How obvious does it need to be that Link and Zelda live in Hateno together and she didn't kick him out. Where else is he supposed to live? He doesn't get the other house until later. Why would Zelda need a secret study if she lived there alone? The people ask Link how he's voting in the election, and I doubt they'd ask non residents. Zelda had to hide his tunic because if she kept it in the house he'd find it. The table is set for two. The kids at Zelda's school know Link, so he probably hangs around there and plays with them. The man is glued to Zelda's hip.
And yet y'all are trying to argue against all that because there's only one pillow on the bed? They're probably broke. They have nothing but some titles to their names. Because they gave the weapons back to the descendants (which was probably a decision they made together)? Zelda didn't kick him out or take over the place.

https://www.reddit.com/nosleep/comments/13u9t3m/my_father_always_kept_the_shed_locked_today_i/Part 1:
The darkness around us was oppressive, cloying and total. Anywhere we weren’t pointing our flashlights would turn into a solid wall of black, impenetrable shadows. But we could hear something. As we walked further down the hallway, we heard soft footsteps and giggling.
Sometimes, it sounded like it came from directly behind us. At other times, it would come from the rooms all around us, the endless rooms that split off the hallway on both sides. We found some strange things in those rooms as we walked slowly, the gun raised in my hand and the bowie knife raised in my brother’s.
There were corpses in some of the rooms. Many had partially mummified in the dry, chilly air down here. Others were clearly fresher. One woman was hanging from the rafters with a note pinned to her chest. I looked back at Gil when we reached this part of the hall. We had stayed out of the rooms since the incident with the little boy, but some deep innate curiosity needed to know what was on this note. Gil nodded at me, and we walked forward side by side, scanning every corner of the room and looking behind smashed-out fish tanks and torn sofas covered in black mold for any signs that we weren’t alone in here. Once we were both satisfied, we returned to the young woman hanging in the center of the room.
She had somehow climbed up to the ceiling, opened a panel and found a sturdy enough beam or rafter to tie the rope to. Yet there was no ladder or anything remotely tall enough to reach the ceiling nearby. It was somewhat of a mystery. I explained this to Gil, who looked somewhat confused- and alarmed. He clearly hadn’t realized it until I pointed it out to him.
I turned back to the woman’s corpse, picking off the note, which had been stuck into the front of her blouse with a huge wooden splinter. Gil kept a look-out while I read, shining his light back and forth in a circle across the room, holding his ridiculously huge knife in the other hand like some sort of medieval swordsman. I saw with increasing horror that the note appeared to have been written in the woman’s own blood. Looking at her body, I saw a deep slash on her left arm, one that had clotted days ago. I looked back down at the desperate message this dying woman had left for us.
“To anyone who finds this,
“My name is Michaela Mansfield. I came in here by accident through the sewers underneath the town of Caplin. My two friends and I went exploring and got separated after a girl in our group twisted her ankle. I went forward alone to find help while my other friend stayed behind with the injured girl. After perhaps a day of being lost, my flashlight started to die, and I thought I was going to die with it. And then I saw fluorescent lights up ahead. They were flickering and looked like they might sputter out at any moment, but it was the only hope I had. I followed the lights and found myself in this hallway. When I tried to turn around and go back, the entrance to the sewers had disappeared. It was just a hallway that seemed to extend forever, the one that has haunted me for weeks now.
“Please, if you find this note, tell my parents what happened to me. Take my golden locket and return it to my mother and father as proof. I hope you have better luck getting out of here than I did.
“Goodbye, and may God forgive me for what I’m about to do.
“-Michaela.”
I looked up at Gil, with one eyebrow raised. I saw he had been reading the note over my shoulder rather than keeping a look-out. I sighed, deciding not to say anything.
“We can’t take the locket,” I said. Gil shook his head.
“We have to take the locket,” he said.
“They’re going to think we had something to do with this girl’s death if we just show up randomly with a piece of her jewelry. Actually, I think I remember when this girl and her friends went missing. It was on the news. Her parents were pleading for anyone with information to come forward. I think the cops were acting on the suspicion that it was murder or kidnapping or something. But they probably just went exploring without telling anyone and never came back.”
