinks + Civil Rats + Sweat + The Dracu-Las + The Wanderers
Semaphore + Velvet + Percocet @ The Windjammer, 9pm ($15)

SUNDAY JUNE 4

Young the Giant + Milky Chance + TALK @ Pier 17 - Rooftop, 6pm (SOLD OUT)
^{Fear City Presents} OH BONDAGE, UP YOURS! - Night 2@ TV EYE, 8pm ($20/30) feat. Mel Machete + Killer Kin + Vixen 77 + Soraia + Revelatours + Loretta + Tits Dick Ass + WifeKnife + Not All Heroes

Cover Art!
Just because you’re transported to another world, doesn’t mean you’ll escape from your pain.
Abused by her parents, thirteen-year-old Frances only wants to be safe and for her life not to hurt so much. And when she and her class are transported to the magical world of Durannon to fight the monsters invading the human kingdoms and defeat the self-titled Demon King, Frances is presented with a golden opportunity. If she succeeds, Frances will have the home she never had. If she fails, Frances will be summoned back to the home she escaped.
Yet, despite her newfound magic and friends, Frances finds that trauma is not so easily lost. She is dogged by her abuse and its physical and invisible scars. Not only does she have to learn magic, she has to survive the nightmares of her past, and wrestle with her feelings of doubt and self-loathing.
If she can heal from her trauma, though, she might be able to defeat the Demon King and maybe, just maybe, she can find a home for herself.
Teaser: The Traditionalists last stand...
[The Beginning] [<=Chapter 188] [Chapter Index and Blurb] [Chapter 189 on June 5 or now on patreon]
The Fractured Song Index
Discord Channel Just let me know when you arrive in the server that you’re a Patreon so you can access your special channel.
The first sign that something wasn’t quite the same about the Greenway was when Frances, Timur and their company spotted horsemen in the far distance. They would have assumed this was Thorgoth’s scouts, but these horsemen retreated toward the Greenway and entered into the broken fortifications.
So the group entered into the Greenway fully armored and armed, ready for a fight. They rode into the underground highway, travelled for a full second day and saw nothing the matter.
Then they entered Kairon Aoun.
The ancient goblin city of Kairon Aoun had been built as a defensive city facing north. As such, the city in the great cavern it was carved out of was stepped into four tiers. To access each of the levels, the attacker would have to fight their way up a ramp that ran up the side of the rammed-earth foundation of each tier.
Every tier’s edge was also faced with a brick curtain wall with machicolations built into the ramparts. This was so that stones and other objects could be dropped, wherein they would fall down the steeply stoped sides and slam into the attackers. Many of these ramparts had fallen into disrepair when Morgan, Hattie and Frances had last passed through here.
Except, the moment Frances and her company rode through the Greenway and into the city, they could see it was alive with activity. New ramparts were being built atop of the old. In the distance, they could see old houses had been demolished and cannon batteries had been set up. Holes in the walls were being patched.
“What’s even lighting this whole thing?” Tara whispered.
Morgan pointed at the ceiling. “The ventilation shafts provide some light. I’m not sure how they ended up lighting the entire place up, though.”
“Combination of mirrors through said shafts and a goodly amount of torches,” said Timur. He glanced at Frances. “Did you know about this?”
“No I did not, let’s hope they recognize us as friendly. Colonel Tara, we’ll take the lead,” said Frances, touching her heels to her horse.
The gatehouse on the lowest level, which was protected by a low, thick wall, now swung open and a wing of cavalry rode out, Erisdalian and Lightning Battalion standards flying high.
Timur immediately recognized the troll that lead the group. “Aloudin! It’s me! We’re back!”
Captain Aloudin, eyes wide, broke his horse into a gallop. Riding ahead of the cavalry, he only stopped so that he could slap his hand into Timur’s. “Your Highness, it is good to see you. Though, you really ought not to take such risks! Who are these new arrivals?”
The prince chuckled, squeezing his friend’s hand tightly. “One of those rumored orphan brigades who decided to defect.” Timur gestured behind him. “This is Colonel Tara, who risked her life along with her troops to help us escape.”
Riding up, Tara unsheathed her saber, which she presented it to Aloudin, only for the troll to gently push it back to her.
“There’s no need for that, Colonel. We do things quite differently around here.”
Tara sighed, returning her blade to her scabbard. “I’m beginning to see that. Makes me wonder why I didn’t try to leave earlier.”
“The first step is always the hardest,” said Frances. She shook Aloudin’s hand as well. “What’s going on here, Aloudin? I know our long term goal was to fortify Kairon-Aoun, but we hadn’t the manpower to spare.”
The captain pursed his lips before they twisted into something between a grimace and a smirk. “We got some important news and new orders. I’ll show you. Follow me.”
One thing that Ayax and Elizabeth hadn’t accounted for when they ran up into the attic was the lack of a water source, and any way to dispose of waste.
So by the next day of their hiding, the trio stuck in the attack were wearing cloth masks, thirsty as hell, and hoping the odor wasn’t going to alert anybody.
“This shit stinks,” Leila growled.
Elizabeth touched a hand to Leila’s cheek. The girl’s color had returned and after some very reluctant healing by Ayax, she was now able to sit up. “You’re right, but I think you’re much better now.”
“I feel better.” Leila staggered to her feet, pushing the covers off of her. “Does Janize know you found me?”
Ayax snorted. “We told her while you were napping. She’s pissed.” The troll walked over. “Do you think you’re ready to move?”
“I take it you’ve come up with something?” Leila asked.
Elizabeth pursed her lips. “Yes. You need to convince Janice we need to launch the attack now.”
“Excuse me what? Are you insane? We haven’t—” Leila rubbed her sweat-matted hair with her bandaged hands. “Wait, how long have I been captured?’
“ A week. You were out for one of those days,” said Ayax.
“Then you’re right. Darius will have to make a move now that he knows I’ve disappeared. Wait, Janize doesn’t—Of course she doens’t. She’s cautious by nature. Get her on the mirror right now!”
“You could use please,” said Elizabeth, handing Leila her mirror.
“Leila—”
“Janize, there’s no time. You need to barricade yourself in a safe place with as many guards as possible, perhaps the throneroom and get the attack started by tonight.”
Frowning, the queen’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the mirror with a mixture of confusion. “Love, we haven’t finished preparing—”
“There’s no time! Darius and Scarlet know I’ve been rescued. They’ll attack as soon as they get everything in order because they know you can move to arrest them!” Leila put her hands up to the mirror. “Love, they’ll stop at nothing until you’re dead.”
Janize’s eyes widened and she whispered, “What did they—”
“It doesn’t matter, Janize. Please, you need to issue the orders now!”
The queen exhaled slowly. “Alright. Ayax, Elizabeth, are your forces in place?”
Elizabeth, relaxing a little, smiled. “Martin and Ginger found a way to get to the Water Tower and to deploy reinforcements into the palace. We still need your troops to ensure the Water Tower’s guns are silent and for the main gates of the citadel to be opened to us.”
