Does anyone notice here that when you're about to rank up (like you're at 90% of your rank and need 1 more win to rank up) you keep on losing games like minus 100-300 mmr? I have been experiencing this twice when I am at 90% of my rank when I play I always get teamed up with people who constantly feeds like 1 death per minute people and supports who doesn't know what to do, leeching exp on lanes feeding enemy cores, midlaner cannot rotate or feeds mid, carry who cannot even last hit. Do you guys ever experience or notice this?

Standings

Place	Team	Division	Record	%	GB	Overall	%	Δ
1t	Arkansas 🏆🟡	West	22-11	0.667	–	41-16	0.719	–
1t	Florida 🏆🔵	East	22-11	0.667	–	44-14	0.759	–
3	Vanderbilt 🥇	East	23-12	0.657	–	41-18	0.695	↑1
4	LSU	West	20-12	0.625	1½	43-15	0.741	↓1
5	Auburn	West	18-15	0.545	4	34-21-1	0.616	–
6	South Carolina	East	17-15	0.531	4½	39-19	0.672	–
7	Alabama	West	18-16	0.529	4½	40-19	0.678	–
8t	Kentucky	East	16-15	0.516	5	36-18	0.667	↓1
8t	Tennessee	East	16-15	0.516	5	38-19	0.667	↓1
10	Texas A&M	West	18-18	0.500	5½	36-25	0.590	–
11	Georgia	East	11-20	0.355	10	29-27	0.518	–
12	Missouri	East	10-21	0.323	11	30-24	0.556	–
13	Mississippi State †	West	9-21	0.300	11½	27-26	0.509	–
14	Mississippi †	West	6-24	0.200	14½	25-29	0.463	–

🏆 SEC Co-Champions
🥇 SEC Tournament Champions
🔵 East Division Champions
🟡 West Division Champions
† did not qualify for SEC Tournament

Power Rankings

Rank	Team	Division	Last	Δ
1	Florida Gators	East	1	–
2	Vanderbilt Commodores	East	3	↑1
3	Arkansas Razorbacks	West	2	↓1
4	LSU Tigers	West	4	–
5	Auburn Tigers	West	5	–
6	Alabama Crimson Tide	West	8	↑2
7	Texas A&M Aggies	West	10	↑3
8	Tennessee Volunteers	East	6	↓2
9	Kentucky Wildcats	East	7	↓2
10	South Carolina Gamecocks	East	9	↓1
11	Missouri Tigers	East	11	–
12	Georgia Bulldogs	East	12	–
13	Mississippi State Bulldogs	West	13	–
14	Mississippi Rebels	West	14	–

East vs. West Breakdown

Week of March 17
Alabama @ Florida: 2-1, Florida
Mississippi State @ Kentucky: 3-0, Kentucky
Mississippi @ Vanderbilt: 3-0, Vanderbilt
Week of March 24
Kentucky @ Alabama: 2-1, Kentucky
Georgia @ Auburn: 2-1, Auburn
Florida @ Mississippi: 3-0, Florida
Vanderbilt @ Mississippi State: 3-0, Vanderbilt
Texas A&M @ Tennessee: 3-0, Tennessee
Week of March 31
Auburn @ Florida: 2-1, Florida
Tennessee @ LSU: 2-1, LSU
South Carolina @ Mississippi State: 2-1, South Carolina
Week of April 7
LSU @ South Carolina: 1-1 (split)
Week of April 14
Tennessee @ Arkansas: 3-0, Arkansas
Kentucky @ LSU: 2-1, LSU
Missouri @ Texas A&M: 2-1, Texas A&M
Week of April 21
Arkansas @ Georgia: 3-0, Georgia
Texas A&M @ Kentucky: 2-1, Texas A&M
Alabama @ Missouri: 3-0, Alabama
Week of April 28
Georgia @ Mississippi: 2-1, Mississippi
Auburn @ South Carolina: 2-1, Auburn
Mississippi State @ Tennessee: 3-0, Tennessee
Week of May 5
Vanderbilt @ Alabama: 2-1, Alabama
Mississippi @ Missouri: 2-1, Missouri
Florida @ Texas A&M: 2-1, Texas A&M
Week of May 12
South Carolina @ Arkansas: 2-1, Arkansas
Week of May 19
Missouri @ Auburn: 3-0, Auburn
LSU @ Georgia: 2-1, LSU
Arkansas @ Vanderbilt: 2-1, Vanderbilt
SEC Tournament
Alabama vs. Kentucky: 1-0, Alabama
Alabama vs. Florida: 1-0, Florida
Alabama vs. Vanderbilt: 1-0, Vanderbilt
Auburn vs. Missouri: 1-0, Auburn
Auburn vs. Vanderbilt: 1-0, Vanderbilt
LSU vs. South Carolina: 1-0, LSU
South Carolina vs. Texas A&M: 1-0, Texas A&M
Tennessee vs. Texas A&M: 1-0, Texas A&M
Texas A&M vs. Vanderbilt: 1-0, Vanderbilt

Combined Record: 49-43, East

Of the interdivisional series, 14 were hosted by Eastern teams, 14 were hosted by Western teams. SEC East teams were 27-14 when playing SEC West teams at home, while SEC West teams were 24-18 when playing SEC East teams at home. Of the 9 interdivisional games played at the SEC Tournament, the East won 4 games while the West won 5 games.
Interdivisional Records

Team	Division	Record
Vanderbilt	East	12-3
Florida	East	9-4
LSU	West	8-4
Auburn	West	9-5
Kentucky	East	7-6
Tennessee	East	7-6
Alabama	West	8-7
Texas A&M	West	8-7
Arkansas	West	6-6
Georgia	East	6-6
South Carolina	East	5-8
Mississippi	West	3-9
Missouri	East	3-10
Mississippi State	West	1-11

Home/Away Records

Team	Division	Home	Away	Difference
Missouri	East	9-6	1-14	+8
Tennessee	East	12-3	4-11	+8
Vanderbilt	East	13-2	6-9	+7
Arkansas	West	13-2	7-8	+6
Kentucky	East	11-4	5-10	+6
Georgia	East	8-7	3-12	+5
Florida	East	12-3	8-7	+4
Auburn	West	10-5	7-8	+3
South Carolina	East	9-5	7-8	+2½
Alabama	West	9-6	7-8	+2
Texas A&M	West	8-7	6-9	+2
LSU	West	10-5	9-5	+½
Mississippi	West	3-12	3-12	±0
Mississippi State	West	4-11	5-10	-1
Combined	—	131-78	78-131	+53

“Last time on Total Drama Revenge of the Island! The campers did a fun game of Truth-or-Laser-Shark, which they revolted against, so we instead did a Harold-McGrady-brand-patented obstacle course! Lightning got the boot in the Catapult of Shame (Trademark Pending) because the bird is no longer with us. Or, so it seems. We also cut the Chris Mclean campfire due to budget constraints. Truly tragic, I know. What’ll happen in this episode? What embarrassing comment will Sam make this time? Find out right now on Total Drama Revenge of the Island!”
The Mutant Maggots were sleeping soundly in the luxurious spa hotel. Zoey, in particular, was loving the lavish lifestyle. Her family wasn’t the richest. The whole reason she joined to show was to make some money, to help her father out. It’d been a hard-knock life (Pun very much intended, Zoey loved that film) for her and her father ever since her mother had died. She was determined to bring the money home, no matter what. She’d also joined the show to (hopefully) make some friends. A lonely girl, she was. (Wow, she really was just stocked to the brim with references today.) But it was true! She’d make a friend in this a sweer body on her team, Mike. Nothing out of the ordinary…. Besides the fact that he was her DREAM GUY!! Nice, cute, and got her references! Just thinking about him made her swoon. She shrugged it off and got out of her bed. She did not want to leave, but she had to. After all, it was her tradition to wake up extra early in the mornings and take a walk around her neighborhood. Or, in this case, the island. She slowly inched out of bed, taking account of the sleeping Anne-Maria. She quickly got dressed and brushed her teeth, opening the door. The cool September air hit her, and she shivered. But she loved it. Everything about the island was so peaceful. The waves crashed against the beach. The birds squawked in the distance. She took in a deep breath. It was truly amazing. She started to walk around the island, soaking in the sunlight. Suddenly, she heard the creaking of a door. She turned around. It was Jo.
“Hey, Zoey,” she said, speeding up as she went.
Zoey realized she had the perfect opportunity to make a new friend!
“No, wait! I was wondering if-um, if- you’d like to go on a walk with me?”
(…she Nailed It.)
Jo looked at her, slightly confused. “Uh… Sure?”
Jo wasn’t used to anyone wanting to actually be next to her. Willingly. You couldn’t have waterboarded this information out of her, but the true reason she joined Total Drama was very different from the persona she displayed. Of course, she wanted the Million. Who didn’t? But she also wanted a friend. Someone real! Someone who wouldn’t be scared of her. She was quickly snapped out of her daydreams. Zoey was asking her something.
“Uh, so… Why’d you join Total Drama?” She asked. The early morning sunlight hit her face perfectly.
“Well, for the money! Why else would I join?” She lied.
“Well, I joined to make friends,” said Zoey.
Jo took a mental note of that. I guess she wasn’t the only lonely girl on the island.
“Do you have any siblings?” Zoey asked.
“Yeah. I Have 4 older brothers. But if you came by my house, it certainly wouldn’t seem like it!” Jo laughed. Her laugh was burly and loud. But it was also infectious and full of joy. Zoey smiled and started laughing too. Soon, all that could be heard was the joyous harmony of the two girl's laughter.
Staci was having a much worse time. It was 9:30 when she woke up. She had about 10 minutes to spare before that challenge began. All she could think about was how much she utterly hated herself. She would never dare to admit it, though. She constantly hid behind her thick layer of lies. She wished that she could just stop. But no matter how many times she’d say that she’d stop, it never came. She never stopped lying. Everyone in her life hated her, and she knew it. She was surprised that she wasn’t the first boot, for crying out loud. She slowly climbed out of the crappy bed and walked to the main lodge. She walked in, hunched over. She felt invisible.
“Hey! Come sit with us!”
…Was that to her?
She turned over to find Dawn and B, her fellow teammates, calling to her. Dawn was smiling at her.
That’s new, she thought.
She gingerly took a seat next to the two. The bigger one, whose name was B, wrote something down on his notepad.
Hello! You looked lonely, so I asked Dawn to invite you to our table! Don’t worry, we don’t bite.
Staci still couldn’t process this. Nobody had ever willingly let her sit with them.
“…Thank you.”
B wrote something on his notepad.
You seem a bit tense. You alright?
“Yeah. I was just thinking. You know, my great, great-”
But Staci stopped halfway.
“You know, this dude named William Holley invented that notepad! He invented the pad around when he innovated the idea to collect all the paper scraps from various factories.”
She had done it. She hadn’t lied, for once in her life! She had finally done it!
But before Staci could celebrate, Chris threw open the door, carrying a boombox. He strutted into the lodge, then planted his feet in the center of the room and started to do that one Fortnite dance we all collectively forgot about.
“Please stop,” said Dakota. She was comforting a crying Sam, who was devastated that anyone was still doing that dance.
After a grueling thirty seconds, he finally stopped doing the awful dance.
“Ok, ok, I'll stop! Anyways, today’s challenge is called Wawanakwa Musical! Teams must perform a skit. Everyone must have a speaking part, and it must have a corny message about something found in a typical High School Disney Channel movie. The team with the best number gets to pair up people to go to prom, while the other team gets it randomly. The couples need to face off in prom-themed challenges, such as drinking all the punch, dancing off, and something else I wouldn't want to spoil for you all. The campers who win the most challenges and make the best skit will win!"
“I don't even want to know what that last challenge will be," said Mike.
"Don't worry, nothing too dangerous!" Chris replied. Some of the campers exchanged worried glances.
“Oh, a skit! How exciting!” Chirped Ella, the secret 7th member of the Mutant Maggots. She was surrounded by animals, per the norm.
“Can you please get your stupid animal friends out of my face!?” Shouted Scott, who had become a resting place for the birds, having several perched on his head.
“Little ones, farewell! You must depart, at least for now,” she said, the heartbreak break in her voice crystal clear.
Confessional- Brick.
“Is it just me, or was that girl not here before? But I’m not complaining! Another member of our troop is just what we need!” Brick blushed.
End Confessional.
“I can already tell this one has a wonderful soul! Her aura is exceptionally bright pink, and it suits her wonderfully. As to how she teleported here? Beats me."
End Confessional.
We cut to all the campers outside the main lodge. The Mutant Maggots were doing a group huddle to brainstorm ideas.
“Ok. Mags. Let’s organize a game plan! We’ve got this in the bag if we work hard and persevere!” Said Brick.
“Never call us “Mags” again,” snarked Jo.
“I like that attitude, Brick! I think our message should be about spreading kindness and not bullying!” Chirped Ella.
“I, um, thank you,” fumbled Brick, who was not used to someone complimenting him for a change.
“We need to cast everyone as a part. First off, we’ll need a bully character. Any volunteers?”
Most eyes went to Mike, the self-proclaimed Actor. He started to sweat but soon realized his team needed him. He sighed and took off his shirt. He instantly switched to Vito, one of Mike’s many alters.
“Ayo, what seems to be the issue?” said Vito. Anne-Maria was enamored instantly.
Confessional- Zoey.
“Mike sure does take his acting seriously. Must be a method actor. Not going to lie, it’s a bit weird. But I like weird!”
End Confessional.
“Who knew you had such a bod under that shirt?” Swooned Anne-Maria. She jumped on Vito, who didn’t mind.
“Ok Mike, we get it, you’re a good actor. Are you doing this or not?” screamed an irritated Jo.
“Yeah. sure, whatever,” said a completely uninterested Vito.
“We’ll also need a victim and five other roles. Any ideas?” asked Brick.
“How about we have one bystander and three people who spread the anti-bully message?” Ella suggested.
“Fine with me,” said Brick.
“Anyone want a particular role?” Ella asked.
“I want to be one of the spreaders,” said Jo, which was a surprise of most.
“Ok! Me and Brick can be the other two, Anne-Maria can be the victim, and Zoey can be the bystander. I have an idea for the plot- Mike bullies Anne-Maria, and Zoey doesn’t do anything. Then we come in and tell them to be kind, and then it works, and we live happily ever after!” said Ella.
“Ok, why don’t we run through it?” Suggested Jo.
“Ayo, what am I doing again?” Vito asked.
“Ugh, cut the crap and start acting!” Screamed an irritated Jo.
“Yeesh, it’s cold in here. I’m putting my shirt back on,” pretended Vito, aware that Mike probably needed to switch in. Mike was at first quite confused, but quickly realized what had happened.
We cut to a montage of the Maggots working very hard at refining the script. Lines were changed, parts swapped, and then swapped back again, but in the end, they’d created the perfect skit- the ultimate work of their labor.
However, on the other side of the auditorium were the Toxic Rats, who had fewer hurdles.
B wrote something down on his notepad.
Just make it about how great Chris is and we’re sure to win.
“Sounds like a plan to me!” Said Scott, giving the silent giant a fist-bump.
“Yeah. We can improvise it as we go! We don’t even need a script!” Dakota said.
“Wait, what are we doing?” Asked Staci, who was once again out of the loop.
Soon, Chris, Chef, and some intern sat at a table, waiting for the skits to be presented. They were at the auditorium, where the Talent Contest challenge had been done a few years back.
“Ok, maggots! Wow me!”
Chris leaned back as Mike and Anne-Maria walked out on stage.
“Hey nerd, give me your lunch money!” Said Mike, utterly failing at sounding intimidating.
“Oh no! Whatever will I do??” Said Anne-Maria, who was wearing one of Cameron’s glasses he’d left behind as a pitiful attempt for a nerd costume.
Zoey then walked out. “Oh no! I want to do something, but I’m scared!”
Jo, Ella, and Brick then walked out.
“Hey! Bullying is bad!” Shouted Ella.
“You need to stand up for yourself!” Screamed Brick at Anne-Maria.
“You need to stop being a bully!” Screamed Jo, who was significantly louder than the rest.
“And you need to learn not to be silent! If you see something, say something!” Ella finished.
“Wow! Thank you! I will always stand up for the victim next time I see someone being bullied!” said Zoey.
“And I will be kind!” said Mike.
“You better!” Shouted Jo. “Now get got and leave this poor girl alone!” Jo shoved Mike much harder than she had anticipated.
He fell off the stage, landing right on his head. The others winced at his misfortune.
“…So be kind!” Finished Ella, who then quickly scampered down to check on Mike.
Mike faded in and out of consciousness. But he knew one thing- this was not a good sign. Mike had a 6th Alter. A particularly malevolent one, should I say… His name was… Mal.
Mike stood up, sporting fresh bags under his eyes. Well, the lone eye you could see, as the other was covered by hair. He stood up and grabbed Jo by the collar.
“Don’t touch me,” he said in an even tone.
Jo was hardly threatened by Mike grabbing her, considering she was twice his size. He had no strength. But when he spoke, it was different. Something about the way he spoke scared her. His even but still threatening voice. His unwavering face of pure anger. She backed away.
“Sorry.”
Confessional- Jo.
“I don’t know what came over me. He’s so non-threatening in the physical department, but the way he talks?” Jo looked at the camera. “Someone give that twig actor of the year!”
End Confessional.
We cut to Chris, Chef, and the intern. They all sat with mostly stunned and confused faces. They got into a group huddle before Chris finally spoke.
“…Okay, that was weird. But it was also pretty good, and you did everything right. We’ll give you… a 7/10.”
The maggots cheered loudly. Even though it wasn’t a nine or a ten, they were simply glad Chris gave them a satisfactory score, especially for how much work had been put into the project. Mal took in a deep breath and switched back into Mike.
“…What did I miss?” He asked. Nobody said anything, simply glaring at him.
Confessional- Mike.
“Ok, I’m pretty sure I switched into Mal which is definitely not a good thing.” He buried his face in his hands. “They probably all hate me now…”
End Confessional.
Confessional- Zoey.
“Ok, so about what Mike did back there? So weird! I know Jo shoved him, but that just felt way out of line. Or maybe I’m overthinking it. Is this normal? Am I the weird one??”
End Confessional.
“Ok, you can sit on the bleachers now. Rats, you’re up!”
All of the rats came out at once.
“Man, I really love Chris!” Said Scott.
“Yeah, he’s so cool, and handsome to boot!” Swooned Dakota.
“Chris… Is an interesting guy!” Forced out Dawn, who genuinely could not think of anything good to say about the host.
“I don’t think Chris is all that cool,” said Staci, who hadn’t caught on yet. Scott quickly shoved her to the ground.
“How could someone not like Chris??” Scott questioned.
“That girl is insane,” added Dakota.
B drew something on his notepad. It was a drawing of Chris, with a 12-pack (if that's even possible) and surrounded by adoring fans.
They all bowed, and Chris clapped loudly, much to the chagrin of the Maggots. They had no chance.
“I LOVE it!! 10/10, Rats win!!” Chris shouted, not even bothering to ask for Chef's and the intern’s opinions.
Confessional- Chef.
“If you ask me, the skit the Rats made was a bunch of Chris-propaganda-spouting-nonsense. The Maggots? Now that was amazing. Every part was well played, and every line was perfect. 10/10, truly the Mutant Maggot's magnum opus. What a cinematic masterpiece." Chef then burst out laughing.
End Confessional
“So, it’s clear to everyone that the Rats win. You may start pairing up now. I’ll pair the Maggots in a second.”
“I can go with B!” Suggested Dawn. B nodded.
“I’ll go with Sam!” Stated Dakota. Sam looked up, surprised.
Confessional- Sam.
“You’re telling me that a pretty girl willingly picked me to go to prom with them??!” Sam fainted.
End Confessional.
The only two left were Scott and Staci.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” groaned Scott.
“Ok. Mike can go with Zoey, Ella goes with Brick, and Jo goes with Anne-Maria,” said Chris, without much thought.
We cut to the teams in a warehouse that was decorated to look like a high school. The lights were a deep purple. In the center was a disco ball, and there was a dance floor underneath it.
“Ok, the way this works is that each couple will compete in one challenge each, starting with the punch drinking contest. Each couple will need to down two giant bowls of punch, one for each person. Whoever finished their punch first wins. Also, no spilling can occur our you’re out!”
“We’ll take punch,” said Jo immediately.
“Whoa, I did not sign up for that!” Anne-Maria protested.
“Don’t care, didn’t ask. We’re doing it!” Anne-Maria rolled her eyes but eventually agreed to it.
“I’ll take the punch. I just want to get my “date” with Mrs. Flabby-Mc-chatter-mouth over as soon as possible,” groaned Scott.
The couples were waiting at the punch table for Chris to call start.
“BEGIN!”
Jo quickly grabbed the bowl and downed the juice in two big gulps. She instantly turned to Anne-Maria.
“Come on, hurry up!”
Anne-Maria was having a difficult time getting the punch down. Eventually, she just couldn’t finish it. She spat all of the punch into Jo’s face. Jo screamed and clenched her fists.
“Great job, you lunatic! You cost us the challenge!” Shouted Jo.
“Maybe I woulda done betta if you weren’t SHOUTIN’ AT ME!!” Screamed Anne-Maria, her jersey accent at full display.
Jo lunged at Anne-Maria. Unfortunately for the Maggots, Scott and Staci had already finished their punch. Scott smirked and wiped the punch from his mouth.
“Easy!”
Staci also had punch around her mouth. She wiped the punch residue off her lips, but she couldn’t wipe the permanent grin off her face. She felt a deep sense of accomplishment, despite the fact it was just a bowl of punch. She felt like she'd made a genuine contribution to her team.
“The Toxic Rats win the first round!” Shouted Chris. They cheered loudly, and the Maggots knew their fate was sealed. Jo and Anne-Maria were both fighting each other. Both were covered in the sticky fruit punch, and screaming.
Confessional- Brick.
“That was so unsportsmanlike that I don’t even know what to say.”
End Confessional.
The next challenge was a dance-off. It was Ella and Brick versus Sam and Dakota.
“Ok. So, whoever can dance the longest without tripping up or giving up wins! Good luck!”
Royalty-free romance music started to play in the background. Brick had prepared for this moment his whole life. Well, he wouldn’t have expected it to be on a reality TV show with a girl he’d only known for a few days, but you win some and you lose some. Brick swooped Ella up and spun her around. Ella grabbed his hands and slowly rocked with him. They started to move around the dance floor. They continued to spin each other around in beautiful harmony. Ella couldn’t help but imagine how much this reminded her of the dance scene between Belle and the Beast. Her heart swelled. Had she found her prince? Brick was having similar thoughts. He’d never found someone quite as graceful as Ella.
Sam and Dakota were dancing much less formally. They mostly goofed off, doing random and silly dances. They were laughing very hard. Dakota couldn’t stop thinking about how cute Sam looked! The two continued to boogie, laughing all the way.
After about 30 minutes, the couples were still going strong. Well, one of them was going strong. Ella and Brick were dancing the night away, as their dance was slower and less physically demanding. Sam and Dakota weren’t fairing so well. Sam could only do so many video game dances before he tired out, and he was already on the verge of passing out. Dakota was also getting tired, but in the end, it was Sam who fell.
“The Mutant Maggots win!”
Ella and Brick collapsed into a tight embrace, happy that what felt like hours of dancing was over.
Confessional- Ella.
“Wow, I’ve never felt so magical in my life… And Brick! He was an amazing dancer!” Ella sighed longingly.
End Confessional
Confessional- Brick
“She’s quite the dancer...” Brick looked away from the confessional’s camera, hiding his tomato-red face.
End Confessional
Mike, Zoey, B, and Dawn were nervously waiting for the final part of the challenge. One can only imagine all the messed up things Chris can come up with. Soon, Chris came close to the four teenagers.
Four interns lead the contestants to a large platform that was elevated over a pool of water. The four contestants got onto the platform, and they were given water guns filled with a red liquid.
“Inside these guns are PIG BLOOD!! You must shoot your opponents off the table and into the water. The team who can knock their opponents down first wins!”
Zoey gasped. “Is this some sort of messed up homage to Carrie?!” She asked.
“I can’t state that for copyright reasons, but I think you know the answer,” said Chris.
The duos put their fingers on the trigger, waiting for Chris to let them begin.
“Three… Two… One!”
Mike and Zoey ended up both targeting Dawn, who immediately flew into the water, as she weighed almost as much as a feather. B put his finger over the nozzle of his gun, spraying blood uncontrollably. Mike and Zoey sputtered, and Zoey was close to falling into the water.
“Zoey!” Mike screamed. He quickly jumped in front of the redhead, saving her from a particularly nasty blow from B. Zoey took B’s strategy, and also put her finger over the nozzle. Soon everyone was covered in pig blood. B was standing strong and taking the blows like a champ. However, Mike was still covering Zoey and was not fairing so well. He’d never wondered how bad pig blood would taste, and now he was experiencing it in full force. The disgusting, iron-like liquid flooded his mouth. Soon, he could take no more.
“Zoey, you got this!” He shouted as he was finally knocked into the water. Zoey trembled a bit. It was her versus the smartest guy on the show! Well, maybe besides the skinny one who’d been eliminated in episode one, but she’d already forgotten his name. B continued to spray Zoey, getting increasingly closer and closer. There was almost nothing Zoey could do. Her blows were hardly affecting the juggernaut. It didn’t help that the other team was cheering B on incredibly loudly, whilst the only person cheering for Zoey was Mike. Eventually, she couldn’t handle the blows. She tumbled off the platform and into the water.
“The Toxic Rats win! Maggots, I’ll see you at the campfire tonight.” Everyone started to clear out, sans Mike and Zoey.
B twirled the water gun around and pretended to put it in an invisible holster, stepping off the platform and leaving the warehouse. Zoey was still processing the fall and all the pig blood in her mouth. The water was cold and soothing. She wiggled around in the water, trying to get all the blood off. Once she got most of it off, she resurfaced. Mike was eagerly waiting for her.
“You did so well!” Zoey couldn’t help but smile at his adorable buck-toothed grin. When he wasn’t acting as one of his kooky personas, he sure was sweet. But Zoey still didn’t feel right about him. When he played his characters, he’d act so vastly different. That might seem normal as he was an actor overall, but he was just way too method for her liking. She was planning on asking him to maybe tone it down, if it was ok with him.
“Hey… I’ve been meaning to ask you if you could maybe tone down your acting. If that’s okay with you. It’s just… With the whole jersey shore persona and whatever you did with Jo? It’s just kind of weird because I really like you and I thought you liked me, but then you start flirting with Anne-Maria and...” Zoey started to tear up. “Obviously I don’t owe you anything but...” Suddenly the was met with the warm -if not wet and bloody- feeling of Mike’s body wrapped around her.
“Zoey... I’ve got to confess something. I have this thing called MPD. Basically, it means I have multiple personalities. When I flirt with Anne-Maria and act like an old man? Those are just some of my personalities. I just lied about the acting thing. I didn’t want to seem weird and-” Zoey quickly kissed him.
“You should’ve led with that, you dummy! Why would I judge you for that? Hell, that just makes you ten times cooler!” Mike sighed a deep sigh of relief.
Confessional- Mike
“I can’t believe it! She accepts me! And I didn’t need anyone’s help telling her!”
End Confessional.
Confessional- Zoey
“Well, that explains everything. I suppose it’s best that I found out this now rather than later.”
End Confessional.
“Can you not tell anyone though? I don’t want anyone to get the wrong impression about me.” Mike saw something move in the corner of his eye, but he shrugged it off. Probably just a rat or something. The rest of the campers had left the warehouse, and it was just Mike and Zoey. Well, at least that’s what they thought.
“Of course! Your secret’s safe with me.”
The camera panned out to reveal a hidden Scott, who was hiding behind one of the lockers.
Confessional- Scott.
“So, Mike had MPD? I’m sure I can use that in the future. Zoey may not tell anyone, but I might!”
End Confessional.
Confessional- Mike.
“Ok. So, it’s great that Zoey is cool with me, but I haven’t forgotten that… He resurfaced. I might as well fill you all in. Mal is my 6th alter. He’s a protector. But he usually ends up overdoing his job and scaring people away. He knows I need this money, and I know he’ll do anything to get it. He hasn’t come out since my Juvie days.” Mike looked to the side. “But that’s another story.”
End Confessional.
The maggots were quite in a very somber mood. Zoey and Mike were covered in blood. Jo and Anne-Maria were covered in punch. Brick and Ella were the only people who seemed happy, albeit awkward.
“Ok, I think I’m going to take a shower,” said Mike.
The other three girls followed him, realizing that probably was a good idea. The only people left were Brick and Ella.
“Soo, what’d you think about my dance skills?” Brick asked in a joking tone.
“They were good! And I’m not lying, you really know how to dance!” Ella said, pointing at Brick.
“Thank you. I was actually saving that routine for a real prom. But I suppose a fake prom is just as good.”
“Oh! Well, you can always use it again. This of me as a practice round,” chuckled Ella.
“No, it was more than that!” Brick said. “I don’t know, it felt… Magical?”
“I know! It really did,” Ella said. Both parties looked away, blushing.
Confessional- Ella.
“I think I’ve found my prince…” she swooned. “And I didn’t even need to lose my shoe!”
End Confessional.
Ella and Brick both leaned in for a mutually agreed kiss. Their lips almost touched. Almost.
“Oh my god!” Sam shouted. Both Brick and Ella screamed back. Brick even fell off the log they were sitting on.
“I am so sorry! I won’t tell anyone.” Sam covered his eyes with his hands. He stumbled away.
Confessional- Sam.
"Brick? And Ella?! Who would've expected that?"
End Confessional.
Brick and Ella sat in awkward silence. It was finally broken by Brick’s infectious and hearty laugh. It was booming and loud, but it was still beautiful to Ella. She started to laugh too- her laugh was much lighter. It could’ve been mistaken for singing.
A few hours later, The Mutant Maggots were gathered at the campfire. They all exchanged nervous glances with each other. One member of their team would leave the island- permanently.
“Mutant Maggots. Welcome. There are five marshmallows on my plate. One of you will not receive one tonight, and you will catch a ride on the Bird of Shame.”
“I thought the bird died?”
“I lied. So go cast those votes and we’ll get to it!”
Voting Confessionals- Everyone on the Mutant Maggots.
“I’m voting for Jo. That bossy B-I-T-C-(Bleep) Has got to go!” Shouted Anne-Maria.
“Anne-Maria is annoying, and hardly a team player. She’s leaving tonight,” said Jo, casting her vote.
“I’m voting for Anne-Maria. I’d vote for Jo, but I feel bad after the whole Mal thing,” said Mike.
“Anne-Maria. If she keeps rubbing up on Mike, even as one of his alters, I’ll lose it!” Zoey shouted.
“I’ll vote for Jo. Sure, Anne-Maria messed up, but she initiated the fight. Not very sportsmanlike,” stated Brick, casting his vote.
“I’m voting for Jo. She lunged at Mike and set him off. Not very kind,” said Ella.
End Voting Confessionals.
“Okay. You’ve all cast your votes. Let’s get to it.”
“Zoey! Come get your marshmallow. You’re safe.”
Zoey eagerly jumped up and ate her marshmallow.
“Mike- so are you.”
He sighed a deep sigh of relief and took his marshmallow.
“Brick and Ella! Looks like you two lovers are safe.”
Brick and Ella exchanged a glance. “Uh, were not lo-”
“Sure, you aren’t. I can see the cameras, you know that, right?”
Everyone looked at the duo.
“Whatever.” Chris turned to Anne-Maria and Jo.
“Welcome, girls. You both got three votes each.”
The two looked at each other nervously.
“And because of this… You will engage in a tiebreaker!”
We cut to Jo and Anne-Maria on top of an elevated platform over water. In their hands were sticks with foam ends.
“Okay. Your goal is to knock your opponent into the water before the timer runs out. The winner will stay in the game, and the loser will take the bird home. BEGIN!”
Jo immediately lunged at Anne-Maria, expecting her to buckle underneath Jo’s so-called superior strength. But to Jo’s surprise, she held her ground. The metal sticks clashed against each other, and each girl took turns exchanging blows.
“Not bad, jersey girl!” Grunted Jo, who was genuinely struggling. Anne-Maria responded with a growl, knocking Jo to the ground.
“I’m staying in this game, Jo!” She shouted through her teeth.
Jo yelled and lunged at her, for the second time that day. She tackled Anne-Maria into the water, unfortunately taking herself down with her. The girls crashed into the water with a mighty splash. Jo quickly resurfaced.
“Do I win?!” She asked eagerly.
“Not exactly. You both fell into the water…” Chris grinned slyly.
“So?” Both girls asked.
“So, your both eliminated!” Chris shouted, laughing.
We cut to both girls on the docks.
“This is stupid. I won fair and square!” Jo yelled.
“Tell It to the bird!” Chris yelled back. The bird swooped down and took both girls by their arms. They yelled all the way.
“All right! Now that Jo and Anne-Maria are gone, how will the maggots fare? Will Brick and Ella continue their oh-so-secret romance? What will Mike do now that Scott knows about his MPD? Find out next time on,
Total!
Drama!
Revenge of the island!”