“We’ll wipe it down and send it anonymously through the mail with a note explaining what happened,” he said. I sighed, giving up. He was right. It was the right thing to do. But I’m sure many innocent men have gone to prison over trying to do the right thing. I pointed to the note.
“This doesn’t help us at all,” I said. He shrugged.
“Maybe it does, and maybe it doesn’t. It doesn’t really help us formulate a plan, but it does give us information. For example, now we know that this place probably connects to a lot more places than the shed. We might be able to get out through dozens or hundreds of exits. If it connects to a random sewer over in Caplin, then it could connect to places all over the county.”
“True,” I said, “but what if it connects to some alien world? Or to a black hole? What if it connects to some point in the void between galaxies and we get sucked out to our deaths?” He simply shrugged again, seeming apathetic to these possibilities.
“Well, in that case,” he said smugly, a half-smile forming on his lips, “our deaths would probably be a lot quicker than they would at the hands of these creatures down here.” Then he started laughing. It sounded eerie in this dark, forlorn place, where everything smelled like yeast and the floors were all wet substrates growing strange jungles of alien molds. He reached forward and took the golden locket off of the woman’s neck, placing it carefully in his pocket. We started walking out of the room together.
“Also,” I said, “the note seems to imply that the entrances are temporary. She couldn’t find her way back out after she got in here. What if they’re all like that? What if they’re like… I don’t know, lobster traps, or Venus fly traps, or something? They draw people in here, and then once they’re inside…” I stopped speaking as soon as I realized I heard someone following us.
I heard running footsteps. A high-pitched giggling started, then was cut off. We both stood there in the darkness, our flashlights pointing forward. Then the voice of that demonic little girl started up, high-pitched and somewhat inhuman-sounding. Her words all had a strange hoarseness to them, an uncanny valley sound as if she were only imitating human emotions and human speech.
“Adam’s ‘It’, but he won’t play,” she said sulkily, her voice bouncing off the walls, the rapid beat of the footsteps approaching nearer and nearer. “He says his throat hurts. So I guess I’m ‘It’! You better run!”
“God dammit,” Gil said, swinging his giant knife around from side to side as if he were going to bat a mosquito with it. His light flashed and wavered as he tried to keep a watch on all sides. But I knew she was coming from behind us. I could feel it. I kept my light shining down there, the gun raised, trying to emanate a calm I didn’t feel. Then I saw a flash of blue, zigzagging crazily past a chair leg and the snapped remains of a folding table, tiny legs pumping at a superhuman speed. She looked like little more than an approaching blur.
“Listen to me very carefully,” I said, trying to keep my gun pointed on her. “We need to cut off her head.”
“What?!” Gil said. “Why?”
“Last time, bullets didn’t work on…” I began, but then she was on us, no more than a few feet away, jumping over the discarded junk that intermittently appeared on the sides of the hallway. And then I felt myself knocked over by a tremendous force that took the air right out of my lungs.
I still had my hands crossed in front of me, one holding the gun and the other the flashlight. The skeletal face of the creature was mere inches away from my own, biting and gnashing madly. I could see small muscles in the back of her mouth working furiously. She was pushing down on my arms with all of her strength, which was far more than such a small body seemed to suggest.
The gun was pressed closely to the front of her chest. I was about to pull the trigger when I felt the weight start to lift off of me. I saw Gil behind her, wrapping his arm around her neck and pulling her back. She still gnashed and bit in a mad frenzy, small droplets of blood and saliva dripping off her mouth and into my face. She kicked her body back and forth like an enraged snake, freeing her neck from Gil’s grasp. He went to grab her, and her skeletal face opened up wide, the jaw hanging halfway down her neck.
With the speed of a cat snatching a mouse, she leapt forward, snapping her jaw around some of the fingers on Gil’s left hand. I saw his index and middle finger disappear into her mouth, and he began to scream in agony.
