Shein watched from the sidewalk as the two humans shook hands before stepping back a few paces from each other.
The stocky one drew a bastard sword with a fat bellied tip. Calmly proclaiming.
"Drake is a better swordsman than the scourge."
The other, much thinner human, drew a long, thin Rapier and donned a chainmail glove. Softly rebuking.
"I believe the scourge is a better swordsman, to first blood?"
The stocky human nodded, a playful grin on his face.
"Try not to take one of my eyes out with one of those wild thrusts you're taught"
The thinner human smiled back, returning a quip of his own.
"As long as you don't try and take my head off, with those wide swings of yours."
The two nodded in agreement.
Then they clashed.
The rapier jabbed at the stocky human's cheek, the stocky human twisting out of the way as the bastard sword's tip flashed inches away from the thin human's throat. The thin human countered by leaning back, throwing a left hook with the chain mail glove. The stocky man ate it, parrying the rapier that whipped for his side before retaliating with a kick to the chest that sent the thinner man stumbling back with a laugh.
They engaged again, the bastard sword swept upwards as the rapier swished down at an angle. The two blades met and the heavier bastard sword pushed the rapier aside, the rapier redirecting the bastard sword slightly away from the thin man's face. Locking the two chest to chest. Each other's blades locked at the cross guard before they broke away.
The rapier thrusted, the bastard sword cleaved through the air.
A line was cut on the stocky man's cheek just as the tip of the bastard sword opened up a small, two inch long cut across the other's sternum.
The two humans felt their injuries, saw the blood and smiled. The stocky man sheathed his bastard sword and extended the hand he'd touched the cut with, blood on his fingers.
"Good work as always Thomas, you're getting quicker with that needle of yours."
Thomas smiled and shook the stocky man's hand with his own bloodied one.
"I can say the same Gary, that blade of yours is getting harder and harder to redirect almost took my nose off with that upward swing."
Gary smiled and gave a hearty laugh before clapping his friendly rival on the back.
"Let's go get a bear and compare notes then. Tangling up my sword guard with the basket hilt? Brilliant idea."
The two human's voices faded into the usual burble as everyone continued on with their day. Taking a moment to watch Gary and Thomas's weekly duel was a common past time in the forge district.
Shein stopped by a food cart manned by a cephalopod, who was selling fried octopus.
"Hey Tignak, get any confused tourists today that accuse you of cannibalism?"
There was a sound like a dozen suction cups being pulled off of one another, the cephalopod's version of laughter. The vendors voice appearing in her head after a small pulse that she could accept or deny access to.
"A few, they seem to forget I'm a terrestrial squid and not a deep water octopus. Besides, if I tasted anywhere near this good, I'd just lop a few feet of each limb off, fry it and sell it. They'd grow back in a day or two and I'd save a ton on groceries."
Shein laughed with Tignak, imagining the sight of him casually frying the end of one of his own tentacles.
"I don't doubt Tig, speaking of which. I'm visiting my old man and you know how much he loves your cooking."
She felt Tig's smile in her mind even though the octopus's face was completely unreadable. Just a very large eye staring back at her.
"Of course, you know Frank and I go way back, have these on the house."
Tig took a few fresh squid, whacked them against the table to kill them instantly before starting to fry them up. It only took a few minutes for the many armed food cart manager to cook and box up a half dozen fried squid. Shein took the box gratefully and bowed her head to Tig.
"Thank you Tig, I owe you one, if you need anything you know how to reach me."
The cephalopod gave a salute with an unoccupied tentacle.
"No worries Ms. Stein, please visit more often, I enjoy our little chats."
Shein smiled and turned to walk off, using her nimble tail to drop a twenty credit piece in Tignak's tip jar. It had been awhile since she'd last seen her dad, her job took her to some pretty far away places for long periods. But whenever she knocked on his door, that tired old mouse always answered with gusto.
Shein plodded her way down the main street, picking up some small material samples from the local smiths for her father's experiments. As she neared the warehouse her father had converted into a machine shop and living quarters. She knocked on the door rather roughly, hearing a pneumatic hiss on the other side and the impact of metal against flesh.
Without a second's more hesitation, Shein ripped the door open, concern etched across her face.
"Shit! You good doctor, that sounded like it hurt!"
The old mousian was laughing, a bruise on his furless cheek where Ferrick's new arm had punched him with pneumatic assistance. Ferrick knelt by the laughing mousian, a concerned look on his face as he wept his now gunmetal grey hair out of his eyes.
Doctor Franklin Neville Stein simply patted the cyborgs still intact upper bicep, chuckling as he scratched one of his tattered ears.
"Ah! consider it a function check my boy! That was barely at ten percent power and it knocked me flat!"
Ferrick looked down at his new arm and began chuckling with the mad doctor before pulling the much smaller mousian to their feet.
"Doctor's orders, unrefusable! Good work on the arm though, if that was ten percent I can't imagine what fifty or a hundred would've done."
Dr.Frank nodded, the maniac glint of a mad scientist coming to his eyes.
"With the newly improved valves and better seals, you could punch a hole in starship armor at seventy. One hundred and you might just punch through the entire ship!"
The two old galactic adventures laughed together. Before shein cleared her throat.
The two men slowly, guiltily turned around as Shein gave them both a dirty look, hand slipping away from the handgun she kept at the small of her back. She pointed at her dad.
"We've discussed this dad, stay out of range of your own machines when you're working on them."
She glared at Ferrick who sheepishly looked down. She did take a bit of pride in that, she was the only person he feared pissing off.
"And you! I told you not to let him work on your prosthetics while they're still attached! Do we need to have another Icarus scenario to deal with?"
Ferrick mumbled back sheepishly.
"We only leveled the warehouse once..."
Shein slapped her palm against her face, dragging it down in exasperation before simply saying.
"Leveled it? Yeah you've only done that once. However, you two have burned it down, shot bowling balls through the walls, created a miniature sun that bathed everything in lethal amounts of UV radiation after the containment field lost power. Or that time it got sucked into the warp because you two couldn't get it through your thick skulls why we dont open portals to the warp in atmosphere. You're extremely lucky neither of you got sucked in with it."
Shein took a deep breath and let it out slowly before setting the box of fried squid on the metal dinner table. The two old veterans of intergalactic conflicts hanging their head in shame after being berated by a journalist. Then Shein started snickering softly before saying.
"I love you both, but seriously, when you two get together they seriously consider evacuating parts of the forge district in case one of your guy's experiments goes away. Again. Anyway, let's eat, I'm hungry."
The two old men smiled at each other and gave a chuckle before joining Shein at the table. Shein was munching on the fried tentacle of a squid when ferrick turned to her father.
"How's the artificial blackhole coming along?"
"Swimmingly, it just stabilized last night and is ready for observa-"
The two men were distracted from their conversation by Shein slamming her head into the table. Her voice muffled as she stated.
"You two are the dumbest fucking geniuses I know. Dad, please for the love of God, get rid of the black hole."
Dr.Frank sheepishly looked between ferrick and his daughter. Ferrick shrugged as if to say.
'might as well be honest old man'
Clearing his throat Dr.Frank sheepishly replied.
"Sweetheart, it's a black hole... The most I can do is keep it stable until it runs out of energy."
Shein looked at her father.
"And how long will that take?"
Her father grimaced.
"More... More than two hundred and fifty thousand years give or take."
Shein just groaned as she lowered her head back to the table. Quietly muttering to herself.
"How can they be so smart yet so dumb at the same time. Thank God neither of them care about intergalactic domination."
Ferrick turned back to Dr.Frank, a smile creeping onto his face as he overheard Shein's mumblings.
"So how's the manifesto going Frank?"
"FOR THE LOVE OF FUCK YOU TWO, JUST BE NORMAL FOR FIVE SECONDS!"
The exasperated reporter cried out. Sending both Ferrick and Dr.Frank into howls of laughter as she finally realized they were fucking with her.
"You two are insufferable. One of these days you're going to give me an aneurysm with your antics."
She chuckled and shook her head.
"Glad you didn't actually make a black hole dad."
The two men's laughter suddenly stopped and they shared a glance.
Shein pinched her nose and sighed defeatedly.
"Scratch that, I think I just had one. I'm going home before you two summon some eldritch horror or something."

Hey there honorary Justice League members - it’s a new week which means it’s time for a new discussion thread!

• Predaplant's pick of the week: DC Pride 2023 #1

For those who don't know: the way this works is that several comments will list this week’s releases, for any given title discussion you should respond to that comment. For example, Wonder Woman discussion would go in the replies to the "Wonder Woman" comment. Clicking the titles in this post will take you directly to that comment, too.
In other words, you should only be replying to other comments. If you have trouble understanding how to comment for a particular title, please refer to this handy guide. Any unwarranted top level comments will be removed.
Also, please refrain from posting short, low-content comments on threads for issues or episodes that have not yet been released. Put some effort to generate discussion. Instead of just posting "So excited!" or "Best book!", try something with a bit more substance, like "Punchline is such an amazing character! Can't wait to see how they explore her in more depth in this issue."
Join the Monthly Book Club! This month's book is Saga of the Swamp Thing Book 3 and you can join the discussion right now here!
 
QUICK LINKS: Weekly Meta Discussions Thread Current jump-in points Weekly Discussion Archives Monthly Book Club Discord Server Twitter Last Week's Thread
^{Do you want to hear a construction joke? Sorry, I’m still working on it.}

DC and Imprints

^{DC Pride comes back for its third year. Keep fighting for LGBTQ+ rights in your own communities!}

• DC Pride 2023 #1
  
• Detective Comics #1072
  
• Icon Vs. Hardware #3
  
• Power Girl Special #1
  

Trade Collections

^{Power of Shazam finally releases its Book Two after a few years' wait.}

• The Power of Shazam!, Book 2: The Worm Turns [TP]
  
• Static: Season One [TP]
  
• Steel: A Celebration of 30 Years [HC]
  

Digital Releases

^{Remember, these are the short 'chapters' with a new chapter of a different series coming out daily. You can learn more here on Comixology. This is also why these are in release order, not alphabetical. Some comics may release on DC Universe Infinite or WEBTOONS.}

• Monday, 5/29 (WEBTOON) - Red Hood: Outlaws #44
  
• Tuesday, 5/30 (WEBTOON) - Zatanna & the Ripper #49
  
• Thursday, 6/1 (WEBTOON) - Batman: Wayne Family Adventures #87
  
• Friday, 6/2 (WEBTOON) - Vixen: NYC #56
  

TV Shows

^{Guess alliterative titles are big this week...}

• Tuesday, 5/30: Superman & Lois S03E10 - Collision Course
  
• Tuesday, 5/30: Gotham Knights S01E10 - Poison Pill
  

^{This Week’s Soundtrack: The Garages - bones to ohio \}anyone else))

Okaaay, so we're still shaking after the game, and already shaking before next season. Time to wrap things up.
Let's start with the Ladies team, they finished 6th and deserve some recognition. I don't follow WSL much, so i'll help myself with BBC Sport Emma Sanders quote:
"Their form dipped in the final few months and they still lack consistency but given they were fighting relegation last year, this can be viewed as a very successful campaign and they have solid foundations to build on. "
Also worth noting, our Women's team played their last game away at City, were losing 3:0 but still managed to scare them by going 3:2, knowing these 3 points don't matter to our place in the table. Their lost their last game of the season but put up a fair fight.
U18:
First full season under Leighton Baines ended at 4th place in the Under-18 Premier League North.
“For our lads, the development comes before the winning,” he said. “The winning still has to matter because they’re getting older and closer to the real game. We create that environment on a Saturday as balanced as we can. We work on certain things during the week and we’re willing to practise them on the weekend, even if it may be to a detriment of the potential outcome.
“At the same time, the kids play football, and they want to win. We’re not trying to create an overly sanitised environment where they don’t know how to win and where they don’t know how to play under pressure. We find a balance of those two things. What I’ve been blessed with this year, is that the lads have built a really strong bond and team spirit. I think that’s been reflected in some of those comeback performances and the ability to dig in." - Leighton words on his first coaching season.
https://www.evertonfc.com/news/3340734/baines-reflects-on-impressive-maiden-year-as-a-coach
Since last report - Two draws against MU, draw against Newcastle, and a home win vs Stoke.
U19:
Also our u19 team played at Nawi Mumbai PL Next gen cup last two weeks, in which their ended third in their group and lost their playoff game to go further. Some games were played in 37'C heat.
U21:
Youngsters finished eight in the PL2 _ Division 1. What is more impressive, they managed to get to quarterfinals in the PL International Cup, beaten by the final winners PSV Eindhoven U21, and to 1/16 in both PL Cup and EFL Trophy(beaten by Senior Lincoln team). That was first Paul Tait season as U21 coach. Results went downwards after the january transfer window, when Tom Cannon went on loan, and Joe Anderson and Seb Quirk joined Sunderland and Accrington Stanley on permament transfers. Some words from the coach:
“It gave the boys a lot of confidence they could go on and play men’s football,” he explained. “The likes of Tom Cannon, Joe Anderson and Seb Quirk all got good moves
“Tom played against these experienced players in the Papa John’s and then went on to have a really successful loan spell at Preston North End.”
“It was a huge transition between January and March," he added. "Players went out and we needed replacements, but I felt we found our feet again towards the end of the season.
“It’s not easy for some of the Under-18s transitioning through. They can find the jump hard, but they’ve done well. We’ve had lads like Owen Barker, Halid Djankpata and Roman Dixon coming through and impressing.
“Roman joined us in the past few weeks and knows the level that is required now. It’s important for these players to experience it. Ishe Samuels-Smith has been with us since the start and has been brilliant, as have Katia Kouyate and Francis Okoronkwo.”
Since last loan report: Win and loss against Leicester, and Loss away vs Arsenal.
Loanees:
João Virgínia (SC Cambuur) - Last time on the bench - 21.04 - since then probably they were sure of the relegation and preferred their own players. Joao last game played was 21.01 and it was a bad one. Then he was benched, and changing of manager didn't help him either. Even when new first choice keeper made multiple blunders, manager kept with him. Contracted till 2024
Andre Gomes (Lille OSC) - He found his place and a manager that uses him well. Lille sits 4th which grants them Europe league, with one round to play next week. They have to win with already relegated Troyes, otherwise they might fall even to 6th. Andre Played 5 matches from the 7 Lille played since last report - 3 wins and 2 draw. One loss and win without Andre. To end it on a happy note, here are some highlights, with two goals as beautiful as Andre is. Recommended ! Contracted till 2024
https://youtu.be/MQMj43reBmM - Andre bangers!
Jarrad Branthwaite (PSV Eindhoven) - He's the hope for us, won the Cup, and ended second with PSV Eindhoven. After a rough start he became a natural starter. PSV would love to keep him, but they would have to break all the banks in Netherland. Contracted till 2025
Since last report: 7 games, all with Jarrad. 6 wins, 1 draw against Heerenveen, PSV last home game(That wasn't a great game by Jarrad, but that happens).
https://youtu.be/g3hrvYMxB4M - Cup Final with Jarrad OG. Keeping Ajax in check was never meant to be easy. Love his sprint around 1:25 to provide support though.
Niels Nkounkou (Saint-Etienne) - That's our Second French league hot cake, and definitely not a fullback. ASSE is 10th with one game to go, and still can finish form 12 to 6th. They were dancing with relegation zone when he came there. I wonder what comes next for this guy. 6 goals 7 assists since january.
https://youtu.be/u1F3QCWb9R8 - assist vs Guingamp
https://youtu.be/Rhso0dEBgnM - goal Vs Metz
Dele Alli (Beşiktaş JK) - Last involvement in football - 26.02 match against Antalayaspor. For more news visit Celebrities rumours section of some shady journo outlet. Contracted till 2024. Ughh
Jean-Philipe Gbamin (Trabzonspor) - At least he's still involved in football, played in 4th of 5 matches since the last report. Always subbed on in the last 20 minutes. Two rounds to go. No idea about what to do with guy, but at least he's on the field sometimes. Contracted till 2024
Thomas Cannon (Preston North End) - After a great spell, with a lot of goals scored, there comes a slump. From 5 last games, PNE lost 4, and drew 1. Tom scored one goal in this time, against Swansea, but it meant nothing in the end (4:2 loss). PNE buried the small chance it had of getting to playoffs and finished 12th. 8 goals and 1 assist since January. His contract is valid till 2025.
https://youtu.be/n785ACurXI0 - goal against Swansea
Lewis Dobbin (Derby County) - Derby really lost their way at the end and landed in 7th place. Dobbin always played the role of a fresh energy sub, but didn't get an goal or an assist since the end of february. This season numbers: 3 goals, 1 penalty won, 4 assists. + one goal in a EFL Trophy, and one assist in a cup. He has a contract till 2025.
Lewis Warrington (Fleetwood Town) - 2 Wins, 2 losses, one draw since last report, all with Lewis playing. In terms of game time per season - clear winner, he missed only a few games. As a midfielder playing under Scott Brown, he surely learned something. Only one assist to his name, but also no red cards and no errors, and he mostly plays as the last midfielder, screening defence. Fleetwood Town ended season in 13th place. He could find a loan in the championship next year. Contracted till 2024
Ryan Astley (Accrington Stanley) - Haven't played since february, kept out by injuries. When healthy, played all the games he could. Accrington Stanley are relegated to League Two now, but i can see them, or even some League One club wanting him to play if healthy. He's out of contract this summer. Seb Quirk joined him and penned a deal with AS this january.
Lewis Gibson (Bristol Rovers) - I'm happy to finally see this kid play some football without injury. When he showed his quality, he quickly became a starter for BR, playing as CB and occasionally as LB. They ended 17th(5 losses and 2 draws since last report), and could sign him permamently as he's out of contract this summer. Surely some League One club will go for him.
Tyler Onyango (Forest Green Rovers) - He had to fight for his place during the Burton Albion loan, and played not regularly under Dino. Then he(with Everton club) took a gamble and sent him to Forest Green Rovers, to play under Big Dunc he knew very well. No one could have predicted the injury that kept him out after playing just 3 games for the Green team. Fun fact - Burton Albion fought against relegation when he was there, and they ended 15th, but Forest Green Rovers ended being relegated from the last place. He's 20y.o. contracted till 2025.
Harry Tyrer (Chester) - The National League North Team of the Season 2022/23
"The Everton loanee has had quite the season down CH1. Recruited last summer on a season-long deal, Tyrer was quick to show his key attributes.
His dominance inside the box was clear for all to see, as was his remarkable shot stopping. His distribution isn’t bad either – that assist for Kurt Willoughby’s winner at home to Bradford (PA) springs to mind!
A fan favourite from day one, his signature dive into the Chester fans after away victories became a highlight on the road. A record of 21 clean sheets in his 55 appearances isn’t bad either.
Harry evidently has a bright future in the game and has been a credit to the Blues both on and off the pitch – he will always be fondly remembered at the Deva." - Chester FC
Chester sadly lost against Brackley 0:1 in the promotion playoffs.
Harry has contract with the club till 2025
Thank You guys. Sorry for being chaotic, but with the relegation battle going on i couldn't focus on doing these regularly. It's gonna be a hard next season, but i look forward to how our academy will look like next year as changes made under Thelwell should be more evident.