This whole post has multiple trigger warnings, from CSA to R**e even physical abuse of a minor and mentions of suicidal attempts
Growing up, I was traumatized witnessing the abuse of my mother at my bio father's hands. My earliest memory is screaming at my bio dad to stop as he held a broken light bulb to my mom's throat, threatening her if she ever left. He has always been on drugs since he was a teen. He is 5 years older than my mom, and my mom was on the cusp of 16 when she conceived me. I remember so much yelling, so many cops visiting. I am always told about happy memories, but I can't really remember them.
After my siblings were born, she finally got away, but it involved us bouncing around alaska until she was able to get us past the border into the lower 48. I was around 9. We moved to the southeastern part of the states, right in the Bible belt. When we first moved, my mom had to work several jobs and trusted my grandfather to watch us, but he was sick and had mobility issues. I remember cleaning his house and watching my siblings as he fell asleep watching TV. This was the norm until his son, my mom's brother, who was living with him, started staying home, I think he lost his job or something. He used to have my siblings watch TV while he would sit beside me to teach me Magic! and at first, it was fun. But then he started having me sit on his lap, and he would always end up with his hand on my upper thigh. I didn't know this was wrong. I'd grown up groomed, and I was still a child. He would try and separate my siblings from me any way he could. He would show me anime if I lay down on his bed quietly, but I wasn't allowed to look anywhere but the TV. He would have me take showers by accidentally spilling something on me and make me wear his shirt while he cleaned all my clothes. I wasn't allowed to decline, or I'd get in trouble. His punishments for me if I did anything wrong were spankings, but he would make me bare my ass, like naked. He started making the anime hentai, explaining in detail what they were doing and why. Then he started touching me. He would put a blanket over us and put his fingers inside. I would bleed a little bit and cry, but he would threaten to spank me again and yell my mom I was being bad, which at the time I didn't know any better, I still thought this was normal.
This went on for years, slowly getting worse as time went on. After we moved into our new place, around the time my mom met my step dad, i finally read the words molestation and rape and i finally understood what was happening to me. I was 11. My little brain. I thought about telling my mom, but she was in school and had 2 jobs, and we were barely making it. If i told her she would need to quit something and pay someone, we couldn't afford it. So i decided to just not allow him to touch me anymore until he would start looking at my sister. i knew i had to keep her safe. I would force his attention on me and send my siblings outside to play. The last time he touched me, I was 14, and it was my moms and step dads wedding. I was no longer a virgin.
In the midst of this, I made a friend with a young trans woman. She was 19 and on hormones to transition but hadn't had surgery yet, so she was still a biological man. she listened and offered a safe space. She would let me watch movies with her that I wasn't able to at home. The last movie I watched with her was Scary Movie. That's when she showed me her true intentions by telling me that it was ok because we were both girls as she held me down and used her tongue on me. I felt so disgusted with myself since then. How could it feel good? How could I like it? I got sick on myself, and she let me go. I never went back.
I told my mom about what her brother did to me when I was 16. The first time I tried to commit suicide was days after.
When my step-dad moved in with us, he was an alcoholic. He's since gotten treatment and doesn't drink anymore. He would get so mad if my chores weren't done as soon as he got home, usually 15 minutes after me. He would make me do everyone's chores if my siblings had after school activities ( which were most days, even if I had after school stuff too) he would belittle me, beat me with anything he could find, including 2x4s, extention cords, fiberglass fishing poles with all the metal pieces piercing my back, butt and legs, and even a riding crop. He once punched my stepbrother in the face because my stepbrother jumped between us to take the punch for me. I even called the police just for them to think I was exaggerating and telling me it was ok for parents to punish their kids. DCSF said the same thing. My mom was still going to school and work. She was never home. He even told me, when I was 17 and had just gotten a 185 on my asvab, that I would never amount to anything if I didn't get off my fat lazy ass and work out. I was in great physical health.
When I was 15, I went to a homecoming dance at a roller rink. I met a guy who was wearing a lot of anime stuff, and we hit it off as friends he was 23. Talking all the time about anime. I didn't realize it at the time because I didn't know what grooming was, but that's what was happening. He would always say things he likes in a woman, buying me things like jewelry and other expensive gifts, bringing me lunch at work when I was 16, taking me to movies. He gave me gift cards and would offer to take me to the stores ap I could try stuff on instead of using the computer to buy stuff. On my 18th birthday, he brought me flowers and asked me out. I was kicked out at this point because I told a friend what was happening at home, and she spred rumors about my family, and my step dad didn't feel comfortable with me in the house. No one believed me when I told them I didn't say that. He invited me to live with him. At first, it was great except for his roommate. I would clean the house while he was at work. And then wait for him to get home. He told me I didn't have to clean everything and to stop cleaning. The first day I didn't clean, I decided to play games on my system with my account. Important. He came home and yelled at me for not cleaning and playing games all day. He hit me. I had no one to turn to amd no where to go. I stayed until I tried to end my life a second time
When I was 17, almost 18, I was staying with a friend after I was initially kicked out. That "friend " invited 2 random men into her house while I was asleep and got a pack of cigarettes and half a pizza as well as 20$ to leave the house while they had their way with me. I never saw their faces, which I am thankful for, and I ended up pregnant. I love my oldest with all my heart. I never once told him how he was conceived, and I never will.
At 14, my grades went down, and I started losing sleep and making bad choices. I started drinking my mom's wine and step dad's beer. I was smoking cigarettes and weed. And I started sneaking out. I was assaulted several more times by different people, including an adult male I worked with and a student I went to school with.
This isn't even everything, just the major events. I've never told anyone including, my mom and husband, everything that happened. I've ghosted therapists because I feel like I'm being judged.
This has cause so much hardship in my life. I suffer from an overactive nervous system, depression, ptsd, and what I like to call, super anxiety. I cant have people in my house, I have a hard time leaving my house, I had an anxiety attack the other day because what if I got some disease from a beauty blender because someone spit in it and I had an open cut on my face or something(and that wasn't even the most ridiculous thing I overthought into an anxiety attack.) And it turns out, with all this happening, I went undiagnosed with autism my entire life.
I doubt I will ever be whole again.

I thought this was one of the wildest takes I've heard regarding the NBA. Maybe I'm the one that's off base. I think of an underdog as Jimmy Butler's Heat this year. Or Dirk's Mavs when they beat the Heat. As far as a player I'd consider an underdog at this point it would be someone like Russell Westbrook or even Kawhi. Westbrook is constantly, unfairly, a scapegoat for any team's troubles he's on and Kawhi's finals win with Raptors was the last time I feel like a superstar had his team exceed expectations and win the finals. (Granted they might not have won if Durant was healthy.)
Nike ran an ad campaign before he left Cleveland the first time and ever won a championship- "We are all Witnesses". That's like the least underdog thing I've ever heard. I feel like Lebron has always been pretty legacy conscious which I feel is not a trait of an underdog. He successfully dealt with massive expectations as a young player. He didn't win the finals until he left Cleveland. When he did that it kind of felt like he was going to just try to steal championships. Kind of like Gary Payton or someone did at the end of his career but Lebron started trying to steal championships when he was 25.
The Heat were pretty heavy favorites in 2011-2014 in each finals where they went 2-2. Lebron's big legacy finals was the Cavs win against the big time Warriors team of 2016. The Warriors had to come back from down 3-1 in the conference finals. They weren't dominant in the playoffs like they were in the season and The Cavs had a really good team. Lebron 1st overall pick. Kyrie 1st overall pick. Kevin Love 5th overall pick. Tristan Thompson 4th overall pick. They had RJ. JR Smith. It didn't pan out that everyone became superstars but it's not like they were lacking talent.
I've always felt Lebron joining the Lakers and bringing another superstar with him was an extremely Lebron thing to do.