I was scrambling back to my feet by this point. I ran at the girl, using all of my body weight to push her. She went tumbling on the floor, her mouth flying open as she landed hard on the wood. Two mutilated fingers flew out, rolling across the floor and disappearing into a dome of black mold. I was sweating heavily now, drops of perspiration rolling down my forehead and stinging my eyes. I tried to wipe them away, thinking of what to do. My mind screamed at me to shoot, to empty my entire magazine into this little monster, but I knew in my heart that it would just be wasting bullets. Deep down, I knew what I had told Gil earlier was true- we had to cut off her head. Just like in the old myths of vampires or demons, I had a deep instinctual feeling that fire or decapitation would be the only way to deal with her, and as for fire, we had no flamethrowers.
“Gil!” I said. “Get ready!” He was holding his spurting hand tightly against his chest, still grasping the bowie knife in his right. His face was alarmingly pale and white, and I wondered if he might not just pass out right here and doom both of us. But he hadn’t dropped the knife, even while fighting the writhing monster, even while getting his fingers bitten off. He is stronger than he looks, I reassured myself.
A sense of calm and clarity overcame me then, and I saw what I needed to do. The demonic girl was getting up, growling and spitting and laughing. I ran over and stomped on her back, putting my full weight on her body to drive her back down. Then I took the pistol and shot her through the back of the kneecaps, one bullet for each.
She wailed as dark red blood poured out of her small legs, turning her head almost all the way back to try and bite me. Her hands were changing, the small fingers lengthening and darkening into sharp, black claws, and I knew our time was running out.
“Now!” I yelled, and Gil ran forward, using his right hand to swing the bowie knife. I watched it fall in a descending arc, as if in slow motion, watched it approach the spitting skeletal face that looked at us with black eyes and unfathomable hatred. It went clean through, and was so sharp that for a split second, the head stayed there, the face blank, looking like it was still attached to the body. Then it tumbled forward, dark blood spurting out of the neck and staining the white and gold molds underneath with its crimson hue.
Gil fell back against the wall, breathing fast. He dropped the bowie knife on the floor. I saw his flashlight, still on, had rolled against an ancient wheelchair that was probably new back in the 1960s. I stopped and grabbed it, shoving it in my pants belt so it would give me more light to work with. Gil still had his hand clasped to his chest. Slowly, I put my hands forward and grasped his injured hand by the wrist. He inhaled deeply, gritting his teeth and closing his eyes.
“We’re going to need to wrap it in something,” I said. He nodded. I took off my shirt and started ripping long slices from the bottom, then wrapping them around his hand tightly in an attempt to slow the bleeding. When I got to the fingers, he flinched and seemed to waver on his feet. I reached a hand out in case he was about to fall over, but he managed to steady himself. “All done,” I told him as I put my shirt back on, which was missing the bottom third portion now and looked rather absurd, almost as if I was wearing a woman’s crop top.
“It feels like my hand’s on fire,” Gil said in a hoarse whisper. “We’re going to need water, too.” I was feeling the start of dehydration pangs myself.
“That girl, Michaela, her note said she was stuck in here for weeks. That must mean there’s water. Assuming her counting was correct, seeing as there’s no sun or sky to go by. If there was no water, she would have died after a few days, especially being on the move,” I said. I was hoping that we would find food as well, but it wasn’t really life or death. I knew that we could potentially go weeks without food and still live, even though it would feel extremely unpleasant and weaken us physically. I sighed, shining my flashlight at Gil.
“Ready to keep going?” I asked, and then the lights started turning back on. Most of them were still either out or flickering on and off rapidly, but enough of them were lit to see down the hall.
“Oh, thank God,” Gil said. “At least now we’re not walking through this junkyard in the fucking dark.” Up ahead, I saw something new as well. It looked like the hallway forked off. I pointed at it, and Gil’s eyes widened. “Finally, after walking for endless miles, this place does something!” As we neared it, I saw there was even a sign. One pointed left, reading, “To Veriden”. The other pointed right, reading, “To Rusty Township”.
“Hmm…” I said, “I’ve never heard of either of those places. They’re definitely not in the county.” Gil’s dark brown eyes looked past me, into the room behind us, and they widened. I reached for the pistol, turning quickly, but I found nothing but a mostly empty, half-lit room. Against the corner was a vending machine and a soda machine.
“Oh thank God!” I said, running forward, reaching in my pocket for some money. Then I remembered I had left my wallet at home. After all, I thought we were just going into the shed. Gil strode right past me.