So I've been working on this project for a while now. I've made a website that has a bunch of AI resources for teachers. The URL is www.lessoncreator.com.au. It's free, and requires no sign up or log in. Yes it's an Australian URL, it will still work internationally and the content on their is useful for all teachers.
The first thing I made was a lesson planner, where you can put in your subject, year level and lesson duration and have a lesson plan appear. People seemed impressed but as a single lesson planner it had limited functionality.
I decided to keep going, and one thing I noticed a lot browing the various reddit pages, is that people wanted AI generated PowerPoints. I'm pretty stoked that I managed to get it working, but I have a PowerPoint creator, that works in a similar fashion to the lesson planner. Punch in the subject and learning goal etc, wait a minute or two and it will send an actual PowerPoint.pptx with the content you asked for. It sometimes messes up the formatting, so feel free to have another go at it, or just clean it up yourself. This uses a number of systems and the PowerPoint can take a minute or two to arrive. Just be patient.
I also added an information sheet creator that will spit out 500 or so words on what you need. In conjunction with this I've added a question generator, that you copy and paste either your own content, or the information sheet you just generated and ask for questions on that.Everything needs a lot of cut and polish.
The question generator struggles with making true/false, the lesson plan generator still sometimes says to use a textbook when you've said you don't have one. But all in I hope people find it useful and keep coming back to it.
Please feel free to have a play let me know if you have any comments, feedback or questions.

Oh my God was this list hard to rank 😅 I took about I would say at least 15 hours of my time into this and all of that was just to rank them at a certain level without much to say. First off we have about 8 Tiers from F,D,C,B,A,S,SS, and Premium though I barely put much into their. Remember this is just an opinion so don't take too harshly if your favorite episode isn't high on my list. For some episodes I may not say much or anything since this was too long originally.
F Tier, these are my least favorite episodes and most likely I have a vendetta against them in some way that made it hard for me to like them

1. S2 Ep 8 Nebraska- I hate Lori and I think this episode expresses it, most definitely a vendetta. I didn't exactly like the stuff with Hershel and recovering though it was okay, but lori made some questionable decisions to go off on her own to look for Rick even though she should know he's fine seriously. She wrecks a car and then barely dies from a walker, mind you she is pregnant and shouldn't do these things easily my least favorite episode.
   
2. S10 Ep 21 Diverged- I honestly forget this episode so much since it has nothing truly interesting or important to the story
   
3. S7 Ep 6 Swear- this episode feels slow paced and dull due to oceanside being not seen well for me and I feel like Tara put on the best performance she could for it.
   
4. S8 Ep 2 The Damned- this episode to me was just a lot of action and in the walking dead I don't want that. We see a couple of characters die (including Francine 🪦 I absolutely loved her character and hate how she died here :[ mindless) Erics death started here, but it just wasn't impactful enough.
   
5. S3 Ep 11 I Ain't a Judas- Andrea is a boring character in the show and I hate her in this episode. The focus should've been on the prison honestly and maybe If she killed the Governor I would've understood her more.
   
6. S10 Ep 20 Splinter- if most of the episode was real I would've loved it, but they weren't...
   
7. S3 Ep 5 Say the Word- Andrea just isnt much good in this episode and Rick going crazy wasn't a fun idea to me.
   
8. S8 Ep 3 Monsters- aside from the one fight with Rick I really didn't care much for it again for the fighting and having Morales return and die felt out of place.
   
9. S2 Ep 2 Bloodletting- the group searching for Sophia was okay for a concept, but this episode was okay and went slow paced for me until the end.
   

D Tier, moving on these episodes were for me mostly just forgettable or boring so I won't say much except they weren't all bad

1. S1 Ep 3 Tell it to the frogs- first off S1 won't be all high because I'm ranking EVERY episode, but this one felt slow in pace more as well compared to the last two. Shane was a badass though.
   
2. S11 Ep 3 Hunted- Forgettable... Not much to say.
   
3. S5 Ep 11 The Distance- Forgot entirely this was an episode, after rewatch still don't like it except for Aaron.
   
4. S2 Ep 9 Trigger finger- It was a bit better than Nebraska, mostly cause of the Randel scenes.
   
5. S7 Ep 14 The Other Side- Sasha somewhat makes a noble decision.
   

163-162. S11 Episodes 22 following 21- 22 had the Warden being uninteresting as a villain and 21 was boring as can be which is why they sit besides each other.

1. S8 Ep 7 Time for After- I don't like the plans they have to deviate from Rick and him going to Jadis again feels like a horrible decision on his part.
   
2. S9 Ep 8 Evolution- The ambience is the best part, though I hated Jesus' s death as it felt like a bad sendoff.
   

C Tier, These are a bunch of boring and hard to follow episodes that have some highs that keep it out of former tiers.

1. S2 Ep 1 What lies Ahead- I liked the RV scene with Andrea, but what follows is dull.
   
2. S11 Ep 4- The pope is somewhat average.
   
3. S7 Ep 12 Say Yes- The carnival was a nice scenery for TWD, but they had too many fake outs with the walker "shooting" at them and the deer fake out.
   
4. S9 Ep 7 Stradivarius- The Search for Eugene feels tiring to follow what's happening and I ended up watching the episodes once and never again because of it.
   
5. S2 Ep 4 Cherokee Rose- Watching the episode is fun because of the well, though I feel like it was stupid as an idea as the group should have more common sense before doing something dumb.
   
6. S2 Ep 3 Save The Last One- Shane was horrifying, but the rest was dull.
   
7. S8 Ep 14 Still gotta mean something- Rick felt unnecessarly cold hearted in this episode killing off the Saviors that helped him which I didn't like, though Jared got a well deserved death.
   
8. S4 Ep 9 After -It was okay watching Carl try to scavenge while Rick was injured and I liked the scene with his shoe being lost.
   
9. S7 Ep 5 Go Getters- the episode itself wasn't bad yet I never really enjoyed it too much aside from Maggie being a badass and the ending was pretty good.
   
10. S4 Ep 10 Inamtes- Inmates was a pretty well rounded episodes showing off some of the group which I liked seeing Tyreese the most.
    
11. S8 Ep 6 The King, The Widow, and Rick- the episode was pretty lackluster for me and I didn't really appeal to seeing the garbage people much in this or everyone going to attack the saviors which was a dumb move to do. Ezekiel was probably the most fun of the episode.
    
12. S3 Ep 16 Welcome to the Tombs- the finale for season 3 has always been horrible as it barely gives tension between the Governor and Ricks group, it just felt unfitting for a finale.
    
13. S11 Ep 8 For blood- it was a okay Mid Season finale to say the least (sorry, 1/3 season finale). I did like some of the parts in it with Maggie which is why it sits higher than others.
    
14. S5 Ep 7 Crossed- I thoroughly enjoyed the chase scene between the three officers and Ricks group, but that was about it.
    
15. S4 Ep 13 Alone- I liked watching the parts of the group split up, except for Maggie, Bob, and Sasha as they felt very uneventful to me. What makes this episode better had to be the part about Daryl and Beth with the ending of the introduction to Joe's group.
    
16. S7 Ep 10 New Best Friends- a lot of these parts I forgot about in this episode when it came to the Kingdom though after rewatching it I enjoyed those parts more than the Garbage people. I just honestly think Jadis's group is uninteresting and makes for no substance.
    
17. S10 Ep 15 The Tower- I sometimes forget about this episode and it's premise with Beta, but I think it holds up enough for a weird one and The stuff with princess was okay.
    
18. S9 Ep 3 Warning signs- I think the episode was okay, I just didn't like Season 9 A that much...
    

B tier, now we get to the episodes I could watch again in the past 6 months or binge through without skipping

1. S11 Ep 2 Acheron Part 2- this was close to being put into C tier since I really hated some parts about it like how they left Gage to die and still had to fight off dozens of walking regardless. The group in the first two episodes seem to switch off and on from good to bad.
   
2. S7 Ep 4 Service- for some reason people hate this episode and I can't see why except for the fact it mainly deals with Negan at Alexandria; in my opinion it was him and a couple other characters who saved season 7 and 8 for me.
   
3. S10 Ep 3 Ghosts- I forget the episode...
   
4. S10 Ep 7 Open Your Eyes- I thought the episode was fine as I don't hate Siddiq and all, though I liked and hated the ending as I loved the twist of Dante and hated that Siddiq had to die so early on.
   
5. S6 Ep 7 Heads Up- I didn't like the twist of Glenn and all, but I liked the suspicion with Carol and Morgan as well as the Ending being dramatic.
   
6. S8 Ep 11 Dead or Alive- it's not good to know when you remember an episode due to bad things. Daryl has been making more off decisions for the character and Tara seems to be completely Reckless now making me hate her moving forward.
   
7. S4 Ep 4 Indifference- The Scenes with Carol and Rick we're amusing with crude Humour as well as some more tense scenes in my opinion and I hated/liked when Rick told Carol she couldn't come back.
   
8. S3 Ep 6 Hounded- honestly I would've rather put this episode a little bit higher due to Merle (probably my favorite charcater which contributes to a lot of episodes being higher) being a badass while fighting Michonne and pulling out puns as well. The reason it doesn't get higher is still due to Rick and the phone situation being uneventful.
   
9. S11 Ep 9 No Other Way- Alden dies in this episode which I should've seen coming that sucks. The ending feels misleading a bit though everything else in the middle is pretty great.
   
10. S11 Ep 5 Out of the Ashes- literally the only reason I put this here was due to Lance so deal with it!
    
11. S4 Ep 11 Claimed- Rick had a pretty solid pair of scenes with the Claimers and I liked watching Glenn and Tara (Surprisingly).
    
12. S10 Ep 13 What We Become- I thought the flashbacks/hallucinations we're pretty good, but aside from that this episode was just mediocre.
    
13. S9 Ep 4 The Obliged- I liked watching Daryl and Rick fight each other over different views on how everything should be and the ending I thought was pretty suspenseful as well as the saviors and oceanside.
    
14. S11 Ep 15 Trust- Lance feels exactly like the Governor in some of these episodes which is what I like about him, and from here I start to enjoy Princess maybe because Mercer is around more xd.
    
15. S10 Ep 17 Home Sweet Home- I thought Maggie was a good enough concept for an episode with the reapers, though it didn't hit that hard watching again. It still Is most definitely better than the other 3 episodes of S10 part C but enough for A Tier.
    

A Tier, after this point complaints may start to stop, but that doesn't mean entirely. These episodes I enjoy watching over and over again with some good tension and comedy as well.

1. S1 Ep 5 Wildfire- For the episodes Jim was in I liked him and learning his backstory as well so this was a pretty fun episode.
   
2. S4 Ep 15 Us- the stuff with Abraham and their group was pretty wholesome to me and I liked Joe for the time being in here seeing how he is pretty fair to be honest giving things where they are due and trust to Daryl.
   
3. S6 Ep 11 Knots Untie- I somewhat feel like the episode drags due to there being too much at hilltop, but it is a new community so I can't truly argue. I remember enjoyably when Rick stopped the assassination attempt.
   
4. S8 Ep 9 Honor- the beginning with Carl I thought was good to showcase the events that unfolded before the decimation and Carl's death hit hard.
   
5. S5 Ep 4 Slabtown- I personally don't mind the hospital arc too much, yet it won't get all of it's episodes too high of course. I liked watching Noah and Beth converse and I thought this was a new era for the walking dead.
   
6. 10 Ep 1 Lines we Cross- the part with the Satellite was amusing to watch as it was a big change to see and I like that about the walking dead on occasions.
   
7. S9 Ep 6 Who are you now?- I liked learning of Luke's Group (you heard me, Luke's Group) and what they have been like learning of some of their past.
   
8. S10 Ep 8 The World Before- I liked mostly just watching two scenes, the beginning with Dante and Gabriel and Dante. I loved the fact no one even considered a Whisperer living amongst them and how he did some much devious stuff was mind boggling and amazing to watch. When Gabriel talks about forgiveness to Dante and kills him shows me how Gabriel has changed the past seasons.
   
9. S7 Ep 9 Rock in the Road- Rick gives off a good speech to Ezekiel and I liked seeing him and Morgan reunite again. The stuff with Gabriel wasn't too bad either.
   
10. S3 Ep 9 The Suicide King- the Governor finally seems to be starting to let things of him slip which I love to see. I also enjoyed watching Merle with Daryl as well too.
    
11. S11 Ep 11 Rouge element- I thought that the twist of Steph was pretty good and I don't mind the episode being a bit long and tedious for it's reveal.
    
12. S11 Ep 23 Family- I loved the fact Lydia got bit just because it shows us that people can still get bit and survive. It shows to me that in the finale no one could be truly safe even though Luke gets bit and still dies.
    
13. S11 Ep 17 Lockdown- Saving Sebastian was okay ig.
    
14. S8 Ep 10 The Lost and The Plunderers- Simon's character I think was made perfectly as he is a hotheaded person who is all about power and showing that off. Killing most of the Garbage people was terrifying to watch and showed how Negan could be more merciful than others.
    
15. S1 Ep 1 Days Gone Bye- I think for the pilot it did it's job well and showed off enough of what the show could be. Of course this doesn't mean it was all good but as pilots go it was pretty solid.
    
16. S11 Ep 1 Acheron Part 1- The only reason I put it this high was for the interrogation scenes especially when it came down to Ezekiel. Him and Mercer are honestly a great pair and I love his ending to the show as it's fitting.
    
17. S5 Ep 10 Them- after losing most of the group it seems like a fitting episode of despair and plays it perfectly.
    
18. S5 Ep 12 Remember- the first shown scenes of Alexandria was pretty good and I liked the interviews scene too. We also saw a lot of new character introductions.
    
19. S11 Ep 6 On The Inside- The ferals was a nice touch of horror that I never knew I could need. Making the people with the ferals Virgil and Connie made the most perfect sense as well.
    
20. S6 Ep 13 Not Tomorrow Yet- this episode shows off how our group is seeming to be the bad guys starting to kill people in their sleep. I like how Glenn and Heath have their first kills and show how they are changing.
    
21. S7 Ep 1 The day will come when you won't be- I like the title as it references Doctor Jenner, but for the episode I liked Negan and that's mostly it. Seeing two people die was horrible to me, but necessary and since I don't rank episodes for being bad due to deaths I can still rank them high.
    
22. S6 Ep 16 Last Day on Earth- Simon has a good introduction and I like them trying to get from point A to B, but what stands out to me most is probably Abraham and Eugene with his speech about him
    
23. S7 Ep 15 Something they need- Sasha was probably the highlight of the episode for me and I liked them and Negan's interactions. It Is a good effort to show that they aren't all monsters and I like seeing Eugene as well.
    
24. S3 Ep 7 When the Dead come knocking- Glenn and his interrogation with Merle was amazing and I liked seeing Glenn's true will shine.
    
25. S8 Ep 12 The Key- I don't like this episode much honestly if it wasn't for Negan and Ricks Speech as well as Simon and his deviousness.
    
26. S8 Ep 1 Mercy- the beginning I had to move up due to some good portions of it like Rick and Negan. I also liked the ending a lot even though I watched the trailer a lot and knew of Gabriel and Negan's interactions.
    
27. S9 Ep 1 a New Beginning- wow two series beginnings next to each other... Yeah it's weird but they weren't exactly S Tier Material. The beginning with them trying to get a horse accessory was great tension to watch and I already love Ricks Beard.
    
28. S10 Ep 18 Find me- okay so maybe I exaggerated My feeling towards Season 10 C a bit since I like some of the episodes a bit and others worse. The reason I put this here is mostly good plot lines and that was it.
    

Around here I wanted to say the reason for some episodes ranking higher is due to the fact the others are horrible and some of these have redeeming qualities. It's hard to put over 150 episodes ranked from horrible to greatness and know the points of interest.

1. S3 Ep 3 Walk With Me- Merle brings joy to me seeing him again and I love him from here on out. I like how the Governor seems to be innocent enough until the big reveal with the militia which is amazingly put.
   
2. S10 Ep 9 Squeeze- I hate Squeeze... There i said it. The cave sucks honestly and Id rather not watch it again because of that, but Negan is the only saving grace for this episode and if it wasn't for him I would never watch this episode again.
   
3. S8 Ep 13 Do Not Send Us Astray- Simon attacking the Hilltop was the most great action of this season that I never minded and it felt terrifying after Tobin's fate was sealed.
   
4. S3 Ep 12 Clear- I had to move it from S Tier, but nevertheless a great episode. Morgan's return was done perfectly and I felt like his character did a full 180 after this. Michonne and Carl's side story was also good.
   
5. S2 Ep 12 Better Anglels- Shane and Ricks final confrontation was amazingly executed and loved the difference from the Comics with Rick killing shane and Carl shooting his reanimated self; Shane and Randel was also good too.
   
6. S4 Ep 12 Still- Daryl and Beth make sense to pair together and I like seeing how we get a bit more back story to his character. They feel like the most perfect example to put for a mismatched pair.
   
7. S6 Ep Thank You- The journey with Glenn's group trying to get back was amusing to see even though the dumpster ending wasnt really the best, still horrible to see.
   
8. S10 Ep 4 Silence the Whisperers- Negan and Lydia have a good bond and I like how Negan defends her even though I hate how no one believes Lydia that Negan protected her.
   
9. S8 Ep 4 Some Guy- I still love watching Ezekiel and the Kingdom so I enjoy this episode and how he feels defeated the whole time. Jerry is the best bodyguard in my opinion as well as it is shown and Shivas death is heartbreaking.
   
10. S5 Ep 8 Coda- The reason I put this soo high was due to Rick and Bob. I did like the ending a bit even though I feel like Beth's death could've been avoided.
    
11. S3 Ep 14 Prey- originally this episode was C Tier for me, but I re-watched it and put it this high due to the Governor being a literal psycho and I love this side of him.
    
12. S11 Ep 20 What's been Lost- Lance felt underutilized as soon as he died, I really wished they could've made a difference with his exit on the show.
    
13. S8 Ep 8 How it's gotta be- Forgot about Natanias death.
    
14. S11 Ep 7 Promises Broken- Negan and Maggie had a good talk together about before.
    
15. S10 Ep 6 Bonds- Okay.. XD.
    
16. S6 Ep 10 The Next world- I thought the stuff with Rick, Daryl, and Jesus was goofy, but great.
    
17. S11 Ep 19 Varient- I do like the idea of evolving walkers though I feel like it was a bit late in the show.
    
18. S3 Ep 13 Arrow on the Doorstep- the meeting was just terrific to watch as the Governor is so sinister inside it with Milton and Hershel having a good talk as well with Martinez and Daryl having a good show off time. Merle and Glenn have some good times too.
    
19. S9 Ep 2 The Bridge- The log scene was amazing and Aaron had a good scene with the amputation.
    

S Tier, These episodes are some of my favorite to watch with a good glass of Tea and some snacks.

1. S7 Ep 7 Sing me a song- Negan and Carl were fun to watch as well as some more insight on the sanctuary as Daryl breaks free. Negan and Carl also Bond.
   