I’m an MS4 that fully matched DR this year. I had 21 interviews for DR and matched my top 3 for both DR and intern year. I wanted to share some of my thoughts/reflections/things I wish I knew applying into diagnostic radiology this past cycle. There have been writeups in the past but in the era of virtual interviews, mass applying, and record application numbers, I thought I’d talk a little about how I think the application landscape is changing for radiology and my lowly n=1 opinions on how rads hopefuls can prepare themselves. This is colored mostly by personal experience so obviously take it all with a tablespoon of salt. Everyone’s story is different, I’m just sharing what I learned from my journey.
This year, there were 0 unfilled spots for DR and 2 for IR (those spots were programs that didn’t participate in the main NRMP match cycle, and one nucs med spot that’s being internally filled). For reference, the only other specialties that also filled completely were ortho and Plastics. Neurosurgery, ENT, and Derm all had unfilled spots. This isn’t to suggest that DR is now more competitive than those fields (it’s not, those fields are still far more self selecting and you don’t need to be proficient in softball to match) but just emphasizes how cutthroat the field has gotten in the past couple of years.
Disclaimers: I’m writing from the perspective of a (low tier) USMD. If you’re a DO or IMG, you can probably learn stuff from this info as well but truthfully I’m not fully familiar with all the extra hurdles DOs and IMGs go through to match DR and I don’t want to espouse misleading information for you guys. Connecting with matched DO’s and IMG’s on the discord or spreadsheet will be in your best interest. Also, I only applied DR. The broad strokes advice may still apply here but IR is pretty different in terms of your application and approach so if you’re gunning for integrated IDR you may not glean much from this.
--------------------------------Application Foundations--------------------------------
School Rank: Yea no shit this matters. In general USMD >> DO >>>> IMG except for a couple programs that are IMG heavy (Mercy catholic, Yale bridgeport as examples) No, this isn’t Yale’s main program you prestige whore If you’re at a T20 why are you reading this. You’ll match by virtue of existing. Go outside.
DOs and IMGs really struggled with the match this year and it will not get better. If you’re a premed reading this and choosing a school and you’re at all interested in DR or any other competitive specialty then attending an MD school with an attached academic centehome program is your best bet.
Step 2
With step 1 now P/F this will be the big number programs use I think. My general benchmark estimates:
Sub 240- would consider this to be a genuine weakness/borderline red flag in your app, I’d make the effort to compensate in other areas of your application
240- will probably put you among the weaker end of radiology applicants, but not unworkable
250- baseline goal you should shoot for, basically the average range of matched applicants
260- a great score, theoretically makes you competitive for any program in the country depending on the rest of your app
270- 🤓
If you fail step 2 or step 1, your app is dead in the water.
I’m gonna get like 50 comments saying shit like “well I know xyz student who matched UCSF rads with a 196!!!” yea well as you can see by the length of this post scores aren’t everything. Anyone can match with anything theoretically. But these score benchmarks at least let you get an idea of your competitiveness relative to the rest of the pack, which is important for building the rest of your app. Bottom line: P/250 should be ok as a USMD. P/260 is ideal tho. DO’s should shoot for P/260 as a baseline I think.
DO’s- take both steps. Yes, even though step 1 is P/F. This is non negotiable. Programs do not give a single shit about COMLEX even if their site says they accept it.
Clinical Grades
Don’t need perfect grades, but honor as many as you can. Do whatever is necessary outside of academic dishonesty. Practice your head game. This isn’t a guide on how to honor rotations, those exist elsewhere. Honors in big rotations (IM, surgery) mean more than smaller ones. How much Honors vs HP vs P impacts you depends on your school’s grade breakdown. If you’re High passing when 45% of your class is honoring that’s less than ideal. If only 5% of your class honors then HP is fine. If you’re Passing and your school is P/F then you’re chilling. DON’T FAIL A CLERKSHIP. You probably will not match. If your school publishes shelf grades in your MSPE, don’t fumble those. Avoid shitty MSPE comments and try to get those scrubbed from your record.
Preclinical Grades
Don’t matter as much as clinical grades, especially if they don't factor into AOA. Doing well in preclinicals doesn’t hurt though, and being bottom quintile certainly won’t help. Don’t fail anything. Probably not as big of a deal as failing clerkships but you don’t want any red flags in your app no matter how small.
AOA
Nice to have. I was AOA and had several programs comment on it. If you’re squinting for patterns mostly community programs and lower tier academics actively mentioned it (“Congrats on AOA” or “I see you’re academically strong, since you’re AOA” and comments of that ilk were what I heard). The big name programs I interviewed at did not mention it, so not sure if they care. If you’re gonna rant about how AOA is a diversity award/popularity contest go soapbox somewhere else. You definitely do NOT need AOA to match radiology (the vast majority of people that match don’t, I was the only rads match from my school in AOA). I’m just commenting on my thoughts on how much it impacts your app, not making a political statement.
GHHS
No one gave a shit. This is a mickey mouse award
Research
Do something. This isn’t ortho, you don’t need 20 first author papers in the field. But do something. Does not have to be rads related, unless you’re gunning to match Stanford/UCSF/MGH/NYU or the like. For reference, I had several pubs/presentations/posters in non rads fields that were based on interesting clinical/translational studies. I also had 2 first author radiology case reports. Every interviewer asked about the clinical projects. No one mentioned the case reports. Obviously rads clinical research would be the ideal, but the point here is to not only demonstrate academic productivity, but to have something interesting/memorable to talk about in interviews. 20 case reports isn’t a conversation starter. Original research, even in another field, is a conversation starter. Original rads research is harder to do as students generally can’t read scans which is a big part of most studies but if you can swing it it’s awesome.
Can’t comment for sure on numbers, NRMP says like 8 total items which sounds about right. I’d try to do like 1-2 clinical research projects (in any field, no need to be super anal about radiology) and then fill the rest with case reports. ACR case in point is a good place to pump those out if you have a good mentor (RIP RSNA case reports). Radiology Case Reports has a publishing fee but turnover time is like 1 week so you can really go hard in that journal if your department pays for it.
Former surgical subspecialty switchouts/dual apps, you’ll be okay (I was one of those) Radiology accepts people like you all the time, including residents that match these fields then regret it. I wanted to do a surgical subspec before rads and had a decent body of research in that field. Bonus points if that ENT work you did looked at imaging, It’s an easy pivot on interviews! Like I said before, this isn’t ortho. Research productivity doesn’t compensate for poor grades and scores, and you can’t kill an away like you could in surgical subspecs. So make sure your raw grades/scores are good as they build the foundation of your app. Good grades/scores with low research >> great research with shitty grades/scores.
Bonus: If any research work you did involved coding, statistical programming, or machine learning, try to swing it as a budding interest in AI. Many programs, especially academic ones, get their dicks hard the minute someone mentions AI/deep learning models.
Conferences: Unfortunately, networking is becoming more of a thing in radiology as is the fate of any competitive field in a world of less objective metrics. If you can present at RSNA or ACR or SIR or any other conference, absolutely take the opportunity. Introduce yourself to as many PD’s and APD’s as possible, plant the idea of your existence as a seed into their subconscious. If you have nothing to present, I don't know how much value these conferences would have though unless you're a rizz god or somethng. I can’t comment on this too much because I did literally none of this but if your above application metrics are weak then I’d highly recommend doing this. As a terminally online introvert with the personality of a cement block I think networking is cringe but you gotta play the game. IMGs/DOs should especially be trying to do this.
Extracurriculars/Work Experience
No one really cares about interest groups. No one cares if you worked in the student clinic. Programs do care if you did an interesting service/leadership activity. I had one cool service activity I did in preclinicals that got brought up in every interview (wasn’t rads related at all). Make sure you can speak well on what the activity entailed and how you personally contributed.
Nontrads with previous work experience, wear it like a badge of honor. It makes you more interesting as an applicant. I can’t comment on it firsthand because I went straight through but anything that makes your story more than “I was premed in college and now I’m in medical school” is gonna be a talking point on interviews.
--------------------------------Building your App--------------------------------
Letters of Recommendation
IMO the best setup for this is 1 radiology letter and 2 nonradiology clinical letters. Assuming all you did was a rads rotation and little else, a radiology LOR is going to inherently be weak. Students don’t do much besides shadow on rads rotations and everyone knows it, so what’s it gonna say? “Oh student X sat there like a good little boy/girl and didn’t fall asleep in the reading room please RTM them :)” -yeah not the best letter pal. Your clinical letters on the other hand can actually speak to your ability as a medical student so they can be more impressive. The specialty doesn’t matter too much, just make sure they can speak strongly on your ability as a future resident.
If you’re wondering how to get a good rads letter, the best answer is to do research with a rads mentor. Then they can say that you’re academically productive and worked well on projects which makes your letter nicer. If you do research with multiple rads mentors, that’s the only instance in which I’d get a second Rads letter.
How you set up your 4th year rotations should depend on what you need. If you aren’t sure about getting a good nonrads letter, do a Sub I, especially in IM or Surgery- I really really recommend this as a great way to get a good letter or two. If you’re a newer switch into the field do a rads rotation to get a letter. Honestly your rads letter is more of a checkbox at that point than anything else but having one at least confirms you’re not blatantly backup applying.
Dual/backup appliers should get try to get one rads letter from a rotation. Also, make sure your other letters don’t say how great of an orthopedic surgeon you’re gonna be lol don’t get snitched on by your own homies
Away Rotations
Ding ding ding the big million dollar question. You probably scrolled to look for this. I am of the opinion that yes, you should do an away if you can. This is coming from someone who didn’t do one. Now, they aren’t mandatory like they are for surgical subspecialties, but you should try to fit one into your schedule if you can. With step 1 going pass fail and the increasing number of apps, programs are looking for more ways to separate applicants from the flock. Away rotations can be your key. Some general guidelines:
1. DO A ROTATION AT A PROGRAM YOU WOULD BE ALREADY BE COMPETITIVE AT. Doing an away at a rotation at a program does not guarantee an interview. This may sound lame, but think about it- all you do on most DR aways is shadow, or maybe take an exam or present on a topic. That’s nice but it tells a program nothing about how good you’d actually be as a resident.This is why I made a big deal of being able to assess your relative competitiveness as an applicant. Use texas star and residency explorer to get a better idea of this- if you’re in the upper 25% of matched applicants statistics then it’s probably a good idea to do an away there. Don’t rotate at UCSF or MGH if you’re a DO or have below average stats- you’re not gonna get an interview and you’re gonna waste everyone’s time.
2. Aways should not take precedence over important application building rotations. If you need a non radiology letter and you’re debating between doing an away vs doing a sub I in medicine, the answer is the sub I. A strong application with no aways > weaker app with an away IMO. Getting letters from aways is hard to say. Do it if you don’t have a home program. Otherwise, it’s probably more valuable to build a strong connection to your home program and get radiology letter(s) there.
3. If you’re looking to match in an area that you have no educational/personal ties to, do an away there. If you’re from the midwest and want to match in NYC, do an away in NYC. If you’re looking to match to california and aren’t attending medical school there, do an away in Cali. Unless you’re a superstar candidate you will probably see poor yields in areas outside of your med school/hometown area so an away can help boost yields. That being said, rule 1 takes precedence here.
4. I don’t recommend getting LOR’s from away programs. The big exception here is if you don’t have a home program, in which case then you should. It’s just that these letters are probably gonna be mid at best and home rads letters where the PD/writer knew you for longer will probably be of better quality. Again, everyone is different-maybe you really really vibed with an away faculty and want a letter from them. If you are confident it’ll be a really quality letter, then go for it. But don’t strategize your app around getting letters from MGH or NYu or Stanford and thinking this is like surgical subspecs where you do aways at places for great letters- it’s not.
Make sure to apply early and broadly- it’s first come first serve for most programs. If you haven’t finished your app and submitting to programs already, you’re probably running late. Oops, probably should probably have submitted this sooner. This is what League of Legends does to you folks. Try to do research and ask around about what programs highly value away rotators. I have some leads but there are definitely many many others out there.
NYC- Mt. Sinai Icahn SOM- great away experience, gave interviews to away rotators
PA- Einstein Philly- highly highly values away rotators/demonstrated interest in the program
CA- Santa Barbara Cottage- gave interviews to away rotators, great “foothold” program into CA
CA- Cedars Sinai- another great “foothold” program into CA
Shoutout to these programs for doing the exact opposite:
Wash U St. Louis- rejected an away rotator 3 weeks into the away (per name and shame)
UMD- did not provide interviews to multiple away rotators
FYI both programs I listed above are great places to train at, and programs are under no obligation to give interviews to away rotators, especially in DR. Just know if you rotate there that you should prepare for this possibility.
Post-ERAS submission aways are probably still valuable especially early on in interview season. The only thing is that you won’t be able to get LORs from those but I think LOR’s from away rads programs are almost guaranteed to be mid at best so I’d recommend not building your app around those unless you have no home program.
Signals
The other million dollar question. This year apparently applicants get 6 gold and 6 silver signals. I think the best thing to do with signals is just send them to where you wanna go. I have no clue why anyone would want a silver signal, but I don’t think it’s worth the headache of trying to mindgame which programs are getting silvers and which are getting golds. Send your golds to the ones you really like, and your silvers to the ones you also like but maybe not as much. Don’t overthink it.
My only advice regarding signals is to NOT signal big name academic centers. UCSF, NYU, MGH, Upenn, etc do not put much weight into signals. They know everyone wants to train with them so they get their pick of the litter. Sending a signal to them is likely throwing your signal in the trash, especially if your application metrics aren’t at or above their matched averages. I think you get the most bang for your buck from signaling smallemid tier academic centers and community programs. That being said, I’m not your dad. Signal who you want.
PS ask your home program if they want you to signal them. Some don’t but others are dickheads and want one of your signals. Make sure you know.
Hobbies/Experiences
Damn i dont know what the fuck they’re smoking at AAMC with this change but I guess I can talk about it. Sounds like common sense but talk about shit that’s actually meaningful and you can talk freely and confidently/passionately about in interviews. Especially now since you have limited space. The student clinic you and 1000 med students volunteered at probably doesn’t mean much. Oh, you led the student clinic? Well that’s a lot better, you should talk about that. Activities where you took a leadership role are always gonna be more meaningful and interesting in interviews than stuff you were just a floater in. Gonna copy and paste a comment I made a while ago about putting research as experiences in your ERAS. Applies to any specialty I think:
Publications and "experiences" are different parts of your ERAS application, with Pubs having no cap. You can enter any publication as a "research experience" but you'll need to think a little harder about which ones you wanna put in.
For example, if you do a small filler case report and it gets published in a smaller journal, this is a publication and should be in your ERAS publication section. You could enter it as a research experience as well, where you describe the process you went through to get it written and published. However, this would not be a very meaningful experience and a waste of one of your ten entries.
Let's say you lead a longitudinal translational research project in your field of interest that gets presented at a conference as an abstract, and then subsequently published in a large journal. Both the abstract and the pub will, again, go in your ERAS pubs section. However, this would also make a great research experience to use in your experiences tab. You could talk about how you led the project, the role you played in completing it, where it was presented, etc. This would make for a strong candidate in your experiences tab.
TL;DR: Smaller filler projects are pubs but shouldn't be listed in experiences. Larger important projects should be publications and also listed as a research experience. Hope this makes sense.
I would highly highly recommend including some space for hobbies in your eras. DR interviews are like 80% hobby talk, 10% why rads, 10% random shooting the shit. You don’t need to have insanely interesting hobbies- even mundane stuff is great conversation food. I talked about TV (almost spoiled an interview on Better Call Saul's ending) and manga (Chainsaw Man my love) in some of my interviews. Just be sure you’re genuine in those interests and can talk about them. Don’t fabricate a hobby like underwater basket weaving to make yourself look cool because if you sound fake then that’s gonna be an almost instant DNR. My home PD told me a story of a great applicant they DNR’ed because he said he loved fly fishing in his hobbies section and our PD (who loves fly fishing) asked about it he couldn’t talk anything about it. because it was made up. Yeah, don’t do that.
Probably 2-3 hobbies and elaborate a little on each. Don’t just say running- were you on any competitive teams? Did you run a marathon/halfy/5k? Give some meat to it but not your whole life story.
Personal Statement
I feel very unconfident in talking about this part so I won’t say too much. I was told my PS was good but no one really commented on it in interviews. I think the 10/80/10 rule applies here- 80% of PS’s don't move the needle in any way, 10% are profound, 10% suck ass. You’re not gonna be in that top 10% most likely so just try not to be in that bottom 10%. Spell check, and don’t talk about how you wanna do rads because of lifestyle or because you “Like PUZZLES” -it’s generic as fuck. Have as many eyes on it as possible- your mentors, your friends, your parents, your parole officer, Dealer Jim- get as much feedback on it as possible. Just make sure it doesn’t suck or unintentionally reveal any personality disorders- that time you lit a live squirrel on fire and looking at the bones made you interested in Xrays is probably not a good radiology PS.
Conclusions/I skipped to the bottom
Rads is getting pretty competitive. I’d say it’s not on the level of the surgical subspecs/derm but probably the most competitive one of the remaining ones. It’s still not too bad if you’ve built a decent app- I’m not gonna hype it up like the psych and gas doomposters, but it’s not a walk in the park like it was pre-COVID. Especially if you’re a DO or IMG….
My spicy prediction we will see a small dip in application numbers this cycle- ChatGPT “concerns” and people realizing it’s not a safe backup may cause a small decrease in app numbers- but the process is becoming more opaque with tiered signals and more importantly P/F step 1.
TL;DR:
-GET GOOD STEP 2 SCORE. 250+ goal, 260+ ideal if you want to feel safer but I don't think there's really a safe score nowadays
-GOOD GRADES IN MEDICAL SCHOOL- honors and HP’s, don’t low pass. DON’T FAIL ANYTHING. Be top tertile/quintile/quartile/kitchentile or whatever your school does.
-DO SOME RESEARCH- a couple case reports and a independent project or two that you can talk about is your goal. Don’t need 10+ pubs like an ENT manwhore but don’t have nothing.
-DO AN AWAY AT A TARGET RANGE PROGRAM. Know your competitiveness and choose your away intelligently. Don’t ego it. Do it in a region you’d potentially like to match in especially if you don’t have prior ties. Again, not mandatory but it can really help.
-BE A REAL PERSON- you’re not a stat stick. Mention hobbies, ecs, prior jobs that you can talk about in interviews. The first 3 points get you the interview- it’s these last two points that get you the match.
I hope this helps a little. I wish I wrote this in march post match because then some of this advice would have been more timely like the aways but what can you do.
I might do a part 2 on interviews and rank lists and what I think you should look for in a program so let me know if that's something you might be interested in. I feel like those are later cycle questions and wouldn't be super relevant right now. Plus I've already procrastinated on writing this up when I said I would so I try to write that this shit is never gonna get done.
Other matched rads people feel free to chime in/correct me/share your experiences. I don't claim to be a know it all for this process by any means I still wonder how I managed to pull the devious heist on the program that matched me.
I’m willing to take DM’s if you have more specific/personal questions but no butthole pics please.