“Don’t be an idiot,” he said, taking the butt of his bowie knife and smashing the glass of the vending machine. “You don’t need money. Who’s going to call the cops, the walking undead and demons here?” He pulled out brands I had never heard of: Overholser’s Beef Jerky, chocolate bars with caramel and peanuts called Eisenhearts, Took’s salt-water taffy and Riza’s fruit snacks. The other vending machine was no less alien, as I smashed it with the butt of the gun and found Springy’s Lemon-Lime Soda, Kanna-brand cola and Saint Kristoff’s Ginger Ale, among others. Not one of the brands was recognizable from our world.
We tore into the food with ravenous hunger, chugging bottle after bottle of soda. It all tasted similar enough to what we expected, though some of it was rather strange. The ginger ale, for example, had small silver shavings on the bottom of each bottle, their trademark gimmick, and Gil swallowed them and nearly ended up choking. I smacked his back hard, laughing.
“I don’t think you’re supposed to drink those,” I said sarcastically. We were filling up our pockets when the drumming started from down the hall. It was so sudden and loud in the otherwise perfect silence that I jumped nearly a foot, spinning around and taking out the gun. It was becoming second-nature to me by this point, and so much adrenaline was constantly pounding through my body that I was as jumpy as a cat.
The drumming grew louder and fast. It reminded me of the drums some ancient Aztecs must have used when cutting out the hearts of prisoners of war. It had a deep, primal beat to it that would be useful for stirring people up during acts of savagery and violence. It was coming from the direction labeled “Rusty Township”. I could barely hear myself think over the intensity of the drum beats. I tried to motion to Gil that I would go first since I had the gun but that he should stay right behind me, but he looked like he was just smiling and nodding and likely hadn’t understood a bit of what I was trying to communicate. Sighing, I started forward down the corridor.
I peaked my head around the next corner, where a doorway opened up into a huge gymnasium. The ceiling towered over me. I saw dirty, disheveled people standing in a semi-circle around a metal coffin that was stood up on one end against the back wall. Blood was pouring out the bottom, following a river of clotted gore that stretched across the gymnasium and curved off to the right corner. The people surrounding the metal coffin were laughing, clapping their hands and cheering, stomping their feet in time with the beats. I saw scurvy blossoms and festering sores across their faces and exposed skin. And, for the first time since we had gotten lost down here, there were windows around the edge of this massive chamber, windows showing the outside world. I ran over, looking out.
I saw a city on fire, the buildings burning and sending up thick, black plumes of smoke. It reminded me of what Berlin at the end of World War II must have looked like. Fronts of houses had collapsed inwards, the streets were cracked and filled with debris and I saw bodies hanging from lampposts up and down the street. Many of them were so old that the ropes were starting to fray. Some of the bodies had started to mummify, with thin, papery skin clinging tightly to desiccated muscles and hanging jaws.
Around the corners of houses and alleyways, I caught glimpses of strange shapes: crouching half-animal, half-human beings who carried sledgehammers and long knives, robed figures who seemed to float over the devastated and cracked ground, and children with red skin who I saw crawling up walls on all fours like geckos.
The drums stopped as suddenly as they had started. My ears were still ringing. I turned back to the semi-circle of sickly, dirty people. They had stopped their clapping and dancing and cheering, and now just stood like statues, staring at Gil and me with flat, dead eyes.
“You shouldn’t stare into the Township,” a thin woman with filthy black hair said. A strange accent crept into her words, one that I had never heard before. “Strange things live in there, and they come out when the drums stop.” She stepped forward, whispering. “We keep them away by giving a sacrifice every time the drumbeats come. The blood satisfies the ones in the city and the others in the halls. We will all have our turn in the coffin, sure enough.”
Another member of their group stepped forward and opened up the metal coffin. I saw long, thin spikes sliding out of a body, and then a pale form fell out, landing on the dirty floor with a wet smacking sound. The smell of coppery blood in the air was now overwhelming. Gil and I both gasped in unison as we saw this form on the floor was a person, a young woman in fact, almost totally drained of blood. Dozens of puncture marks were sliced into her face, neck, stomach, legs and arms. An expression of pain and horror was frozen onto her dead face, her wide, staring eyes looking up at the ceiling.