2. S10 Ep 10 Stalker- Daryl VS Alpha!!!
   
3. S11 Ep 16 Acts of God- Lance is very horrifying as to what his next move is and Leah's stuff was good.
   
4. S3 Ep 8 Made to suffer- it was a great Mid season finale as I enjoyed the fight with the Governor and Rick as well as the ending with Merle and Daryl.
   
5. S2 Ep 6 Secrets- Glenn has to deal with hiding multiple people's secrets and I feel like the comedy is pure gold here.
   
6. S1 Ep 2 Guts- The rooftops scenes were great as well as the parts where they wear guys to avoid the walkers, it always felt like a sense of panic in this episode.
   
7. S9 Ep 9 Adaptation- the introduction to Alpha was simple enough and I feel like it's a good episode.
   
8. S11 Ep 10 New Haunts
   
9. S11 Ep 12 The Lucky Ones- Carol finally feels a little bit like she's back to her old self in this community with Lance and their deals.
   
10. S4 Ep 1 30 days without and Accident- probably my second favorite of the beginning episodes as it demonstrates exactly how the group has got along since the recent events. Has a good story with the shopping market and the roof caving in was awesome.
    
11. S3 Ep 10 Home- this episode shows how Merle and Daryl are far apart which I can still keep watching Merle and be entertained as well as the fight scene at the end with the Governor being cocky as can be.
    
12. S9 Ep 16 The Storm- snow is a new but simple thing that I like along with Negan Earning trust with Michonne.
    
13. S10 Ep 2 We are the End of the World- Gamma saving Alpha is one of my favorite scenes of how it shows Alphas power towards the group and influence on it's people.
    
14. S6 Ep 8 Start to Finish- The walls coming down had an interesting story as well as many like the Wolf getting loose and Diana having a badass/amazing exit.
    
15. S9 Ep 11 Bounty- The Movie Theatre scene was pretty good as well as Alpha with and Lydia.
    
16. S5 Ep 2 Strangers- The uneasy feeling of Gabriel is pretty good to show the groups trust and I like how the ending is played out with the reveals.
    
17. S11 Ep 13 Warlords- The Complex is a pretty good place to see and I like seeing the evolution of Negan and Aaron.
    
18. S9 Ep 15 The Calm Before- The highlight is the end with the pikes though it made sense for the lesser characters. I hated seeing Henry and Enid die (Not with Tara).
    
19. S10 Ep 11 Morning Star- The start of the battle is ingenius with the tree sap fire scene and it makes for a suspenseful ending to the episode to come.
    
20. S9 Ep 5 What come After- The episode is meant to be a sendoff for Rick so I'll rank it about everything else instead. I did enjoy some of the sequences with Hershel and I loved seeing Shane again. He really puts perspective on some episodes like Season 5 which makes me enjoy watching those episodes more as well as Shane. Ricks exit was also done is a pretty good way.
    
21. S7 Ep 13 Bury me Here- I liked watching Morgan slowing go back into insanity which I believe is due to PTSD of some sort. The episode feels really well done and I like the ending to it with Richard Dying and Carol being told everything.
    
22. S9 Ep 12 Guardians- Alpha is great to watch in this episode and the way she kills the two whispering who challenge them is great!
    
23. S8 Ep 5 The Big scary U- the main focus is Negan and Gabriel which is an amazing talk between then two before settling their differences. I also like the unease at the sanctuary through betrayal.
    
24. S11 Ep 14 The Rotten core- the whole episode is one of If not my personal favorite to watch for the complex alone being a nice setting. I enjoy every bit of this episode as well as the side deal with Sebastian and how Mercer is revealed to be a pretty nice guy.
    
25. S5 Ep 15 Try- The whole episode feels like a decent into madness for Rick seeing everyone against him. I like how he goes into protective cop mode and try to defend the ones he lives as well as his speech at the end.
    
26. S11 Ep 18 A New Deal- The whole episode is average, but the ending just feels amazing to rewatch.
    
27. S2 Ep 11 Judge, Jury, Executioner- I personally like Dale a lot so I love this episode. It really shows how the group is starting to turn as they believe to do what is best for the group and not morals. Dales death is also very heartfelt to watch and showed off the walkers dangerousness.
    
28. S10 Ep 14 Look At The Flowers- Negan and Daryl make a good pair to watch though I enjoyed watching Beta and him struggling to get back on track after Alphas death and I love him so much more for this episode.
    
29. S5 Ep 5 Self Help- Daryl and Carol at the moments have some good episodes together so it's not surprise I'd love this episode. With Noah in the episode as well it feels like a amazing show of how the characters (Carol and Daryl) have changed morally.
    
30. S6 Ep 13 The Same Boat- Carol has been shown to be ruthless, but this episode shows her true colors as how she doesn't want this to be her life anymore.
    
31. S5 Ep 13 Forget- the episode itself has many great minisodes it felt like which was fantastic.
    

50 and 49. S4 Ep 6 Live Bait and 7 Dead Weight- I put these both here due to the fact of me loving the equally. The 6th episode feels like a showcase of how the Governor gets broken entirely and starts to get built back up positively showing what could have been and for a time it feels beautiful to me. The 7th though shows how some things can mess with his mind and make him go back to being a psychopath that kills everyone he sees.

1. S8 Ep 16 Wraith- The ending to season 8 was pretty eventful for the battles begin as Eugene saved everyone's asses from a cool trick with the bullets. I am happy that Rick decided to save Negan and I love the episode except for the ending being off-putting with Maggie.
   
2. S6 Ep 9 No way Out- The Wolf has a pretty interesting end that I enjoyed to see and aside from the the entire eoisode is the best part. You never feel that sense of boring to it as the action is nonstop great.
   
3. S5 Ep 5 Now- I liked small bits and pieces of this episode mostly revolving around Diana and her role starting to change. If she survived I don't doubt I would've loved to see her go through more of an arc.
   
4. S7 Ep 11 Hostiles and Calamities- I can see the hate for this episode, though I love it myself. Eugene in my opinion is at his best here and I love watching him here with Negan and their interactions. It was also great how Dwight had framed the doctor.
   
5. S5 Ep 6 Consumed- Abraham was one of my favorite characters not just for jokes but for this episode. His backstory is heartbreaking to learn about and relatable. When he falls down after beating Eugene in defeat I can feel his pain with him.
   
6. S9 Ep 13 Chokepoint- Daryl VS Beta!!!
   

SS Tier, after this point there is no bad things that the episodes could have drag it's down. These ones are my person favorites.
Around this time I also realized that it seems my numbers on the side aren't matching so I'm fixing it from here so skip 42- 38. Idk what happened but I messed up somewhere and went to fix it but couldn't find the problem.

1. S2 Ep 13 Besides the Dying Fire- The walkers attacking the farm was a great scene just as much as the Democracy speech was from Rick, though Lori is horrible to Rick in this episode. Also Rick tells the group "we're all infected"
   
2. S4 Ep 2 Infected- I love the scene where Patrick reanimates and the morning fight they have in the prison. So much stuff happens at once. The ending was Great with Tyreese and. The pig scene was sad to watch.
   
3. S6 Ep 6 Always Accountable- One time when I like Sasha is this episode with Abraham. Where to begin; The Rocket launcher scene was great, Abraham is great with quips, Daryl with Dwight is a good scene and I love the ending as well.
   
4. S6 Ep 14 Twice as Far- The Denise speech wasnt too bad and the death was great. I enjoyed Abraham and Eugene; I think my favorite scenes was with Abraham and Eugene with another one of his speechs towards him which was funny and heartfelt.
   
5. S4 Ep 16 A- The best part is when Joe's group comes along and how Rick bites out his throat signifying that he and Shane are now alike. I also like when Rick and Daryl talk as well as Rick figuring out this olace kidnaps people.
   
6. S2 Ep 7 Pretty Much dead Already- Shane is what I love about this episode, he and Dale had a really funny encounter and I feel like Shane makes me laugh and be serious at the same time with each scenes. I also like how Rick is more accepting towards Hershel.
   
7. S10 Ep 16 A Certain Doom- Beta was good in this episode and had some great parts, but the fights wee great especially the scene with the Music. Betas death felt odd, but that doesn't lower the episode.
   
8. S4 Ep 14 The Grove- I mean do I really have to explain? Carol is a savage here and I love when they finally talk about Karen and Davids death here. Nothing in this episode is a low note.
   
9. S2 Ep 5 Chupacabra- I love everything about Daryl's scenes in this that show how he is a badass and capable of holding his own. Also love his Hallucinations.
   
10. S11 Ep 24 Rest In Peace- certainly wasn't the best finale, but I felt like it did well enough for the episode. It tied up most loose ends for the show given its runtime and I feel like it is fitting enough.
    
11. S2 Ep 10 18 Miles Out- my favorite of Season 2 has Shane and Rick have the best battle I have seen even more than The Governor and Rick or Negan and Rick. This battle utilizes both of their strengths and weaknesses with some things that have never been done in the show much more like using your blood to attract walkers to other places. It was an amazing episode all in all.
    
12. S1 Ep 6 TS-19- idk what it is but I love watching this episode over and over again and I love it the more I watch it. It is probably because I like Doctor Jenner a bit more in each watching of his tragic backstory with his wife.
    
13. S9 Ep 14 Scars- The flahsback was an amazing one that told us something vital to the story about how they don't trust people coming in anymore. What Daryl and especially Michonne went through is tragic.
    
14. S5 Ep 3 Four Walls a roof- this episode is perfect for a number of reasons like Bob and his antics or Savage Rick, this was a turning point for the walking dead and this is where Rick gets some of his roots.
    
15. S1 Ep 4 Vatos- even though I love TS-19 I love Vatos more. This is unique to some episodes where you see a group just like Ricks that is trying to survive and this is where we realize the world is bigger than we thought still.
    
16. S7 Ep 16 The first day of the rest of your Life- The battle was amazing and I feel like this was the best it was going to get for the coming seasons, but season 9 and 10 surprised me.
    
17. S10 Ep 5 What it always Is- Negan with the Kid is the highlight I think, I could've honestly seen this going farther, if it wasn't for the former savior. I feel like this was fitting for an entire episode of, but we diverged a bit.
    
18. S4 Ep 3 Isolation- Hershel and Tyreese are the highlights for me with Tyreese going berserk and Hershel being a kind soul. This is a staple episode for why Season 4 is amazing and why Hershel is what made season 4 great.
    
19. S6 Ep 4 Here's not Here- I love learning about Eastman and Morgan in this one off. I love how it is somewhat told in the first person narrative to the Wolf and how Morgan changed back to who he was. Eastman shows how he and Morgan are pretty similar and why he should be like him.
    
20. S5 Ep 14 Spend- aside from Francine being here to be used as eye candy for me I loved how some of Alexandria like and dislike rick's group here. I do hate Noah dying as I feel like he could've been so much more.
    
21. S10 19 One More- I love havng the episode based on Aaron and Gabriel as they have came a long way since their beginnings. When they have few an encounter with Mays I felt like this was a testimony to who they are as people. We see how they care for each other and how Mays fails to make a point of who they are until Gabriel Kills him showing he has gone farther away from the light.
    
22. S7 Ep 3 Cell- Daryl is locked up and he is now being treated like shit. This episode feels great cause of how it feels like he is trying to break Daryl. Dwight also has a great mission on how he mercy kills a savior and shows he isn't as bad as you may think.
    
23. S6 Ep 1 First time again- I do enjoy the setting of the episode how we see the diverge in Alexandria and who listens or hears Rick out. The episode is a great example for staring episodes... But not the best at it.
    
24. S5 Ep 9 What Happened and what's going On- I loved Tyreese's character so to see him die was horrible for me. His episodes I feel like was a good send off since it is a test to who he is as a person who is confounded about the world around him.
    
25. S3 Ep 4 Killer Within- this episode was played perfectly and I feel like is a good sendoff for other characters as well like how I hate Lori. She is made just a bit better from her sacrifice and thought T-Dog went out in a good way as well. The prisoners also had a good show for their trust.
    
26. S4 Ep 5 Interment- this is where Hershel's best episode is as he is the best Samaritan Alive in the apocalypse. At the end where Rick and Carl fend off the walkers inside the gates in a great bond and I love the whole episode.
    
27. S6 Ep 3 JSS- it is well rounded and has good action as well as a lot of tension and suspense with Carol showing off her capabilities and Morgan with his philosophy.
    

Finally we cracked the top ten and into Premium Episodes. If you've made it this far you are are persistent as me... Well probably less since this took a long ass time but still. These are the episodes whee I cherish them and can watch more than once a month.

1. S8 Ep 15 Worth- Worth has what I want in an episode; good characters and story/plot. Eugene's parts are made more important seeing how he needed to stay at the sanctuary to save Alexandria and the other communities. I loved even more Dwight's part where I have without doubt the most suspense with him and Negan. Simon also had the most best arc death as it felt complete.
   
2. S5 Ep 16 Conquer- the episode has a lot of action and the ending was the pivet. I love the speech he has and how Diana let's Rick be in charge now was a sort of cliffhanging ending that signify's perfection.
   
3. S5 Ep 1 No sanctuary- both Season 5's beginning and finale are amazing and the way Rick and his group take down Terminus in one episode is amazing as they fight there way out and the scene with Judith was great. Morgan was just a sprinkle of wholesomeness to see.
   
4. S10 Ep 12 Walk With Us- The Episode had just enough action, good deaths and character interactions to make it here. First of the battle at hilltop was amazing. The second best thing was Earl and I feel very sad every time I watch this episode at his part. Then the best thing is the end with Alpha and Negan.
   
5. S3 Ep 1 Seed- The best beginning to a season it shows how the group has changed since Rick and the prison is a great example. The tombs are a great scenery and the ending was perfect for a cliffhanger as well as Conquer.
   
6. S3 Ep 2 Sick- the prisoner episode was pretty good to watch as a group of prisoners try to take on walkers. While some are good others would rather be assertive. Rick has definitely changed since season 2 and the group is played great here and much more human like.
   
7. S7 Ep 2 Well- what helps this episode is the last episode before it having a dark tone. This instead has a more uplifting one with the king and with Carol and Morgan being a great pair. The Kingdom seems to be a good community and seeing how Carol tries to smooth talk the king and how he tells whays her bullshit is an amazing scene.
   
8. S10 Ep 22 Heres Negan- We realize he was a kinda lousy husband that wasn't really too good to becoming a really supportive husband who cares deeply for his wife Lucille. The story before showed a lot of Negan and how he is and I love Lucille as a character from this episode trying to do whats best for Negan.
   
9. S4 Ep 8 Too Far gone- Honestly this IS the best episode, but I am bias so I had to put my own personal favorite above it not to say this isn't right behind it easily. Too far gone is what feels like a season finale but isn't. The Governors first encounter should've been this and I'm glad we got to see it unfold great. Rick has a great speech in it about not being too far gone yet and the Governor killing Hershel to start the best battle of the series. The Governors death feels fitting and the ending was sad and amazing.
   

Before I get to this last one I wanted to say a thank you in advance to whomever reads this as I really had a hard time making this and spending a lot of time to do this isn't easy. And remember this last episode is my very own person opinion entirely and in no way is it the best of the series definitively, without any furthermore, lets end this.

1. Season 3 Episode 15 This Sorrowful Life- Now what makes this episode so great to me? Well I'm totally biased towards the actor and the character in the show Merle Dixon. I could watch Merle all day which is what they episode feels like with the perfect duo of Michonne and Merle on their way to the governor. It has some of the most perfect comedy in the episode as well as having the best sacrifice redemption arc and ending. This episode made me laugh, smile, cry and more. There will never be a time when I ever change my opinion about this episode in existence.

Again another huge thanks to everyone and I hope this will satisfy everyones needs... Now I'ma go watch S3 Ep 15 Legit.