“It will be done. How are you getting out of Darius’s mansion?” Janize asked.
“When the attack takes place we’ll break out and support the attack,” said Ayax, arms crossed.
Janize pursed her lips. “Then we are going for tonight?”
The three exchanged a glance and all nodded.
“Go for tonight,” said Elizabeth. “Good hunting.”
“Good hunting.” Janize leaned forward, peering intently through the mirror. “Leila, stay alive. No matter what they did to you, you’re still mine you hear me? I still want you by my side.”
Leila blinked. She blinked again furiously and pressed her bandaged hands to her eyes. “I…Janize, thank you.”
Janize smiled. “I love you, dear. See you soon.”
Ayax had turned from the exchange. When the mirror was shut off, she let out a long, shuddering exhale.
“You are terribly lucky to have her,” she said.
Standing up, Elizabeth took Ayax’s elbow, squeezing it gently. The troll placed a hand around Elizabeth’s side, hugging her tightly.
Leila could only bow her head. “I know.”
“Because I probably would have killed you if it weren’t for her,” hissed the troll. She swallowed. “And not because of our agreement.”
The Otherworlder looked up. “Why then?”
Biting her lip Ayax stammered, “I couldn’t kill someone who doesn’t want to hurt me when they have a loved one. There’s no…no justice in that.”
With that, Ayax walked to the corner of the attack. Elizabeth gave Leila a look. “When you’re ready, we ought to call George and the Otherworlders, give them a heads up and communicate our plans.” Elizabeth then ran after Ayax, interweaving her fingers with the troll. They left Leila standing in her corner, in her own thoughts.
Half-choking, her hate-filled grunts punctuated by hacking coughs, Jessica followed Ginger down the sewer.
“I hate you. I hate you so fucking much!” she hissed.
Half-gagging herself from the smell, Ginger glanced over her shoulder and shrugged. “Hey, I just suggested it to you. You wanted to help rescue Leila.”
Two middle-fingers was Jessica’s response along with a chuckle from the Erisdalians that were part of Jessica’s unit and new band of comrades.
Ginger joined them in their chuckling. She knew she could rely on Jessica and the rest of her group. Besides, their attack was going to be much easier than what her fiance was going to be doing up high.
Taking cover behind a slightly holed house, Martin examined the area in front of the citadel.
The Lightning Battalion’s batteries had been keeping up a very long barrage. Mortars and long cannon had pounded the makeshift defense line of houses on Castle Way. After hours of bombardment, they’d breached the line.
The result was flat, rubble-covered broken ground that led up to the moat in front of the citadel and main palace within. They had no hope of knocking down every house. Houses still stood on the flanks of the Citadel, covering the road that led up to the castle’s side gate. There were also a number of houses standing on the main approach, though, this actually was better for their plans. The remaining stone foundations of the houses and charred remains in the gap would be able to cover the advance.
The bigger problem was the walls in front of them were mostly intact and the gatehouse’s drawbridge was up. Their mages could cast smoke or illusion spells to screen their approach, but that would do no good if the drawbridge was still up and the gatehouse in enemy hands.
Martin breathed in and out slowly. No, they were entirely reliant on Janize keeping up her end of the bargain.
Sitting in the throne room, Janize steepled her fingers, eyes focused on the steps to the dais.
Was her decision correct? Was she making the right choice? Had she considered everything?
Those thoughts ran in her head as she studied the carpet. The sounds of her guards and knights preparing the throne room and ensuring the main entrance was secured echoed in her ear. Yet she did her best to ignore them.
If she went through with this, she knew she’d never sit on Erisdale’s throne again. Her brother would be the last to sit on the throne and then it would be House of Conthwaite, the house of a knight and later, his offspring with a common soldier.
How had it come to this? Why had she put herself here?
The image of a fierce Otherworlder came to mind, along with the litany of decisions she’d made. Siding with Darius, rejecting the Alavari as monsters, falling in love and then realizing where she’d gone wrong. The news of the dragons in Thorgoth’s employ.
Maybe it wasn’t so bad. Maybe there was still hope. At the very least, she still had Leila.
The Otherworlder, George marched up to the dais and bowed. “Your Majesty, we’re ready to open the gates. The Water Tower’s received their orders.”
Janize sighed. “To think that there was a route to the citadel through the sewers.”
George chuckled. “At least we’re making them suffer for it.”
The queen pursed her lips. “Tell me, George. You fought against Ayax and Elizabeth at Lehrbach. You sided against them. All the Otherworlders here sided against them. Why are you willing to fight alongside them once again?”
The teen—no, young man looked away, towards the windows that lit the hall.
“I think after a year of fighting with Darius in earnest, we all realized we’d made a mistake. We’re not from your world, but we learnt enough in our own that this… what Darius was doing is wrong and no different from the worst villains from our world. We weren’t fighting Alavari, we were fighting other humans. We just…didn’t know what to do about it. So when you and Leila told us about the plan, and that we would have a chance to actually fight Thorgoth, to protect people from a world ending threat, we all jumped on it.”
Janize snorted. “You’re going to have a heck of a time convincing the other Otherworlders.”
George sighed. “We all know that, but hey, they are going to need us. I mean we are going to be fighting literal dragons.”
“That is true.” Janize closed her eyes and nodded. “Carry it out, George. Get those gates open and signal the Water Tower.”
George saluted. “Yes, Your Majesty. It’s been an honor and a pleasure.”
Through her spyglass, wrapped warmly in her bright orange cloak, the Erlenbergian mage, Ophelia Voidsailor watched the coast with her spyglass.
Despite the years Erlenberg had fought Alavaria along the northern front, and through all the naval battles on the eastern coast, Ophelia still wore orange. It’d become her calling card of sorts and she knew it gave the crew of her ship comfort to see her strut around. Honestly, she was getting a little tired of the color, but she liked the attention more.
Beside her, looking through his own spyglass, the one-eyed Eustace Windwhistler glanced at the sky. “It’s about time,” said Edana’s brother.
“I know—I see it!” Ophelia exclaimed. Before her eyes, the Water Tower, the main obstacle to the Erlenbergian fleets advance, had lowered the red banner of the traditionalist. A blue banner was being run up and more blue flares were being fired into the sky by some mage.
Eustace looked through his spyglass and nodded. “Signal to the fleet! Follow my lead. We are attacking!”
Flags ran up and down on the galloen Stormcaller, which had been named as such much to her namesake’s consternation and embarrassment. Behind Eustace and Ophelia’s warship, the long lineof Erlenbergian ships of the line ran flags up and down in acknowledgement. The entire line then followed the Stormcaller as it swung starboard toward the bay.
Underneath the Water Tower, Ginger found a ladder had been dropped into the sewer. Gingerly taking the rungs, she climbed up and was helped up by several red-uniformed harbour guardsmen. A petite woman with a musket slung over her shoulder handed Ginger a clean rag.
“Wow you stink, but I’m glad to see you. Captain Belinda of the Harbour Guard.”