“You killed her!” Gil said, aghast, still clutching his mutilated hand close to his body in an unconscious gesture of his anxiety and fear. “Why? Why would you put someone from your own group in an iron maiden?”
“Iron maiden?” the woman with the black hair in front responded. “Aye, that’s as good a name for it as any. We call her the steel mistress in my world, in my time, and the steel mistress sees a lot of use…” She gestured out the window, her face emotionless. “You see my world, after all. It is a place that always reeks of death, and more often than not, reeks of fire too.”
“What part of the United States is this?” Gil asked, gesturing out the window. The woman frowned.
“I do not know these ‘United States’,” she said, shrugging.
“What country are you from?” he asked.
“Why, Victoriat, of course. But Victoriat only has three states. Rusty Township was the capitol, until ‘twas attacked by the Black Hand Allegiance soldiers. We’re all refugees from Rusty here,” she said sadly.
“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” I said to Gil under my breath. He nodded, sighing.
“Can you tell us how to get back to the stone steps? Big, circular stone steps that go around and around?” Gil asked the woman in one last attempt to get a sensical answer out of her. She nodded her grimy face.
“Aye, in the center of the Undergraves,” she said, pointing past the iron maiden and the dead body on the ground. I realized that there was a sign up on the ceiling in front of the next corridor, one pointing left and saying, “To Rusty Township center” and one pointing right and saying, “To the Undergraves”. The sign was so covered in dust and specks of black mold that it was no wonder I hadn’t seen it.
“Do you have any maps of this place?” I asked the dirty woman and her friends. They all shook their heads.
“There are no maps of the Undergraves, but the stairs be at the center. You just take a right here and follow the path straight. Ignore all forks to the right or left, just keep following it straight…” We were walking away fast now, trying to leave these lunatics behind. “But you’d be mad to go there now after the drums just stopped!” Her voice was fading rapidly as Gil and I ran forward.
“Those people were fucking nuts,” Gil said. “Killing each other just because they think the blood keeps away demons.”
“Brother,” I said through heavy breaths, “if you and I lived down here for a few months, we would be just as crazy as those people.”
As we jogged into the Undergraves, I realized the walls were turning into something organic and pulsating, like being in some huge intestine. Massive forks to the left and right appeared every few hundred feet. From them, dark shapes appeared, stepping forward. They moved shakily, blurring as they stepped to the right or left randomly, their mouths opened wide and seeming to be filled with blackness. Their eyes looked like pure black sockets, and the rest of their body was no more than a shaky silhouette of shadows. When the first few stepped forward, I didn’t know what to do.
I gingerly raised the gun, deciding better safe than sorry. They were coming at me fast, jerking randomly, their skin seeming to writhe and shiver as I stared at it. As they got within ten feet of me, a deep burning heat started to fill my body, as if I were standing in front of an oven. I started shooting, one bullet for each of their center mass, and they dissipated into smoke. I watched the black stuff curl back into the red, pulsating room they had just come out of. The sense of heat dissipated instantly, but my skin still felt warm and strange.
We were running through the Undergraves now. Miles of slick gore covering the floors, strange tissues growing across the rooms and tumor-like sacs covering the fluorescent lights, which even here flickered endlessly across the ceiling.
In many of the rooms, I saw people strung upside down from the ceiling, their ribs sliced open. Strange, hunched figures sliced the meat into strips, preparing it and drying it. One of them looked at me with its pig-like face, its bovine legs walking across the sticky floor, slowly and uncertainly at first, and then running for me. I was running low on ammunition by this point. Gil came from behind and disemboweled the creature as it raised its butcher’s knife. It had been so focused on me that it hadn’t noticed him jogging up with his blood-stained bowie knife in one hand.
“I can’t run much longer,” Gil said, panting. I nodded wearily. Neither could I. “My hand is still on fire, too. I really should have gotten medical attention, like, twelve hours ago…”
Part of me wondered if the stairs were even here, or if we had been lied to, sent into the worst part of this strange hall to become sacrifices to these abominations. We had, after all, put our lives in the hands of a band of lunatics.
But at this point, we had nowhere else to go but forwards.