This is Part 2 because of the character limit, go here to get caught up: https://www.reddit.com/TheDarkGathering/comments/13urkbj/the_thing_in_the_cracks_part_1/
Talbot awoke in a round corridor. At least he thought that’s what it was. The corridor seemed to be made of dark stone, rough and ridged like a worm’s tunnel, but on a massive scale. Despite no visible light source, Talbot found he could make out every detail in the space around him.
Talbot shakily stood up and considered his situation. His hands were shaking. He supposed nearly getting killed by lethal injection and then shattering the very fabric of reality itself took a toll on the psyche. He reflexively reached for his notebook to note that down, and with a pang remembered that it was gone. He would likely never see it again.
Glancing around, Talbot wondered at how normal everything looked, considering he was in the fifth dimension. There was likely more going on under the surface, but from his vantage it just looked like an oddly lit cave.
Talbot noted that there was no sign of Willis. He’d distinctly remembered the other man getting pulled through time and space with him, but at some point during the traversal his hand had been wrenched away from Talbot’s wrist. Had he been shunted back to their reality, or was he here somewhere?
A deep rumble began to grow beneath Talbot’s feet. The entire cave shook like an earthquake as Talbot scrambled to the side of the tube.
Confused, the man glanced around. He saw no probable cause for the rumbling, no subterranean vehicles or even geological fissures that could explain the vibrations.
Turning, he realized with a start that the rumbling was slightly stronger on one side of him. If it was directional, there was an actual source, not just a general shaking of the environment.
Talbot began moving away from the rumbling, as it continued to grow stronger.
Eventually, he broke into a full run as everything around him shook. He felt like his skull was going to burst. It felt like something was chasing him, a massive subterranean beast.
As the rumbling kept growing, Talbot tripped. Out of nowhere, his foot slipped and he sprawled to the ground, crying out as he landed on his arm. He tried to get back up, which was when he realized there was something right behind him.
Talbot hit the deck, right as something zoomed directly above his head. Wind pulled at his hair and it felt like he was directly under a train.
Talbot screamed, but it was drowned out by the impossibly loud whoosh of the thing above him. He gingerly flipped onto his back, barely staying clear of the surface of whatever was making the sound, in order to see what was above him.
There was nothing but empty space.
Then, he could suddenly see a long gray tube rushing past impossibly quickly. Then it was gone again, but the rushing was still there. It was blinking in and out of existence, only appearing for short bursts, but still there in its invisible state. Talbot realized that it must be dipping in and out of the Fifth Dimension, his own limited perception unable to comprehend its greater state.
Eventually, the thing slowed and stopped. As it was still, Talbot got a better look at it.
It was definitely organic. The exterior of the tube had a pale gray color, with a texture not unlike skin. However, as opposed to the neat, even lines separating cells on human skin, the striations on the thing seemed almost random, forming a surface that, although smooth, had the jagged impression of rough crags.
As Talbot examined the thing and wished he’d brought a camera, he heard something. From the object’s direction of origin, a deep groan emanated from lord-knew-where. Talbot winced as it hit his ears, the bellow deafening. He could immediately detect three things about the cry, judging by the cadence and the way it had slowly grown from an origin point. First, it definitely came from a living thing. Nothing artificial made that noise. Second, it came from very far away. And thirdly, it came from something massive. Impossibly so.
From the other direction, so comparably quiet he barely heard, Talbot made out a shriek that was horribly human.
The thing above him shifted and despite having almost a foot of clearance, Talbot instinctively sucked in his gut.
The tube… the limb began moving in the opposite direction, back towards its origin point.
Like a train, it started slowly but accelerated quickly, beginning to blink in and out of Talbot’s vision once again.
Talbot heard the scream again, closer this time. It seemed likely that whatever this thing was had found and grabbed another person.
After several long moments, the end of the limb finally reached Talbot, shooting past and above him like a tape measure shooting back into its shell when a button was pressed.
After it passed, Talbot sprang to his feet and finally got a good look at the end of the thing’s limb. The actual tube rounded off, dispelling any predictions about a monstrous tentacle. However, what was on the end of the limb may’ve been even more horrible.
Four long finger-like appendages were arranged around the limb radially, each one emerging from the edge of the flat tendril end. They were unnaturally thin, and despite somewhat resembling fingers, they had no visible knuckles and were tipped with sharp claws that appeared to be made of bone. They bent in, each holding their prey in place. Their prey in question was Tim Willis, currently pulling against the monstrous cage. The four outer digits pressed on each of his limbs, drawing blood where they poked him.
The limb, and Willis with it, disappeared around a bend in the tunnel. Talbot ran after it. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do, or if he was going to save the man, but he knew that no matter what happened, he wanted to see it.
For a long while Talbot chased the thing, barely keeping pace due to his cardio experience. During the run, whatever existed here continued bellowing, getting louder each time. In addition, each time he set his foot down, the ground felt slightly warmer.
Eventually he fell back, and lost sight of the thing completely. It was impressive that a man of his age and lifestyle had managed to follow the thing for so long, but he had to take a knee as exhaustion racked him. He continued following its path, but at a slower pace.
Eventually Talbot emerged into a much larger chamber. The air here was blistering, and the intermittent bellows had grown so loud that Talbot had to cover his ears every few minutes to keep from suffering permanent damage.
This cavern left him speechless.
Unlike the passage, with its unidentifiable neutral lighting, this cavern was dark, intermittently lit by what appeared to be giant glowworms, each perched on a rock surface and oozing an ugly orange aura into the space around it.
Less than half of the room was lit, but it was enough for Talbot to see that the remaining more-than-half was taken up by a monstrous… thing the same shade as the limb.
It was like a spider, in the same way that a massive dragonfish from the bottom of the sea is like a goldfish. Its main body was shaped like a blimp, and about the size of one too. A large abdomen sagged beneath it as it hung in the exact center of the room, and eight radially symmetrical limbs stuck to eight points around the cavern, suspending it in the middle of the room, and making it look like the center of a giant wheel, each limb serving as the spokes.
This facsimile was somewhat broken by the auxiliary limbs attached to its thorax, countless smaller tendrils identical to the one that held Willis. Some hovered around the thing’s ‘face’, while others darted towards countless holes in the rock around the cavern. As they moved, they blinked in and out of Talbot’s vision as they tapped into primordial forces beyond his eyes.
The cavern was dotted with holes, all exactly the same size and shape as the one Talbot stood in the lip of now. He realized that this thing and its countless appendages must’ve bored into the stone around it, creating a labyrinthine lair not dissimilar to an ant’s hive, but with one crucial difference. Rather than hundreds of tiny workers, this entire place had been built by, and for, one monstrous being.
Talbot was so stunned by the beast that he didn’t notice one of its many tendrils coming straight for him.
It appeared directly in front of his face, resulting in a jumpscare that sent him tumbling backwards, falling onto his back.
The thing moved like a snake, if a snake was constantly flipping between visible and invisible.
It struck, speeding downwards towards the chemist. Talbot braced for impact, but just before it could hit him it disappeared.
Talbot sat relieved, as it had apparently teleported somewhere else.
That was until it reappeared with the fingers around his torso.
The tendril had re-manifested just past him, the fingers clipping partway into the floor as they cradled him. Talbot felt four small pricks in his back and the backs of his thighs, where the claws had pierced his flesh.
The thing pulled him upwards, the fingers embedded in the ground breaking out of the stone beneath him and sending chunks of rock several feet in all directions.
The tendril shot up towards the ceiling of the cavern, rising what must’ve been 60 feet in half a second. Talbot could barely see the ground around the tendril, far enough below to dizzy him.
Talbot saw stars.
Talbot wished he could see the stars.
The tendril took him, in a daze, towards the thing’s face. As Talbot grew closer, he heard a ragged hissing, like an oxygen tank leaking. He realized it was the monster breathing, but immediately was unsure once its head turned toward him.
Its head was roughly human-shaped, but utterly inhuman in every other way. Five dark pits, facsimiles of eyes, were arranged in a pentagonal shape on the top half of its face. The bottom half was flat skin, but flat skin that seemed to be vertically stretched, as though it’d been draped over some opening. That was possibly where the breathing was coming from, but there was no way to tell with no actually apparent orifice.
The thing seemed to sniff Talbot, despite having no nose. Then it turned, and brought another piece of potential food to its head.
With a start, Talbot realized Willis was still alive. Or at least, unconsumed. He hung limp from his tendril, held in place by the finger-things and seemingly unconscious.
But the Thing wasn’t interested in either of them, not yet at least. It brought one of its tendrils up to its head before plunging it directly toward a nearby rock face. Right before it made contact, it disappeared.
Talbot reached towards Willis, but he was just outside of his reach. He didn’t want to yell to the man. The thing had no ears, but there was no guarantee that it couldn’t hear somehow.
The tendril that the thing had sent away reappeared, seemingly partially buried in the rock face. The thing wrenched its tendril from the rock, leaving behind a shallow pockmark in the cave.
Skewered on the spine was a small man. He flailed wildly and screamed something in a language Talbot didn’t know. He was wearing a business suit, but his pants were around his ankles, with baby blue boxers underneath.
Talbot wondered where he’d come from, then realized with a start that he’d likely originated from the real world. Meaning that this thing could reach beyond this reality and into their reality. Oh shit. Maybe he should’ve listened to Talc. If he and Willis hadn’t breached the Fifth Dimension, maybe the thing couldn’t’ve done the same, and this man might still be safe out there.
The thing brought the man towards its face and did the strange sniffing motion again. Satisfied, it brought him even closer. Talbot, despite himself, was curious to see how it consumed prey, and so paused in his attempts to wake Willis in order to watch.
The man screamed as the tendril brought him right up to the thing’s face, and then the thing’s face disappeared, moving through the Fifth Dimension in the same way as its tendrils.
When it reappeared, it was halfway inside the man, the smooth layer of skin clipped through his abdomen.
The thing pulled its head back.
Talbot turned away as a bloodcurdling scream and a terrible ripping sound reverberated through the cavern. He reached for Willis again, and to his surprise, found that he could reach him. He tapped him on the shoulder, and when he got no response, he slapped him in the face. Willis stirred, and slowly opened his eyes. He put a hand to his face and frowned. “Ow,” he said quietly.
Talbot put a finger to his lips and indicated the beast’s head with his eyes, and the gruesome consumption of the poor man.
Willis seemed to get the message. He quietly started prying each finger off of his body, praying that the thing had no nerves in the spines.
Talbot turned back towards the creature, which had repeated the teleportation maneuver a few more times before finally swallowing what remained of the man. Seemingly not quite satiated, Talbot’s tendril began to move as it pulled him closer to its face.
Talbot’s eyes widened and he looked back at Willis in fear. The man made a motion that suggested Talbot should try to stay calm, and that Willis would be along as soon as he’d freed himself.
Talbot tensed as he was pulled along, not wanting to be brought any closer to the monster. The thing brought him up to its face, and seemed to study him with the light-sensitive divots in its face. Talbot glanced back at Willis to see that he’d moved 2 of 4 fingers out of place. The larger man shot him a reassuring nod.
Turning back to the monster, Talbot realized that the other man wouldn’t get here in time. The thing was already lunging its head forward, and it blinked away.
It reappeared with Talbot’s shins inside its face. Behind the skin, Talbot’s feet could feel a damp cavity, so there was presumably a mouth of some sort behind the surface, and it wasn’t just solid flesh. A row of teeth closed around his legs, but not hard. They worked more to keep him in place than to actually damage his legs.
Talbot took a second to wonder why the hell he was considering the consumption mechanics of something that was actively chopping off his legs.
The tendril moved backwards, pulling Talbot away from the thing.
These last few lucid seconds, Talbot’s brain reverted to factory reset settings. Instead of hearing the wet tear of both his legs, or the strangely cartoonish wet pop as the bones in both his shins were yanked away from his kneecaps, he found himself focusing on the strangest things.
Talbot considered the glowworms. Were they native to the Fifth Dimension, or had they come here from his, or another, Earth? If they were native, the convergent evolution with Earth glowworms, especially in an environment so alien, was coincidental to an unfathomable degree. If they had originated from Earth, however, why the orange glow? No glow worms on Earth glowed orange. Also, if they were Earthly, why did the thing not eat them? Did it only eat humans? Was it that cunning? That cruel?
Oh, Talbot realized, I’m falling.
He blacked out before hitting the ground.
Talbot’s first thought upon waking up was, Holy shit, I’m still alive. His second thought was, Holy shit, how the hell am I still alive?
His inner ear told him he was prone, but it’d been on the fritz ever since he’d arrived, so he opened his eyes to make sure. They confirmed what his ear was saying, and he took a quick second to thank all his organs for functioning so well under stress.
Willis sat next to him, notably more intact. He was wearing no shirt, and both his abdomen wound and Talbot’s stubs were bound in the fabric of an Anderson Innovations janitor’s uniform.
Talbot started staring at his abs, which caused Willis to glance down at him.
The other man cleared his throat. “Oh, you’re still alive?”
Talbot nodded softly. “Does it not know where we are?”
“Not yet,” Willis shrugged, “It has no eyes and didn’t see us escape, so it’s sending out tendrils through each passage, and hasn’t picked this one yet. I guess we got lucky when I dragged you in here.”
“Yeah. Why is that, by the way? You were just about to kill me before I trapped you in a hellish cave dimension.” He considered his words. “Which would only be more reason to kill me.”
Willis shook his head and chuckled tiredly. “Call me an idealist, but I didn’t join a group called the Agency for the Preservation of Humanity to kill people. I’m not good at holding grudges.”
“Then why were you gonna kill me when we were still out there?”
“It’s different. I had orders. Now Talc isn’t here, so it’s my decision. The real question is how are you still alive even with my intervention?”
Talbot shrugged, which made him dizzy. “ I’m on my way out. That blood loss will kill me in a couple minutes, if that thing doesn’t find us first.”
Talbot glanced around the environment for the first time, and realized they were once again in one of the small side tubes. Loud bellowing filled the air as the thing presumably scoured its domain for the two men.
“Well, at least our sacrifice will save the rest of humanity.” Willis proclaimed.
Talbot chortled.
“What?” Willis responded.
“Didn’t you see the other guy get eaten?”
“What?! There was another guy?!”
“Yeah, it stole him from our world.”
“Goddammit Talbot, Talc said that would happen!”
“Yeah, sorry about that.” Talbot said, in a tone that didn’t sound very sorry.
“At least it was just once. Talc has your notes, so he’ll keep it from happening again.”
Talbot almost guffawed.
“Goddammit, what am I doing that’s so funny?!”
“No, it’s not you. Well, it is you, a little, but it’s mostly the fact that I… may’ve doomed humanity anyway.”
Willis was silent, which Talbot regrettably took as a prompt to continue.
“Cause you see,” the scientist slurred, getting more light-headed by the second, “before I tried to ship off the notebook to Johnson, I ripped out the most important parts and sent ‘em to Vincent Anderson, my boss.”
Willis remained silent.
“So, you know. Hopefully someone publishes that in a journal somewhere so that people can actually remember me.”
Willis punched him in the face, hard.
Once he recovered, Talbot nodded. Blood ran from his nose. “I deserved that. I’m sorry, I didn’t know that learning how to break reality would allow a Great Old One to start eating people.”
Willis shook his head in disgust. “Talc told you not to. Do you really think your legacy is more important than the survival of our species?”
Talbot didn’t respond. Whether it was because he was speechless or dead was unclear, and didn’t really matter in any case.
Willis turned and limped away.
Two days after Willis and Talbot disappeared to the Fifth Dimension, Talc said goodbye to… himself and Willis-2, and used a Seal of Traversal to return to his native dimension. He reported to his boss that Willis was gone and would not be returning, before going to Talbot’s house and opening the door with the key they’d taken from the scientist.
Talc went into Talbot’s kitchen and fetched a can of tuna and a jar of mayonnaise. He mixed the two together and filled the pet bowl on the counter. Noting that there was some left, he made himself a tuna sandwich and sat next to the bowl.
It took Ozymandius a while to approach Talc, and even longer to warm up to him. However, the cat was curled up against the delicate man, purring like an engine, by the time the sunset rolled around and they both watched it out the large windows at the back of Talbot’s house.
Talc’s phone rang.
“Yello?” Talc said to the unknown caller.
“Hey.”
Talc immediately tensed. The voice was, undeniably, Talbot’s.
“What is this?!? Where are you?!?”
When the Talcs and Willis had reviewed the CCTV footage, they’d realized exactly where Talbot and Willis had ended up, and had naturally concluded that they were dead.
“I honestly don’t know. I was just in the Fifth Dimension with Willis, but now I’m unsure. It’s dark, and my legs don’t hurt anymore.”
“What does that mean?! Are you still alive?! Is Willis still alive?!”
“I don’t think so. I think I’m dying. Already dead?”
“Then how are you talking to me? Are there phones in the fifth dimension?”
“Nah, I can just hear you. My hypotheses are that this is either a feverish hallucination in my dying moments, or that the Fifth Dimension can somehow…” Talbot’s speech sank into bleary muttering, and was unintelligible for several words. “...subsurface conduit.”
“Talbot, you’re delirious. That makes no sense.”
“Good, so it’s the other hypothesis. Just cause I know you won’t actually hear this, take care of my cat.”
Talc moved to speak, but Talbot continued.
“Oh also,” He added, almost as an afterthought, “I sent my notebook to Anderson, so watch out with that.”
“Wait what, excuse me?!”
The line went dead.
Talc heard a thunderous snapping sound. He whirled around to face the window, pressing his face against the glass and staring up at the sky.
A horrific ripping sound filled the air as the very fabric of the Fourth Dimension was rent apart, the sky above Talc yawning wide. The thing’s tendrils emerged from the rift in the atmosphere and descended towards the ground, each one darting around erratically as though tasting the air.
Talc did not know what Talbot, or Anderson, or whoever had done, but he knew that they had forever changed the world around them, and doomed a large portion of the human race.
You haven’t just opened Pandora’s box, you fool, Talc thought bitterly of the foolish chemist, You’ve blasted it apart with plastic explosives.
Talc returned to the couch and cradled Ozymandius. There was little to be done now.
Talc felt almost relieved that his decades-long vigil could finally come to an end.
The Cracks in the world had finally become holes, and through those holes came a flood.