“Ginger, yes, that Ginger. Are Darius’s troops reacting?”
“They are indeed. Several regiments have filed out of the Citadel and are making their way here as we speak. How many have you brought?” Belinda asked.
“A whole regiment of crack musketeers are behind me to help you secure the tower. The Erlenbergian fleet is landing marines. We’ll be fine, I’m just worried about the main assault,” said Ginger. She wiped her face and hands. “Show me the battlements. I’ll get my soldiers set up along with yours.”
“This way,” said Belinda, guiding Ginger out.
Ayax and Elizabeth silently crept down the drop-down attic stairs. Behind them, carrying a spare wand, Leila limped as quietly as she could. They could hear shouting in the mansion and the scurrying of people on the lower floors.
The trio paused to quickly grab a drink of water from a nearby pitcher left by the servants for any houseguests, before continuing on. From what they could tell, someone was having a heated discussion in the foye.
As they got closer to the staircase, they soon could figure out who.
“Janize is making her move and the Lightning Battalion must be close behind. The Erlenbergian fleet is moving in and the Water Tower is not firing on them.”
“There’s no need to panic—” “Scarlet, your fucking plan has accelerated Janize and the Lightning Battalion’s timetable! We’re fucked. We’re all probably dead.”
There was a sharp intake of breath. The three heard Scarlet growl, “Alright, I was…overly optimistic that the Lightning Battalion and Janize would split due to that report, but we only need to secure Janize and the Citadel and our position will still be quite strong.”
“I disagree, but Janize won’t have long. My troops led by Vulpina are converging on the throne room as we speak. Otherworlders or not, she can’t hold for long.” Darius chuckled dryly. “We might all die in the attempt to oust her, and hell she may be killed, but we won’t let her have the last laugh.”
Ayax turned to the two humans with her. “Liz, Leila, go. I’ll try to pin them down here.”
Elizabeth blinked. “Wait, but Ayax—”
“Liz, if we lose Janize, we’ll lose the civil war. You got to go.”
Elizabeth briefly closed her eyes and nodded. Grabbing onto Ayax, she drew her troll close to her and into a brief, fierce kiss. “Come back to me, alright?”
Ayax managed a smirk. “Always.”
Elizabeth turned to Leila. “Let’s go—what are you—” The Otherworlder had knelt on the ground her head bowed.
“Ayax, I’m sorry. I promise you can do whatever you want to me after you save Janize, but please, let me save her first,” said Leila, she lowered her head, but Ayax quickly grabbed her by the shirt and yanked her up. It was easy as the girl was still very light.
“This is not the time. I accept your promise, but we’ll talk later. Now go!” Ayax hissed.
Nodding, Elizabeth grabbed Leila and the pair took off in the opposite direction. Meanwhile, Ayax took a deep breath and walked up toward the balcony overlooking the foye.
Darius was pacing, whilst Scarlet was biting her finger, one hand gripped tightly around her staff.
“What if they breach the gatehouse?” Scarlet asked.
“There’s no way that force assembling outside can breach the gatehouse. They’ll need—”
“Earl Darius, Master Scarlet, I have waited a long time for this moment.” Ayax leaned casually against the railing, noting the fine, polished grain. “Do you know who I am?”
Darius, eyes staring up at her, took a step back. “Ayax the Blackgale.”
“Daughter of Allaniel the Valorous, who you had murdered,” Ayax hissed.
Scarlet ripped her heavy cloak off and gripped her staff in both hands, which had a number of rings on the fingers. Her eyes narrowed at Ayax. “So it was you who rescued Leila. I thought you would kill her.”
“You certainly tempted me, but she was just the instrument. It was you two who had my parents killed.” Raising her staff, Ayax growled. “Prepare to die.”
Scarlet waved the earl off. “Darius, go, deal with Janize. I can handle her.”
Darius arched an eyebrow even as he grabbed the main door’s handle. “Are you sure?”
Scarlet smirked. “She’s no Frances Stormcaller. Just an angry little troll.”
“I’m a pissed off troll.” Ayax leapt over the railing, throwing several spell cards at Scarlet. The woman waved her hand, magical rings activating to form a barrier. The cards slammed into it, sparking and banging. It would have knocked her back, but the barrier dissipated the force.
No matter, Ayax landed nimbly on the carpet and whirling her staff, slammed it into Scarlet’s barrier. Darius had run for it, slamming the doors behind him. Ayaxs’s blow sent Scarlet smashing through those closed doors, nearly throwing her onto Darius.
The Red Order Mage picked herself off the grown, dusting off her robes. “Ah I see the familial resemblance now you monster. You and your adoptive ‘cousin’ are just fucking irritating.”
Ayax was about to quip back, but found herself pursing her lips as a thought ran through her head. “You know, if you were just a little nicer, just a bit more understanding, you could have gotten along with Frances. It’s really hard to not get along with her.”
Scarlet’s snarl faded and she grimaced. “She wouldn’t have been my student, but Edana’s. Now are you going to kill me, Blackgale, one of the people who helped murder your parents, or are you going to talk me to death?”
Ayax flinched, feeling the swirling vortex of power bubble in her very core as her fury sparked. At the same time, a serene, piercing idea just echoed through her head. It was not really a revelation, more of an observation she’d noticed about Leila, Darius and now Scarlet.
“You all are awfully insistent on dying. Why don’t you all just…give up? Live?” Ayax asked. The pair were circling now, ready to let loose with spells at any sign of weakness or an opening.
Scarlet snorted. “Would you let me and Darius live?”
Ayax paused, watching Scarlet continue to circle. When the troll didn’t move, only followed her with her eyes, the mage stopped and tried to circle in the other direction. Still Ayax didn’t move, she just remained still, staff at the ready.
“If you all surrendered and submitted to a trial, I would,” said Ayax. There was still turmoil, rage, roiling in her heart. Yet, she was starting to feel another emotion that calmed her, despite how odd it felt.
The Red Order Mage blinked, before she sneered. “Then you are a naive fool.” She twirled her staff, the ends bursting into flame as she sang. Fireballs tore toward Ayax.
The troll dodged, not flamboyantly. She just stepped out of the way, shuffling and stepping from side to side. No fancy shielding required, no complicated jumps needed. Scarlet cast, and continued to cast. Whips of crimson magic were followed by cobblestones torn from the road. Ayax had to briefly block those with a quick shield, before twisting out of the way.
Shifting her grip on her staff, Ayax pulled her weapon to her side, as if she was drawing a sword. Crying out a string of Word of Powers, she whipped it across.
The staff suddenly extended, dark-blue magic lengthening it until a incredibly long, thin rod of magic crashed into Scarlet’s side. It sent her tumbling through a hedge and onto the lawn of Darius’s mansion.
Leaping over said hedgerow, Ayax rolled to a perfect landing on the other side. Scarlet had staggered to her feet, wiping blood from the scratches on her arm and face. She was already wincing as she touched her side.
Ayax thought she would be taking pleasure from this. Well, part of her was. She was happy she was kicking Scarlet’s butt. Yet, the part of her that was choosing to be calm, to think and be a good person felt an entirely different emotion.