Demographics
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Latino (Peruvian Descant)
Residence: Northern California (but not the bay area, its the Sacramento area)
Income Bracket: >50k
Type of School: very average public school (only a few [around 10-15] go to top schools like ucla, uc san diego, uc berkeley)
Hooks: First-Gen, Low income LOL
Intended Major(s): Computer Science/Data Science for UC schools; sociology for most of the private schools on the Common Application
Academics
GPA (UW/W): 3.84 UW and 4.19 W at the end of my junior year (this was the GPA I applied as to the UC schools). 3.78 and a 4.16W on my mid-year report sent to the private schools.
Rank (or percentile): 49/585 (although I lost my rank in the second semester of my senior year to a 65/601 and didn't even make the top 10%).
# of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 4 Honors, 11 AP courses, 7 Dual Enrollment courses.
Senior Year Course Load: AP Spanish Literature, AP English Literature, Computer Programming, AP Microeconomics, AP Government, AP Physics 2, Pre-Calculus Honors (I know, its bad) and Art 1.
Standardized Testing
SAT I: Didn't take the SAT Or the ACT test; Applied test-optional.
AP/IB: 3's on four AP Exams and 4's on two AP Exams. Failed AP Physics 1.
Extracurriculars/Activities
List all extracurricular involvements, including leadership roles, time commitments, major achievements, etc.
#1 National History Day Competition (State Competitor, 11th-12th grade, 4 hours a week, 23 weeks, won local county competition).
#2 City Hall Internship (intern, 10th grade, 23 hours a week, 4 weeks a year, made changes to city website)
#3 Elementary School Internship (Teacher's Assistant/Intern, 11th grade, 20 hours a week during the summer, helped support first-grade students with learning curriculum.
#4 Family Housekeeping Assistant (helper, 8 hours per week for around 34 weeks a year from 9th-12th grade, helped clean homes).
#5 Academic Decathlon Co-Founder (team member, 11th grade, 3 hours per week for 21 weeks, helped initiate after covid-19.
#6 Web Developer for my school's technology academy (11th to 12th grade, 2 hours a week for 20 weeks, informed 100+ people of club and community events & info).
#7 Robotics Team (coder, 2 hours a week for 20 weeks, 9th to 12th grade, made state competitions for the first time ye)
#8 MESA team (9th to 12th grade, 1 hour per week for 30 weeks, learned useful technical skills like python, inventor, fusion 360 and more).
#9 Web Developer for Key Club (11th to 12th grade, 2 hours a week for 15 weeks, no major accomplishments)
#10 Cashier and fast food worker (11th grade, 10 hours a week for 8 weeks, understaffed in many case).
Awards/Honors
List all awards and honors submitted on your application.
#1 History Day Special Award for Chinese American History (State Level Recognition)
#2 Sacramento County History Day (Local, regional recognition).
#3 School's Technology Academy Leadership Service Award
#4 AP Scholar (LOL)
#5 Honor Roll with Distinction (school recognition).
Letters of Recommendation
APUSH teacher recommendation (8/10): I think I got to know her pretty well and that she was really able to get to know me as a student. She told me she tried to really showcase the strong qualities of myself that really shined through and would serve me best. She also told me she liked how I overcame challenges on the history day competition and how I was persistent/a grit student. I also did try my best in APUSH class and i feel like she probably wrote a lot about that, including about my character.
​
AP Psychology teacher (6/10): Wrote it in a couple of days, so not sure how strong it was. I feel like she somewhat got to know me in AP Psych class but nothing outside of the classroom. She also didn't know what COMMON APP when I asked her so this was probably a first for her, which is kinda a red flag lol but not anything bad. I feel like it was probably average to above average, but who knows it could have been well-written.
City employee internship advisor (5/10): I got the letter of recommendation after my internship and it was very generic, but i still asked her to fill it out for the community recommender part of the Common app recommendation section. I think she wrote like an extra sentence or two but people have told me it was very generic and didn't really demonstrate extra qualities about myself.
Interviews
Had 1 alumni interview with Dartmouth College. I would rate it a 7/10. I got along with her pretty well but I did have some hick ups but I really was able to express myself well. I did prepare for it but it wasn't anything extraordinary.
Essays
UC PIQ Essays (8.5/10): I spent a lot of time writing/editing my UC personal insight questions. I went to both my AP English literature and AP English language teachers, my counselor, one of my close friends, my APUSH teacher, and online "advisors" who somewhat helped although I did pay them upwards of $400 in total to review/edit. I started writing them on November 1st, but I went through so many drafts. I had like 40 pages of just drafts on the google doc. I did have lots of people go over it (which may have been a bad thing due to an overwhelming amount of different advice/feedback/edits they had). I also did pay for online college advisory services to look over my essays, which wasn't too helpful because they gave very minimal edits/feedback. I think three of my PIQ essays were pretty strong at the point . The fourth PIQ essay I started writing the week of the deadline and it turned out pretty good, but not super strong. I feel like one of my UC essays was especially strong for how well-written it was, how unique it was, and how much it demonstrated my personal values/challenges. I truly do feel like my essays on leadership, overcoming a challenge, favorite academic subject, and community essay shined through on me as an applicant and demonstrated who I was as well as my potential.
Common APP PS essay (7/10): As for my Common App Personal Statement Essay, I started on December 16th (one day after my birthday LOL). I tried being different and writing about an inanimate object I've had since I was young. I wrote about this and basically mixed in one of my strongest UC Essays from above into one really well-written essay. I think it was an alright essay but now looking back on it, it wasn't that well-written LOL. I didn't have a winter break and I remember editing one of my supplemental essays like 10 minutes before New Years LOL. I had like 20 supplemental essays to write and I think some of them were really well-written and insightful, while some were written as if it was written last-minute (because it was). But I really liked my community essay, at that point, it was really polished and well-written so I had that as my basis for all the community supplemental essays. For my common app personal statement and supplemental essays, i spent upwards of $600 for online college essay editing services, which was absolutely not worth it because I feel like i could just relied on my personal feedback and not others. However, I did spend all my winter break applying to like 16 private schools, including writing the supplemental essays and common app personal statement that winter break. The topic of my PS statement was more of a grit story and what I learned after working with my mom a lot with house cleaning and how it has changed my outlook on life.
​
Decisions: I only applied Regular Decision for all of them.
Rejections:
Amherst College (social sciences major).
Bowdoin College (social sciences major).
Brown University (social sciences major).
Colby College (social sciences major).
Dartmouth College (social sciences major).
Duke University (cs major)
Northwestern University (social sciences major).
Pomona College (social sciences major).
California State University - San Diego (cs major)
Swarthmore College (social sciences major).
UC Santa Barbara (cs major)
University of Southern California (cs major)
Washington University in St. Louis (cs major)
Yale University. (cs major).
Waitlists:
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (SWE major, still waiting to hear back although I don't think i want to commit there ).
Grinnell College (humanities major) declined waitlist offer
Middlebury College (humanities major) declined waitlist offer
UC Davis (cs major) declined waitlist offer
UC Santa Cruz (cs major) declined waitlist offer
UCLA (cs + engineering major) I'm still waiting to hear back; might commit if i get admitted).
Acceptances:
California State University - Sacramento (computer science major)
California State University - Long Beach (computer science major)
Pepperdine University (computer science major)
UC Irvine (software engineering major)!
UC San Diego (data science major)!
Vanderbilt University (College of arts and sciences)!!!!
UC Berkeley (Committed!!!) Although I am a data science major and not comp sci, I really do feel like I can learn a lot at Cal!!
​
Additional Information: Although I only got I would get into mid-tier schools like UC Irvine or something, I am really happy about my results! Despite being rejected from almost all the private schools besides Vanderbilt and Pepperdine, I really did like how Vanderbilt chose me. It was a super difficult decision picking between Vanderbilt CS (intention to switch to college of engineering) and Berkeley Data Science, I ultimately chose Berkeley because of how prestigious it was for the technology sector and how close it was from home (around 2 hour drive). Although Vanderbilt truly did appeal to me with its student social life scene, academic and social life balance, good food, new location, happy student body, and rigorous academics, it was a bit too far from home. However, although I only got into 7 out of 27 colleges I applied for, I am happy that top universities did pick me and that I was able to choose from such excellent universities. Cal is where my next four years will be! Now, that's only if UCLA doesn't get me off their waitlist, but even then I might still choose Cal if I get off the waitlist. go bears!

To whom it may concern: this message is of the utmost importance. Please do not disregard it. I don’t know for sure what website you’ll be seeing this on, whoever you are. Probably something submission-based, hopefully one where it stays up. Regardless, it is imperative that you keep reading. I’ll explain why soon, but before I do, some context is in order.
My brother was a brilliant man. Brilliantly talented, brilliantly clever. It was difficult growing up in his shadow. We were raised in the same nurturing, middle-upper class environment, with two loving parents that encouraged us at every turn, but it seemed there was nothing I could do that he wouldn’t outshine me at. He was no savant, you see. Julian held his own in any situation, whether that be an exam or a party with friends. Hardly ever was he not the smartest person in the room, or the most popular.
Needless to say, I was a jealous sibling. My main source of bother was academic performance. I’m not an idiot, even in comparison to my brother, but I was an underachiever for a long period of my adolescence. I’m not sure what I’d attribute it to. Hanging around the wrong people, perhaps, having my head in the clouds, something like that. I’ve always been intelligent, but for a while I really struggled to knuckle down and use that intellect. For so long, I heard the same tired expression: “if you’d only apply yourself…” I’m sure some of you reading this can relate. It wasn’t until many years later that that sentiment really rang true.
I never outright hated Julian, but I have to admit there was invariably a growing seed of resentment in my heart for him, especially as we got older and his natural aptitude really began to shine. We both had an interest in computer science from a young age, most likely inherited from our father, who worked for Microsoft before they went out of business. I still remember those nights as kids when he’d sit us down in front of his computer and show us all the little intricacies of the code he was working on. Any other children our age would be bored out of their skulls, but there we sat, attentive as ever, our developing minds fascinated by the job’s seemingly endless possibilities. Julian’s other main curiosity, which I did not share, was an affinity towards online horror fiction, though he grew out of that kind of stuff in his late teens.
He knew I had a chip on my shoulder. Mostly, he was apathetic towards it; we were never estranged, but he wasn’t going to let my discontent get in the way of his success. Though I don’t blame him, I suppose that was always Julian’s downfall. He was just too headstrong, too confident.
When we became adults, we parted ways. He went on to study at Harvard while I ended up dropping out of some bang-average local university you won’t have heard of. Following that, things were a little rough. My parents were fairly disappointed. They didn’t cut me off, rather, interacting with them became a depressing chore as they waited for their son to get his life together. At family gatherings, I gritted my teeth at the stories Julian told: developing virtual reality hardware, cutting-edge stuff, pushing the boundaries of the way we interact with technology, all while I was couch-surfing, barely making ends meet as the IT guy at a shitty school in a town I hated. It only made the prospect of snapping out of whatever haze I was in feel more difficult.
It all changed one day soon after I got my first apartment. Julian showed up out of the blue on a dewy morning with an armful of equipment and a huge, beaming smile on his face. I let him in, we talked, and he promised that what he was going to show me would completely blow my mind.
I watched as he paced about my living room setting up all his gadgetry. As soon as everything was ready, he switched on my computer and handed me a thin, plastic headset with exposed wires. Two nodes hung from either side of the thing, which fitted snugly over my temples. While I sat back on the sofa and stared at the monitor before me, he gave me one simple instruction.
“Type something into Google.”
“But I don’t have a keyboard.”
“You don’t need one.”
According to Julian’s wishes, I simply thought about the action, and it happened. The word “something” came up in the search box, and my jaw dropped open in shock. At first, I thought the obvious, that my brother was purposefully fooling me with some kind of prank or gimmick, but repeated tests all came up with the same result. And it wasn’t just searching I could do telepathically, but anything. Literally anything I could think of, limited to the capabilities of the computer, of course. I had total control. There was even a sort of projection in my mind’s eye as it was happening, like the process was actually occurring inside my brain. It wasn’t perfect, but it was nothing short of amazing.
“You’re one of the first people to try it,” he told me once I’d tested everything out. “We’re calling it NeuroWorks, or something to that effect.”
I don’t think that feeling of astonishment ever truly left me. It was then that I realised my petty indignation, the dissatisfaction I felt after so many years of being outclassed, meant nothing in the face of my brother’s achievements, and I would be doing the world a disservice by failing to assist him. Julian departed that night after some drinks and a few laughs, and the next day, I enrolled once again for a degree in computer science. Four years later, I passed with flying colours, and Julian hired me to work for him at his company. There may have been a bit of nepotism involved, but that’s neither here nor there.
The next few years were dizzying. During the time in which I was getting (re)educated, Julian had been working with a team of elite neuroscientists, specialists that filled in the gaps in his knowledge, did all the things he couldn’t. Immediately, I felt I was in way over my head, but as my learning advanced, I gradually got up to speed, and my mood improved quite rapidly. That feeling of pride, like I was finally doing something productive with my life, was nothing short of fantastic, especially in the face of so many wasted years. I was never quite on Julian’s level, of course, but with enough time, I grew to be a valued contributor to the NeuroWorks project. Off the back of a long period of arduous work, the device fully came to fruition, culminating in an international commercial release.
It was a global success, and we made a fortune. Once we’d fully optimised it, it ended up being surprisingly cheap to produce and implement. The result was its adoption in billions of households and businesses. As expected, it completely changed the way we live and work in the virtual world. Worldwide productivity and efficiency increased tenfold. Even now, I’m typing this message with those same two nodes attached at either side of my head, hands-free. As cliched as it sounds, at that point, it truly felt like we were living in the future.
Honestly, I would’ve been happy to stop there. I could’ve moved somewhere green and sunny, spent the rest of my days doing TED Talks and sipping cocktails on the balcony of a villa, not giving a single damn. But not Julian. Like always, Julian had his eyes set on further horizons, on the subsequent stretch of progress. No sooner than a few months after NeuroWorks was released did he come up with his next magnificent idea.
“Consciousness splicing.”
That was how he described it on the day he first sat me down to try and explain. We were outside a café, some pretentious, gentrified establishment in the heart of London, with a coffee each.
“The next stage of human learning, or maybe even existence as a whole. NeuroWorks, compared to this…it’s just a stepping stone, Alex,” he told me. “If we get this right, we won’t just be able to use computers with our minds, we’ll be able to think like them, too.”
I struggled to wrap my head around the concept. “How do you mean, exactly?” I replied.
“Take what makes us sentient. Our minds, our passion, our free will. Everything a machine lacks. How can it be improved? How can it be bettered? What we lack naturally, we as a species, I mean, can be found in a computer. The processing power, the boundless memory, the objectivity. Not to mention the ability to conjure up any kind of information on a whim, the entire collective library of human knowledge, dating back thousands of years. But there are limitations. Computers can’t truly think for themselves. Not yet, anyway. They require input, direction. If we can intersect the strengths of man and machine, cross the gap that separates us…”
He was stirring his drink all the while. Julian had a thing about that: he could never look at you directly when he was thinking, like the image of your baffled face would put him off somehow.
“Okay, but you’re talking purely in theoretical terms, right? We’re centuries off reaching that point. I mean, creating a neural link between a person and Mac OS is one thing-
“I think it’s possible.”
A beat passed before he sighed, grabbed a napkin, and produced a pen from his pocket. I waited as he sketched out a crude, yet complicated diagram. I can’t recall it exactly – it was something to do with the relationship between time, space, and information. Far more philosophical than scientific, I remember thinking.
“The internet is a powerful beast. Our means of controlling it, of accessing it, even with NeuroWorks, are subpar. We just need another breakthrough, and then that could open the door for who knows what else. Traversing through decades online, going back and forth whenever we want-
“Easier said than done.”
“But it could be possible. It could.”
“I disagree. Not in our lifetimes, anyway. And even if it is, it sounds…dangerous. Very dangerous. The number of things that could go wrong, the variables…it doesn’t bear thinking about. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. Let’s learn to walk before we run, eh?”
He was quiet after that. The conversation stuck with me for the next couple of years. We were working mostly on maintaining NeuroWorks at that time, delivering a steady stream of updates and enhancements as society began to mold itself around its advent. There was some discussion as to when the next big leap forward would be, the next huge announcement from Julian’s company, but he remained tight-lipped about anything regarding that.
It was then that he started acting…weird. I saw him less and less in what was supposed to be our spare time together. The cancelled reservations and missed family events added up, but whenever I asked him about it, he just shrugged it off. “I’m a workaholic,” he would say. “You know you all mean the world to me, but so does this job.” I tried to comfort myself with that, but deep down, I think I knew he was hiding something. Something he thought would worry me, that was outside my area of expertise. I was going to confront him about it eventually. I just ended up waiting too long.
One night, he rang me out of nowhere. I remember shooting straight up into a sitting position in a pitch-black room – I think I’d been having a nightmare. The metallic surface of my phone was cold and smooth in my sweaty palm as I picked up the call and pressed it to my temple.
“Meet me at this address in half an hour. And be quick.”
I spoke a word or two in return, but the call had already ended. There was a soft blip, and some postcode I didn’t recognise appeared at the top of the screen.
Doing exactly as my brother asked, I got up, got changed, and made the 20-minute journey by car.
The place was a run-down warehouse in one of the rougher areas of town, where property prices were at their cheapest. I parked up and stepped outside, shivering as I cursed myself for not having the foresight to bring a thicker jacket. It wasn’t immediately obvious which building I was looking for, until I saw a flash of light through a broken window in the distance. Cautiously, I approached it, glancing around to assure myself I wasn’t walking into a trap, as stupid as that thought was. The main door being completely boarded up meant an obscured gap in the brickwork was my entry point.
Dodging the tiny droplets of water trickling in from the broken ceiling, I rounded a corner. The main, spacious area of the warehouse had been kitted out as a kind of makeshift workshop, near identical to a setup from NeuroWorks. It was as if someone had carved out one of our labs and dumped it here, beside walls of crumbling paint. My brow was furrowed as I stared from a distance at the scurrying scientists, who flicked me awkward looks as they went about tending to a central apparatus. I recognised a few of them, but they paid me little mind. I’m sure they knew I was coming.
It took me a few moments to realise, but Julian was part of the almighty cluster of machinery in the middle of it all. His body was a biological cog in an otherwise artificial setup; he was on his back, head tilted slightly forwards, arms splayed in a t-pose like he was being crucified. I’ll never get that image out of my head: him lying there, not having quite noticed me yet, sweat upon his brow. He was shirtless, too, wires running up and down his arms and a mesh inserted atop his shaved head, which was next to a monitor. The wires came down in gangly clumps off the side of the ‘bed’ he was on and fed into this gargantuan hunk of steel by his side. It was truly massive, topped with blinking lights and seemingly missing its outer casing. If I didn’t know better, I’d have assumed he’d been kidnapped and experimented on.
He looked at me, directly upwards from his perspective, and said, “You’re late,” through a smile.
I wasn’t smiling. “Julian, what the fuck is all of this?”
“I apologise for not telling you sooner. Truth be told, I didn’t want you to worry. But this is too important for you not to see.”
I was at a loss for words.
“What we’re going to do here, today, right now, will change the course of humanity. And you need to be here to witness it. So get ready. We’re starting!”
He shouted that last sentence, and all the scientists in the room shuffled to what could only be described as their ‘posts’. I merely watched as they started a countdown sequence of sorts, dutifully coordinating the machine through a large control panel. They communicated with short, snappy gestures and mumbled technobabble that I could barely pay attention to. Instinctively, I stepped back until I was at an arbitrarily ‘safe’ distance.
Seconds later, my mouth turned dry and a quiet ringing in my ears began to form. I chalked it up to nerves initially, but it soon became apparent there was some kind of static in the air, palpable interference that manifested in a painful shock as my hand grazed the shiny edge of a worksurface. It seemed to be emanating from the middle of the room, where Julian was. His eyes were closed now, tightly; he gave the impression of someone concentrating very intently on something.
There was a hum, so low you almost felt it before you heard it, slowly increasing in pitch. I suddenly had a headache, and I’m almost certain my hair was standing up under the confines of my flat cap. Panic surfaced within me as I noticed the scientists arguing. I shouted a word of protest, only to realise my ears had popped, and the faint ringing from earlier now sounded like a cacophonous bout of tinnitus.
Something was clearly and utterly wrong. Julian’s deathly stillness as he honed his thoughts had ended, and he was now thrashing around, foaming at the mouth, unable to break free of his confines. I ran back over to his side-
“Don’t touch me!” He managed to force out. I could barely hear him, but the crazed look in his eyes, dilated like a cat’s, convinced me to leave him alone. Instead, I focused my attention on the scientists.
“What are you maniacs doing to him?” I yelled. “Fucking switch that thing off! Now!”
One of them came and pushed me away. His mouth was moving, but I couldn’t make out the words. The noise of the machine was just too loud. There was a collective moment of fear as the tone became ear-splitting. No-one could hear anyone anymore.
Julian looked like he was being possessed. My attention was drawn to the monitor beside him; before, it had been inert, but it was currently displaying a fast-moving, almost psychedelic kaleidoscope of uniform shapes and colours. If you’ve ever seen what a computer looks like when you remove its RAM while it’s running, it was like that, but even more erratic and animated. I was practically hypnotised by it, and as I gazed further and further into its depths, an awful image began to emerge.
It was Julian. I swear to god, I know it sounds crazy, but Julian’s face materialised in the form of this…nightmarish coalescence of text and code. His mouth was open, and his eyes were bulging out of his skull. I turned to my brother to see him doing the exact same expression there on the table, unable to breathe. It made me feel sick to my stomach.
Suddenly, the machine shut down, taking the monitor’s display and oppressive interference with it. Julian’s eyes glazed over, his face went pale as a sheet, and he slumped down onto his back, letting out a huge exhale. It was when he didn’t take another breath that two white-coated men went to check his pulse.
A single head shake between them confirmed what I feared. Gone.
I think I was in shock the whole rest of the night, because I didn’t speak a word to anyone until the morning. They sent me home in a taxi and promised to take care of what had happened. I burst into furious, bitter tears as soon as I put the keys in the door. I was so, so angry at being kept in the dark and lied to for so long, with this having been the culmination. Little did I know that was just the beginning.
Julian’s team called me into work the next day for a private meeting. To maintain the company’s work and appearance, they were going to sweep the whole thing under the rug. Fucking figures, I remember thinking. My first urge, naturally, was to fight this burial, to expose them and bring about some sense of justice, but I was talked down from it. You might call me cowardly for that, but put yourself in my shoes for a minute; I had no real evidence at hand, and it soon became apparent that the scientists were only operating under my brother’s command. Everything had been planned out in advance, even the system that was being followed now, for what would happen if a fatal accident occurred. Telling the world the true events of that night would’ve been a losing battle – already, they’d began cleaning up their mess – demolishing the warehouse lab, scrubbing all evidence from the archives, etc. It was a tough call, but I felt compelled to adhere to my brother’s wishes and keep moving forward with NeuroWorks. You can judge me for that if you want, but I don’t care.
I forgave them all over time. It wasn’t even really their fault Julian had died that night – there’d been a freak malfunction with the equipment, leading to them being unable to turn it off. I won’t go too in-depth; there’s a lot about it that I still don’t understand to this day. Anyway, once the dust had settled, we put the incident behind us and gave up the whole ‘cutting-edge’ angle for a while. We started pursuing safer technological ventures like media creation, but that was when something strange began happening.
You see, Julian’s cause of death seemed obvious initially – most likely a heart attack or stress-related aneurysm – but the autopsy revealed something startling. There was little to no internal damage anywhere in his body: no burst blood vessels or spasmed arteries. Rather, all the electrical signals in his body had simply vanished simultaneously, deactivating his brain. It was as if he had literally been switched off.
None of this ever got out, of course. NeuroWorks, now one of the most valuable, powerful companies of all time, made sure of that. Julian’s death was publicly credited as a stroke due to undetected high cholesterol levels. But it’s certainly interesting considering what came after.
Over the next few weeks, we had virus troubles. A malicious software was making its way through our computer system. There was a bit of a panic to begin with; an internal investigation revealed we had far too much unsecured data that anyone working for a market competitor would be happy to steal and sell to the highest bidder, but the more we found out about it, the more curious we became. The strange thing about it was only partly what it did. Corruption and deletion are pretty bog-standard as far as viruses go, but its effects were largely patternless, like it was picking items at complete random. But it was also when it was doing it. After some research, we found that people had been complaining about this mystery malware they’d designated as ‘WerStar’ (due to the word apparently repeating itself over and over again in damaged code and text boxes) since the beginning of the internet. Despite this, its existence had never been formally documented anywhere, which is extremely bizarre. Whatever WerStar is, it’s completely transcendent of time.
We think we know what’s going on, though. We had our ideas to begin with, and there were plenty of skeptics amongst us, but a recent event has all but verified it. A couple of months ago, I found a .txt file on my computer that wasn’t there the day before, entitled ‘WerStargift’. It was an enormous mass of code that took weeks to fully analyse. Delving into the nitty gritty of the whole thing would take forever, but from what we’ve been able to glean from it (and I promise I’m being serious when I say this), it’s a formula for communicating virtually with the past.
Which brings us to today. Well, our today. We’re sending this message from the year 2050 to what we’ve calculated to be the mid-2010s. Myself and Julian should only be little children. Don’t worry, this isn’t some Terminator-style mission to erase or alter a former timeline. We just need you to tell us something.
The code wasn’t the only thing in the .txt file. There was a message, a message we can’t read. It’s been cobbled together on an old, outdated editor that isn’t compatible with the modern NeuroWorks setup anymore. Believe me, we’ve tried everything, but not even old computers will display it. We think our failure to view it is the whole reason we’re even able to talk to you now. In your time, it should still be legible. You may need to do something with it, view it through a Source editor, perhaps, but it won’t be hard to decipher.
You should be able to communicate with us, too. Hopefully. We’ve tested this with random forums – dozens of messages we made that were supposedly sent in 2012, and had people respond to them in that same year. We’re well aware of the danger associated with this, but at the same time, it’s the only chance we’ve got.
I’m going to wrap this up by apologising. I’m sorry that I haven’t been more specific throughout this message; there’s a lot I’ve glossed over in the pursuit of keeping things relatively short. Maybe this is just a lost cause – the technology we’re using is still extremely unrefined, so there’s a chance this might not even get out there. But it’s been 10 years since Julian ‘died’, and I’d give anything to be able to see my brother again. If this works, if we’re able to somehow establish contact, then we may even be able to reverse the process, to find him a human host.
So, please, for the love of God, please, what does it say? Where is Julian?
...
...
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https://imgur.com/a/hu9jOuk