I recently discovered Mini Kore, and it seems like it addresses some of the things I find frustrating with Toki Pona, so I've decided to try using it for a while.
I've already "learned" (though definitely not mastered), all of the Mini Kore words. So far, I think the words selected for Mini Kore seem to make a lot of sense.
But coming from Toki Pona, here are some things that have come up as I've been working on learning this language. I'd appreciate any feed back or suggestions!

• supa and leva seem to have a lot of overlap, and it seems that perhaps one of those words could fairly easily absorb the meanings of the other? I might try eliminating one of these and seeing how that works out. But maybe I'm missing something obvious? Or maybe this is just bias coming from using Toki Pona? What are some common cases where it is useful to have these two separate words?
  
• kapo "head, leader" and jura "law, government, govern" also have some overlap, and are pretty much covered in Toki Pona by the single word lawa. Initially, I was thinking maybe they could be combined, but the more I think about it, the more the separation actually seems pretty useful...
  
• I've also been struggling a little with good ways to express concepts related to some Toki Pona words that don't really seem to have direct equivalents in Mini Kore:
  
  • nena in Toki Pona is "hill, bump, protrusion": monte is probably the closest word in Mini, but isn't part of Mini Kore. I guess things like leva loke "elevated place" or leva tera "elevated land" could work for some cases? Other suggestions?
  • selo is Toki Pona for "skin, boundary, shell": limi u pele might be the closest words in Mini that could be stretched to cover this, but neither is in Mini Kore. Maybe something like de-de lado de bodi "out side of body" would work for "skin"? Or does fini already cover ideas like "edge, boundary, skin, shell" in Mini Kore? Other ideas?
  • esun is Toki Pona for "market, shop, business transaction": not quite sure how to say something like "Where is the market?" in Mini Kore. Maybe Mone go kosa loke e en ke? "Money for things place is where?" Probably most formulations in Mini Kore around this concept will involve the word mone?
  • pipi is Toki Pona for "insect, bug": inseto in Mini, but not in Mini Kore. I live in place where bugs are a frequent concern and topic of conversation, maybe mui mini o animale?

That's it for now, though more will probably come up as I actually try to use Mini Kore more...
Are there many people here focusing on Mini Kore, or are most going for full Mini?
At this time, I more interested in focusing on Mini Kore to continue to explore the usefulness of very small languages. But I'll probably use the full number system from Mini, plus maybe another 20 or so words to help explore some ideas for making it easier to deal with frequent travel situations (things like direction words and time units). So maybe 150 words total for now.
Anyone know of any other resources out there specifically geared towards Mini Kore, besides those listed at minilanguage.com?
Thanks!

Took a day and a half trip to Sacramento! Easy two hour drive from the Peninsula. I'm not from Sacramento though I used to visit a lot, apologies for any mistakes or wrong opinions.

• California Railroad Museum: Lives up to the hype. Great museum, with immersive ceiling to floor exhibits, interesting info, and, of course, TRAINS! It's very California/History specific and more about the impact of trains on CA history than about how trains work specifically, but there's a bit of that. Beware: The one train that has sleeper rooms rocks back and forth to simulate the train moving. My wife got seasick from it. (I loved it!) Also, don't forget to visit the the fourth floor.
• Old Sacramento State Historic Park: You really need a guided tour or watch some history videos on YouTube to get the most out of this place. There's a lot of cool facts but you will need to find it yourself or through a tour. This old PBS show has a decent overview: https://youtu.be/Bd4PM8UV5Hw
• Fanny Ann's Saloon: Came here for the "ambiance" over lunch. I could see this place being rocking at night for the bar crowd, but for lunch it's just a funky place with "meh" food. There are pinball and arcade machines and decent amounts of seating.
• Top Hand Ranch Horse Carriage Rides: Since the temperature was moderate and the horses seemed happy, we took a $20, 15 minute ride around Old Town. My kids loved it. It was super calm and uneventful but fun to be so close to people walking around. The ride was a little bouncy even on the paved streets, hard to imagine riding faster on dirt roads.