Pity.
Pity for how pointless this whole battle was, pity for how this woman and her allies had hurt so many and seemed so unhappy with their lives. There was disgust and anger, and yet when Ayax thought about what she had, and what Scarlet lacked, she found that anger seeping away.
“Scarlet, this is your last chance. Surrender now,” said Ayax.
“To you? Not to Edana Firehand, or even Frances Stormcaller? But to their lackey? A second-rate battle mage?” Scarlet spat on the ground and raised her staff again. “I’d rather fucking die.”
The troll sighed. “So be it.”
Author’s Note: Ayax is getting ahold of her anger. It hasn’t been easy to figure out how her feelings changed but I decided to approach it from the idea that she’s matured as a person and has started to take more perspectives, something that she’s always struggled with.

I'm a day late posting this -- I'm sorry to have gotten off schedule! I realize there have been a lot of high-earner diaries recently, but I hope my perspective is still of interest.
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Section One: Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance: $460K (mine) and $250K (husband’s). We both max out our annual withholdings. I’ve been working longer than him, and my employer offers a more generous match, which contributed significantly to my balance.
Equity: $275K. Our home is currently worth about $450K. We live in a M-HCOL area (far) outside of NYC, and our home was a fixer upper when we bought it. Honestly, it’s still a fixer, and we are saving towards a major renovation.
Cars: Maybe $15-$20k total…we drive two paid off cars. One is 13 years old, and the other is 10 years old.
Other Cash and Investments: $150K
Credit card debt: None, paid every month
Student loan debt (for what degree): $80K towards the grad degree I’m pursuing now. Since we’re saving towards the home reno, I’m financing my degree rather than paying for it outright. I know this is counterintuitive given the interest rate environment. However, the home reno has been a priority for us since we bought this home.
Daughters’ 529s: $75K
Total Net Worth: $1.145M
Section Two: Income
Income Progression: I've been working in my field for 13 years and my starting salary was $40,000.
I work as a Director of Financial Planning & Analysis in a niche field. I won’t go into too many details because it’s a small world. My salary progression was as follows:
Year 1: $40,000 starting, right after recession. I had an amazing boss who mentored me and recognized my potential. After six months, I received a promotion and raise to $60,000.
Year 3: Promotion and raise to $90,000, for a role with more financial and analytical responsibility. Although I worked hard, I continued to benefit from having a boss who advocated for me. I consider this a major turning point.
Year 8: Raise to $120,000 for additional responsibilities after a coworker retired.
Year 10: Raise to $135,000
I’ve received an average of 2.5% COLA increases and now earn $145K. My boss has requested a $10,000 bonus for me this year, which I haven’t yet included because it’s still under review.
My husband earns $260,000 base salary as a VP of a large corporation (this is a very recent raise…he was at $200K previously). In addition, he can receive a performance-based bonus of 20-30%. We don’t include his bonuses in our financial planning because they are not guaranteed and because a portion is RSUs. When he receives a cash bonus, we put it towards our daughter’s college accounts and/or our home reno fund.
Education: I have a bachelors and a masters in a field unrelated to my career. My tuition was paid by scholarships/assistantships. In addition, my parents covered my living expenses during undergrad. During my first graduate degree, I worked 3 part-time jobs to cover my non-tuition expenses. I’m now enrolled in a grad program more directly related to my career. My employer encouraged me to do this program and generously allows me the time out of office. In addition, if I stay for a certain number of years, they will reimburse a portion of my tuition.
Main Job Monthly Take Home:
Monthly take home: $6,300 after taxes, retirement ($1,875) and medical/dental benefits ($110– self only)
Husband’s monthly take home: $12,560 after taxes, retirement ($1,875), and medical/dental ($400 for him and our two kids)
Section Three: Expenses
Mortgage: $2,485 for principal, interest, insurance, and taxes. We refinanced to a 15-year loan at 2.3% when rates were low
Daycare: $3,510 per month (full-time for a toddler and preschooler)
Savings contribution: $3,000-$5,000
Daughters’ 529 accounts: $2,000 ($1,000 each)
Debt payments: $700 towards my student loans. This will increase once I’m done with my degree
Donations: $3,000 annually
Transit $350-400 for husband’s commute (3x/week to NYC)
Electric: $60
Wifi/Cable/Landline: $120
Cellphone: $180
Subscriptions: $59 for Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Duolingo, Apple Storage, and credit monitoring
Gym membership: $149 for Pure Barre
Husband’s physical therapy: $130 (portion not covered by insurance)
Car insurance: $3,200 annually. (This seems high, considering we have good records, don’t drive much, and both cars are paid off. I need to look into this)
Life Insurance: $3,100 annually
Day 1 (Saturday):
6:00 AM: Wake up. I’m doing a modular course for my graduate degree, and the class wraps up today. I study for the exam that happens this afternoon. A little after 7, I walk to a nearby coffee shop and buy a large Americano for $4.50 including tip. When I’m back at the hotel, I pack up my room and leave a $20 tip for housekeeping. On the way out, I drop my bags at the bell stand. The hotel cost is covered by tuition.
9:00: Meet with my study team to finalize a paper and presentation that’s due today. At noon, we break for lunch (also covered by tuition). I have a salad and lots of carbonated caffeine. After lunch, we have an hour-long final exam.
2:00: Final course wrap up. It’s been an intense week-long session. I learned a lot, but am so ready to head home. I walk back to the hotel to retrieve my bags. Along the way, I stop to buy an empanada ($8 including tip). Then I call an Uber to the airport ($55 including tip). While in the Uber, I talk to my husband and daughters, who are 1.5 and almost 4. Due to the time difference, it’s their bedtime and if I don’t catch them now, I’ll lose my chance. I promise them that I’ll be home when they wake up in the morning. A lot of my classmates went to dinner together before heading to the airport. On the one hand, I have FOMO because my classmates are awesome. But on the other hand, it was really important to me to talk to my family, and I know I couldn’t have done that easily in a bustling restaurant (I’ve tried, and it was a frustrating experience for everyone!).
6:00: Arrive at the airport. I check my bag ($35). Once I’m through security, I pick up some souvenirs. My hotel wasn’t in an area with good shopping options, and the class days were pretty packed anyway. I get locally made chocolate for my husband. The girls get a small stuffed animal each, and a book to share ($70 total). Then I treat myself to crab cakes and a French 75 to celebrate the end of the week ($60 including tip).
10:00: On the flight, I read until the cabin lights go out and then try to sleep. I used to be able to sleep better on red eyes, but I wake up every 15 minutes.
Day 1 Total: $252.50
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Day 2 (Sunday):
6:00: Flight lands and I gather my bags and take the parking shuttle. Although I parked in an economy lot, the total was still $174. Ugh – this has been an expensive week.