By Fin
“Holy crap.” James Talbot stepped back from his handiwork. It was beautiful. It made him want to scream.
Talbot was a chemist, the modern form of an alchemist, and he’d discovered something as wondrous and terrible as the most extreme postulations of his forbearers.
This was it. The culmination of all his works. This is what he’d fought for decades for, why he’d abandoned connections with everyone he’d ever known. But now it was all worth it. He would reveal the Masterwork at the Grand Chemistry Convention. It would steal the show, and he would be revered beyond every other human being who had ever lived.
It had taken Talbot long enough to assemble the Masterwork that he’d shed the title of ‘young’, not to mention most of his non-gray hair. Although it was hard to tell whether that was from aging or from what he’d beheld in his long sojourn. He was only 45, after all, and the rest of his body still held firm from decades of outdoorsmanship.
Talbot stood before a wall, upon which was painted the most intricate design any human had ever seen. It was a diagram of… unknown things. A chart of runes, maps, and artfully painted lines. There was no text in any living language on the diagram, but the harmony within the full tapestry visually sang, imparting something unfathomable in a way that Talbot could somehow fathom. The man who’d made it, who’d studied it for 15 years, barely understood it himself. But he knew that it was the ultimate solution to the entirety of philosophy, containing the answers to every question humanity had ever seen fit to ask. It had existed in his notebook for a while, in bits and pieces, but today had been its first full assembly, and it was magnificent.
He had to keep it hidden, or someone would take it from him.
He retrieved a tarp and threw it over the wall, nailing it in at the top so it hung down to cover his designs. Just to be sure, he moved his desk to block the wall, then locked the door to his office when he left for the day. James Talbot was more excited than he had ever been, and he celebrated that night with a fireplace and a large bottle of whiskey.
Of all the people at his office to commit espionage, Talbot never would’ve suspected the night janitor. This may stem from the fact that he also never suspected the night janitor to be part of a massive secret organization dedicated to keeping humanity as ignorant as possible in matters of the Higher Order.
But no matter what Talbot suspected, Tim Willis was indeed part of this society, and after he’d entered Talbot’s office with his master key to do some routine cleaning, the obvious secrecy surrounding the wall at the back of the room worried him. So he moved the desk out of the way, lifted the tarp, and inhaled sharply.
This was bad. A tapestry of the Higher Order more complete than any he’d seen before, or any reported by the other Censors of the Agency for the Preservation of Humanity.
Willis quickly replaced the tarp and desk. As soon as he’d locked the room, he pulled out his phone and dialed the number for an Alexander Talc.
Talbot arrived the next morning with a song in his heart and a latte in his hand. The former died horribly as soon as he entered his office only to find someone sitting in his chair, and the latter died horribly as it fell from his fingers, limp in shock.
The person in question was a short, slight man who wore thick glasses and a dark gray suit. He was sitting on Talbot’s office chair, facing the now uncovered back wall with all of its eldritch calculations. Talbot’s desk had been moved to the side of the room, left askew with the tarp crumpled up on top.
As Talbot entered, the stranger spun the chair around so he was facing the chemist, a broad smile on his face. He was undeniably attractive, in a delicate sort of way.
“Ah! You must be the aspiring alchemist?” He spoke softly and cheerily, but with an unnerving edge. Talbot couldn’t identify any specific aspect of his voice that disturbed him, but upon further consideration he concluded that it was the incongruity of the situation, the warm friendliness of his tone grating against Talbot’s unease.
Talbot took a step back, shaken. “I don’t… what-”
“Quite an impressive display here. You’ve managed to glean a quite large amount of knowledge about the Higher Order, especially considering you’ve never consulted us at the APH.” He pronounced it phonetically, like Aff.
“What are you-”
Talbot heard a click from behind him, and turned to see Tim Willis, the night janitor, closing and locking his door. He could barely register the betrayal.
“Ah, yes. Tim is working for me. For us. The Agency for the Protection of Humankind really frowns upon anyone attempting to learn the Higher Order.”
Talbot, finally able to form a full sentence, asked, “What’s the Higher Order?”
“You know what it is, of course, although you may not have heard the term. It’s what we call the mechanics of the very fabric of the universe itself. The questions about ‘why are we here?’ and ‘is there a god?’ and all the stuff like that. All theoretical philosophy, basically. And you, apparently through sheer dumb luck,” He turned to admire the mural again, “have managed to find more of it than any human being ever, including us! Quite impressive. Big hand.” The man slow-clapped for Talbot. The small sweet-looking man being sarcastically condescending was jarringly incongruous.
Talbot felt a surge of anger, and it helped him produce a full sentence. “Dumb luck?!?” He advanced on the man. “My Masterwork is the product of 20 years of research and experience! This is the greatest thing anyone has ever done, and how dare you say I achieved it through dumb luck!”
The man raised his hands placatingly. “Okay, okay!” He chuckled. “Years of research, whatever. You found the Higher Order. That’s where we come in.”
“Why?”
“Ah. Well, you see, the reason that no one’s found the entire Higher Order is simple. It’s because we stop them.”
Talbot was incredulous. “What?! Why would you stand in the way of progress like that?!” As a scientist, the possibility that there could be anyone actively against gaining knowledge was incomprehensible to him.
The man grimaced, as though he was about to break some terrible news. “Well… there are some parts of this tapestry you’ve assembled, specifically here...” The man pointed at a small segment of the diagram, a thick horizontal line with four thin lines crossing perpendicularly that turned into five lines on the other side, “That grants access to some other planes of existence. Planes of existence that are home to some very dangerous things. And due to some logistical aspects of the Higher Order,” He gestured at another segment of the diagram entirely composed of square symbols, “if you muck about in their domain, they are able to muck about in ours. The Law of Equivalent Interference.”
“But… how would our finding answers count as ‘mucking about in their domain’? If we knew the danger, we just wouldn’t go there.”
The man was silent, then answered Talbot’s question with a question. “Tell me, Talbot. If humans discovered another dimension, do you really think they’d be able to stay out of it?”
“Fine. But then why do you have to censor the whole thing? Why not give them the benign parts that would still forward human progress by centuries?”
“Because the Higher Order is like Algebra. Or a logic puzzle from Highlights magazine. If you give someone smart enough just a few clues, they’ll eventually assemble the whole picture. Which we desperately want to avoid.”
There was a long and heavy silence.
“Ok.” Said Talbot, wrapping his head around the new information. “So the APH stops people from finding the answers to these questions so our world isn’t destroyed by Fourth Dimensional entities?”
“Exactly!” The man nodded, delighted at Talbot’s comprehension. “Well, they’re technically Fifth Dimensional. The existence of time in our reality means that this is the Fourth Dimension.”
There was another silence.
“Sorry, what was your name again?” Talbot asked.
The man looked utterly devastated. “Oh no! I can’t believe I was so rude!” He vaulted the desk and approached Talbot, stopping just short and shaking his hand. “Alexander Talc, Class 2 Censor Operative for the APH.”
“Censor as in… ?”
“Yes, I censor things. People too, if necessary.”
“So what,” Talbot asked, “You’re here to kill me?”
Talc gasped. “What?!?! No! As if we’d be so barbaric! We’re here to recruit you.”
Talbot’s eyes widened. “Wait, really?”
“Of course! You know more about the Higher Order than any human outside of the APH, and probably more than a majority of those inside of the APH. Your expertise could be vital in preventing a breach in our reality!”
“What would this job entail?”
“Well, we’d need you to fake your death, change your name, burn your research-”
Talbot recoiled.
“Now I know that sounds like a lot,” Talc backpedaled, “But allow me to let you in on a little secret.” He leaned in conspiratorially, then glanced around as though to make sure nobody was listening. Satisfied, he whispered, “The dental is off-the-charts.”
Talbot shook his head. “What happens if I don’t take the job?”
Talc winced. “Things get considerably less pleasant. I have to call in a Class 3 Purge Operative, and that’s always a hassle.”
Talbot chose not to inquire into the purpose of a ‘Purge Operative’.
Talc gently laid a hand on Talbot’s shoulder. “It’s a lot to take in, I know. How about we move to some place more hospitable and you can think it over?”
Talbot nodded, his mind elsewhere. Talc gently guided him out of the room, Willis following and closing the door behind them.
Talbot stared down into his conical paper cup, filled with water that tasted plasticy. The three men were in the lobby of Talbot’s workplace, leaning against a table adorned with donuts and a water cooler.
Talc bit into a day-old bear claw as Talbot swirled his water and considered the situation.
If he accepted the offer, he would be shipped off to another state, away from his home in Bedford, where he would join whatever on earth APH was. Talbot hated the idea of working for an agency whose entire purpose was to destroy knowledge. On the other hand, if he didn’t accept the offer, they’d likely kill him.
Purge Officer…
Would working for the APH really be so bad? Talbot liked Talc enough. Maybe they could be friends. Or… more than friends. And if the APH truly wanted Talbot to be able to suppress the Higher Order, he’d have to know the Higher Order. Which meant research. He could essentially continue on exactly as he was.
Except he would never be recognized as the genius he was. Talbot involuntarily crushed his paper cup as he realized that, if he took the offer, he’d never win a Nobel prize. He’d never present at the Grand Chemistry Convention. He’d never write a revolutionary scientific paper. He would be forgotten.
He knew what he had to do. He couldn’t say no, or he would be killed. He couldn’t accept, or he would be forgotten, which was worse. He had to escape.
But how? This was some sort of world-ruling secret agency. They probably had eyes everywhere. What could he possibly do to get away?
His eyes wandered towards the stairs. The stairs that led to his office, which held the key to every single natural law.
Talbot tossed his cup in the trash, then approached Talc.
“I think I’m ready to make my decision. But first, can I go to the restroom?”
Talc nodded. “Of course! Take all the time you need!”
Talbot nodded and jogged toward the restroom. In the tiled floor under him, he saw Willis’s warped reflection following him discreetly.
He entered the single restroom and quietly opened the window. He could see Willis’s shadow under the door as the man hovered just outside.
Talbot waited a couple seconds, then flushed the toilet, turned on the sink, and silently crept through the window. He fell a few feet to the alley below, and had to suppress a grunt.
Now what? He needed to escape, but his notebook was still upstairs. All his research was in there, and he couldn’t leave it to the APH.
The only ground level entrance to the building was the main lobby door, which was directly in Talc’s sightline. However, who said he had to enter on ground level?
Talbot’s gaze rose to the old fire escape above him. The bottom of the structure was a platform that lined up with the second floor. A ladder was folded up on the platform, an old rusty latch keeping it from reaching ground level. Talbot couldn’t reach the latch from where he was on the ground, so he looked around for a solution.
He had a bum throwing arm, so he couldn’t toss anything up to break it. Unless…
Talbot considered Talc’s words. The very mechanics of the universe itself... He felt a flare of pride as he realized how little Talc truly understood.
The sigil that granted access to the Fifth Dimension was just one of several such Seals. Over all Talbot’s years of study, those portions of the Higher Order were the most applicable. They did not just show universal aspects of reality. They represented those aspects. They were symbolic, and like all symbols, they were powerful.
They were simulacra of natural laws, and could be manipulated in order to manipulate those laws themselves. It allowed anyone who knew the Seals to weave a sort of magic, ignoring the laws of time, space, or gravity by sketching and then destroying the corresponding runes, temporarily destroying that Law’s influence over oneself. Talbot’s hypothesis was that there was a single Greater Seal for each law that controlled that law anywhere and everywhere. If that one was found and destroyed, the laws of reality would change forever.
For greater, wide-scale application, Talbot had scrawled in his notebook, The Greater Aspects must be located and manipulated.
Talbot dropped to the ground and dragged his finger through the alley gravel. He assembled the rocks into a facsimile of a tiny part of the Higher Order, one that he’d experimented with a lot. He looked around for a suitable vessel, settling on a rock. He poured all his mental energy into the stone, and used his hands to scatter the pebbles that made up the Seal of Velocity.
The rock sprang from the ground and soared upwards, clanging against the ladder before anticlimactically falling into a dumpster. From inside, Willis banged on the bathroom door and said something indistinct. Talbot’s second telekinetic toss hit the ladder before falling onto the platform itself. He broke another Seal, and his third throw smacked into the latch, splitting the rusted thing and shooting the ladder downwards.
It made a lot of noise, and Talbot could hear Willis pounding on the bathroom door inside. He seemed to be breaking it down, as Talbot heard wood split with a crunch. Talbot quickly mounted the ladder and climbed up to the platform, trying not to think about the alarming creaking sounds the old construction was making. From there, he took the stairs two at a time, spiraling up and up until he reached the sixth floor.
Six flights of stairs only had him a bit winded by the time he reached his floor. He tried the door to the inside, and found it unlocked.
Talbot entered the hallway outside his office quietly. He considered how this would play out. Willis and Talc would be storming up here at any moment. He had to move quickly.
Talbot entered his workroom, dragging his desk over to block the door. He took a moment to gaze forlornly at his Masterwork, because he would never be able to take it with him. All the same pieces and diagrams were in his notebook, but the full Masterwork was a thing of beauty, one that he would never behold again.
He snapped a picture of it with his phone. It wasn’t the same, but it’d have to do.
Talbot grabbed his notebook, its leather-bound pages bulging with decades of research. Some of the sheaves of paper stuck out at odd angles, newspaper snippets and glossy photographs glued into the most faithful companion Talbot had ever had.
Was there anything else he needed?
The door began to rattle.
Talbot grabbed a sheet of blank paper from his desk and rapidly sketched as many Seals as he could. He had an idea of how he could escape, but he needed to harness his work to do it. Using the Masterwork as a reference, he scrawled the Seal of Time, the Seal of Space, the Seal of Gravity, and, after considering it, the Seal of the Fifth Dimension.
Just in case. He thought.
With a crack, his door burst open, shoving the desk out of the way. Talc and Willis stood there, the latter looking enraged, the former strangely calm.
“Talbot, this doesn’t have to happen this way.” Talc appealed, but Talbot was done listening. He would not be forgotten. He would be immortalized, through his work.
Talbot ripped a corner off of his Seal sheet, and glanced down at the Seal of Time. With a glare at Talc, he stuck it in his mouth and began to chew.
Talbot disappeared with a pop, as Willis lunged towards where he’d just been.
Willis stopped short, then turned to Talc. He was noticeably upset at losing their quarry.
“What do we do now?”
“Well, we follow him.”
“How?”
Talc approached the Masterwork. “It’s simple. I’m sure Talbot understood that time travel doesn’t work the way everyone thinks it does. Cause and Effect are inextricably linked, and cannot be put out of order. Traveling through time actually just creates another dimension, a splintered facsimile of your original where things play out differently.”
“So… to follow him do we just use the Time Sigil?”
“Seal, Willis. And no. That will just create another splinter plane. Now that the reality has already been established, we need to follow him. Using this.”
Talc’s thin fingers traced the outline of another Seal, one Talbot hadn’t thought to inscribe.
“There are many ways to traverse the Multiverse.” Talc said, “Using Seals to rip open the barriers between planes is one of the simplest.”
Talc sketched down two copies of the seal, then separated the two and handed one to Willis. The two locked eyes and nodded in unison. They both rent their sheets in half and disappeared.
Talbot didn’t ‘land’, per se, but he still felt off-balance when he blinked into existence in his office. He staggered, but caught himself before he could fall. The world felt… different here.
Out of everything Talbot had discovered, Multiversal travel was his least considered. He’d been too cowardly to experiment with anything but the Space, Gravity, and Velocity Seals, so this experience was new to him. Naturally, as any scientist does when faced with something unfamiliar, he started taking notes.
Effects of Time/Universe Traversal:
–Slight nausea. Somewhat noticeable. Temporary?
–World overall feels discordant. Silence sounds different than back home. My tinnitus is in another key. Feels like I don’t belong.
–Different frequency hard-coded into every reality?
Before he could assemble an entire thesis on the underlying resonance within the multiverse, he realized with a start that he had to get out of here. Talc and WIllis were likely following him, and even if they weren’t, there were copies of them in this dimension.
Talbot had willed himself about 10 minutes back in time, and it seemed like that’d worked. His Masterwork was complete and the desk and tarp were off to the side. The trio were likely downstairs in the lobby, where Past-Talbot was thinking over the pros and cons of their offer. At least, he thought so. Time travel seemed to create a splintering reality, one that maintained consistency with his original up until the point where he showed up. There were plenty of unfamiliar worlds out there, but the Seal of Time created one quite familiar. Right now Past-Talbot-
Past-Talbot doesn’t sound right. Pretty soon it’ll be my present, then my future. How about Talbot-2?
After settling upon a name to call his double, Talbot exited his office and left through the door that led to the fire escape, in too much of a hurry to close it. He scrambled down the stairs, knocked the latch off the ladder, climbed to the ground, popped open the bathroom window, and climbed inside. Right as he got his arms through, the door opened.
Talbot-2 walked in, then stopped short as he saw himself dangling halfway through the window. Talbot put a finger to his lips, and indicated Willis-2 with his eyes. Talbot-2 silently shut the door, locking Willis-2 outside.
Talbot-2 opened his mouth to speak, but barely got out one word. “What-”
“I’m you, from the future. Well, not from your future, but from a future.”
Talbot-2’s confused expression was replaced with excitement. “So the Time Seal Worked?! Fantastic! What’s it like?!”
“I’d tell you all about it, but I’m currently stuck in a bathroom window and being hunted down by two government agents. Although I don’t actually know if they work for the government…”
Talbot-2 pulled him through the window into the bathroom. “Sorry.”
Once he was in, Talbot glanced at the door behind Talbot-2.
“Okay. Here’s the thing. Some version of Talc and Willis will be here any minute. Whether mine followed me from the future or not, yours will catch on soon. We need to get out of here, and get the Masterwork to somebody else.”
“Wait, which Talc and Willis will show up?”
“One of them… or both of them. It doesn’t really matter! Do we know anybody we can send our notes to?”
Talbot-2 considered it. “Davis?”
Talbot frowned, and opened his notebook to an early page.
Dr. Wilson Davis
–Spineless fool. He calls himself a chemist, but refuses to venture outside the conventions of the industry. No true scientist works a cushy chemical production job! We journey! We endeavor!
Talbot shook his head. “He’d never publish something like this. If they tracked him down, he’d probably take their oppressive offer.”
“Johnson?”
Dr Monica Johnson
—Chemist and conspiracy nut. Super gullible, but generally a good person.
“She’ll believe anything.” Talbot said. “...Which is actually probably a good thing in this case. If she thinks it’s real, she’ll distribute it, and she’s earnest enough to leave my- our name on it.”
Talbot-2 nodded. “Sounds like a plan. Actually, it sounds like an idea, not a plan. What is our plan?”
Talbot thought for several seconds. “Here’s what we do. You pretend to accept their offer, and do whatever they tell you. If all else fails, you’ll get a cushy job working for the government. Meanwhile, I get this,” Talbot indicated his notebook. “To Johnson, and then…” He paused.
Someone knocked on the door.
“And then?” Talbot-2 prompted in a whisper, glancing behind him.
“Then… I’ll figure something out.”
Talbot-2 nodded. “Alright. Are we ready to go?”
“I think so.” Talbot replied.
Talbot slipped out of the window, and Talbot-2 opened the door to greet Willis-2.
The man peered around him. “Who were you talking to in there?”
Talbot-2 shrugged. “Myself. You know, crazy scientist stuff.”
Talbot dropped to the ground, then produced his sheet of Seals. He picked out one specific design, a circle bisected by a thin line. On one side of the line, a stylized forest thrived, and on the other a pictographic city loomed. Talbot ripped the Seal of Space from his paper and stuck it in his mouth, once again disappearing with a pop.
Talc and Willis appeared in Talbot-2’s workroom, and quickly exited. Both spun in the hallway outside, and both spotted the wide-open door to the fire escape. They both moved down the rickety metal construction and found themselves in an alley behind the building.
“See that?” Talc pointed at the window.
“Yeah. Did he go in through it?” Willis asked.
“Of course. But if he used the Seal of Time to try to come back and alert himself, I’m guessing he came through here to talk to him…self, but he couldn’t have left. The only point at which he was in the bathroom, you were right outside. He popped in, popped out, popped another Seal.”
“Is there any guarantee that he came back to alert himself? He could’ve gone to any point in time.”
“I know his type. The out-there intellectual. He’s been burned by everyone but himself. He’ll only trust himself. And if he came to himself before we’d arrived, he wouldn’t believe him.”
“Sorry, who wouldn’t believe him?”
“Him! Aren’t you-” Talc took a moment to consider the context. “You know what, nevermind. The point is that this reality’s Talbot is now in league with our Talbot, and that’s not good.”
“What do we do?”
“Well firstly, we need to cut it down to one Talbot. Two is too many to deal with.” Talc pushed on his earpiece, then spoke. “Hello? Can you hear me, Talc?” There was silence, until something dawned on him. “Ah, dammit. I can’t call my own earpiece.” He adjusted something on his earpiece. “Willis! Do you copy?” Willis heard Talc both from right next to him and through his earpiece. He didn’t hear the reply, but his earpiece buzzed as its exact copy broadcast something. Willis took his earpiece out and squinted at it, curious about the exact Multiversal properties that bonded it to its clone.
“Yes, this is Talc. But not your Talc. Listen, Talbot ran off to this dimension, and we believe he’s working with your Talbot. We need to meet up, then dispose of the dupe.”
Talc listened for a response, and Willis’s earpiece vibrated as his double presumably replied.
Talc turned to Willis. “Alright. They’ll meet us back in Talbot’s office. There we can get rid of the redundant one and track our quarry.”
Their quarry was currently depositing a large package of brown paper in a big blue mailbox.
Talbot paused as he lowered the boxy parcel. This was his life’s work, his notebook and all his scattered papers, and was the second-most important thing he owned, next to the wall that contained the Masterwork itself, which was likely being dismantled by his enemies at that very moment. This was the last 20 years of his life, and he was about to gamble it away to a crazy woman on the off-chance that his legacy might live on. Talbot wished he’d spent more time with reasonable scientists, if only to expand the pool of people he could mail his book to.
With a deep breath, Talbot released the book, wincing at the gentle ‘paff’ sound it made when it fell onto the envelopes at the bottom of the box.
His job complete, Talbot slipped the hood of his sweatshirt over his head and disappeared into the afternoon.
Guns are inelegant, Talc told his subordinate often. They’re loud, messy. Tools of thugs and soldiers, not agents of a higher purpose.
But there’s a downside to not carrying a gun, Willis countered silently. The difference between shooting a person and being forced to kill them more intimately is palpable, and not often a positive.
Willis considered this as Talbot-2 stopped struggling and finally went limp in his arms. Willis released the garotte from around the man’s throat, then lowered him to the floor of the office.
An irritated sigh came from behind him. Willis turned to see Talc shaking his head and walking toward him.
“No, you need to finish the job.” The man said. He kneeled, took Talbot-2’s forehead in one hand, his chin in the other, then jerked his head to the side, snapping his neck.
“If you stop garrotting when he goes limp, he’s just unconscious.” The other Talc, Talc-2, stated.
Willis nodded, numbly. He didn’t really hear the man.
“I know this is hard,” Talc said, shifting into a gentler tone, “But this is all for the good of humanity. If we let these ideas run wild, we’d all be dead.”
“Worse than dead.” Talc-2 added helpfully. “Our very essences would be consumed by dark beings from beyond our world.”
Willis nodded again. He’d heard it all before. So why did he still find it so hard to hurt people?
“So where’s the other one?” Willis-2 asked, seemingly unaware of his double’s predicament.
“That’s the big question, isn’t it.” Talc-2 mused, “However, before we can ponder it, first things first. We need to get a CC team in here to handle that wall.”
All four men were familiar with the APH Cognito Containment Teams, mysterious individuals in surgical masks that took away artifacts of forbidden knowledge to be stored or disposed of.
Talc-2 clicked his earpiece, then said a series of numbers and codes that were unintelligible to either Willis. He finished by saying, “Please send a Class-4 CC team. Over.”
He turned to the others. “They’re on their way. We need to secure Talbot’s place of residence.”
“Do we know that’s where he’ll go next?” Willis-2 asked.
“Not necessarily,” Talc-1 responded, “But it’s quite likely he’ll at least stop there to retrieve personal effects before going somewhere else.”
Both Willises nodded, almost in sync. The logic made sense. They would lock down Talbot’s house first.
All was silent in the small house several miles outside of town that Talbot called his abode. Then frantic footsteps sounded from outside, as someone ran up the footpath leading to the front door. Then, a faint scratching as Talbot scrambled to fit his key into the lock. A quiet clacking came next, as Talbot’s cat descended his cat-tree and approached the door to see what was happening.
Talbot swung the door open and gently pushed the cat out of his way with his foot.
“Sorry Ozzy,” he muttered.
He produced his debit card and snapped it in half, having extracted all the money from his account before arriving here. He pulled several thousand dollars from his pockets and shoved them in his wallet, his backpack, the pocket on the inside of his jacket, and his shoes.
He grabbed a spare toothbrush and tube of toothpaste from the master bathroom, shoving them into the backpack as well. He was going on the run, for god knows how long.
He paused as his eyes fell on his set of keys. He wouldn’t be taking his car or his house, so they’d likely not be necessary.
But I might as well just in case. Talbot grabbed the jangling key ring and slipped it into the inside pocket of his pants.
His cat mewed at his feet. After a moment’s hesitation, he grabbed his carrier and bowl, both monogrammed with a matching ‘Ozymandius’.
He knew bringing Ozzy was objectively a bad choice. It was impractical and stupid. The cat was loud, and would slow him down. But Talbot couldn’t bear leaving his baby here to be subjected to whatever evil ideas Talc and Willis had in mind.
Talbot coaxed Ozzy into his crate, then picked up the cat and donned his backpack. He took one last look around his house before he opened the front door and was immediately grabbed by both Willises, one of which held a chloroform rag over his mouth until he went limp.
Talbot awoke with a start. He glanced around, disoriented, and immediately registered that he was in some sort of interrogation room. His chair was metal, and bolted to the floor. Before him was a table, and above that table a blinding light mounted on the ceiling shone directly into his eyes. On the wall across from him, very much breaking the theme, was a ‘Hang in there!’ poster and a wall-mounted hand sanitizer dispenser.
Talbot tried to stand, only to find that his wrists and ankles were strapped into the chair. He strained against the bonds, cursing as the straps held strong.
He thought he heard faint snickering.
He turned to glare at the mirror to his right. “What are you planning to do to me?!”
Silence.
“What are you planning to do to my cat?!?”
More silence.
The Talcs and the Willi were standing behind the one-way mirror on Talbot’s left, looking at the back of his head as he shouted at no one. Talc looked mildly amused at Talbot’s complete misunderstanding of the room’s orientation.
Willis-2 glanced at Talc-2, who shrugged and motioned for Talc-1 to enter the larger room. Talc-1 did as asked.
The door at the front of the room opened, and Talc stepped out. He took a seat across from Talbot, and cleared his throat.
“First off, the most important thing. Your cat will be well-cared for, no matter the outcome of this conversation. Great name, by the way.”
Talbot refused to thank him for the compliment.
Talc cleared his throat, and there was a long silence.
“What about my first question?” Talbot asked, his voice trembling.
Talc sighed, then reached below the table.
Several seconds later, he came back up, notably with some difficulty. He slammed Talbot’s notebook down on the table. Next to it, he laid the sheet of seals Talbot had used to traverse space and time.
Talbot was stricken. “How did you-!?”
“Find this? Simple deduction. I’m frankly insulted that you didn’t consider that we’ve been tailing everyone you know for months. Johnson was the only person you could send this to.”
“What did you do to her?!”
“Nothing! We’re not the bad guys here, Talbot. We pulled the package from her porch before she ever got involved. We’d never hurt anyone.”
“Then where am I?” Talbot spat, then rephrased. “I mean… where is the version of me from here? Wait, are you from here or there?”
“I’m from there, assuming you mean your original reality. And Talbot-2 is fine. He’s in the next room.”
Willis winced behind the mirror.
“You never actually answered my question.” Talbot said quietly.
Talc pursed his lips regrettably.
“Well… here’s the thing, Talbot. What I’d like to do is offer you a chance to redeem yourself. I’d like to let you join the APH and help us protect humanity. But you’ve made it clear that that’s not what you want, and if we let you into our fold now, we’d forever be looking over our shoulders, wondering whose side you were truly on. And we can’t just let you go, no no. Your theories would largely be regarded as crackpot, but there are ways to prove these things, and you would certainly find them.”
Talbot swallowed. “Couldn’t you just… you know… erase my memory?”
Talc stifled a laugh. “Unfortunately, this is not Men In Black. Actions have consequences. There are no take-backs. And I’m sorry, Talbot, but this is it for you.” Talc stood, turned on his heel, and left.
“Why the hell’d you wake him up just to tell him that?” Willis muttered behind the glass.
“Hey, wait!” Talbot screamed at him as he departed, but there was no response.
Talbot tried to stand again, but slammed back into his chair as the bonds held.
Willis entered a few minutes later, holding a syringe. He winced at the sight before him. Talbot was hunched over, resting his head on the table. His shoulders were bobbing as though he was sobbing quietly.
Willis approached Talbot and tightened the strap on his right wrist. He moved around him and reached for his left hand, only to see that the strap had been sawed apart, and Talbot’s hand was free.
Willis grabbed his elbow, but Talbot struggled against the man’s grasp. The scientist was trying to keep it firmly on the table under his face.
Frustrated, Willis grabbed Talbot’s head and lifted it back, so he was sitting up straight.
As he beheld Talbot’s face, Willis felt a bolt of fear lance through him. The man was smiling, but it was not a happy smile.
It was the smile of a trapped animal that knew it would take a limb before it went down. With his eyes, Talbot indicated downwards. Willis slowly lowered his vision to the stainless steel tabletop. In Talbot’s hand was a housekey, the teeth worn down from sawing through the leather strap and scratching a symbol into the table. Right under his hand, the surface was pockmarked with the Seal of the Fifth Dimension.
Willis lunged for Talbot’s wrist, but it was too late. The alchemist brought the key across the symbol, carving another scratch to break the Seal and the boundaries between their reality and one far darker. Neither man had time to scream.
Talbot felt himself slip free of the chair, and out of the leather strap around his wrist.
Willis’s grip loosened, and it felt like he was flung across whatever intermediary pathway connected the fourth and fifth dimensions.
Part Two posted promptly!