• Old Town: Pretty touristy. But some of them are really nice tourist traps! Shout outs to Evangeline's Costume for having funky "gifts" and being fairly reasonably priced. Cerealism was kind of funky and not bad (food themed around cereal) and Blueprint Coffee was a nice sleek modern coffee shop. Did not love Boxcar for froyo, overpriced, could have gone for better ice cream but kids wanted it now! Ferris wheel is worth it for the views of Tower Bridge and Old Town, though it goes really fast (speed wise.)
• DOCO: "Newer" style shopping district near the Sacramento King's stadium (some concert was there too). Mostly focused around eating with some light shopping. Made the mistake of walking past DOCO up K street towards the Capital and... it's a ghost town. A drunk guy called us a racial slur and accused us of smelling like vomit. Then a random guy was sitting there swinging a claw hammer around and we decide to go over to Capital Mall where it felt safer.
• State Capital: Very nice, beautiful place, nice architecture. Make sure to check out the "back" where there's a park and war memorial. Sadly, museum and main building were closed by the time we got there.
• Frank Fat's: This place is an institution and we had to try it. The décor is something else and the back booths are very private. The bar and front room, less so, we were practically sitting in the laps of the table next to us. The food is NOT TRADITIONAL CHINESE FOOD. You don't go for that: You go for the California/Chinese historic fusion of food. It's pretty interesting to see how Chinese food would have evolved over time as it intermingled with American palettes and ingredients (and older school cooking methods.) Make reservations in advance, they were turning people away who didn't have reservations. I enjoyed it.
• Sutter's Fort: Pretty small, but really gives you an idea of what living permanently in California would have been like (assuming you weren't Native American) before the gold rush. Sadly, the Donner Party Doll was not viewable as it's deteriorating fast and needs to be restored and taken off display. Each room is decorated to look like it might have during that historic period. There's a bunch of written information and a little hand out with each room labeled. The park rangers are very engaged as well, so feel free to ask questions.
• Sacramento County Fair: A pretty typical CA county fair, dominated by carnival out front. Nice they have a kid specific building and they have more demonstrations than my county fair (like racing ducks, racing pigs, or frisbee dogs, and horse and rider costume events.) Pretty low key like many CA county fairs that aren't in Southern CA. I loved the Demolition Derby where cars smash each other until they can't drive. Overall, I'd say the Sacramento County Fair is better than most Northern California County fairs out of the handful I've been to, but doesn't quite stand up to OC or LA County Fair. I wish I could have seen the Rodeo, but our schedule didn't work out.
• Yang Kee Dumpling (Davis, not Sacramento): Very good Chinese dumplings. The skin of the dumplings is a little thick, but everything tastes very good. Gets crowded on weekends, join the Yelp Waitlist. It's kind of a back building to the Safeway parking lot so it's a little odd to find.

Overall, a good 1.5 day getaway to Sacramento. Still a lot we didn't see (Crocker, Stanford, State Indian Museum, etc.) And last time we were here, we went to Locke with the kids, which is a blast if you're into Chinese in CA history.
Please let me know if I got anything wrong!

So, here's the fourth chapter. Sorry for releasing it a bit late, I've had some pretty tough finals. The next chapter might be delayed as well but after that I should be able to get back to my normal schedule of once a week or possibly better. And thanks for the support on my last chapter, your upvotes and comments mean the world to me!
Big thanks to u/Rand0mness4 for proofreading my chapter and to u/SpacePaladin15 for creating NoP and its amazing literary universe.
CW: Descriptions of desecrated bodies (just your ordinary sapient cattle farm)
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Memory transcription subject: Oscar Williams, UN Marine
Date [standard human time]: December 3, 2136
With the hum of the cars’ engines tapering off, everything turned quiet, far too quiet. The only sound bar my own breathing was the wind making its way through cracks in the building’s metal shell. Gunfire should’ve been raining down on us by now. The building in front of was at least the size of a football field and going by the faint, but disgusting, smell of the poor victims, the place was packed. There was no way only the about two dozen scalies we eliminated worked here.
Where was the fight? Were all of them hiding inside? We couldn’t have gotten all of them before, right? Well, there’s only one way to find out where the fuckers were hiding.