7:45: Arrive home. The girls crawled into our bed and are snuggled up next to my husband. The toddler wakes up as I come into the room and the look on her face when she sees me is priceless. Our preschooler wakes up soon after. It’s so good to be reunited with my people! We all head downstairs and have breakfast (waffles and cereal, plus a huge pot of coffee). It’s cold and rainy today and we spend the morning watching TV together.
10:00: Our toddler falls asleep for her nap, and my husband encourages me to do the same. Our preschooler is happily entertaining herself with Legos and puzzles, so I doze for a couple hours. Around 1:00, we all have turkey sandwiches for lunch. Then, I take over kid duty so my husband can finally have some time to himself. He spends the afternoon woodworking in his basement workshop.
2:00: Our preschooler’s birthday is coming up. I buy digital invites from Etsy ($12) and send them to Staples to print ($16 with a promo). They are ready in about two hours and we pick them up. My preschooler asks for kinetic sand at Staples and I cave in and buy it for her ($11). I constantly complain about the amount of “stuff” in our house, but to be honest, I’m guilty of contributing to the clutter. When we get home, I spend the afternoon doing crafts with the girls.
5:15: We heat up some leftovers that my in-laws dropped off while I was gone. We do the girls’ bedtime routine a little early since everyone seems tired. Lights out by 8:00 for the girls. Then I catch up on work email and start making a list for the week. For the purposes of this money diary, my husband mentions that he spent $270 yesterday restocking groceries. Then I watch Succession and head to bed
Day 2 Total: $387
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Day 3 (Monday):
5:08: My alarm goes off because I typically go to Pure Barre on Monday morning. I’m still jetlagged so I decide not to go today. I hadn’t actually signed up for a class because I had a feeling this would happen.
6:30: Everyone else is still asleep, so I go downstairs to make coffee and enjoy a few quiet moments to myself. When my husband and kids wake up, we all have breakfast (frozen waffles and berries for the kids. English muffins for the adults).
8:30: Drop the kids off at daycare and then get to work. I work primarily from home, so I just have to walk upstairs to my office nook. I spend the morning prepping for an important meeting tomorrow with senior leadership. I get a reminder on our phone that our toddler has a well-child visit today…usually I sync my calendars, but I totally neglected to log this on my work calendar, and it conflicts with a meeting with our chief of staff. CRAP. I debate canceling the doctor’s appointment, but decide to keep it. Our toddler is getting vaccines today and if I don’t keep the appointment, I’m not sure when I can reschedule. I apologize profusely to our COS and ask if we can reschedule. She says not to worry, and that she appreciates the extra time in her schedule…hopefully I didn’t make a bad judgment call.
1:15: I quickly eat a turkey sandwich for lunch and then pick up our toddler from daycare for her appointment. These well visits usually take 30 minutes and are covered by insurance. As luck would have it, we spend 90 minutes waiting because they are running behind. Luckily, I have snacks and activities in my purse to occupy her. To pass the time, I browse for favors and paper goods for our older daughter’s upcoming party. I end up buying paper goods, decor, and favors ($67 from Target) and iced sugar cookies ($240 from Etsy). As I type this, I realize how bananas it is to spend that much on decorated sugar cookies. Our incomes have increased pretty dramatically in the past few years, and although we haven’t increased our fixed expenses, we’ve definitely succumbed to lifestyle inflation for one-off things like this. It’s something I need to be aware of. I’m finally home around 3:30, just in time for my next call. My husband is WFH today and takes over kid duty during this call.
5:15: It’s time to pick up our older daughter from preschool, but my call is running long so my husband picks her up. For dinner, we make salads topped with roast chicken. The toddler loves salad, but our preschooler proclaims “I don’t like green leaves – I’m not a caterpillar!”. Well, okay then.
8:30: We do the girls’ bedtime routine, and then I continue prepping for tomorrow’s meeting. I wrap up around 1:00 am. While I’m working, husband preps two meals that just need to be reheated sometime later in the week. Good night!
Day 3 Total: $307
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Day 4 (Tuesday):
7:30: Kids and I sleep in a bit this morning. My husband left home around 5:45 since he’s going into the office, so the three of us are on our own. For breakfast, the toddler has toast and berries. The preschooler has bran cereal and a frozen waffle. I eat their scraps, washed down with coffee.
9:15: I drop the kids off at daycare a little late this morning. Then I get working and practice the presentation I’m giving at 11:00
12:05: Call is over and I think it went as well as could be expected. I make myself a turkey sandwich for lunch. Then I go to the post office to mail a birth certificate request for our youngest daughter’s passport application. The cost for the birth certificate is $50. I also spend $15 at the post office to mail the envelope and buy stamps. Then it’s back to work.
5:10: Pick the girls up from school. My husband gets home around 6:45. Dinner tonight is a tofu and broccoli stir fry with rice. I don’t cook much, but I make this meal weekly and it’s everyone’s favorite. The secret is using soy sauce that is seasoned for seafood. It has a much deeper, richer flavor than standard soy sauce.
7:30: Bathtime and bed for the girls. I text with a mom from daycare whose kids are the same age as ours. We arrange a playdate for an upcoming weekend. I’m hopeful that she and I will develop a friendship – making friends is hard when you’re an adult!
9:10: I debate doing schoolwork or “work work.” Schoolwork wins tonight…I spend about two hours prepping a case study.
Day 4 Total: $65
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Day 5 (Wednesday):
5:30: Wake up and start working. I still have a lot of deliverables to catch up on. Husband leaves as usual to commute into the city.
7:00: I get an email and text message that daycare had to close today due to unforeseen circumstances. There was an issue with their plumbing that impacts the whole building. Oh no – I immediately feel a pit in my stomach. I really can’t afford this today, especially because I am out this Friday for another day of class. Although our preschooler is pretty independent, our toddler needs constant supervision. She’s always a moment away from jumping off a couch, climbing on a table, or otherwise causing herself bodily harm. My husband has multiple meetings with his division president today so he can’t realistically come home to help. Argh. I feed us all breakfast and prepare myself for a difficult day. I send my boss an email to let him know the situation, but promise to stay on top of my work after hours as needed. I also log a half day of PTO in the payroll system…I figure I can probably be about 50% productive today.
10:00: Our toddler falls asleep for a nap, so I frantically send out emails and run reports. Our preschooler watches shows on her tablet.
12:15: Toddler is up from her nap. Our poor preschooler has been on her tablet for too long and her eyes are glazed over. I decide to take the girls out for lunch to break up the day. We go to Jersey Mikes since it’s nearby and fast. The girls each have a kids meal and the toddler is delighted that it includes a kids cup. I have an Italian sub ($29). We eat outside and the preschooler hums and loudly proclaims "I love Jersey Mike's!"
1:30: We get back home and I jump on an internal call. Thankfully the girls are well behaved and don’t cause any disruptions, beyond waving hello at the start of the call.
3:00 I have another call and the girls are again on their best behavior. PTL. Maybe I’m just lucky, or maybe it’s that I bribed them with cookies.