Corporation Tax (Non-resident Companies) Bill
An Act to make provision for further anti-avoidance measures in relation to overseas companies making sales in the United Kingdom.
BE IT ENACTED by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Section 1: Definitions
(1) A “Non-resident UK Company” is a company which is not registered in the United Kingdom under the Companies Act 2006.
(2) An “Associated Group Company” is defined as any overseas company under common control of a non-resident UK company with at least 51% shared ownership or control.
(3) “Sales of UK origin” means either;

a. The customer is in the United Kingdom, or
b. The customer is resident in the United Kingdom and the risks and rewards of the transaction arise in the United Kingdom, or
c. The delivery of the good or the service is in the United Kingdom, or
d. The sale is paid through equity raised through UK capital markets, specifically or largely for the purposes of the transaction, or
e. The sale is paid through debt originating from the United Kingdom, specifically or largely for the purposes of the transaction

Section 2: Taxation of Non-resident UK companies
(1) A non-resident UK company and its associated Group companies shall fall under the scope of this Act if the entity has any Sales of UK origin.
(2) A non-resident company shall be liable to corporation tax on its worldwide profits net of any overseas corporation taxes paid, on the highest percentage of the terms in (a) and (b) multiplied by the applicable corporation tax rate.

a. The percentage of the companies’ worldwide sales which are sales of UK origin;
b. The percentage of the companies’ worldwide profits which are arising from sales of UK origin (sales of UK origin, less allowable expenses arising in the United Kingdom)

(3) If a non-resident UK company is paying corporation tax under the terms of a “Permanent Establishment” under the Corporation Tax Act 2009, these amounts shall be fully deductible to the liability arising under clause 2).
Section 3: Commencement, Short Title and Extent
(1) This Act will come into force on the 6 April 2024
(2) This Act will extend to the entirety of the United Kingdom.
(3) This Act shall be cited as the Corporation Tax (Non-resident Companies) Act 2023
This Bill was submitted by His Grace Sir Rea-wakey KCT KT KD KCMG KBE MVO FRS, Duke of Dorset, Secretary of State for the Home Department, on behalf of His Majesty’s 33rd Government.
Opening Speech:
Deputy Speaker,
It has long been known that the United Kingdom is a haven for companies and individuals wishing to avoid paying their rightful share of tax. This is the first of 3 pieces of legislation that I wish to bring forward to the House in my role as Home Secretary and Treasury advisor.
This Bill’s aim is simple - to capture all revenue-generating transactions occurring in the United Kingdom as generating taxable total profits, therefore ensuring that all profits earned in the United Kingdom are taxed in the United Kingdom. This Bill broadens the scope of transactions which are taxable under the Corporation Tax Act to include those in which either the risks or rewards of the transaction occur in the United Kingdom, as well as transactions funded through the UK equity and debt markets.
This simple measure will make it harder for non-resident companies to claim that profits that are generated in the United Kingdom are only taxable in lower tax-rate affiliated companies overseas, thereby avoiding scope of Corporation Tax.
In combination with the other two pieces of anti-avoidance legislation I will be submitting to the House, these measures are collectively expected to raise £3.4 billion. This proposed revenue generation and these Bills were raised at Her Majesty’s Budget Committee and unopposed. My thanks go to my friend the Right Honourable Phonexia2 for their assistance in costing.
I urge the House to rally behind this Bill.
(M: These costings are calculated as 40% of the tax gap for “Evasion” and “Non-payment”, given the difficulty of calculating the actual revenue generated from these measures).
This Division will end on the 1st at 10PM

The ffg verses resonate well with these phenomena found in nde reports. I dont endorse the blind following of nde reports as fact or blind following of any scripture as fact.
Death analogy as slipping off tight shoes or clothes found in some nde accounts
As a person sheds worn-out garments and wears new ones, likewise, at the time of death, the soul casts off its worn-out body and enters a new one Bhagwad Gita 2:22
Self judged Life review
And it will be said,˺ “Read your record. You ˹alone˺ are sufficient this Day to take account of yourself Quran 17:14
So, whoever does an atom's weight of good shall see it and whoever does an atom's weight of evil shall see it Quran 99:8-9
I experienced a very vivid life recall. … It was both painful and exquisitely beautiful. It was like viewing a film, filled with precise detail. Every single thought, word, deed, decision, and action was brought forth and re-experienced and re-examined. It was self-evaluation, with total transparency and honesty. Throughout, I was never judged by any of these divine beings. They simply held me in [l]ove, with complete compassion and acceptance. … In this review, I realized that I was every single person I’d ever encountered or thought of. As I merged with and became them, I felt exactly what they experienced as a result of my loving or unloving thoughts and actions. I saw it all from their point of view, not only how my actions affected them, but then through them [how that] affected others they encountered, as the effects kept on going. … I saw that the love we express ripples out, creating an everlasting beauty that is often unbeknownst to us at the time. … It felt as if we are living inside a grand game, which is perfectly designed to always give us another opportunity to get it right this time. … I saw that everything we do makes a difference. The impact we have on one another is profound. … In this process of ruthlessly honest self-reflection, nothing went unnoticed. Nothing was able to be hidden. Nothing. Not one single thing. This life review was like going through everything with a fine-tooth comb, looking under every rock, leaving no stone unturned, seeing into each crevice with a [d]ivine [l]ight that revealed every hidden place. And through the entire process, it was all looked at and discerned through the lens of [l]ove NDE 1
I had a life review where I saw ever single event from my life. I saw every act of goodness and kindness. I saw every act of spite or ill-will. I also got to see it from the other person's point of view. Although time did not exist, this life review took forever but in reality it was only a blink of a second NDE 2
Divine love or bright light
who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever 1 Timothy 6:16
God has promised the believers, both men and women, Gardens through which rivers flow, therein to abide, and blessed dwellings in Gardens of perpetual bliss; and greater than that is Gods pleasure with them. That indeed is the supreme triumph quran 9:72
God is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The example of His light is like a niche within which is a lamp, The lamp is within glass, the glass as if it were a pearly [white] star, Lit from [the oil of] a blessed olive tree, Neither of the east nor of the west, Whose oil would almost glow even if untouched by fire. Light upon light.God guides to His light whom He wills Quran 24:35
Those who believe and do righteous deeds, the Most Merciful will bestow on them love Quran 19:96
He is the source of light in all luminaries, and is entirely beyond the darkness of ignorance. He is knowledge, the object of knowledge, and the goal of knowledge. He dwells within the hearts of all living beings Bhagwad Gita 13:18
Anybody who’s ever gone into the light comes back to talk about this … unconditional love and bliss that they experienced in the light. … Most people when they describe it, they say it’s the most incredible … loving experience, they feel full of love and what I experienced, it was kind of like, it was almost as if I had turned into champagne, and I was bubbling. You know like my molecules were bubbling and love was going through my molecules and then coming back out from them. And when people describe that, they say it’s the most incredible thing in the world. Well it is, but, it gets better. … Merging into the source was the most intense experience I had ever had. And that is one of the attributes of unconditional love, its intensity. The emotions that we have when we’re out of these bodies are far more intense than everything we ever experience in the body. The bodies really filter out a lot of emotions that we’re capable of. … Have you ever been moved to tears by something? Like maybe by love, or beauty, or gratitude? Or just had that feeling where you were just so moved that you literally cried? You know how strong and vibrant that is, and how cleansing and all-consuming it can be? The unconditional love that we feel in the afterlife is like a hundred or a thousand times more intense than that. Take that feeling and take away the tears and substitute joy, and so make it a joyous love … that you’re feeling[.] … And that will give you a tiny little taste of what unconditional love feels like NDE 3
And a lot of experiencers talk about love, about this being a place of love, and I’ve tried to think of adjectives to describe this, the intensity of this love, you know. Unconditional, pure, powerful. The only one that I can think of that works is infinite. It was infinite. … It was infinite love. If you can imagine your baby that you love, imagine like the most intense feeling of love you’ve ever had, your mother, or your dog, whatever, whatever it is, imagine that … infinite! No end. So powerful and so absorbing. Wave after wave after wave of cleansing white love washing over me, and I became, I was the light. It was so beautiful, it was so beautiful NDE 4
So I went into the light, and as I was moving up into the light, I just started to feel so good. You know like I can’t, words can’t explain it. Like the higher that I went into the light, and the more that I moved up and further away from Earth, the better I felt. And the feeling of pleasure does not really apply to this Earth, like nothing can compare. Like if you took everything that you were in favor of, like maybe getting a massage, in a hot tub, your favorite music, your favorite food, your favorite drink, everything that you love, happening to you all at once, no matter what it is, all at once, it would not even closely compare to the pleasure that was just within that light. And as you moved further into, like further away from this Earth, the pleasure felt even better. So you just moved up it felt better and better, it was insane NDE 5
I saw the white light, which was, you know, the best experience I’ve ever had. Like, basically, all the love that ever was, and all the love that ever will be, forever, for all of eternity, literally being poured onto me like a waterfall. … I’m literally saying that’s what it was NDE 6
World as a dream/illusion/virtual reality
And this worldly life is not but diversion and amusement. And indeed, the home of the Hereafter - that is the true life, if only they knew Quran 29:64
Then Godwill ask them: "For how many years did you stay on earth?" (23:113) They will say: "We stayed for a day or part of a day. Ask of those who keep count of this." (23:114) He will say: "You stayed only for a while, if you only knew that. Quran 23:115
You understand on the other side that this part, life, is actually the dream, and you just wake up after. It’s no different than one dream you had last night, out of a lifetime of dreams. This life that you’re having right now is just one, it’s just a blip NDE 6
It’s like living in a two-dimensional black and white world here, … compared to multicolor, multi-sensory VR immersion there. … And so once you’ve been in that place, coming here, as beautiful as it is, and I live in an extraordinarily beautiful place on purpose, so that I can get as close to beauty as I possibly can, but even that it’s just, like, ‘Oh well, you know, that’s really pretty.’ But not the same as ultimate divine beauty. … [Even sunrises] were ugly for a while, … the first year was very difficult NDE 7
The minute that I kind of woke up on that hillside in heaven I knew that that was more real than any time I’ve ever spent here on Earth. … And I knew instantly that my time here was really but a dream. … It’s real to us when we’re in it, but once I was there … in heaven I realized that’s more real, that felt more real, and it made much more sense to me than anything here. This is kind of nonsensical at times. … In heaven, it’s so clear, so real, so rational, so logical, but yet emotional and loving at the same time. Immediately I knew that was real and this was not. Immediately NDE8
I mean, looking back at human life from that vantage point I could not believe that I had ever thought this was real. And so the same sense of unreality that we get about dreams while we’re here in human form, I had while I was there about human life. So there is no doubt in my mind that it was real, and that’s true reality. This is a virtual reality game, a role, a play, a dream, an illusion, a character that I’m playing NDE 9
The physical [world] resembled a black and white movie in comparison with the world in front of me[.] … That’s what it felt like, waking up from a dream, waking up to who I truly am and this life was nothing but a dream NDE 10
Altered States of Super Consciousness
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him 1 Corinthians 2:9
No soul can imagine what delights are kept in store for them as a reward for what they used to do Quran 32:17
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it Matthew 13:45
Now, what heaven looks like? ‘O m g’ doesn’t even describe how beautiful this place is. Heaven is, there are no words. I mean, I could sit here … and just not say anything and just cry, and that would be what heaven looks like. … There are mountains of beauty, there are things in this realm, you can’t even describe how beautiful this place is. There are colors you can’t even imagine, there are sounds you can’t even create. There are beauties upon this world that you think are beautiful here. Amplify it over there times a billion. There are, it’s incredibly beautiful, there’s no words to describe how beautiful this place is, it’s incredibly gorgeous NDE 11
Humans choosing to incarnate on earth Surprisingly I expected to find something like this in Hinduism and buddhism but haven't found anything except this from the quran.
Indeed, We offered the trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they ˹all˺ declined to bear it, being fearful of it. But humanity assumed it, ˹for˺ they are truly wrongful ˹to themselves˺ and ignorant ˹of the consequences quran 33:72
And in that moment I remembered that my soul chose to come to Earth, I remembered where I was before I was born, I remembered that all of our souls choose to come here, that this is a wonderful university, that we’re not here by random accident, we’re not here as victims, that we come here to choose to study, to learn, and to grow. And that on some level this is like a wonderful theater, it’s like a big university, we all play our part, and when our time to go comes, we leave NDE 12
These three pure Beings spoke to me in a different language. They used my thoughts but it was different than thoughts. They reminded me that I had chosen to be incarnate on Earth and that I had to go back. I already knew that by being by their side, everything was coming back to me. They gave me so much love. I was at home and I badly wanted to stay. I didn’t want to leave, but I had to go back. That’s how it had to be. I remember laughing a lot with them. They understood me. They knew the difficulty of an incarnation, as well as I knew it before I incarnated on Earth NDE 13
Cosmos & Vegetation being alive/sentient
The heavens keep telling the wonders of God, and the skies declare what he has done. Each day informs the following day; each night announces to the next. They don't speak a word, and there is never the sound of a voice. Yet their message reaches all the earth, and it travels around the world Psalm 19:1-4
The heavens praise your wonders, LORD, your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones Psalm 89:5
And there is not a single thing but glorifies Him with His praise, but you do not understand their glorification Quran 17:44
Then He turned to the heaven while it was all smoke. He said to the heaven and the earth: “Come into being willingly or unwillingly.” They said: we come into being willingly Quran 41:11
I look down and I see myself standing in a very gentle river, and all around me is a very beautiful, very peaceful forest. And this is where it gets hard to describe because it was a rush of all, it was everything wrapped into one. … And feeling immense awe and bliss and love and relief. … And there was no other being in my NDE, it was just me, but I didn’t feel at all alone. It was the least alone I’ve ever been in my life. It was like the place itself was alive, and it was telling me things and it was loving me NDE 14
I was taken by the hand and led into another realm. It resembled [E]arth because there were trees, sparkling sand, and aquamarine water. There were fruit-laden trees, lush foliage, and vibrantly colored birds. Everything was alive – each flower and every glistening grain of sand. Floral fragrances filled the air NDE 15
I was shown non-intelligent species. I was shown splendors of every kind, like waterfalls and being taken into the heart of a burning flame. I skimmed the surface of a sun, playing in the shifting energy and heard its jubilant joy at giving life to so many wonderful things. It was the most joyful, beautiful, wonderful, amazing experience anyone could possibly have. The size, the scope of it cannot be expressed. I met with incredible, spiritual beings like my attendant, friend, and my guide. They all were filled with contentment and joy NDE 16
The breeze blew against the tall golden wheat stalks, and as it did I could feel the spirit of all things living around me: animals, plants, the elements. I was one with them. I looked up and saw a huge ball of light that cast the purest, warm light all around me and felt God touch my skin NDE 17
Pluralism/Multiple Pathways to Divine
Whatever purpose is served by a small well of water is naturally served in all respects by a large lake. Similarly, one who realizes the Absolute Truth also fulfills the purpose of all the Vedas Bhagwad Gita 2:46
We have revealed to you this Book with the truth, as a confirmation of previous Scriptures and a supreme authority on them. So judge between them by what God has revealed, and do not follow their desires over the truth that has come to you. To each of you We have ordained a code of law and a way of life. If God had willed, He would have made you one community, but His Will is to test you with what He has given ˹each of˺ you. So compete with one another in doing good. To God you will all return, then He will inform you ˹of the truth˺ regarding your differences Quran 5:48
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven Matthew 7:21
I asked about religion and the vastness of it all. The only answer I could recall afterwards was the word "dogma." This word stood for the concept that the truth was muddled by man's feelings. Although coming from our good intentions, it was inhibiting others from spiritually growing NDE 18
Interconnectedness with Higher Power & Creation
The embodied souls in this material world are My eternal fragmental parts. But bound by material nature, they are struggling with the six senses including the mind Bhagwad Gita 15:7
When I have completed shaping him and have breathed into him of My Spirit Quran 15:29
He exists outside and inside all living beings, those that are moving and not moving. He is subtle, and hence, He is incomprehensible. He is very far, but He is also very near Bhagwad Gita 13:16
The UNIVERSE in expression, and the Universe was within me, I was shown this, I KNEW this intimately. I was shown through energy that I was ONE with ALL THAT IS, ALL THAT EVER WAS and ALL THAT WILL EVER BE. ALL THAT EXISTED was within me. I was shown this and experienced this within every fiber of my Being. EVERYTHING WAS CONNECTED. I WAS EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE; omnipresent, omniscense! I KNEW in this place of ONENESS that I was connected to everyone and everything. There absolutely was no seperation NDE Anna