Sorry for the delay. My computer crapped out on me so I had to type this by phone. It’s going to be shorter than I intended but I hope it’s still informative and appreciate everyone's patience.
A familiar theme for the Saints, unfortunately, continued this past season. Injuries helped ensure that Dennis Allen’s first season wouldn’t be a successful one. The defense lost a lot of players in free agency but it took a step back last season anyway and needed an infusion in talent. Offensively the biggest hole was filled by the signing of QB Derek Carr. The O line has talent and just needs to stay healthy.
Departures:
David Onyemata (DT) Marcus Davenport (Edge) Shy Tuttle (DT) Kaden Elliss (LB) Andy Dalton (QB) Deonte Harty (WR) Justin Evans (S) Marquez Callaway (WR) Kentavius Street (DT) Ethan Greenidge (OT) Andy Trautman (TE) (Trade)
Signings
Signed QB Derek Carr Signed RB Jamaal Williams Re-signed WR Michael Thomas Re-signed TE Juwan Johnson Signed DE Nathan Shepherd Signed DT Khalen Saunders Signed S Johnathan Abram Re-signed DE Malcolm Roach Signed CB Lonnie Johnson Re-signed QB Jameis Winston Re-signed P Blake Gillikin Signed RT Storm Norton Re-signed LB Ty Summers
Round 1 • Pick 29 - Bryan Bresee, Defensive Tackle, Clemson
By far the number one need for the Saints, headed into the draft, was IDL. Enter Bryan Bresee, the 6’5 298lb DT who was once the number 1 ranked high school recruit in the nation. Bresee’s college career got off to a great start. At the end of his freshman season, he was named the ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year, and an All-ACC first-team member. He was unable to build upon that success the following season, however, as he suffered an ACL tear, which cut his season short to only four games. The following season a kidney infection and the unfortunate and unimaginably tragic passing of his 15-year sister to cancer caused him to miss some games but by the end of the season, he started to resemble his old self. Many mocks tied Bresee to the Saints. He filled the biggest hold and fits the prototype that the Saints love. Great size and truly athletically gifted. I think his injury concerns are overblown. He only had one serious injury which was the ACL tear. The other that caused him to miss time was bad luck. His upside is great. He’s quick off the line, has great measurables, and is only 21.
Round 2 • Pick 40 - Isaiah Foskey, Edge, Notre Dame
Another pick that fills a need and makes sense. Some people believe that this was a slight reach but I disagree. I brought Foskey up as a great fit before the draft. Foskey was exceptionally productive at Notre Dame and broke Justin Tuck’s record for most sacks in the program’s history. Another ideal Saints fit as he also has RAS of 9.61 which means he is gifted athletically on top of being productive. Has good length which he knows how to use to not only get sacks but cause fumbles which he lead the nation in 2021. Needs to get a little stronger as an edge defender but has an ideal teacher in Cam Jordan. There is an open spot for the taking with the departure of Marcus Davenport if Foskey is ready but if not, there is still ample playing time available.
Round 3 • Pick 71 - Kendre Miller, Running Back, TCU
With the looming suspension of Alvin Kamara, Running Back was a need even with the signing of Jamaal Williams. Miller checks two big boxes in production and size. Ran for over 6 yds per carry all 3 years of college including last season where he rushed for almost 1400 yds and 17 tds. His biggest flaw is his lack of breakaway speed but he has good acceleration through holes. Needs to work on his pad level as he runs high sometimes. Also has some production as a pass catcher and the confidence to force his way onto the field. Only 20 years old.
Round 4 • Pick 103 - Nick Saldiveri, Tackle, Old Dominion
Saldiveri was a surprising pick to most, but when you look at his RAS score and his ability to play all across the O-line, he is another prototypical Saints pick. Doesn’t have the ideal length to play out at Tackle but the Saints do have questions on the interior. Guard Caesar Ruiz hasn’t been re-signed yet although if he plays like he did last season, I don’t think that will be an issue. Guard Andrus Peat has been an enigma for Saints fans. Between his injuries, salary, and play, most fans seem to be counting down the days until he’s off the team but the coaches have always seemed to think highly of him. Regardless, Saldiveri can offer a cost-effective replacement for either spot.
Round 4 • Pick 127 - Jake Haener, Quarterback, Fresno State
Jameis Winston is only signed for one season. A backup QB is a need going forward. Haener has the tools to be a good one. He lacks size and arm strength but has very good timing and anticipation. Also, did you see his rookie photo shoot? Those pouty lips justified the pick already. 😂
Round 5 • Pick 146 - Jordan Howden, Safety, Minnesota
A smart player whose timed speed was much better than expected. Generally always in the right spot and is a solid wrap-up tackler. The worst-case scenario is special team ace and spot starter is great value for a late-round pick.
Round 6 • Pick 195 - A.T. Perry, Wide Receiver, Wake Forest
An absolute specimen at WR. 6’4 200lbs and ran a 4.4 in the 40. Tall wideout with elite arm length but also shows a surprising amount of twitch for his size and a good understanding of shifting speeds. Has shown a knack for high-pointing the ball and is a hands catcher. Concentration lapses and inconsistent hands showed up on film and so far in OTAs but I would not be surprised for Perry to be the steal of the Saints draft. The Saints have a lot of options but Perry can play himself to WR 3 or 4 this season or higher depending on Michael Thomas’ health.