4:45: I wrap up the workday a little early. I take the girls on a walk since the weather is nice. When we get back inside, they immediately melt down. The toddler wants to be held constantly, which is a challenge because she weighs 24 pounds. The preschooler is thrashing, spitting at me, and throwing toys. I resist a really strong urge to scream or cry or break something or hide in the bathroom – maybe all at once. Instead, I heat up one of the meals my husband made earlier this week. When our preschooler calms down, she asks if I still love her when she’s bad. She’s been asking this question a lot recently, and it makes me wonder if it’s just a phase, or if she needs more reassurance from us. Either way, it's heartbreaking to know she worries about this.
7:30: Husband had a late meeting, so he gets home later than normal. We do the girls bedtime and bathtime routines. We get another note from daycare saying that the plumbing issue is, unfortunately, still unresolved. We’ll get a tuition credit, but they will be closed another day. Husband and I talk through logistics. We agree that he’ll go into the city again tomorrow and I’ll handle the kids. His company is in the middle of a major reorg and it’s important for him to be there in person. We decide to ask his parents if they are available to help tomorrow. Between work, the kids, and my grad program, sometimes I feel like the only thing we talk about is logistics. It’s been at least 6 months since we’ve been on a date.
10:00: I catch up on work, and also prep for school this coming weekend. I go to bed a little after 1:00.
Day 5 Total: $29
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Day 6 (Thursday):
5:45: Husband is up and out of the house at his normal time. I wake up and run some financial reports while I have the chance.
7:30: Kids are awake. While they eat breakfast I pack their activity bags and snacks since we’re going to my in-laws today. They are semi-retired and often help when we have childcare hiccups. They are truly a godsend. They live about an hour away and we arrive at their house a little after 10:00. On the way, I fill my car up with gas ($52).
12:30: The girls are having a blast with my in-laws. We take a break for lunch, which is chicken nuggets and hummus for the girls. I eat their scraps and also have some Greek yogurt.
4:15: I have a full afternoon of calls, but it goes smoothly thanks to the grandparents. We leave a few minutes after 5:00 and both girls fall asleep before we reach the first traffic light. This makes for a peaceful drive home. Traffic is heavy so we get home around 6:30. I open the mail, and find a surprise medical bill for $572. This is for the toddler’s trip to the ER…14 months ago! This is the first bill we are getting and honestly it had completely slipped my mind. She had a triple infection and ended up severely dehydrated. Seeing this bill dredges up all sorts of unpleasant memories. I’m grateful we have the means to pay this without issue, and I’m grateful she is healthy. I understand it's a privilege to pay a bill like this without thinking twice.
6:45: Husband arrives home. We reheat a pasta dish he made earlier this week and have a salad on the side. The girls are beat today, so we skip bathtime and let them go straight to bed. Thankfully, daycare can reopen tomorrow. I feel like a weight’s been lifted from my shoulders, especially since I have class tomorrow.
9:00: I have a call with my school study team to work on our group project. It lasts for about an hour.
10:30: Husband and I discuss buying a swing set for our backyard. He’s narrowed it down to two choices, and they’re both awesome: three swings, a rock wall, slide, and clubhouse area. I think they both look great, so I leave the final decision in his hands. The total with shipping and tax ends up being $1760. We considered buying a pre-assembled swing set to save time, but similar models cost nearly $6K. He’s handy, so he said he’d prefer to assemble it himself.
Day 6 Total: $2,384
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Day 7 (Friday):
6:15: I have class today so I eat breakfast and get dressed early. I tend to wear a lot of athleisure when working from home. Today I put on a structured ponte dress and hastily apply Tarte makeup to give my skin some color. Every time I make the effort to get dressed, I'm reminded that I really do feel more confident when I look put together. I get to school around 9:00 for my first class.
12:00: Break in my schedule for lunch. I eat a salad and some kind of chicken dish, while catching up with classmates (covered by tuition). For dessert, I have a huge bowl of berries. Lots more coffee to keep me awake and engaged during class.
7:00: Classes are over for the day. I pay parking ($17) and am on my way. I get home at 8:30, in time to do bedtime with my girls. Husband made veggie quesadillas with black beans and guacamole, which I eat once the girls are asleep. I check my work email to make sure nothing is on fire. Then my husband and I watch an episode of “What We Do In the Shadows” and turn in for the night.
Day 7 Total: $17
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WEEKLY TOTALS
Food + Drink: $371.50
Fun / Entertainment: $2,106
Home + Health: $572
Clothes + Beauty: $0
Transport: $333
Other: $155
Weekly Total: $3,537.5
Reflections: Some of this week’s expenditures were unusual: the swing set, my travel expenses, and that old ER bill are not part of our normal recurring expenses. However, the rest of this week's spending was pretty typical. I realize a lot of this diary revolved around sorting out childcare disruptions…honestly, that takes so much mental and logistical energy on a weekly basis. Writing this diary also made me realize how little time my husband and I spend together. Often we feel like we’re in survival mode, but we need to be more intentional about prioritizing our relationship.

Hello, I've been working on revising an old magic system to fit with a new story, and I wanted to get some feedback on if my system works well or not. It's a long one, but feel free to hit me with any questions/comments/criticisms about it! Please excuse the inconstent capitalization though, I'm working on it.
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An Occultists’ Guide to Boundaries
All of reality is built on boundaries. A boundary is a metaphysical container for both the physical matter and the concepts defining an object. For example, imagine for a moment a ball sitting on a table. Now imagine an invisible skin, wrapped tightly around the entire surface area of the ball, encapsulating all the information and properties of the ball. Now imagine that invisible skin suddenly disappeared, leading the concepts that once filled it to just drift away. They might be infused into the table, making it ‘bright red’, or ‘round’. They could get into the air making it ‘bouncy’ or ‘safe for children ages 2+’. The stuff that makes the ball would still be around, but the ball itself wouldn't. For an object to exist, it must be distinct from the things around it. Without boundaries separating ‘thing’ from ‘thing’, the whole universe would be just one big ‘thing’.
This is the basis of Occult practices. Being an occultist starts with the manipulation of boundaries, as the space within them is where magic is performed. That is why, when an occultist begins their studies, the first power they gain is usually simple telekinesis, as manipulating the position of a boundary is good practice. We tend to call those who never move past that stage ‘espers’ or ‘psychics’ or something of the same effect, and even though they are just scratching the surface of what the occult can do, they can get to be fairly powerful.
A basic, widespread (but not universally applicable) law of boundaries is that they have a natural resistance to being manipulated, which is in most cases tied to the surface area of the object. An interesting application of this is that there is functionally no difference in trying to telekinetically move a cardboard box and a solid steel cube of the same size. However, when it comes to destroying a boundary, the difficulty of doing so is all in the ‘complexity’ (this is hard to define, but it will make more sense later) of the object. Stronger occultists will be able to destroy or create more complex phenomena at larger scales.