Section 455 (Anti-Avoidance) Bill

A

Bill

to

make provision for further anti-avoidance measures in relation to Section 445 of the Companies Act 2006 .
BE IT ENACTED by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Section 1: Amendments to Section 456 of the Corporation Tax Act 2010
(1) Clause 4 of Section 456 of the Corporation Tax Act 2010 is amended as follows:

(4) Condition A is that—
a. the amount of the loan or advance does not exceed £5,000, and
b. that amount does not exceed £5,000 when taken together with any other outstanding loans and advances which were made to the borrower by—
i. the close company, or
ii. any of its associated companies.

Section 2: Amendments to Section 457 of the Corporation Tax Act 2010
(1) Clause 2 of Section 457 of the Corporation Tax Act 2010 is amended as follows:

(2) Relief is to be given from that tax, or a proportionate part of it, if—
a. the loan or advance or part of it is repaid to the company, or
b. the whole or part of the debt in respect of the loan or advance is released or written off, and;
c. no new loan or advance to the recipient is established within 2 years of the original loan date.

Section 3: Commencement, short title and extent
(1) This Act will come into force on the 6 April 2024
(2) This Act will extend to the entirety of the United Kingdom.
(3) This Act shall be cited as the Section 445 (Anti-avoidance) Act 2023
This Bill was submitted by His Grace Sir Rea-wakey KCT KT KD KCMG KBE MVO FRS, Duke of Dorset, Secretary of State for the Home Department, on behalf of His Majesty’s 33rd Government.
Opening Speech:
Deputy Speaker,
I now present the second of the anti-tax avoidance laws that I wish to bring to the House, this one tackling the Section 455 avoidance measure.
Under previous laws, it was a known tax avoidance scheme for employed shareholders of a business to extract profits in the form of a “shareholder loan”, which in effect operated as a tax free dividend to shareholders. While successive Governments have tried to curb this avoidance measure over time, including through amendments to the Companies Act 2006 to include Section 455 and it’s related clauses, a number of issues remain. Firstly, the existing anti-avoidance measure fails to tackle loans of less than £15,000, which is not an insignificant amount of money on which tax should otherwise be due. Therefore this Bill reduces that threshold to £5,000 in line with other tax legislation to ensure that only trivial loans which would be expected in the normal course of business (e.g corporate credit cards) are incurred. Secondly, despite the anti-avoidance legislation a tax avoidance known as “bed and breakfasting” remains prevalent - these transactions are carried out around the end of the accounting period to prevent the loans etc appearing on the company’s Balance Sheet but it may also be done around the date which is 9 months after the end of the accounting period as that is the trigger date for liability to the charge, thereby meaning that a temporary repayment of the same loan and the return of these funds 9 months after the end of the accounting period mean that the funds remain not taxable on a technicality. Finally, given shareholder loans are not subject to interest, even if these loans are eventually repaid the present value of the loan value will be lower when such profit is formally extracted and therefore taxed by HMRC, which the legislation fails to prevent. To tackle these issues, this Bill also creates a measure in which any repaid loans made within 2 years of a previous loan being made are treated as though the original loan remained outstanding, and therefore taxable under the Section 455 clause of the Companies Act.
It is the position of Her Majesty’s Government that shareholders must extract profit from their business through a legally authorised and taxable dividend, and we will do everything in our power to remove the opportunities for avoidance.
In combination with the other two pieces of anti-avoidance legislation I will be/have submitted to the House, these measures are collectively expected to raise £3.4 billion. This proposed revenue generation and these Bills were raised at Her Majesty’s Budget Committee and unopposed. My thanks go to my friend the Right Honourable Phonexia2 for their assistance in costing.
I urge the House to rally behind this Bill.
(M: These costings are calculated as 40% of the tax gap for “Evasion” and “Non-payment”, given the difficulty of calculating the actual revenue generated from these measures).
This reading will end on the 1st at 10PM

ive been scouring the sub for a good couple days by now and have gotten a few good titles that i've grown to love out of it, but i wanted to also try getting recs directly myself!! (i'm new to the sub too atm, so bear with me lol)
as the title implies, i'm here for the funnies and the sillies and the doki dokis aka i love interactions where the main couple actually feels like they get along and are willing to tease/poke fun at each other beyond the usual "oh the ml is so handsome and amazing how can i ever compare" and "how do i win the fls affections when will she ever like me back" lovey dovey stuff yknow (i mean i do have series that have that and that i've enjoyed but i digress)
no smut please! i'm a-ok with slowburn but fast burn is juicer! anything else is fair game lol. i'm also fine with some spoilers in the recs given such as who the love interests are
examples of what i'm looking for include:

• The Reason Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion (bro Raeliana and Noah are fucking hilarious, they each have ample opportunities to tease one another and i never feels as though one of them keeps the upper hand; that said i may be biased since it was my first manhwa lol. personal fave!)
• I'm the Villainess So I'm Taming the Final Boss (Aileen is so entertaining to read and i enjoy how she takes the lead in most things, but the times where Claude manages to tease her back and catch her off-guard is just as fun to read about; that said i've only read the manga bc i hear the full novel story sure is Something)
• For Better or For Worse (BIG BIG ONE!!!! Dillion and Cedric are such a riot i love love love it!! also the fact that they actually communicate 99% of the time about their problems is a huge bonus)
• I'll Politely Decline the Male Leads / I'm no Heroine! (honestly the main four have such a good dynamic that i'd even be perfectly fine with no romance at all!!!! but for the sake of recs Aerinda and Luke have such a fun and playful dynamic that, again, i'd be perfectly fine with them staying best friends if there was no romance :D)
• Villainess Level 99 (o7 to Patrick my man's got his hands full dealing with Eumellia and her antics LMAO but fr they have such a feel good and funny dynamic that even without the romance they're just good friends for each other yknow)
• Isn't Being a Wicked Woman Much Better? / The Perks of Being a Villainess (Isidor's both the clown and the entire circus, i'm sorry but like the majority of the time i read about him he's just really funny LMAO and there's Deborah who just thinks he's sus until they get to know each other. but once that happens they're really fun and cool together!!! they take the time to become friends even if Isidor falls both fast and hard which i will not complain about. another personal fave!)
• I Raised an Obsessive Servant / My Ray of Hope (YURINA AND RAY WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA i'm a sucker for childhood friends trope ueee,,,,, and their friendship at the beginning!!!! they're so close to each other and they're so comfortable around each other it makes me so soft!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they just wanna protect each other and stay around each other!!)
• The Duke's Bored Daughter is my Master (Caesar is a RIOT holy shit this mess of a man in love,,,, again, bonus points for childhood friends trope but also for Helena being unafraid to clap! back! when she wants to, seriously she's so fucking cool and their interactions are always a treat to read. plus the both of them feel like real, awkward people falling in love! or well, having a crush in Helena's case, poor Caesar's just a mess like i said, poor him)
• I Stole the Number One Ranker's Soul (not OI) (i'm usually not into the modern day system stories but this one really caught my attention. Mo-ah's such a fun and amazing fl and Ji-han's such a fun goof despite how brooding he acts and looks on first impression. and the two of them are just so feel good together!!! they have all the fun and comfy vibes that i want. shaping up to be another personal fave since i discovered this very recently)

honorable mentions:

• Snow White with the Red Hair
• Can a Marquis and Grand Duke be Friends?
• A Transmigrator's Privilege
• I'm Your Guardian Angel! (not OI)
• I'll be the Warrior's Mother
• The Daughter of the Albert House Wishes for Ruin
• Trophy Husband
• Caught by the Villain

thank you in advance to anyone who wants to share recs!!!!!

Long story short, I inherited a house and the carport polls are maybe one strong wind away from just giving way. Speaking with one of the previous owners, it has two 3" O.D. galvanized polls holding up the car port. The bottom of each is rusted to the point you can see through it. For the time being, I braced it with 4x4's just in case the polls do give out.
My question is, how do I calculate for sinking after I put new polls in? For example, I dig 2 feet holes, put my concrete forms in and then set the polls. Do I place the load of the carport on it while the concrete is setting, or do I wait? Second, how do I calculate sinking of the newly installed polls? I'm assuming they will setting and lower slightly due to the weight. Although I could be wrong on this.
I'm not a concrete guy, so forgive my ignorance.

I have released version 2023-05-29 of Seed7. Notable changes in this release are:

• Improvements have been done in the tutorial and in the libraries rpm.s7i and zip.s7i.
• Several compiler optimizations have been improved.
• The test suite has been improved to increase the code coverage of the compiler.

This release is available at GitHub and SF. There is also a Seed7 installer for windows, which downloads the newest version from SF. The Seed7 Homepage stays at its usual place. There is also a mirror of the Seed7 Homepage at GitHub.
Changelog:

• The FAQ concerning break and continue has been improved.
• Chapters about assignment and constants have been added to the tutorial, which is part of the manual. A description of the function fraction)() has been added to the chapter about predefined types.
• The new library archive_base.s7i has been added. This library defines common functions for file archives. It currently defines the function readDir() which is used by the archive libraries ar.s7i, cpio.s7i, rpm.s7i, tar.s7i and zip.s7i.
• In the zip.s7i library the function readDir)() has been improved to work for absolute paths (by calling readDir() from archive_base.s7i).
• Several improvements have been made in the rpm.s7i library:
  • The signature section digests are checked when the RPM file is opened.
  • The payload digests are only checked if the payload is used.
  • Provided and required dependencies are read when the RPM file is opened.
• The compiler (s7c.sd7) has been improved:
  • It recognizes if an array index access[(in_integer)]) would always raise INDEX_ERROR. This is done for a constant array and with the range of possible index values.
  • The optimization of the floating point power operator with an integer exponent**(in_integer)) has been improved. There are cases where the base is constant, and the range of possible exponents allows a simplification.
  • The optimization of the floating point left%3C%3C(in_integer)) and right shift%3E%3E(in_integer)) operators has been improved. It considers cases where the number that needs to be shifted is constant and cases where nothing is constant. In both situations the range of possible shift amounts allows simplifications.
  • The optimization of A *(in_float)) B ***(in_integer)) C with A and B float and C integer, has been improved. This considers cases where B is a power of two and the range of possible exponents C allows a simplification.
  • It is recognized if the integer left shift%3C%3C(in_integer)) operator would always raise OVERFLOW_ERROR. Depending on the range of possible values for the shift amount and the value to be shifted, this optimization is made.
  • The number of checks for OVERFLOW_ERROR and NUMERIC_ERROR of the integer power operator**(in_integer)) has been reduced. Depending on the range of possible values for base and exponent, some checks can be omitted.
  • Now the range of possible integer values is determined for the expression ord)(aBigInteger modmod(inbigInteger)) 2\ ****(in_integer)) n).
  • Now the range of possible integer values is determined for the length) of a sub-string.
  • The generated code for 'elsif FALSE then end if' as been fixed.
  • String index[(in_integer)]) checks are optimized away if the range of possible index values always remains inside a constant string.
  • Computing the length of a fixLen substring[(in_integer)fixLen(in_integer)]) has been optimized (e.g.: length)(aString[A fixLen[(in_integer)fixLen(in_integer)]) B]) will always return B).
  • The optimization of the string length function) has been changed to sum up the length of the components as integers.
• The test suite has been improved to increase the code coverage of the compiler.
• Tests for array assignment, array length) and array index access[(in_integer)]) have been added to chkarr.sd7.
• Tests of the optimization of expressions like ord)((A ++(in_bigInteger)) B) modmod(in_bigInteger)) C) (the modulus of a bigInteger sum converted to an integer) have been added.
• Several tests have been added to chkflt.sd7:
  • Tests for float left shift (<<%3C%3C(in_integer))).
  • Tests for float right shift (>>%3E%3E(in_integer))).
  • Tests for float ****(in_integer)) integer.
  • Tests for the A * B ****(in_integer)) C optimization.
  • Tests for float ****(in_float)) float.
  • The tests for decompose)() have been improved.
  • Tests for ceil)(), floor)() and trigonometric functions have been added.
• Tests for the power operator (****(in_integer))) and for the integer >>:=%3E%3E:=(in_integer)) operator have been added to chkint.sd7.
• Tests for the overflow of shift left (<<%3C%3C(in_integer))) and for the power operator (****(in_integer))) have been added to chkovf.sd7.
• Tests for string head[_..(in_integer)]) have been added to chkidx.sd7.
• Tests for empty if-, while- and repeat-statements have been added to chkprc.sd7.
• Tests for card)(), rand)() and assignment have been added to chkset.sd7.
• Several tests have been added to chkstr.sd7:
  • Tests for string length).
  • Tests for string index access[(in_integer)]).
  • Tests for the string head function[_..(in_integer)]).
  • Tests for string concatenation&(in_string)).
  • Tests for string assignment.
• The phrase "works correct" has been replaced with "works correctly" in the files chk_all.sd7, chkarr.sd7, chkbig.sd7, chkbin.sd7, chkbigdata.sd7, chkbool.sd7, chkbst.sd7, chkchr.sd7, chkcmd.sd7, chkexc.sd7, chkfil.sd7, chkflt.sd7, chkhsh.sd7, chkidx.sd7, chkint.sd7, chkovf.sd7, chkprc.sd7, chkset.sd7 and chkstr.sd7.
• The value STMT_BLOCK_IN_PARENTHESES_OK has been added to confval.sd7.
• The initialization of local variables and constants with a single local value has been fixed (in dcllib.c).
• In flt_rtl.c the function fltLdexp() has been improved to work correctly for infinity, even if ldexp() does not.
• The program chkccomp.c has been improved to determine LDEXP_OF_INFINITY_OKAY (which defines if ldexp() works for infinity).
• Documentation comments have been improved in null_file.s7i.