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The Future is Officially Canceled.
Dee had read articles like this before. He couldn’t remember if the future had ever been officially canceled. But it had been canceled. Unofficially, perhaps. Hence the need to do it officially.
He skimmed the first few paragraphs …the slow cancellation of the future… …pop culture is eating itself… …imitators are imitating an imitation… The ‘slow cancellation’ theory was first flung around in the early twenty first century, on the hypothesis that if you played 1970s music to someone in the 1950s, it would blow their freaking mind. And if you played music from the 1990s to someone in the 1970s, their mind would be equally blown. But if you played music from the ‘10s to someone in the 1990s it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch. In fact, that person may even think they had heard some of it before. The same thing with music from the ‘30s to someone in the ‘10s or music from now to someone in the ‘30s. That person might conceivably think they were even listening to music from a previous decade. Pop culture had referenced itself so many times over, it was now just a copy of a copy of a copy. Degrading every time.
Dee looked down at the article's credit, Dennis Bagley, Editorial AI Operator. He knew it, AI. No wonder it read so familiar. He looked up at the various awards on his top shelf. Dee knew he was different. Better. His AI operating skills were the thing of accolades. The thing of applause. Just last week he and his AI processor picked up Gold in Effectology for their Just Poo It campaign for Charmin. And Silver in Originology for their The Ketchup In The Rye commercial for Pepsi-Heinz, about a young guy who gets kicked out of school and stays out all night trying to find a bottle of ketchup. He looked down at his processor and beamed. Its glowing red light beamed back at him.
They didn’t just stumble into that kind of effectiveness. Campaigns didn’t even get greenlit unless they scored ninety or above on the Effectology meter. He and his AI were usually hitting ninety twos or ninety threes, even a ninety five for Here’s To The Lazy Ones for Caspar mattresses. That campaign killed.
But Dee held himself to that higher calling, Originology. The metrics of original ideas. Sure, the AI did most of the work but Dee was able to tweak his processor to go way beyond the requisite twenty five percent Originology score. Together they were nailing figures in the forties, sometimes even peaking into the fifties. Scores that were head and shoulders above the rest of the department.
That’s how he could afford the sweet ‘18 Jordans Reissues on his feet. He curled his luxe Loewe headphone cable through his fingers and wrapped it around his neck like a scarf. He scoffed at a time when people didn’t think they needed a headphone cable. And imagined having nothing to twirl while listening to reinterpreted rock, nothing to wind around his fingers while he fed the processor. How many headphones must have been lost forever, just because they weren’t plugged in? Like everything else in pop culture, what went around came around, and, relatively recently, headphone cables had come back hard as the status symbol. Today, you didn’t just have to have a cable to be considered cool, you had to have the cable. It had to be thick as a rope, plated with rare metals, and covered in a fancy leather sheath from a chic brand like Gucci or Loewe.
Dee beamed as he thought of all the cool historical cultural knowledge he had amassed. Not just advertising history like the dweebs in the cubicles around him, but film history, fashion history, art history, music history. If it happened in culture, he knew about it. And he used it. That’s how he scored so high on the Originology meter. It made him feel almost like a real writer. Though he would never say that out loud. He imagined being like the old timers, upstairs. The un.ai.ded human writers, that clients would pay a serious premium for. Then he wouldn’t have to work on ketchup and toilet roll. He could have a crack at the big dogs, like Googlesoft, United American Airlines or DoritosLocosTacoBell. For now though, he’d have to stick with clients more becoming of his position. This morning’s task was to create a campaign for Pepsi-Crest. A toothpaste. Not super interesting. But he knew how to spice it up. Instead of letting his AI go back through decades of toothpaste ads just to pump out tired old crap like the It Cleans Your Face While it Cleans Your Teeth campaign that Mike Bey pitched last week, Dee mixed in a little fast food inspo from one of his favorite eras and found himself at the highly original and equally effective Where’s the Teeth? campaign. He was stunned by his own brilliance. He patted his processor and imagined it congratulating him back, then he programmed it to write an epic fifteen second anthem film and a suite of six second pre-roll spots, then sent it off to the CG department to render in time to air that night. Dee’s colleagues often asked him how he and his processor were so good at what they did. How their campaigns always scored so highly in both Effectology and Originology. They all used the same machine learning. It’s what the agency sold itself on. Never wanting to sound aloof; even though he was, or like he was tooting his own horn; even though he often did, he would merely say, “I like to pepper a bit of non advertising data in there. A little hint of me.” It was enough to provoke gasps and even make his colleagues take a step back or two, they had all been programmed to do just one task, feed the machine with advertising data. They couldn’t fathom diverging. “The AI should be enough,” was the general understanding. “The machine has better knowledge of advertising history than we do,” and “knows the ins and outs of Effectology better than we ever could.” It’s even been “scientifically programmed to exceed all expectation of Originology.” Dee couldn’t be swayed by any of the standard reactions. He would just smile, and casually amble off. Knowing full well he was beating the machine. He was a rebel in his own right. That afternoon, his section boss leaned over his cubicle. “Hullo Tara.” “Keep it formal please, colleague,” she scolded, “call me Antino. What do you look so ruddy chuffed about anyway?” “I just came up with a brilliant campaign for a very dull toothpaste. You’ll see it on The Comedy Central Reruns Channel tonight.” “Yes, well, an upstairs project is running behind and they’re calling on us down here to pull together some inspo decks, help jostle something loose in those tired old brains.” “Wouldn’t that make them not human-made? What are their clients paying all that money for?” “Loopholes, colleague, loopholes. As long as one of them humans writes the final line, it doesn’t matter how much AI they used to get there. “ “I could do that. I could do better than that. Did I tell you about my toothpaste campaign?” “Yes you did. Twice now. Must be good.” “It is.” “Well, here’s your chance for a peek into the real writer life. I’m deprioritizing your regular workload and prioritizing this inspo creation.” “Yeahhh!” Dee punched the air and freeze framed like he saw in an old movie. “The brief is for Fiat Maserati Jeep Dodge RAM. It’s a car. The Fiat Maserati Jeep Dodge RAM Unica. Like a fancy off-roader, you know what I mean? They wanna sell it to people in cities who don’t drive. More of a status symbol, you know what I mean? Like park it in front of your house so people will know you could go off-roading if you wanted to. Audience archetype is Moms. You getting this?” Dee finally broke his freeze frame but his mind was already whirring. “Yeah, I got it.” “Alright then. Bon chance.” Dee jumped into action, flipped up his AI processor’s screen and started cross referencing old Land Rover ads with The Rock movies, some Nora Ephron classics, Michelle Rodriguez’s character from all twenty eight Fast & Furious movies; even the fully CGI’d ones, the scene from Mrs Doubtfire when she’s playing the broomstick like a guitar, some Bikini Kill records, a memory of his own Mom making him wait in the car while she went shopping at Bergdorfs, a bunch of cool off-roading stuff from Top Gear and a painting of a car he’d always loved by Robert Bechtle. The machine spat out fifteen possible campaign inspo starters and Dee ran-walked them to the inspo courier in the office atrium. Before the day ended, a synthetic orchestra sounded through the building, \Pah pahhh, pah pa pah pa pah pahhh** and the employees were called into the atrium. Office meeting. As Dee strolled in, he caught the rare sight of the last few human copywriters lined up around the balcony above them. They applauded the downstairs employees, theatrically, motioning with their claps as they walked in and took seats, stood awkwardly or otherwise congregated.
There was a dramatic hush before one of the last true human copywriters finally spoke. “Great inspo. Thanks.” Wow. Each word, each letter, worth its weight in gold. That's probably why they used so few, thought Dee. “Yeah, really really good stuff.” Said another. “AI did this?” Said a third as she held the sheets of inspo out. “Some of the best inspo I’ve ever seen in all of my career.” Coughed the oldest and most regal sounding.
Dee squinted and peered up at them. Was that his inspo deck they were flashing around? Was this whole elaborate ceremony all to celebrate his AI operating? He didn’t know whether to be chuffed or anxious. Did they know he was cheating the system? Did they care? These are some of the last true human copywriters in history. They have, and are encouraged to have, the unique thought. Their work isn’t judged on how similar-without-being-exactly-the-same it is to existing campaigns. It’s judged on how different, how breakthrough, how stand out it is.
“It was me!” Dee blurted out. Quite uncharacteristically. He was usually so cool with the compliments. So coy with the recognition. His whole angle required it.
The other AI operators standing around him took their requisite step back, though this time it was less in awe, more in disgust. The air in the room stiffened. AI had ruled his department, and most of the industry, for so long that people didn’t speak up anymore. They just quietly fed the machine. And the machine took all the glory. Dee felt instant ostracism from the colleagues he had worked alongside for most of his career. He immediately questioned his outburst and retracted his ownership claim, knowing that his inspo deck would have been one of many.
“Some of it, at least. My AI, I mean. Processor.” He said. Sheepish this time. Back in his place.
The last few human copywriters smiled, nodded, bowed, gave final congratulations to all from high up on their balcony and then shuffled away in single file. All but one, Sir Coughing-Most-Regal. He slowly made his way down the grand staircase, into the atrium. A man leaving behind his usual pomp and circumstance, bringing his rare ability of unique thought into a crowd of imitation suppliers. As he reached the bottom step, he lost all of his royal air and seemed suddenly so vulnerable, walking among the regular folk. Most of Dee’s colleagues had already left, gone back to their metal masters, but Dee stayed. He knew this old man was coming to see him. He thought he might be in for a dressing down but he hoped it would be the opposite. He manifested that this titan of singular thought, the rare, unique idea, was coming to congratulate him.
“Freedkin.” The old man shoved out his hand. “Pleasure.” Dee shook it. “You say you programmed this inspo deck, yes?” He flapped the pages around. “Yes.” “Ruddy good work, let me tell you.” “Thank you.” “In all my years, since this artificial thinking thing came in, I’ve never read anything so good. Inspired me all over. I’ve been positively bursting with ideas since.” “Thank… you.” “AI wrote this you say?” “Yes.” “Ruddy good for AI. Never read anything so ruddy good. And you processed it?” “Yes.” “What’s your name son?” “Dee.” “Dee what?” “Palmer.” “Pleasure to meet you, Palmer. How much did you… influence it, the AI?” “How do you mean, sir?” “Call me Freedkin.” “How do you mean, Freedkin?” “I mean… how much of it is yours and how much is the machine’s?” Dee didn’t answer. He was looking for the angle. This old man surely didn’t value what AI does. He’s one of the last bastions of actual human creation. What was he getting at? Freedkin reoriented his question. “Mostly the machine or mostly you?” Dee thought he might have a kindred spirit here, in front of him, for the first time. He was going to take a risk. Recognizing a willingness to open up, Freedkin leaned in and spoke quietly. “Did you write this inspo or did the machine?” “I wrote it.” Dee postured. “All.” “Thought so. Good job. Our secret.” Freedkin winked. “Jolly good.” The next day, as he fed his AI little snippets of unexpected data, Dee noticed a hush come over his floor. The usual keyboard click, clack and grumble of inter-colleague banter were dead silent. All that was left was the processors’ harmonic hum. He lifted himself from his expensive ergonomic office chair and peered over his cubicle wall, spying across the sea of operators that made up the AI.ded Creativity department. A hunched figure at the opposite end of the bullpen sauntered from operator to operator, swilling a cup of coffee, looking in at each workstation. Giving a “hello” here, a nod there, even the odd salute. It was Freedkin. A real writer. Down here with the machine feeders. The other operators seemed afraid to go near him. Worried they might infect him with their inability. Dee had never seen a real writer in the operators’ bullpen. Freedkin, already old by industry standards, looked positively ancient in these surroundings. A sepia photograph in a technicolor world. Dee watched him, wondering if he should call out. He felt bound by social etiquette to not foist another outburst onto his peers. So he just watched, for a number of minutes, until Freedkin was close enough that his old eyes could make out Dee’s visage.
“Palmer!” Bingo. The two sat in Dee’s cubicle. Freedkin in the expensive office chair, as was fitting, and Dee on the wooden footstool. “For a short time we all worked from home. At the start of my career. For a short time.” “Everyone?” “Most. Not everyone, I suppose. But it was the thing to do. Was deemed more productive. Until it wasn’t. Then when this thing became the norm,” he tapped on Dee’s tiny AI processor, its red light glowed, “there was a sort of an office renaissance. I remember the bigwigs back then didn’t really want us using AI for ideas. Like it was giving in to the machine. We slowly got called back to the agency so they could keep an eye on our output. Keep it human, I suppose. That’s when the separation happened. In the end, the agency had to start using artificial thinking to keep up with demand. What are you lot churning out these days? Three campaigns a day? Four? We used to get a whole week to come up with one idea. After a while, of course, it got squeezed down to a couple of days. To the point where we needed the machine to keep up. Not long after, the bigwigs realized they could actually charge more off of the ‘human’ written stuff. Anyway, enough of the history lesson, what.” “It’s very interesting.” “Yes well, what I really came down here for,” Freedkin paused and looked around, “was some of that… good… inspo.” “I hear ya.” Dee poised his fingers over his keyboard and looked into the air like he was about to write something un.ai.ded, cocksure in his posture. “What’s this one about then?” “Watches. For Googlesoft. ‘Time,’ I was thinking, means so much, yet so little. Where does it all go? You know? How do we make more of it? Watches are time machines. See?” Dee’s posture sank. He thought of all that, by himself? No machine? He suddenly felt very ineffective. Unoriginal. He saw only the red glow from his little AI processor, staring back at him. Taking all the credit. He imagined it laughing with his colleagues in a bar while he sat at the other end of the table, ignored. He imagined it accepting awards by itself. He felt weak. He felt useless without it. It just glowed. “It kind of flows better… when I’m alone.” Dee nervously mumbled. “Right. Don’t say another word. Right you are. ‘Time.’ Remember. Where does it all go? Ok, I go. Ta-ta for now.
Dee looked down at his processor, apologetically. He quietly admonished himself before it until he felt forgiven. Then he typed in a weak initial prompt, all he could muster, write an advertising campaign about time.
The AI spat back a perfectly crafted campaign idea, line and film execution almost faster than Dee hit enter. The Best Things Come To Bros Who Wait. Dee immediately recognized it as a Guinness Surfers imitation. Tick followed tock followed tick followed tock. Its Effectology score clocked in well into the nineties. But its Originology score barely scraped by, just making it into ‘passable.’ Dee silently sneered at his surrounding coworkers. Any one of them would submit this as is and call it a day. It’d be rendered in minutes, deals made with celebrities’ CG likenesses under the hour, a revered AI voiceover and stunning synthetic music that would leave audiences lining up for these passively useful timepieces. But that wasn’t enough for Dee. That’s why he was who he was, goddamnit. Why Freedkin came to him. Him! Not Buton or Deytoro or Heckering. Him!
He added more detail to his prompt. Meaning of time. How to get time back. Time Machine. Back in time. Michael J Fox. Einstein (dog). Time Bandits. Timecop. Van Damme. Kyle Reece. Time displacement. Uhhh huhhh this felt good again. This was working. Dee and his processor were back in sync. As though they were one. Of course, as far as Freedkin knew, they were one. As Dee typed away, he imagined him and his AI coming together. Two heads. Better than one. He lost himself in his prompting and pictured his processor sitting on his shoulder, a second head, right there, next to his own. A tiny, metal appendage. Sleek, gray, with its glowing red light. And, for some reason, it was growing a little mustache. Dee and the mustached machine were completely lost in their work over the next few days. They hardly wrote any of their own campaigns. It was all inspo, inspo, inspo for Freedkin. The good stuff though, Viking Space Cruises, 1900 Tequila, Acne Studios. Each time, Dee and his processor were pretty much writing the entire thing. Freedkin hardly needed to change them at all. Just put his old world tone all over it. Add all of his extra words and ‘personality.’ Dee’s two heads were coming up with the best campaigns in the agency. And no one knew it. Except Freedkin. By now, his second head felt almost as big as his first. He could see it in his periphery. When he looked to the left, it looked back at him. It smiled sometimes. And that little freaking mustache was starting to freak Dee out. That night, Freedkin invited Dee for a couple of drinks with the other real human writers at the fanciest DoritosLocosTacoBell on the Westside. They didn’t even have to wait in line. Dee marveled at the size of the place, the expansiveness. It was packed. They were led through by the greeter to a private table at the back with a leather rope around it. He sat on the edge of the booth as the others ordered various flavors of Gatorade-aritas. When it got to Dee, he said he would have the same as Freedkin, which turned out to be a Frost Glacier Cherry-arita, the classiest -arita of all.
The writers’ conversation was mesmerizing. Every word that came out of their mouths was a unique thought. An opinion. A point of view. Dee tried to join in by recounting the narrative of various movies he had seen. The more obscure the better, attempting to interact at their level. While telling the story of Mick Jackson’s Threads to Bigelo, he could feel her searching for a point of view or an opinion in what he was saying, but he couldn’t stir one. If only he had his processor right now. Its red light glowed comfortingly in his mind. He missed it. Slowly, the other writers left. Dee couldn’t help but think he had something to do with it. He was feeling so inadequate by the time everyone but Freedkin had gone that he just sat quietly and half-smiled at him. Both of them were five or six Gatorade-aritas deep, slumped in their private booth. “Do you like what you do?” Asked Freedkin. “I love it.” “Do you really?” “I don’t know.” “I hate what I do. But I’m good at it. Do you want to know the secret, Palmer? The secret to what we do?” Dee couldn’t do anything but smile a little bigger to communicate his response. Freedkin paused for dramatic effect. “If you love advertising, you shouldn’t work in advertising.” Did Dee love advertising? He didn’t even know. He knew he knew advertising. “You think your audience loves advertising? You think they want to see your tribute to that Googlesoft spot that was an imitation of an Apple spot that was inspired by a Brett Morgen film? No! They just want to see the Brett Morgen film! They don’t want to see your thing at all!” Dee slumped further down. “But if you’re lucky,” Freedkin continued, “if you’re really lucky, and you show them something they’ve never seen before, because you hate advertising too and you just wanted to make something that made you feel something, if they feel that same feeling, you’ve got gold. But you can only get to gold by summoning all of your experiences outside of advertising. You can’t just try to make the Nike of pimple commercials. You have to make the Palmer of pimple commercials. Do you see? That’s the problem with your AI. Your machine.”
The red light flashed again in Dee’s mind. Awakened by Freedkin’s heresy.
“The best AI will ever do is just show you a better version of something you’ve seen before. They call that effective? The numbers can say whatever they want them to, all they’re really doing is pasting wallpaper on top of wallpaper on top of wallpaper. Until eventually the audience ignores it completely. But you’re different Palmer. You and I are different. Different is what sells. I had a word with Simmons up on six. She’s agreed to give you a trial period on the human floor. At my behest. Don’t worry, I didn’t tell her you were already thinking for yourself. I just told her you had the potential to. You start tomorrow. Trial period. Tonight was about the other humans meeting you. I can’t tell you that they’re not skeptical. But they’re open to it. For me. What do you think?” Dee was nervous. He got off the elevator at the operators’ bullpen without even thinking about it. He walked all the way to the atrium and up the grand staircase to the human writers’ floor, instead of getting back on the elevator. He took each step steadily, taking it all in. He felt like a tourist. Like he was borrowing an identity. He imagined he was a young Freedkin and tried to put a confident stride in his step. It didn’t work. He put his hand in his pocket and felt for his AI processor. His second head. Mustached. He couldn’t turn it on because, as everyone knew, AI wasn’t allowed upstairs, in case the agency got audited. The cost consultants would be all over a human writing department that used artificial ideation. They’d be shut down. At the very least, they would lose their Un.AI.ded AI.dvertising license. The only reason for charging such a premium. Dee ran his hand along the balcony rail. He’d only ever seen it from downstairs, from the non-human thinkers’ floor. He walked from the balcony to the human writer’s work area. It was the exact opposite of what he was used to. No sea of cubicles. No click clack. No mechanized productivity. No hum. Just couches, writing desks and quiet.
“Morning.” Whistled Freedkin. “How are we?” “We?” “You.” “Wish I hadn’t drunk so much.” “Ohh, I know. Think of it as an initiation. Nothing wrong with it. Takes your mind off the job. Stops you from thinking for a minute. You need that after everything you’ve been pumping out. All that gold, that is.” “Right.” “Right. Well. Set yourself up wherever you like. First brief is for Coca-Cola. A new water! The freshest water they’ve ever sold, so they say. Tap Clear” Dee wandered over to a small writing desk and put his touchscreen down. He unraveled his headphone cable and felt for his processor in his pocket. When he found it, he rubbed it like a lamp, wishing for a genie. A couple of human writers who’d been deep in concentration when he first walked in, had been disturbed by his arrival. He didn’t recognize them from last night. They glared at him as he set himself up. He smiled in their general direction. They continued to glare. “Big Jim.” Whispered Freedkin. “Him and his team have been here three days straight, on a pitch. Don’t worry about them. They’re just under tremendous stress. This human work really takes it out of you, you know? ” Dee turned and sat with his back to them. He powered up his touchscreen and put his headphones on, draping his Loewe headphone cable around his neck and shoulders. He hovered his fingers over his keyboard, expecting ideas to come. Nothing. He skimmed the brief. Still nothing. He read the brief. Not a thing. A few of the other writers strolled in. Dee watched them find a workspace, sit down, start writing. One of them even used a pen! Dee loved this whole lifestyle. Turn up for work whenever, spout genius, have lunch, sell some billion dollar ideas, have a cocktail. The thought of it all spurred him on. He hovered his fingers over his keyboard again and braced himself for the idea flow. Nothing came. Nothing. All morning. His mind was blank. It felt like it was getting blanker. He couldn’t believe it. Even half thoughts were swimming away from him. Impossible to catch. Even just individual words. Gone. By the afternoon Dee was starting to freak out. He felt like an imposter. “Freedkin,” he hissed, “I can’t think. I can’t come up with anything.” “It takes time, my boy. Days. I told you, before we used to even have weeks…” “But my brain’s not working at all. It won’t… generate… anything.” “Relax your brain. Relax yourself.” “But Freedkin… Freedkin,” he hissed again, “I didn’t write any of that stuff. It was AI. All of it. No… I mean… I helped… but it wasn’t all me.” “Ok… hold on… boy… be careful. That kind of talk will get you killed around here. Try and make it to the end of the day. Try just writing some things down. Some thoughts. Some words. And if you still feel the same tomorrow, I’ll let the brass know it wasn’t for you. No harm.” Dee’s eyes hardened. “Do you hear me, Palmer?” Dee rubbed his temples. “Listen, this affects both of us. Yes, you, but also me… for recommending you. I’ll be out… Think!” Freedkin distanced himself. Hoping it would quell the panic. Dee stared at nothing for as long as he could. An hour, at most. Just stared. No thoughts came. No words. A blank screen. So he slipped his hand in his pocket, held his AI processor warmly, and turned it on. Instantly, an alarm sounded. “What's going on here, Freedkin?” Skewered Big Jim. “Is this your kid? What’s the big idea? Is he working for the machines? What is he…trying to infiltrate us? I can’t have this. I’ve got a family. I can’t be out of a job.” “It’s just a misunderstanding, Jim. He’ll be leaving now.” “No he won’t. Get back here, kid.” Big Jim grabbed at Dee’s shirt. Dee squirmed and tried to push him away. Big Jim got a hand on his neck instead, as some of the other writers tried to grab his arms. Dee instinctively swung his fists around. He got one of the writers, Bigelo, square in the eye. She roared “He’s blinded me!” Big Jim picked him up by his neck. Dee choked. He grabbed his touchscreen and swung it. The edge caught Big Jim on the side of the head. Big Jim dropped him and screamed. Freedkin put a hand on Big Jim’s shoulder. Big Jim swung his fist around and slammed it into Freedkin’s nose. Dee tried to slip away but Big Jim, raging, grabbed his headphone cable and dragged him back, winding the cable around his neck to try and hold on to him with it. The other writers stepped back as Dee kicked around in a panic. He got one of the writers in the stomach and another in the back. The headphone cable slipped out of Big Jim’s hands. Dee reached out for anything he could grab onto. He found a desk leg and pulled himself away from the melee as the gang of writers got him by his feet. They pulled off his Jordans and he crawled away as fast as he could, out of the writers’ area and onto the balcony. The writers caught up with him. He swung the few punches he could muster. He cracked one writer on the cheekbone as another reached for his headphone cable, wrapping it around the balcony rail to stop him from getting even further away. Big Jim steamed in, bleeding from his head, and slammed into Dee, launching him into the air with his sheer force. Dee reached for the rail but it slipped under him as he toppled over into the open atrium, between the floors. He felt a snap as the headphone cable went taut around his neck. A colleague standing in the atrium shrieked. Dee kicked his legs and wriggled about, trying to slip out. He clawed his hands around the cable and tried to loosen it but it just got tighter and tighter. He looked up to see the human writers peering down. Not helping. He could feel his consciousness slipping away. He looked to his left to see his second head staring straight back at him. As he hung, he could feel the metal head growing, exponentially, until it popped off, hit the ground and shattered. Shiny gray liquid metal spilled all over the floor and splashed up the walls. Its red light glowing all over as the metal spread around the room. Once it had flooded the entire atrium it enveloped Dee’s mind. And he was gone. The agency left his body hanging there for two days. They blamed it on a lack of janitorial availability. Everything in the office was automated, and cutting down a dead body wasn’t something their sanitation robots had been programmed to do. But, deep down, everyone knew that it was a message. That they should stay in the roles they had been assigned. So they did. So they wouldn’t end up like Dee.

Demographics
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Asian
Residence: Texas
Income Bracket: Upper middle class
Type of School: Large, relatively non-competitive high school. Sends 2-5 kids to Ivies each year (out of 1000+ students).
Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): None
Intended Major(s): Business/econ as first choice, environmental science/engineering/policy as second choice where available
Academics
GPA (UW/W): 4.0 UW. 5.6ish Weighted
Rank (or percentile): 1/1000+ students
# of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 16 AP courses.
Senior Year Course Load: AP bio, AP Calc BC, AP Euro, AP Lit, AP Macro, AP Gov, Public speaking/debate course, AP Psych, APES
Standardized Testing
SAT: 1560 (780RW, 780M)
ACT: 35
AP/IB: All 5s except one 4 and one 3 in Covid year
Extracurriculars/Activities
#1 Taking care of ill sibling for several years, 10 hours weekly, all 4 years
#2 Paid internship over summer working on ESG/data science, 40 hours/week, 2 years
#3 President and founder of cultural org at school, 2 years
#4 Vice president of school DECA chapter, 4 years
#5 President/treasurer of school honor society, 3 years
#6 Captain of humanities academic competition team, 2 years (we were never good enough to make it past regionals as a team)
#7 Volunteering with local food bank, led a several-thousand dollar donation drive
#8 Volunteering with local cancer prevention charity
#9 Working at fast food restaurant throughout pandemic as shift lead, 2 years
#10 Relatively selective local leadership org with city government
Awards/Honors
#1 1st at national business competition (DECA)
#2 Admitted to and participated in selective, all-expenses-paid, summer business program at a T20
#3 National competitor 1x and state competitor 4x for DECA
#4 Qualified for state 4x for another business competition (FBLA)
#5 Won regions 1x for previously mentioned humanities competition
Letters of Recommendation
Internship manager - 8/10, knew me fairly well, and I think it gave my business app a unique edge because I already had real corporate experience
History teacher - 7/10, known for writing good rec letters, but he probably writes 30-50 each year so I doubt mine was that incredible
Club sponsor - 4/10, knew me decently, but probably not the strongest writer
Languages teacher - 6/10, probably decent, but coming from a large public school probably meant the rec letters were overall not as strong as private feeder letters
Counselor - 5/10, explained my family situation, but overall probably very generic
Interviews
Georgetown, Yale: Felt like I connected on a personal level with both of my interviewers. Neither of us seemed to want to end the conversation, and I think I left an overall very positive impression while expressing my true self. 9/10
Dartmouth, Duke, Harvard: All in one week, back to back, so it was stressful. However, the constant practice made it so that these were all pretty good. 7/10
UPenn ED: First interview so I was really nervous, but he kind of dominated and guided the conversation. Overall did decent. 7/10
UT Austin Business Honors, MIT, Rice: Plain old generic college interviews. 5/10
Princeton: Was my first in-person interview, so I was super nervous. Lasted only 20 minutes, and I really felt like I put on a fake personality that def hurt my chances. 1/10
Essays
Personal statement - 6/10. Generic essay about how a generic hobby taught me to learn from others. Spent maybe 8-10 hours on it? Really felt nervous about this tanking my application because a few friends said it was really really bad (not to be mean, they were genuinely trying to help). However, this was cancelled out by a few adults and college students saying it was really good, so idk. Overall was probably decent, and appealed to more serious readers.
Supplementals: A majority were good, probably around 7-8/10. A few were super cringe looking back, so like 3/10, while a couple were genuinely 10/10. Even got a note from my Stanford AO saying she loved my essays. Lots of research and time put into the "Why Us?" essays. Took a huge risk on my why major essay, and it ended up leading to mixed results. The community essay was probably my weakest, while the essays in which I got to explain my family situation, express my passion for econ, and the 50ish-word short responses were my best. As a whole, I think my supplements and how I approached them through expressing my personality and passions rather than flexing my accomplishments really helped me stand out.
Just a note on the essays: the amount of time you spend on an essay has no correlation to how good it is. It's perfectly fine to finish one quickly and use a first or second draft. Some of my best essays were written like this when I was just in a good mood and trying to finish quickly to go hang out - while the ones I grinded on for days (looking at you Princeton) ended up being fake and cringey.
​
Decisions:
Acceptances:
UPenn Wharton ED Deferral - Acceptance
UMich Ross EA
IU Kelley EA
UT Austin Business Honors EA
Texas A&M EA
Stanford RD (committed!!)
Dartmouth RD
Carnegie Mellon Tepper RD
Vanderbilt RD
Notre Dame RD
Georgetown McDonough RD
Rice Business School RD
Waitlists:
Harvard RD -- waitlisted then rejected
Cornell RD - opted out
Columbia RD - opted out
Brown RD - opted out
Duke RD - opted out
Rejections:
MIT RD
Princeton RD
Yale RD
NYU Stern RD
Additional Information/final reflections:
I think the biggest, biggest thing that I regret, and am still trying to overcome, is the glorification of Ivy students. What I mean by this is the echo chamber prevalent on this sub, and A2C and even among the students I met at the various competitions I participated in, that believes that anyone who gets into a school like Harvard or Stanford or any Ivy for that matter is somehow smarter or better than kids who get rejected. This belief led me to believe that only those with super stacked god-tier resumes get in, leading me to be completely shocked by my results. Looking back, even though I'm not a perfect applicant, I should've been a lot more confident and realized that I was definitely "average" for an Ivy applicant. I have a deleted post on an alt asking where I'd get in, and most people said Kelley and Ross at best. I think people as a whole need to realize that although college admissions is super selective and complete BS, the reason you won't get in is NOT because you didn't do enough, or because your resume is weak - it's because of factors like luck and institutional priorities. If I applied again, I could see myself getting into Harvard and Stanford again, or ending up at A&M or UT. It's literally all luck once you're past a certain point. I hope all applicants in the future are more optimistic (without being unrealistic), while taking the admissions process a little more lightheartedly.
​
One final thing: if you're a prestige whore. Stop it now. It never ends. This is going to sound so fucking dumb, but until like last week, while I was waiting for Harvard waitlist results to come out, I genuinely had the thought that I wasn't "good enough" because I got into Stanford and not Harvard. WTF. I can't believe I genuinely thought something like that. Objectively I know it's false because I can see people on this sub with similar applications to me get into Harvard and not Stanford, and even without that, it's just so dumb to place my value on an admissions decision. I've really sat and thought about it for a while, and I think being a prestige whore comes from a mix of needing validation and also feeling insecure. I've been working towards addressing both, and hope in the future I won't give a shit what people think and will stop being in my own head.
Anyways, sorry for the rambling at the end of this post! Good luck to the class of 2024 and all future classes applying! I hope everything works out amazing for you all, and dm or comment if you have any questions. Hopefully this post helped just a little.