Since the creation, destruction, and manipulation of boundaries is a fundamental skill for occultists, many different exercises have been devised to help expand a beginning practitioner's skill in doing so. One popular one is trying to destroy the boundaries of small objects, such as playing cards or snack foods, and quickly capturing all the escaped concepts by creating a spherical boundary around them. This can lead to some delightfully non-euclidean objects, especially when you destroy and re-capture the concepts of two different objects into one boundary, but it is a very dangerous way to practice. One could end up not capturing the concepts in time and end up turning themselves ‘easily tearable’ or ‘appetizing to ants’ without the knowledge of how to reverse that.
The analogy of a weightlifter in training may be the most appropriate since an occultist’s ability will grow like a muscle over time, only one that doesn’t plateau in strength. But like any muscle, they will get tired if they go on too long, which will greatly increase their chances of causing an accident.
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Reality and You
Reality is everything that is real. Every object, entity, or phenomenon that exists and is not fictional is a part of reality. If you can measure it, it's real. There aren’t very many other ways to describe this, but humans generally have a solid grasp of what is real and what is not due to being real themselves. However, not all parts of reality are equal.
All magic happens inside a boundary wherein reality is measurably degraded. There is a special, magical, and incredibly complex machine that can measure the ‘level’ of reality within a boundary. The baseline level, the level wherein everything that isn't the occult takes place, was set to be 10 on the Non-Reality Scale (the NRS for short), and anything below that is magic.
But why would one want to degrade reality? Hypothetically, when someone is pouring themselves a cup of water, they would prefer a fresh, clean glass, to one that hasn’t been washed in years. This is because they want to avoid contamination. Spellwork has the same idea, where to pour what they want into a boundary, the occultist first has to ‘wash’ everything they don’t want out.
That is not to say that less reality is always better. A reality that is too low level can mess with spellwork, or cause a dangerous accident if the boundary is flawed. This is because to complete the final step of the casting, one must reintegrate their degraded reality back to the baseline (that is, if they want anything more than an intangible illusion). The extent to which one would want to degrade reality fully depends on what they want to do with the boundary they are creating. For example, one did not want to use it for drinking, but it would be perfectly fine to use it to water a houseplant. And most people would not be bleaching out a clean cup before drinking from it, even if it has a bit of dust in it. In the same way, in most cases, an occultist does not need to purge absolutely everything from their boundary, and will instead want to selectively degrade reality to a certain level.
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Mana, the Soul, and Concepts
A Concept is the abstract idea of the matter within a boundary. For example, the boundary of the ball I described earlier contains the physical matter of the ball, but it also contains the Concept of the ball. The Concept can be imagined as an index of every piece of information about the ball, with each piece being called an Attribute. Attributes of the ball’s Concept could include its weight, size, bounciness, flammability, or any other property that one could measure from the ball. Being a Concept and being an Attribute are not mutually exclusive, and it is relative to what the caster is referring to at the moment. Technically, all Concepts are Attributes of the Universe, which contains everything, so it's best to think of each Concept as a part of a greater whole, which is in turn made of smaller parts. With this comes the idea that a concept cannot be created or destroyed (of course, there are those annoying exceptions), only constructed and deconstructed.
The basis of spellwork is simple. Create a boundary, degrade its reality, fill it with a bunch of Attributes to form the Concept of the phenomena you want to create, reintegrate reality, and presto, you have a spell. This process is fundamentally the same for most spellcraft, making a well-practiced occultist very versatile. However, it is the complexity within each of these steps that requires research to understand, skill to navigate, and training to pull off.
Every living thing has a boundary, and every living thing has a Concept. Except for living things, we tend to call the Concept a ‘soul’. There is no real difference, and there is a constant debate over what has a soul. Bacteria are generally deemed soulless, robots and magically animated constructs have been rhetorically argued to have souls, and there is debate around what stage of birth or death does the soul of a corpse become just a Concept. But it is generally agreed that living humans have a soul, and within the soul, there is an Attribute called mana. Mana is the fuel that is required to perform anything to do with the occult. Manipulating boundaries, degrading and reintegrating reality, and working with concepts all require mana.
Almost everyone starts with a very low amount of mana. Most humans only have enough to perform small miracles in moments of great stress, such as a parent being able to lift a car to save their child or a firefighter obtaining enhanced perception in a burning building. Mana, however, can be grown over time like a muscle. After continuous depletion of one's mana reserves, the maximum amount that can be ‘refilled’ during rest increases.
There is a widespread standard for measuring how much mana one has. It requires a half-inch diameter, clear glass marble enchanted with a Concept that causes it to output light in a manner directly proportional to the amount of mana poured into it. An occultist can push as much mana as they can into it and measure the irradiance of the light produced by the marble with a photometer to find their maximum output.
Besides mana, the soul also contains Attributes for one's familiarity with other Concepts. Concept familiarity determines how well an occultist can summon, read, or build a concept. Familiarity is gained in several different ways. For example, an occultist skilled in the art of pyromancy may be a grad student who’s spent many sleepless nights studying thermodynamics and exothermic reactions, a person from an icy village who spent a lot of time near the fireplace as a child, or a serial arsonist who thinks fire is incredibly beautiful. All of these people would be familiar with the Concept of fire. In other words, research, experience, and passion are all equally valid ways to gain familiarity with a concept.
There are three ways to get a concept into a boundary. The first way is to summon it, using one's will to draw in a concept and use it directly during spellwork. This is generally considered the best method for any occult performance for various reasons, as its only real downside is that it requires a very high level of familiarity with the Concept one is trying to summon. However, it requires no material components to pull off and does not produce any backlash (an important idea that will be explained later). This is why most mages choose to spend their life within one field of similar Concepts, increasing their familiarity with a small group of Concepts, trading some versatility to be able to pull off Concept summoning efficiently.
On a side note, there is the popular idea of the ‘four elements’ system of magic. While the idea of earth, air, fire, and water being base elements of the universe has no real truth to it, the fact that they are things one commonly interacts with and are fairly visual makes them perfect for summoning.
The next way to obtain a Concept is through reading. This method takes an object that has a desired Concept or Attributes, destroys its boundary, and adds said Concept or Attributes into the spell. Reading allows an occultist to work with a Concept that they aren’t familiar with, although they should have some level of familiarity if they want to work with it safely. Unfortunately, reading requires you to destroy a material component and leads to backlash. The result is that spellwork done with Concept reading needs more preparation than summoning, and may require rare or expensive materials. The amount of material destroyed, however, does not matter when trying to read a Concept, so long as it is enough that the occultist can reasonably focus on it. For example, if one was trying to read the Concept of gold, the casting will be the same with a few specks of the stuff as with an entire bar.
The final method, Concept building, is the least. Building requires a mage to take several different Concepts and use them as Attributes to construct an entirely new Concept. For example, the Concept of ‘the superpower of human flight’, which doesn’t exist naturally, could be built using the Concepts of ‘weightlessness’ and ‘propulsion’ and ‘human will’. Building has all the drawbacks of reading compounded, so it is very rarely used and requires great skill. But the power to make fiction reality, even more so than any other type of magic, is incredibly appealing, and many occultists spend their entire life trying to bring a permanent concept into the world.