Regards,
Thomas Mertes

PART EIGHT HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVEN
[Previous Chapter] [The Beginning] [Patreon+2]
Thursday
Cora arrived beside the leg of her office chair in her Washington DC apartment. Being only a few inches tall and in a liquid form, she leaned her weight to her left and permitted her essence to be absorbed into the bare human foot that hadn’t moved for several hours. As her essence reintegrated with the mass, she felt her Mystallian lungs take a breath and lifted herself out of her chair, staring down at the computer. The monitor was in the midst of having the screen saver’s coloured lines bounce across the screen like an automated game of Pong.
An icy smile crossed her lips as she used the back of her knees to push the chair farther away and headed towards the door.
Nuncio appeared on the other side of the room next to the windows, his smile full of excitement. “Do you think they’ll do even half of what they said they’d do?” he asked, rubbing his hands together gleefully. “And man, I am going to be pissed if Haynes doesn’t leave her computer on so I can watch and award points for style after everything I’ve done to cover for them.”
Cora’s good mood deflated. “Aren’t you supposed to be in the Prydelands with Vadim?”
Nuncio waved his hand through the air dismissively. “He’s having a sleep-over with Hezkiss’ clutch. I wanted to free myself up in case things went awry with Monsieur le Fuck-Knuckle, and I had to get in there to give you a hand in person.”
Cora rolled two fingers upright between them. “Two of us … overseeing the operation of five humans absconding with another human?” She curled her lip in derision.
Nuncio folded his arms and hunched one shoulder ever so slightly. “Your friend at the NCIS has some good hackers, by the way,” he said, and Cora stilled. “I mean, not me good obviously…” —he blew out a sharp raspberry— “…but still, that web trap they had set up for Haynes?” He pursed his lips and kissed his fingertips before flaring them in the classic ‘genius’ motion. “They’d have got her for sure with that if I hadn’t set off one of my line-tracers for them to chase down instead. They even had access to the dark web, following it all over the world. They won’t come up for air until at least this time tomorrow, and by then, they’ll know Portsmith’s been taken.”
Cora moved to the window to stare out at the cityscape, where she felt more than saw Nuncio’s eyes on her. “What’s wrong?” he asked warily. “You’re always saying punishments don’t fit the crimes anymore, and if anyone deserves a taste of hell, it’s that prick.”
Cora never took her eyes from the landscape as she placed a hand on her son’s shoulder, curling her fingers to squeeze.
Only the vice-like grip didn’t ease up. If anything, it increased, with her nails sharpening to penetrate the casual shirt he wore and biting into the flesh itself, giving her control of his physical form.
* * *
Too late, Nuncio realised he was caught, and when he turned to look at his mother, there was nothing in her stare to even hint at a loving maternal instinct. “You gave me quite the run-around, boy. Now, let’s see if you can give me one good reason why I don’t crank up every one of your pain receptors to a thousand percent of where they are right now.”
Nuncio whimpered and fled into his mind, creating his apartment living room in the Prydelands. Surrounded by the pryde and his Aunt Columbine’s calm presence (even if it was just his imagination) he calmed down enough to get a hold of himself.
His mother knew something. Something that she was pissed off enough to threaten him with bodily harm over. But what was the question. There were layers to his misdealings, each inviting more trouble than the last. His mother wasn’t one to forgive and forget, but if he could somehow justify his actions, something that her innate had given him the opportunity to do instead of simply going straight to the ‘pain of a thousand deaths’ that she’d perfected too long ago to count.
The trick was … which layer had she figured out? If he short-changed himself, he would be in more trouble than he needed to be, but if he didn’t own up to what she knew he’d done, he’d really be in trouble. Humpty Dumpty had nothing on shifters.
Despite freaking out, he was suddenly reminded of an old comedy routine he’d listened to about forty-something years ago, where a kid knew he was in trouble, ‘And out of the one hundred things I’d done wrong that day, I wasn’t sure which one he wanted to talk to me about’.
The way that kid had dealt with the problem would serve him just as badly. Saying “Who me?” at this juncture was likely to get him smashed into a pulp because both of them were painfully aware of the who. And to be honest, the who, in this case, didn’t really matter. His mother didn’t care about Alex Portsmith. He was barely a splattered bug on the windscreen of their lives, even more so now that he would pay for his crimes in full. Nothing about that warranted this pain crackdown.
Maybe it was the fact that he (and Fisk) had given Alex a family shield so that the veil wouldn’t protect him from the horrors that came from pissing off demonic royalty. Or maybe it was the fact that he, of all the shifters in Earlafaol, had helped Fisk hospitalise that no-good bastard.
That might annoy her, but again, not to this degree.
It might be the wild goose chase he’d led her on after she’d come to him wanting information about Noah and his people. He hadn’t said he’d known all about everything already and instead let her go on her merry way.
Yeah … that was probably what this was all about.
The first words out of his mouth, when he returned to the physical realm were, “I didn’t tell you I was involved because you were already days deep into your investigation and if you just stopped suddenly, it would’ve looked like you were covering something up.”
Her expression grew thoughtful, and her claws loosened. Not enough to release him, but enough for him to believe he’d hit the magic topic.
“I am covering up something,” she said, staring through the windows.
“Yes, but it’s not from an FBI standpoint, is it? By handing that part of the case over to the NCIS, it’s not on you that they lost Portsmith during their investigation.” He turned to his mother. “See? It’s all good, right?”
The key was always distraction. Have people focus on what he was saying rather than what he wasn’t.
“And you were the shifter that helped Fisk break him.”
“He was a douchebag who deserved it, Mom. And once you came to me, telling me you wanted leads on the team Melody’s father heads, I spent a large portion of my time feeding them information and keeping the wolves at bay. I had to pull a hell of a lot of vanta-black trickery to convince those two guards to report immediately to the Naval Commanding Officer up in Saufley H—”
Her claws scraped the bone, but Nuncio endured it rather than numb the area. His mother was making a point, and it was integral to his ongoing health that he accepted her warning for what it was. Something he could heal the second she let him go.
“Don’t tell me the specifics of how you moved those Naval Police away from his door. I’ll find out at the reunion. If I keep myself ignorant until then, I won’t have to lie to Scott about what happened to his people.”
“You could always tell them how deeply embedded in the dark web the people you’re chasing are. They haven’t separated those two cases yet, have they?”
“You know they haven’t.”
“I’m not saying you have to lie, but come on, Mom. We both know that unless Grandmother was dipping into her powerbase, there’s plenty of ways to misdirect a line of enquiry.”
The claws bit so heavily into the shoulder that they punctured the bone and touched on either side, essentially shackling him to her. “Ow…ow-ow-ow-OW—Moooom,” Nuncio whined, his teeth gritting on the waves of pain that weren’t getting any easier to ignore. “Mom, that really hurts! Ow-ow!” But he wouldn’t beg. Never beg. She’d put his arm up to the elbow in a meat grinder if he begged, and she’d make sure he felt every bit of it.
“Misdirection,” his mother purred, ignoring the way Nuncio used his good hand against the window frame to keep himself upright. “Like the way Alex Portsmith’s Puerto Rican house was destroyed in a gaseous fireball afterwards that could’ve killed hundreds of US citizens.”
Back into his imagination he went. Okay. This was bad. Think, Nuncio. Think! He walked around his apartment, alternating between tapping his forehead and patting his fingertips together to stimulate the thought process. The searing pain of his mother’s physical shackle was distracting, but he had to focus past it to find a solution.
Intentionally harming innocents that she was responsible for was a hard line to his mother. There was no justification for it, and he should’ve remembered that!
Well, there wasn’t until there was … but those situations were few and far between and certainly not going to help him now. Offering to rebuild the area after the fact was lip service at best. Had he done it at the time, it would have been accepted, and the matter dropped, except Nuncio had wanted to keep himself out of this mother’s firing line, so he stayed quiet.
His best chance was to eat some humble pie. Something most Mystallians would rather die than do.
“I lost my shit,” he admitted, returning to the physical realm once more. “I saw the state she was in, saw how he had completely destroyed her for no other reason than because he could, and I lost it. In one move, I made sure she was safe, and the place that had been her prison could never be used for that again. I wasn’t thinking about the neighbours.” That last part, at least, was the absolute truth. Just not the way it was presented. He hadn’t thought about the neighbours because their lives and homes were inconsequential to him.
His mother’s grip lessened but didn’t release.
“I mean, you only read the reports, but I saw the burns, Mom. I watched the way she cowered. That jackass had her burning herself on the oven rings when he couldn’t be there to punish her himself. And he thought he had the right to do that.”
The claws loosened for all of two seconds. “You will reimburse everyone who took a financial hit during that destruction, correct?”
“Yes!” He might have yelped that out, but if doing a few hundred online transactions was all it took to get him out of this mess, he would grab it with both hands!
“Every single one of them.”
“Yes,” he agreed again, wondering why she was making him repeat himself.
“And just remember, that area is bitterly poor, and the internet doesn’t exist, so you’ll have to go there yourself to make reparations. To the dollar.”
Nuncio whimpered and sagged in her grip. The last thing he wanted to do was spend another second in that horrid area of the world, let alone hours.
Well, the second last thing …
…just.
“Yes, Mom.”
* * *
((Author's note: A little early because once again, my beta had a 12 hour shift tonight. ps: I just noticed the wrong number went up on the post - it should be 837 😝))
((All comments welcome. Good or bad, I'd love to hear your thoughts 🥰🤗))
I made a family tree/diagram of the Mystallian family that can be found here
For more of my work including WPs: Angel466 or an index of previous WPS here.
FULL INDEX OF BOB THE HOBO TO DATE CAN BE FOUND HERE!!

!!Incoming wall of text!!
Hi! my name is Gimble and this is my first day here on the subreddit. I'm new to PFS, new to Pathfinder 2e, and new to utilizing VTTs. That being said I've been playing D&D, Pathfinder, and other table tops for close to 23 years and been running my own homebrew games for 18 of them. Suffice it to say, I've seen things.
I had a couple of questions I wanted to ask and instead of posting multiple topics, I figured I would just post all the ones I had on the brain here and let whoever has the answers post whatever they have the answers to.

1. First off, regarding PFS, I have 92 Achievement Points and no idea what to spend them on. I have no issue running core ancestries since the gnome is my favorite race. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
2. Again PFS related, I'm interested in getting involved with some remote play pfs if possible and I am aware there are lodges that do this and I was hoping someone here might be able to point me in the right direction.
3. If I buy PFS scenarios, can my players run them and actually gain progress toward official PFS rewards? Or do I need to be an "approved GM" assuming that's a thing?
4. Is it possible to run two separate characters in PFS on the same adventure simultaneously? I'm expecting a no but I gotta ask...
5. And can someone PLEASE for the love of all that is holy dumb down how runes function?

I know some of these questions may sound dumb, and maybe its the "being up all night playing pfs at paizocon and not getting any sleep like a responsible adult" that's making me have these questions but I would really appreciate some input. I'm really excited to be back among my peers in the Pathfinder Community after being out of the loop for so long in "homebrew land" and I'm eager to get caught up on all that I have missed in the last ten years (last time I paid attention to the Golarion Lore was paizocon 2013)
If you read through everything I appreciate it and thanks for being a wonderful and inviting community.

I'm looking for some assistance with a GUI in Matlab question for my Matlab homework. Is there anyone who can provide a solution or some advice?
Question:
Design a MATLAB GUI that calculates the area and perimeter of a rectangle based on user input. The GUI should have two input fields for the length and width of the rectangle. Upon clicking the "Calculate" button, the GUI should display the calculated area and perimeter in separate output fields. Implement this functionality using MATLAB's GUIDE (Graphical User Interface Development Environment) and provide a step-by-step answer.

tl;dr: d-chiro inositol has been shown to increase testosterone in elderly hypogonadal men. Myo inositol has been shown to improve blood glucose and blood lipids. A large part of the US population has insulin resistance, inositol deficiency is common and supplementation improves this.
I recently started taking inositol before bed and I've had surprisingly good effects. Others close to me have also started taking it before bed and had surprisingly good effects as well, therefore I want to highlight how inositol impacts sex hormones positively, but also the other important effects that are related to metabolism.
First some context:

• There are two important versions of inositol:
  • Myo inositol (often abbreviated MYO or MI)
  • d-chiro inositol (often abbreviated DCI)

Inositols effects on testosterone in men:

• This study show that [d-chiro inositol] treatment improved the levels of testosterone and androstenedione at the expense of oestrogens in elder men with low basal levels of these hormones without adverse effects.

Hypogonadism and insulin resistance:

• Male hypogonadism is associated with insulin resistance (IR) [which] very often leads to metabolic syndrome [which is the precursor to diabetes type 2]

Inositol deficiency:

• Increasing age, antibiotic use, sugar and refined carbohydrate intake, sodium deficiency, insulin resistance, and type 1 and type 2 diabetes all increase the need for myo-inositol.

Inositols effects on fertility:

• These data show that myo inositol increases sperm motility and the number of spermatozoa retrieved after swim-up in both normozoospermic men and patients with abnormal sperm parameters.
• Results showed that the ratio of MI-DCI dropped from 100:1 in healthy participants to 0.2:1 in [women] with polycystic ovarian syndrome who additionally displayed significantly higher levels of insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia, and luteinizing hormone.
• Metabolites of inositol act as secondary messengers for insulin, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH)

Cardiometabolic health in the US

• More than 100 million U.S. adults are now living with diabetes or prediabetes [which means they have significant levels of insulin resistance]
• Only 6.8% of the US population have optimal cardiometabolic health
• This is an alarmingly low number and can in part be explained by low testosterone, but metabolism as whole is impaired as evident by the bad glucose and lipid levels seen across the population.

Inositols relation to metabolism:

• Myo-inositol is also important for insulin signalling as it makes up many secondary messengers in response to insulin. Elevated glucose levels decrease the absorption and biosynthesis of myo-inositol and increase its degradation and urinary excretion. Insulin resistance and elevated glucose levels reduce inositol uptake into tissues. Myo-inositol levels are higher in tissues that use large amounts of glucose, such as the brain, heart and ovaries. D-chiro-inositol (DCI) is higher in tissues requiring glucose storage, such as liver and muscles. Insulin resistance impairs the conversion of myo-inositol to DCI in muscles, fat and liver. Increased urinary losses of myo-inositol have been consistently found in those with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
• Inositol supplementation may result in reduction in triglycerides, total- and LDL-cholesterol levels, but did not affect HDL-cholesterol levels
  • This is very important for long term health

With all of this is mind, inositol supplementation is very likely to be able to improve metabolic, and sex hormone, function in a lot of men and women who have problems with metabolic health, hypogonadism included.
Dosing:

• Some studies in women trial up to 18 grams of myo inositol per day
• I don't tolerate more than 0.5 g (500 mg) myo innositol per day
  • I had a surge of adrenaline for hours the morning after, it was intense
• I haven't tried d-chiro inositol yet
  • I don't know what a good dose would be, but it should probably be supplemented along with myo inositol to mimic the ratio seen in the body. There are formulations with a 40:1 ratio that seem to be the sweet spot. But taking both may not be necessary given that the body can convert myo inositol to d-chiro inositol
• Supplementation cannot replace bad diet or lack of exercise
  • Always eat right and do strength training and cardio!
• I tried taking it with dinner at first, I felt terrible and stopped taking it for a few months
  • Taking before was the key for me
• Your mileage may vary

I've been taking it now for two weeks, and so far I've seen:

• Increased energy the entire day
  • I used to only be able to do one major activity per day, such as vacuuming, cooking, shopping etc.
  • Now I can do multiple activities per day
• Improved sleep
• Increased exercise capacity
  • Lifting heavy gave me symptoms of hypoglycemia before
  • So far I've been able to do dumbbell rows with weights that would wreck me before
• Improved carbohydrate tolerance
  • I've been on a low carb/keto diet for over 3 years
  • Carbs used to give me terrible mood the day after
  • I even got gyno flare ups from eating carbs
  • I'm still on a relatively low carb diet, but I can eat 2-3 slices of bread per day now, that was impossible before
  • In addition to the bread I can also eat some rice or other carb rich food
  • I'm probably closer to 100 grams of carbs now, my aim was 50 grams or less before inositol supplementation
  • I have no desire to eat more carbs because they're simply unhealthy when eaten in high quantities
• Improved mood
• I have yet to see how it has impacted my blood lipids
  • I've had dyslipidemia for way too long despite exercising 4-5 days per week, I'm hoping my levels have improved now
• I'm on 125 mg nebido/testosterone undecanoate per week
  • TRT has done a lot for my overall physical capacity, but clearly wasn't the silver bullet I was hoping for

People close to me have seen similar improvements, as well as going from daily "everywhere" pain to literally zero pain.
I realize this may sound exaggerated, but so far I'm blown away.

hey, new here but not so new to sephora (usa) :)
for a while now, i have just felt unhappy with my treatment at work. this will be a bit of a rant, but i would love to know if anyone has been having or has had any similar feelings or experiences.
to start, my hours are being reduced greatly to a point where i don’t even want to go in. with completely full-time availability and a desire to improve the store, it is astonishing how many hours are given to unreliable people who have no drive to make our store a better functioning environment. i work insanely hard to try and prove myself and although i occasionally get some vague praise from leads, i just don’t feel like i fully fit in. i’m one of the youngest on our team, but i have a great amount of experience to back up my skills. in spite of my ability to excel in any area of the store (product consultant, cashier, ops, trying to get leads to do their jobs when they’re doing absolutely nothing), i am consistently spoken to like i have never worked retail before. mind you, this job was a step down from my previous management positions due to better pay and the promise of better hours as well as career growth. it’s a pain having to prove myself over and over just to get the basic respect any human being should have. it sucks being talked down to (being called things like “sweetie” and “hon”), having my shifts reduced or even deleted the night before, and constantly being overlooked. my SM is great, but seems a bit detached or out of the loop often. one of the leads who is supposedly very experienced with running a store can’t seem to follow her own rules (especially with returning items way past the 60 day exchange/store credit period even without the client having any proof of purchase). it all just makes no sense to me, but messed up upper management seems to be a theme with retail.
also, can we just take a minute for this dress code? i’m in completely black shoes excluding a thin stripe of white at the bottom and it’s like i committed a felony? guess it’s just boots for the rest of the summer…

So I started this job 2 months ago working at a large chain pet store. For preface I'm 33 and have a work history of retail jobs with the longest single time of employment being about 1 year (not great I know but alot of this is due to being offered better job opportunities) this was even brought up in my interview with my current job where the boss basically said he would normally be apprehensive of hiring me but they need staff and I had pet store experience. The problem I have is just two days ago word got around that an audit was being done on the store and everything has to be essentially spot on perfect. To the point of actually pulling out a ruler and measuring how much bedding is in a given enclosure. Later that same day as we're prepping for this audit my boss gives me a list of things he claims weren't done correctly last shift. The problem is it was a 4 hour shift ( I work part time as I am back in college and studying for certifications on the side.) and I was given an extensive list of extra things to do on top of my normal duties. I did as much as I could but balancing this large list while also assisting customers with live fish/cricket purchases and general advice and information took a lot of time. I was also warned early into my time that going beyond my shift time was a no-no. So I did as best I could and clocked out on time. Next day get handed this list and no chance to defend myself. I wrote a respeful rebuttal to the list explaining my side and left it for my boss as he was not on shift. Later that same day I am accused of putting crickets in and snake terrarium, which I did not do and wouldn't do. The manager on shift continues to tell me why this is a big deal even after I explained I didn't do any such thing. My concern is I feel like the writing is on the wall and they're going to let me go. Should I just leave on my own? Also would it be better to go back to doing UbeLyft and just put that on my resume as that I have done for 5+ years on the side with no breaks in employment. I was hoping to make a long term of this job but I feel like I am getting blamed for things I didn't do and being held responsible for not doing things properly that was not even trained on how to do. Any advice?