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Good afternoon party people.
As a reminder, I will be going on vacation starting tomorrow. I will be gone and away from my computer and duties, so tomorrow's chapter is coming today.
There will not be a chapter Monday, June 5th. I'm uncertain if I will post at all during the week of June 5th. It all depends on when I get back and how I feel after a long plane flight.
Regardless of what I do, we will return to our regularly scheduled posting starting June 12th.
I'll miss you all, and I hope you all have a wonderful week. And for those of you in the state, I hope you enjoy having Monday off.
And for those of you who just can't wait...well...buy me a drink and get some chapters on Ko-Fi >:)
---
Kaladin Shadowheart’s POV
I finished buttoning the top button on Mila’s coat and stepped back to appreciate just how well it matched her school uniform. I had to say. I had done a great job without even meaning to.
She looked positively adorable in all red with her little hat. Even her ears poked out from the top, and now that her hair had grown more, it really helped fill her face out. She looked up at me with piercing blue eyes and an expectant look. I couldn’t help but chuckle and pat her on the head.
“You are too cute for your own good,” I told her.
A smile bloomed on her face, and she hugged the hand patting her. “Daddy is even prettier!”
Prettier, huh? Should I be happy that I’m pretty? I think I should. Better to be a pretty daddy than an ugly one, I guess.
“Are we ready to go?” I asked the person standing in the doorway with a smile on her face.
Mila ran over and hugged Sylvia. “Sylvia is pretty too!”
Sylvia stroked Mila’s hair, and her smile brightened even more. “Thank you, Mila,” she said softly. “Let’s go, shall we? We don’t want to be late for our first day of class.”
Today was the first day of school, so we were all dressed up in our school uniforms. It had been a long time since I donned the red and gold jacket of Forward University, not since I had reunited with my family. In that amount of time, I had missed a lot of school as well as essential tests and such.
It was a shame, but to be honest, I didn’t exactly need to attend classes, nor did I need to graduate. As far as I was concerned, my family came first, and I fully intended to accept whatever consequences came my way, even if that meant expulsion from the university.
However, that never came to pass as Bowen explained that all was well. Students missing class for important reasons was common enough and wouldn’t negatively reflect on them if they had sufficient proof and explanation. But that meant I had to make up all those tests, which was a hassle and something I didn’t want to do.
In the end, Bowen suggested that I simply take the tests I missed. If I passed them, then there was nothing to worry about, and I could continue with my studies as if nothing had happened. Apparently, Forward University did offer advanced placement tests in specific scenarios. After all, it would be useless to have a student take a class they didn’t actually need.
Either way, I’m not looking forward to it, even if I can pass the tests with ease.
“Hey, what is Professor Garrison doing here?” Sylvia asked as we made our way down the stairs.
Professor Garrison was at the front door, talking with my parents. He looked apologetic as he lowered his head after speaking a few times. Our eyes met, and he gave me a quick nod of greeting as well. Come to think of it. I hadn’t parted ways with him amicably the last time we met.
I didn’t mean to do that to him. Professor Garrison had always been good to me, and I appreciated him as a person, friend, and mentor. But at the time, I couldn’t let him threaten my family like that. I had my priorities, and I wasn’t afraid to handle those who wanted to threaten my family, even if they were friends.
“Good morning, Professor,” I said with a friendly nod.
“Good morning, Kaladin, Sylvia, and Mila. I’m sorry to bother you before classes, but I thought it would be best to do this now…I should have come sooner, though,” he said, regret laced in his voice.
I looked at my mother, and she just smiled softly and tilted her chin down. I figured they must have already talked and apologized. If Mom and Dad weren’t mad, then neither was I. Besides, I understood where he came from. It would be hard just to let the person who killed your comrades walk around, even if it was years ago.
“I’m sorry for my outburst in class at that time. I shouldn’t have acted so harshly toward you or your mother. And I definitely shouldn't have drawn my weapon. I’m sorry, Kaladin,” Professor Garrison said with a bow.
I patted the man on the shoulder and just smiled at him. “No need to worry. It appears that everything has already been forgotten and forgiven. And I never harbored any ill will toward you, even after that event,” I told him.
Professor Garrison slowly looked up at me. His green eyes were wide behind his glasses, and his eyebrows were high on his face. He looked genuinely shocked at something.
“Is something the matter? Is there something on my face?” I asked as I wiped at my cheeks.
Professor Garrison shook his head like he was clearing his thoughts with force. “No, no, not at all. I was just a little surprised, that's all.” Then he started laughing, and he even grinned. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen or talked to you, Kaladin. You seem like a completely different person now. No, maybe I should say you’ve finally grown up? No…that’s not quite right either…huh,” he mused with a shrug.
“Hopefully, in a good way?” I asked.
“Yeah…definitely in a good way.” His eyes turned to Sylvia, and he raised an eyebrow. “In a good way?”
“In the best way,” she told him.
Is that so? I think I’ve changed a little, hopefully for the best. If I got any worse, things would probably get ugly fast.
Professor Garrison nodded to himself in satisfaction and then chuckled. “Alright, you three, get to class. I'm going to stay here and talk to your parents for a bit. I might be a little late, so let everyone know for me.”
“Yes, Professor,” I said with a grin.
Mila and Sylvia said their goodbyes and see you laters, and we made our way outside. Forward University was buzzing with energy today as students and staff walked around campus. Even in the early morning hours, the place was truly alive for the first time in months.
We walked through the teacher and staff homes until we reached the main pathway. There were so many students out and about the walkways were actually shoulder-to-shoulder. But as we approached a four-way intersection, there was suddenly a massive traffic congestion of bodies.
Everyone was oohing and awwing as they talked amongst themselves. I followed their eyes and looked up at the giant statue that had been erected in the last few weeks in the new park that had been built. I didn’t pay much attention to it because, frankly, I didn’t care…but now I wish I did.
I gawked at the black marble statue in embarrassment. It depicted what could only be described as me, wearing fancy armor and driving a spear into a Dragon’s skull while I sat atop it triumphantly.
Never in my life had I expected to see me…like that. That’s not even how events played out. My spear never went into the Dragon’s head, and I never stood tall over it. The last time I checked, I was dying while being crushed inside of a rock face.
I really hope there are no statues of me anywhere else…
“Sylvia…remember when I asked if you knew what was going on here…did you lie?” I asked in disbelief.
Sylvia giggled to herself as she looked up at the statute. “I did, sort of. I never imagined it would be taller than the trees.” She tilted her head to the side to look at me. “I think they did a fantastic job. They really caught your general vibe and got your face almost perfect. I probably would have made you a little more handsome, though…maybe make your hair a bit longer.”
I sighed deeply. It was true. Whoever sculpted my face had done a good job at replicating it, which was better than them screwing up and making me look like a fool or too much like some fantasy hero. At least they didn’t have me yelling to the heavens or grinning like a fool. The expression was best described as stoic, which was appropriate considering the event and the number of people that had lost their lives.
“Wow…Big Daddy,” Mila mumbled to herself.
“Please don’t say that out loud, Mila,” I begged.
Then it started.
“Hey, is that him?”
“It is him, right?”
“Yeah, that’s Voker—”
“No, that’s Kaladin, you idiot.”
From there, the voices picked up exponentially, turning into a single block of loud noise. I felt all the eyes in the general vicinity flick toward me as the information of my arrival spread through the crowd. It didn’t help that I was taller than the average person which meant it was easy to spot me in a group.
“Let’s just keep walking,” I muttered.
Thankfully the crowd of onlookers did not impede our walking. They even parted to the sides to let us through, which was both good and bad for various reasons. Mila tightened her grip on my hand, most likely nervous at all the attention she was getting.
Instead of just leaving her be, I picked her up, and she instantly held onto me tightly. I personally didn’t care about fame or the attention. People have gawked at me for as long as I can remember in both of my lives, so this was nothing new. However, it clearly upset Mila, who only had bad memories of large crowds staring at her.
Sylvia and I hastened our pace to class, leaving the onlookers behind us.
—
“Wow, he actually came to class for once. It’s a miracle,” snickered Varnir.
“Indeed, it has been some time since we have all been together, has it not?” Sylas said thoughtfully.
“I suppose it has been a long time since all of us have been in class at the same time. Even Jen is back with us,” Ren said with a warm smile.
I almost forgot what it was like to be in this class…it’s good to see everyone is happy and healthy again.
Jen had put back on some healthy weight and looked far better than she had during winter. Some color had returned to her face and hair, and she smiled as she sat next to Tsarra. It was also nice to see that Tsarra wasn’t hiding under one of her spells. Perhaps Jen and Varnir would slowly whittle down her shell.
There was a solid thump as Professor Garrison dropped a stack of papers on his desk. He stared out at us, and the entire class went silent. The Professor let out a deep breath and walked to the front podium.
“It’s good to be back, everyone. I hope all of you had a wonderful, rest-filled winter break with your friends and family. I also hope that you did some studying,” he joked with a grin.
A few students groaned in annoyance, but Professor Garrison continued with his trademark smile. “So…we have much to talk about today. As you all know, today is the first day of classes despite there being no lecture. So for that, I welcome all of you to your final year here at Forward University and congratulate you all for being in Class Onward. As your teacher, I am proud of every single one of you for the trials you have overcome this previous year. We all know just how difficult of a year it was…”
The Professor trailed off for a moment before heading to the chalkboard and writing down a name. “As you all have heard, the tournament with Sandervile is being hosted in Luminar this year, which means we are going to be incredibly busy these next few months with training. Of course, those of you who have no intentions of competing will not be forced, but those of you who are interested will have to compete in the school’s preliminaries to be selected, as is tradition.”
That applies to everyone but me. As the sole person who received a golden ticket so to speak, I’m exempt from this preliminary, which is nice.
Professor Garrison pointed at the name on the board. “I’m sure you are already aware of all this. His and Her Majesty have changed this year's venue to the coastal city of Flumare. I’m sure this came as a surprise to many of you, and rest assured. It was a surprise to us as well. We only learned of this change around the same time I’m sure most of you did, especially with the addition of Saber Academy and with Tel’an’duth joining us this year. And I’m here to say that for contestants who qualify, nothing will change. The school will house, feed, and equip you free of charge, as they have done every year. For the students who are interested in traveling to the venue, the school is offering free tickets as well as free passage to the city. However, lodging is another matter that has still yet to be resolved. I’ll release the information as I get it but don’t worry too much. I'm sure we will figure something out.”
A few students whispered amongst themselves. But what the professor had said was true. For the first time ever, Tel’an’duth was sending students to the tournament, which was as historical as it sounded since this entire tournament was devised to raise and nurture students to fight against Tel’an’duth.
But now the times are changing. And Queen Maxwell was making her moves.
The professor moved to his desk and grabbed a giant scroll. He unraveled it and laid it across the board for all to see. “Now, this is probably what most of you have been waiting for, our new student standings.”
He gave us a few moments to look over the list. In all honesty, there wasn’t too much of a drastic change overall. However, the top five students had changed significantly, and everyone else sort of moved to reflect that change, staying within one or two spots of their previous ranks.
It was also nice to see that Jen had actually stayed the exact same. It was probably due to the Dragon incident keeping her out of school for so long. If she were to be punished for that, it would have been a heartbreaking penalty.
But…there was a new number one on the board…which I didn’t think was necessary.
“I’m sure that there are very few of you who have complaints about the new number one student. Honestly, giving reasons as to why he shouldn’t be number one would be hard. Well, maybe besides his constant absences,” Professor Garrison said with a grin as he winked at me. “Academically, Kaladin has achieved top marks since his arrival last year, only ever stumbling in his Beastmen language studies. And as for his merits outside of the class and in physical examinations, what else is there to say? Please, everyone, give a clap for our new number one student.”
The class erupted into claps and a few cheers as everyone turned to me. It was a relief to see that people weren’t in an uproar over it. Which I thought would happen since I had missed so much school. But perhaps I had just become too much of a figure to be denied that spot.
I even looked at Lin, and she just winked at me. She had no qualms about relinquishing the position she had maintained all these years. However, I did feel somewhat bad for dethroning her.
“Daddy is number one!” Mila said as she sat up in my lap and hugged me.
Well, this isn’t so bad.
“Now, now, then. We will go over the top five as it has changed the most. Linnetia Paine, although you are now second, I hope you are not discouraged in the slightest,” he said as he eyed Lin.
Lin bowed her head graciously. “Being second to the Dragonslayer is hardly a downgrade. On the contrary, perhaps it’s even more of an upgrade. I have no problems with my ranking, and I am more than happy to congratulate Kaladin,” she said, her voice kind yet firm.
As expected of the next head of the Paine family. I almost forgot that Lin was a noble now.
Everyone clapped at that, and Professor Garrison continued. “Congratulations to Arene Maxwell for successfully holding onto the third-ranked position. In such chaotic times, I believe that shows just how much you have grown.”
Ren bowed her head while everyone clapped for her. “Now, to our new fourth-placed student, Tsarra Tel’an’duth, congratulations on your new ranking. You have by far improved the most out of any previous student. Even though you were not officially recognized for your act of bravery against the Dragon, the school has decided to do this much for a hero. You have also shown incredible growth in your magic, officially reaching the mage rank of Grandmaster. And as to be expected of a princess, your academics are outstanding, and the school has even published your book on illusion magic.”
The room erupted into clapping once more, and I watched Sylvia put a hand to her chin. “She wrote a book? That’s impressive,” Sylvia muttered quietly to herself.
“Is it that surprising? I think she is more than capable of that,” I told her.
“I guess we have two very different images of her then,” Sylvia whispered.
Tsarra, at first glance, seemed to be a shy, introverted girl. And that was because she was. Although she had changed steadily since I met her, her nature was still much the same. However, she became a completely different person when it came to reading books.
And it turned out it wasn’t only reading books she was passionate about but writing them too.
I turned in my seat and clapped for her, but Tsarra looked about ready to explode. Her face was redder than her hair from all the attention. I was afraid she would burst a blood vessel with how hard she clenched her jaw.
Well, some things change. And some things don’t.
“And, of course, another congratulations is in order to our new fifth-ranked student, Varnir Shadowstone. Varnir, you are easily the second most improved student in Class Onward, only falling short of Tsarra slightly in academics, which you have improved greatly in and in outside achievements. However, your prowess in your physical testing has improved dramatically. Once again, congratulations, Varnir,” Professor said, his voice full of praise.
“Hey, look at that! I almost caught up to you,” Varnir said with a chuckle as he hugged Tsarra by the shoulder.
If Tsarra wasn't embarrassed already, that was enough to kill her. I watched as the air around Tsarra wobbled and warped, and she disappeared completely in a blink of an eye. It was amazing that she lasted that long in the first place.
Sylvia grumbled some things under her breath about beating Varnir on the first day of school but still being ranked below him, and surprisingly, even with the clapping, Professor Garrison heard her. “Sylvia, I imagine many people are confused as to why you are only ranked eighth. It’s no surprise that you played a critical role in the Dragon incident, and many people, including myself, owe our lives to you. I think I speak for everyone when I say thank you for saving us. Also, your physical prowess is something to remark on. If we based rankings solely on that, you would be in the top five, no questions asked. However, we take more into account. To be honest, your academic abilities fall short of the class average, which is nothing to be ashamed of. And if rankings were to be recalculated today, your outside achievements would have doubled even more considering your involvement with Dragonheart Foundation. Regardless of your rank, we should all congratulate President Sylvia of the Dragonheart Foundation, who will give us a speech tonight at the school banquet.”
Everyone in the class clapped loudly for Sylvia. It seemed that despite her being a Vampire, many students felt that she had done something remarkable, which was the absolute truth. Sylvia deserved all the praise and more.
“Congratulations, Miss President,” I said with a grin.
“Shut up…” she whimpered, her ears burning red.
“Sylvia is number two to Daddy!” Mila squealed as she rolled off my lap and into Syliva’s arms.
Sylvia looked surprised for a moment but hugged Mila back, the two of them touching heads. “I guess being second to Daddy is okay…” Sylvia muttered.
Professor Garrison took a swig of water and let out a deep sigh. “Sadly, we don’t have time to go over everyone’s rankings today. We would be here all day if we did. For those of you who have complaints or want to know how you were ranked, please head to the counselor's office. They will give you your breakdown there.” The professor clapped and put his hands on his hips. “Now, onto the next and hopefully last article for today. I would like to welcome three new students to Class Onward. And before you ask, I understand that it’s a bit late to be accepting new students into our class. And the school agrees. It’s best to consider these three as… short-term transfer students with exceptional skills and circumstances. Although they will not graduate with you, they may just become teachers one day, so please treat them well and warmly welcome them to our class.”
Everyone clapped once more as the door to the room opened. I was clapping as well, only to stop in surprise. I’m sure I had a dumb expression on my face as I watched the two familiar faces walk in. I had no idea they would attend Forward University, let alone join the class. They had somehow managed to keep this a secret.
The first to walk forward was none other than Padraic. The young Dwarf looked dashing in his gold and red jacket. He left the jacket hang open, exposing the black dress shirt underneath.
He had his trademark grin as he eyed me across the room. I’m sure he was positively reveling in my surprise. And I had a feeling he was about to say something outrageous in an attempt to embarrass me.
Professor Garrison motioned for Padraic to introduce himself, and the Dwarf cleared his throat as all eyes turned to him. “It’s good to meet all of you and all that good fun. My name is Padraic Whitehelm, and to be honest, I’m really only here to use the forges and the school’s resources, and since I had to take classes to do so, I figured I would join the class with my brother from another mother and my two future fiancees. So uh…yeah, that’s it, really.”
Oh, he boldly declared that. At least his embarrassment was targeted at…wait…two fiancees? Who's the second? Did I miss something?
I thought that as I looked back at Jen. Much like Tsarra, she was beside herself as she hid her face in her arms. It seemed she wanted to run away. I scanned the room for the second so-called future fiancee, but it didn’t seem like anyone was reacting to that statement, so I had no idea who it was.
The class clapped somewhat awkwardly but was more or less mumbling to each other. Padraic’s brazen entrance no doubt shocked quite a few students. But that was Padraic for you. He never cared what others thought of him.
Professor Garrison chuckled awkwardly to himself. “Well, that was something. But a little background on our new student is that he not only passed the entrance exam but tested in the top one percent of advanced mathematics, not only in this class but the entire school. Padraic here also impressed both the forge and smithing teachers, earning their respect with a single demo. As well as being an Opal adventurer with three years of experience.”
With a little more context, it seemed that assuaged anyone’s worries, and they put more excitement into their applause. I had no idea he placed so high in math, but Padraic was always good at it. Even back in the day, he took to math faster than Cerila. But that was only when he was actually focusing and not goofing around or teasing me…
And good for him on impressing two teachers at Forward University with one demonstration is definitely something to be proud of. He did make my new bow, which was expertly crafted.
Next up was also a surprise. She looked stunning in her uniform, and it was hard to look away. Her long snow-white hair flowed down to her hips as her new jacket fit snugly around her upper body, accentuating her athletic and curvy physique. And her white and gold skirt was—
“Why is her skirt shorter than everyone else’s? What’s with that crap?” Sylvia growled in a low voice as she glared down at Cerila.
It’s uh…true…Cerila’s skirt, for some reason or another, was shorter than the norm. And it only exposed her long toned yet pale legs even more as she chose to wear short white socks.
I felt Sylvia’s glare turn to me in my absence of a response, but I just kept my eyes forward, fully intent on not meeting her gaze. I felt that no matter what I said, I would be wrong. And it would only open me up for criticism. So the best course of action was to say nothing.
Cerila went over to the board and quickly chalked up a hand that was leaving a head, as well as her name. To an untrained eye, it looked to be as if she drew someone saluting followed by her name in Human. But it was actually a depiction of someone signing hello.
And it was accurate as well as being well drawn. I guess years of drawing on that tablet are coming into play.
Once she was done, she turned around to face the class and repeated the motion for the sign. From there, Professor Garrison took over. “First of all, please welcome Cerila to the class. Although she can’t hear any of you, the gesture still has meaning for her.”
The class looked confused, and a few people muttered to each other, but after a pointed glare from the teacher, everyone quickly gave a round of applause to welcome her. “As some of you have guessed, Cerila is deaf and can not hear you, but that does not mean she can’t talk to you. And although you may think of this as a hindrance, Cerila has lived her entire life this way and has not only adapted but flourished. She passed the school’s entrance exam and tested out of master-level language classes for both Elvish and Human, being able to read and write fluently to the level of a translator. Not only that, Cerila is fluent in a completely new language called Sign Language. As a result, she is able to communicate in everyday conversation with others despite not verbally speaking a single word. She also shows martial prowess that is to be recognized, as she has achieved the adventurer rank of Topaz in only three years. For those of you who are unaware, that is an accomplishment beyond what a normal person is capable of, especially someone so young.”
Upon his further explanation of Cerila’s exploits and achievements, the room did a collective nod of approval and gave her one more final applause. Cerila flashed a stunning smile at everyone, and with Padraic next to her, the two of them walked straight up the steps and toward me.
“Are they really going…what a pain,” Sylvia grumbled quietly to herself.
Sure enough, the two took open seats to my left, with Cerila right next to me. She smiled brightly at me and even let out a noise that was the same as her giggling. she asked.
I told her.
Cerila was about to sign to me again, but I poked her as Professor Garrison cleared his throat loudly. “Now then, would the final student please introduce himself?”
The third student had been quietly standing to the side. At first glance, he seemed…odd, and I found it hard to tell how old he was for some reason. He wore the school uniform just the same as everyone else, and as a tiger Beastmen, he didn’t appear to have overwhelming physical size but was a rather average build. His tiger-like ears poked out from his long hair that was poofed up while being the color of brownish dried blood.
But the oddest thing about him was those dark-tinted glasses he wore over his eyes…they seemed almost like sunglasses, which was weird since we were indoors and the room could hardly be described as bright.
The Beastmen had a proper air about him, almost like a noble, which was all but confirmed as he dipped into an elegant bow straight out of a book on manners.
“My name is Malachi Talgan, and I am the crown prince of the Principality of Nul. It’s an honor to be here,” he said in a velvety smooth voice.
Malachi also took his glasses off, exposing his unswirling Vampiric blood-red eyes to the class. But unlike Sylvia, who possessed entirely crimson eyes, Malachi’s eyes were like that of a half-moon of red, leaving the rest of his iris a dead-looking white color. Of course, I only had two other Vampires besides Sylvia to compare to, but Malachi’s eyes had far more red than the Vampire who kidnapped me and even more than the Vampire diplomat I saw in Sandervile.
And did he just say his last name was Talgan?