Concepts are not completely objective. For example, a modern person likely associates the color black with things like death, darkness, or despair. In ancient Egypt, however, the color had a more positive connotation, being associated with fertility and festival, since black soil, not white, is where one could grow the crops. Concepts work similarly, and different ones can have different meanings to different people from different cultures and backgrounds. It is completely unknown how modern magic continues to work with so many different ways of looking at the same Concept.
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And Now for the Bad: Backlash
Once again, imagine a ball sitting on a table. Remember how I said destroying its boundary could lead to the table and air around it lead to the table and air around it obtaining some of its properties, or as we now know to call them, Attributes? This is also how I described some of the side effects of improperly doing the ill-advised boundary exercise from the boundary section.
Both of those are simplified examples of backlash.
When an occultist performs a Concept reading, they are picking out the Attributes they want and exposing the rest to outside reality. If left uncontained, the rest of the Attributes will diffuse into other nearby boundaries, giving the caster’s surroundings (and likely the caster themself) properties that they likely do not want. This is a backlash. Worse, as the free Attributes look for a new boundary, they randomly and chaotically deconstruct themselves into simpler Attributes (for example, the attribute ‘fire’ may deconstruct into ‘heat’ and ‘light’), multiplying the number of Concepts diffusing over time, increasing the scale and chaos of the event.
The resistance of an object's boundary to being destroyed scales somewhat on the complexity of the Concept it contains, and therefore, more complex objects that would cause bigger backlashes are naturally harder (as in they require more mana) to destroy. This acts as a sort of natural safeguard for the occult, stopping just any aspiring wizard from accidentally rending cities uninhabitable or wiping large swaths of land off the map.
Be they geometric shapes or runes in an unknown language, the main purpose of a magic circle (or any shape for that matter) is to contain and safely dispose of backlash. Over time, occultists have found ways to take common aspects and successfully break them down into their most harmless components, allowing them to be dissipated safely, and history has provided a good base for the backlash of just about any spell to be properly contained, with a bit of research. A very skilled occultist will be able to properly command backlash to harness it and enhance their spells, controlling the decay of Concepts to find simpler Attributes needed for the main spell or to set off smaller secondary spells to support the original.
Another way of dissipating backlash is with somatic action, or using one’s body in the same fashion as a magic circle. The danger of this should be clear, but it allows the caster to dissipate backlash without having to prepare a magic circle.
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Reintegration and Types
The last part of any occult spellwork is normally the easiest. You just have to stop trying. For sorceries and rituals, firing off a spell is just like firing a bow. If creating a spell boundary is notching the arrow, and gathering Concepts is pulling back and aiming, then the final casting is simply letting the arrow fly as it will. There is some skill involved with the speed and grace of an occultist's mental disengagement, but for the most part, reality itself will do most of the job as it brings one's Concepts back to a level 10 NRS and makes the phenomenon ‘real’. This means that after one creates their fireball, all they have to do is bring it into existence and define its parameters, and throwing it costs no extra mana on your part. That also means that a fireball, once thrown, cannot be altered or taken back unless one creates a completely new boundary to counter it.
I mentioned sorceries and rituals. Those are two of the three ‘types’ (not to be confused with ‘schools’) of the occult.
The first is sorcery, the stereotypical form of magic. Sorceries use summoned Concepts and don't require materials or magic circles or somatic actions. If you see a wizard concentrate for a moment, and something weird happens afterward, you saw a sorcery.
Next are rituals. Magic circles, material components, somatic gestures, and multiple casters are all hallmarks of this type, and it includes anything that creates a new boundary but isn't sorcery.
Lastly, there is enchantment. Enchantment either creates an instant phenomenon on another material, or a permanent artifact meant to be used repeatedly. The idea is, that the spellwork one does is not within a completely new boundary, but is done by adding or removing Concepts from a pre-existing boundary. For example, an occultist could permanently add an ‘unbearably cold’ concept to the blade of a sword, or instantly change the enemy's skeletal system to be ‘highly combustible when submerged in blood’.
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Schools and Applications
There are quite a few ‘schools’ of the occult, general categories occultists put spellwork into. Schools can include things like ‘divination’, ‘necromancy’, or ‘war artifice’.
An example of a specific school of magic is called ‘name sympathy’. Almost all human souls have a ‘name’ Attribute, as it is standard practice to name your children in modern times. One’s name generally is one of their most prominent Attributes, so it is not a difficult task to target a person by using just their name. This is where the school of name sympathy shines, using traces of one’s person to find out their name and affect their soul directly. Sometimes this is used for good and is especially effective when used in conjunction with the ‘healing’ school of magic. Most times, though, it's used for magical murder.
Immortality is not a school of magic per se, since it is just one Concept, but that concept is so hard to build that it takes as much research and effort as any real school. The thing about immortality is that it is very hard to balance. The human body is made up of millions of small parts, all of them living and reproducing and dying constantly. Sure, one could just enchant themselves with the Concept of ‘life’ and apply their mana, but that would immediately give them cancer in every organ. And since there are no real immortal creatures to read the Concept from, in practice, an occultist seeking immortality has to build the Concept from the ground up, and doing so has taken so long and has been failed by so many that most believe that it's completely impossible.
An occultist may completely copy a concept into another boundary. That is called conjuration, one of the other greatly researched struggles of the occult. In most spells, the physical material attached to the Concept within the boundary is left out. When an occultist tries to completely recreate an object with mass or energy, (for example, if you were trying to use gold to make more gold), they are trying to add more matter to the universe than there originally was. And they will accomplish this, thoroughly breaking the law of conservation of mass. However, reality hates when its laws are broken, and it will attack the conjured object, destroying it completely within moments. The whole problem with conjuration is trying to make it work long enough to be applicable for anything more than its primary use for split seconds of attack or defense in the middle of battle, especially given how mana intensive it is. A promising line of study has involved trying to create an equal amount of ‘dark matter’ at the same time as the actual conjuration, balancing out reality.
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All About Artifice
Artificing is another application of the occult, but it is an expansive field that warrants a section of its own. It is generally defined as using enchantment to permanently imbue an item with a Concept.
Artifacts are the most accessible way to use magic. Unlike sorceries and rituals, which require magical knowledge and practice to use, the only real requirement for activating an artifact is to push mana into it yourself. And since everyone with a soul has at least a small amount of mana, anyone can pick up an artifact and use it with minimal training. A good example of this was the ancient Greek phalanx, which was not only the name of the military formation, but also what they called the combined magical gear used by the people in it, comprised of animated spears that automatically targeted vital points, shields that inflicted magical fear, and helmets that stopped arrows in their tracks.
Potions are another example of artifice, though technically they belong to its subschool, alchemy. A potion is any ingestible, magical liquid that gives a beneficial effect to the drinker when they apply mana to the unmetabolized quantity of it within their bloodstream. Solids versions of this concept are called boluses, and gasses are generally deemed too hard to work with. Potions can only be activated by the drinker, meaning there are not many ways to create alchemical poison without convincing one's victim to course mana through their own bloodstream.