Next

What is it about Pokemon unite and every other MOBA that people refuse to play like they want to win in ranked matches. People will literally last pick a mons who hurt more then they help balance out a team, like they're blind to what everyone else selected. I don't know if it's because they can't makeup their mind or just slow to lockin in general, but seeing what's been selected and not a Def or Sup chosen, they think to then "You know what we're missing? A 3rd attacker. Yeah baby." Or maybe theyre more selfish than stupid and think "Well fuck you for knowing what you want to play so fast, but excuse me don't you think you should of asked me before you locked in." And as the clock hits 10 secs they'll lock in that one Mon with a role you didn't need anymore of spamming Def. Needed Supp. needed clearly capable of seeing what was missing.
TLDR: Why do people not play to win? They'd rather lose a ranked match, then play a role they don't like and can see was the role were missing? Especially when the timers are at 10 and they last pick anything but what were missing while spamming Def needed Supp needed.

Below is my analytical - yet ultimately subjective - ranking of every season of One Tree Hill. Anyone else share similar opinions? This third part includes the seasons I rank in the top 3 spots.

1. Season 4 - As the final season set during the high school years, this one closed out the greatest era of the series, and it did so quite spectacularly. What stood out to me wasn’t so much the overarching plots, but more so the remarkable stand-alone episodes. The State Championship episode was a perfect installment of teen drama if I ever saw one, delivering on what the entire show had been building up to since the very first episode and allowing for a brief moment of euphoric triumph before leaving the episode on a tragic cliffhanger. The episode that followed was great as well, relaxing the pace a bit and focusing on the emotional and even spiritual journeys of the characters in a tribute to It’s a Wonderful Life (and while One Tree Hill was not the first teen drama to do such a tribute, it certainly did it the best in my opinion). And then there were the last two episodes of the season, which included the graduation, two births, Dan turning himself in, and the main group celebrating the end of this chapter of their lives. It provided beautiful closure to the peak era of the show and could have been the series finale, even more so than season 6’s finale. And the final shot at the River Court brought things full circle from the pilot, but instead of Lucas and Nathan opposing each other as bitter rivals, they faced each other as comrades and brothers. The multi-episode plotlines, though, ranged from good to simply okay. The only one I outright disliked was the Peyton-Brooke conflict, which included a nonsensical twist with the sex tape reveal. Admittedly, the direct aftermath of said reveal was really entertaining, however I was mostly done with these two characters’ animosity over boys. The Psycho Derek storyline had some interesting parts to it, and I appreciated how it was first hinted at in season 2. The Clean Teens stuff was entertaining as hell and brought some fun into a season that was darker than its predecessors. Lucas discovering the truth about Dan’s role in Keith’s death and Dan’s inner turmoil were amongst the best story arcs.
   
2. Season 1 - While there are a lot of good shows out there, few of them really nail the pilot episode. There is just too much that needs to be done between introducing the main players, establishing unique relationships that generate enough interest without revealing too much too early, and setting up several plot threads from square one. Much of the time, all of the setting up in such a short amount of time make the episode feel less emotionally resonant and less natural in its storytelling. One Tree Hill, though, hit all of the points it needed to while focusing on the little notes in between as well, allowing me to form an emotional connection to the characters and their world. It showed the different backgrounds of each Scott brother and set up their layered rivalry, introduced Lucas and Haley’s believably-established and natural friendship, gave a first glance into Peyton’s inner turmoil and distinctive connections with both Nathan and Lucas, and showed that the adult characters had their own interesting histories and relationships with each other…and this premiere episode did all of this while keeping a solid pace. The rest of the season maintained the spirit of the pilot, placing special focus on character development and meaningful interactions between them. It was a little simpler in regards to plot when compared to the seasons that followed, but it built a strong foundation for the series that ensured that viewers would still care about the characters and their town when the storylines got more dramatic and fast-paced. I loved Nathan and Haley’s opposites-attract love story and their character developments that came with it, Brooke’s introduction as the stereotypical cheerleader only to be revealed as a much deeper character, Dan’s complicated relationships toward the people in his life, Karen and Deb’s friendship, Jake’s friendship with Lucas and growing connection with Peyton, and the overall themes of high school and family. As for the Peyton/Lucas/Brooke stuff, I don’t usually like love triangles that involve two friends pursuing the same romantic interest, however I could actually appreciate the circumstances and emotions behind this particular development.
   
3. Season 3 - A nearly perfect chapter of the series, a simply outstanding installment of the teen drama genre, a beautiful combination of all the best this show had to offer…this season was One Tree Hill at its strongest. Most of the storylines were among the best of the series, such as the focus on Lucas and Haley’s friendship again, the mystery behind the dealership fire, Lucas’s HCM, Peyton discovering and then losing her birth mother, the uphill battle for the basketball team, the mayoral election between Karen and Dan, the Fantasy Boy Draft, Brooke launching her clothing line, and Haley’s record being produced. Then, of course, there was the convergence of events leading to the shooting - the conflict between Dan and Keith, Rachel releasing the time capsule - and its emotionally resonant aftermath. The lasting impression and poignancy of this entire storyline could be discussed at book-length, so I’ll just leave it at that. Speaking of Rachel, her addition to the show was awesome, providing a source of entertaining chaos as Tree Hill’s resident b**h reminiscent of characters like Valerie Malone and Abby Morgan on *their respective teen dramas. Amongst all of the amazing aspects of this season, though, what really made it sparkle and evoke such a strong emotional connection were the relationships that it centered around. Nathan and Haley’s relationship anchored the show, and it was their journey in season 3 that I found the most captivating; from dealing with the consequences of the tour to finding their way back to each other and renewing their vows, their story was strong and touching, and it was impossible not to root for them. Then there was the other big romantic storyline of the season, which was at its best during this time: Lucas and Brooke (more on this in the comments since it does not fit here). Another one of my favorite romantic pairings - Peyton and Jake - had a small feature this season as well; the reveal that it was Jake who Peyton decided to fly out to see was so satisfying. One of the best relationships to grow, though, was the friendship between Haley and Brooke. Total opposites at first glance, these two characters were similar at their cores - tough, firm in staying true to themselves, and deeply compassionate toward others - which contributed to them developing an especially entertaining and heartwarming friendship, a friendship that proved to be the most enduring of the series. All in all, season 3 was fabulous.
   

Obviously to pass the test floor every regular needs the bare minimum of talent in shinsu so every character does have atleast some talent(albeit extremely small).This list is basically a top 10 of people who got to their peaks/current position due to an enormous/praiseworthy amount of hard work or talent. Note this won't include any of the 10 great family heads or urek and jahad.
Honourable mentions: Adori Jahad(she was stated to be extremely talented but she doesn't come from any of the great families so I assume she atleast put in alot of hard work so I didn't know where to put her).

1. Phonsekal Laure(talent): Since the test floor we know he was talented since he is from a great family. Although he rarely appears when he does he always gets the job done.
   
2. Kallavan(hard work): After getting the essence of bravery he trained for centuries, reason he's this low is because eob helped alot and he did have decent talent before absorbing eob
   
3. Khun Ran(talent): A direct descendant of Khun Eduan and someone from the Maschenny branch. Was stated to be one of the most talented Khuns among the regulars and was also considered one of the top 5 strongest E rank regulars.
   
4. Yama(hard work): While his older brother was enslaving others Yama was training and training. And although Doom was older Yama still managed to beat him.
   
5. Khun Maschenny Jahad(talent): A direct descendant of Khun Eduan as well as someone from the Maschenny branch. She also gets Jahad's blood due to being a princess, we saw how much of a monster her data version was compared to someone like Ran.
   

5.Ship Leesoo/Shibisu(hard work): Has almost no talent whatsoever, he is quite literally the bare minimum in terms of talent. Even though this holds him back he manages to secure a spot in the team(even becoming the leader). This guy is the perfect example of "never give up".
4.Eurasia Enne Jahad(talent): The direct descendant of not one but two family heads. After becoming a princess she also got Jahad's blood. Among all the great families Enne is the epitome of talent, a natural born genius.
3.White(hard work): The things white had to go through to get the power he had in his prime was simply unheard of and unprecedented. He built countries and made them go to war with each other, in the process causing the deaths of BILLIONS all so he could absorb their souls. His hard work dwarfs his Arie blood.
2.Baam(talent): I mean this one is pretty obvious, do I even need to explain it. What took others years to accomplish took baam 2 weeks, when he was only an E rank he could make 5 Baangs, he officially beat a ranker as a regular, a C rank regular, he can copy moves after getting hit with them. Yes ik he worked hard, but his talent absolutely dwarfs his hard work. Baam is literally the embodiment of talent.
1.Hatz(hard work): Although he isn't as bad as Shibisu talent wise, he's much stronger than Shibisu. Everytime we see him he's better at swordsmanship and in alot of panels we see him practicing his techniques. Some have the blood of great families or special powers like the essence of bravery, but Hatz just has his blade.
3 and 1 are interchangeable tbh. This a W or an L? And if it's an L do say why cuz as I'm making this rn I can see a possible bad take or 2

if you think you know me, no you don't
Demographics: Indian Male 200k+ income California
Intended Major(s): Computer Science or Data Science
ACT/SAT/SAT II: N/A (taking ACT this summer but don't expect anything above 34)
UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.0 UW/4.84 W/4.45 UC GPA (no rank at school)
Coursework: AP HUG(5), AP CSP (5), junior year predictions AP Lang (5), APUSH (5), AP Chem (4), AP Spanish (3), AP CSA (5), senior year classes Comp Sci AB (Data Structures class, not weighted D:), AP Lit, AP Calc BC, AP Physics 1, AP Gov and AP Macro
Awards:
- Champ in certain Esport (pretty significant)
- CyberPatriots Platinum Semifinalist
- AP Scholar w/ Distinction
- NHS
- 3x award for being top 100 in school based on GPA
Extracurriculars (in no order):
Executive cab for school student council/leadership body (very big time committment,part of this body for 3 years, school-wide election for the position)
Job as a Coding Instructor for kids (2 years)
Founded and ran a summer basketball league in my community with 50+ members and a full-fledged instagram over the summer
President of Esports Club + Member of Varsity team for 3 years (we have practices and weekly games 💀 )
VP of STEM-based volunteer club (big community impact)
Crypto Club President
Web Dev Internship at startup tutoring company
CyberPatriots Team + Treasurer of Club
Twitch streaming + content creation in my free time
Technical Lead of internatonal entrepeneurship competition
Link Crew Member
X FACTOR Blockchain Reserach with professor, prob wont put unless something big happens this summer
Essays/LORs/Other:
- no clue yet gonna write this summer
Schools:
- UCLA, UCB, UCI, UCSD, UCSB, UCSC
- CPP, CSULB
- Idk any oos please give ideas based on my app 🙏🙏

With his latest make koshi (12 of his last 13 Makuuchi basho have resulted in a losing score), Kagayaki has reached new levels of below averageness! He now has the second-lowest Kachi Koshi rate of all Modern Era rikishi with at least 25 top-division basho, at a measly 28%.
The only man to beat him? Oshio, a wrestler from the ‘70s who had a 27% KKrate over the course of his career. At least Oshio made it to the san’yaku at one point, earned two sansho, and thrice won a kinboshi. Meanwhile, Kagayaki has never made it out of the maegashira ranks and has no special prizes or gold stars to his name.
Honestly, it’s amazing he’s fought nearly 40 basho worth of Makuuchi tournaments now; appreciate this historical sub-mediocrity while you still can!

To begin with, this a Throwaway account, i will not say any personnal informations about me or anyone else and i will maybe a bit harsh when telling the story, also sorry if my english is not 10/10 it is not my native language. This actual thing include me (18M) my brother(16M) let's call him bob,his friend bobby and some guys let's call them the team rocket(probably between 16 and 18 M ) this is the first time i'm using reddit so maybe my story look like nothing It maybe a long story. I just want to get that off me because it is creating a huge stress coupled with anger and i do not care at all if you don't belive me or you feel like this is a fake story.
We live in a small town. All of this started arround 2 years ago when the team rocket started annoying my little brother and his friend by insulting them, thowing rocks at them etc they are know in town for being troublemakers. My brother does not get the idear that he can get in trouble so he start inssulting them too and that is where he messed up those dudes are stubborn as hell. After this inccident they all started to pick weakly on bob and bobby so one time they two started to respond to the picking by being verbaly agressive. The team rocket then started to stalk my brother by staying in front of my home accross the street for about 5 hours every occasion they had, this is the point where i enter the story. At this stage i was not aware of the situation at all so i took my brother aside and demamded an explanation of everything that happened after a good 30 minutes of talking i was fuming with anger. Quick introduction of myself i am about 240lbs for 6.3ft my friends call me the White bison i don't really know why but ok.
So the stalking lasted for about 2 month and like every two to tree days they where in front of my home waiting to catch bob one day they insulted my Mother( it is one of the most direspecteful insult you can say to someone in France) i took it by heart, i screamed to them to repeat again, they did. They was 8 of them in front of my house so i went to talk to them with enought adrenaline to revive a dead corps. Right there i saw one of the dude in front of me pulling out a knife and another one pulling out a tear gas spray, i directly backed of and started hardly discussing with them, (one of them even called his step dad for me but this is another story for another time) all they said was that they wanted to beat bob and bobby, for me family is very important so it was a categoric no, so they said that they will continue this, after an hour or so of talking they were annoyed and left and from this day we got 1 year and a half of calm with no altercations what so ever.
In that period of time most of the team rocket members stoped caring about this altercation but 1 month ago as i'm writing this, i was out riding my dirtbike with some friend and one tell me about a dude who was planning something to hurt my brother and was asking infos on my brother,when was he comming back from school, Whitch way he's taking etc.
I said nothing at all to my friend about this and was playing the innocent dude. The same day i did research of this a**hole and found him, his adress, the facebook of his entire family and more so i knew who he was exactly. After this nothing at all, dead silence.
Today my brother showed me screens of text messages of the same dude and a mutual friend, he was saying "il va voir quand ont va le planter" "il va pleurer sa mère" translated : "he is gonna see when we are gonna knife him" "he will cry for his mother".
All i can say is that i was shaking in anger and stress out of my mind, it maybe seem corny but if this happen i will not stay still and do nothing, my parents are well aware of this and are scared if something will happen or not. That is the problem i am scared of doing something causing huge jail time, i even thought of beating the guy to a coma or something more, it isn't even my darkest idear.
I don't expert anyone to see this, if you do and have questions pls ask them and i will try to answer them with honnesty.
I will try to keep you updated but i don't promise anything and as i said on top of this page i do not care if this story seems fake/corny asf or of you don't belive it i just want to express things has i see them. I could explain with more details but decided not to.