Richards lined us up next to the large pair of doors separating us from the farm and a soldier from another squad grabbed a handheld battering ram. I doubted the door would hold after just a few hits with a rock but speed was of the essence. The faster we cleared out the arxur infestation, the more people would survive. I wasn’t about to let anyone else die in that hell. My grip around my rifle tightened and time almost seemed to slow down when the first hit was winded up.
We were quietly signaled to step back from the door and with just one hit with the battering ram the lock was separated from the rest of the door. The force from the hit slammed the door open and we promptly stormed in through the opening. But no gunfire met us. The inside was just as deserted as the outside had been. We had entered what seemed to be some kind of warehouse, large crates strewn throughout the floor and deep freezers lining the walls. At that moment I desperately wished I was a mouth breather. The stench, that had previously been contained by the sheet metal walls, was now flooding into my nostrils. Manure, unwashed bodies, and rotten meat. I tried my best to focus on anything but the freezers but every single wall was covered with them. Wherever my eyes darted, more proof of the murders appeared. A dried splotch of blood, some tufts of fur, a bloody machete.
They took pride in it. Pride in this… They’re going to pay.
We crept through the wide open space, making our way from cover to cover. The dirt floor muffled any sound our footsteps would’ve made and we were only exposed for brief moments. If any arxur caught us, we wouldn’t be caught like a deer in headlights. After one of our many rushes between covers, I ended up next to one of the many freezers.
Oh god. My poor nostrils.
The smell had grown even stronger and when I glanced at the freezer I quickly realized why. It seemed to have lost power, going by the fact that it wasn't cold, and that the lid was ajar. The remains of a person, a person who had friends and family, were rotting away inside. My knuckles were turning white from how hard I gripped my rifle and my teeth felt like they were going to crack due to my jaw clenching so hard. I was going to repay them in kind. Those motherfuckers, wherever they were.
When I stood up, en route to the next cover, my eyes caught a glimpse of the inside of the freezer. Pieces of mangled body parts filled the bottom of the box and a swarm of insects swarmed around something in the middle and-
Retch
Parts of yesterday’s meal filled my mouth when I realized what was hiding under the swarm. A severed venlil head with empty eye sockets stared back at me. Blood had dripped down from the sockets, painting long streaks of orange in the white fur. The head’s mouth was locked in an expression of terror and pain and the neck looked like it had been ripped off from the venlil’s body. Part of the spine hung limp beneath the neck and, knowing arxur, I doubted the venlil had been dead during the ripping.
As soon as I found out where they were- Where the hell were the arxur?
Realization suddenly flashed through my mind. Of course those cowards had fled. Fled their just punishment that I had sworn to deliver. My grip around my rifle tightened when I thought about the fuckers running this farm. They’d almost certainly escape justice, and there was in all likelihood nothing I could do about it. If only I could convince Olivia to hunt them down like they deserved.
My train of thought was brought to an abrupt end when we reached the other side of the warehouse. The door on this wall was far smaller, clearly just used by personnel. And it didn’t even have a lock. Maybe they decided to take cover behind this smaller choke point. I immediately squashed the idea in my mind as soon as I thought of it. They weren’t disciplined enough to not rush us with nothing but their natural weaponry.
My theory was quickly being proven true when we rushed into the next room. There wasn’t a single arxur in sight, but the sheer amount of victims more than made up for their absence. We had emerged on some kind of raised walkways, overlooking cramped pits filled with aliens sleeping in the most abhorrent conditions. The air reeked of unwashed bodies, feces, and many other disgusting smells I didn’t even recognize. The victims in the pits looked even worse for wear than the rest of this dilapidated building. Several of the harchen in the closest pit were covered in deep gashes and some even missed entire body parts.
Torture, there was no other explanation. Those fucking crocs.
As I looked around at the other pens, it was quickly made evident that the treatment of the harchen was more of a rule than an exception. Over in another pit, several krakotl had been completely plucked, and what I assumed to be words had been branded onto their backs. Despite my deep hatred for most of their governments, I couldn’t find it in myself to be mad at anyone here. They’d more than likely been captured long before they even knew earth was still inhabitable and even if they weren’t, they still didn’t deserve this torture.
This was so much worse than I thought. Of course it would be horrible but this, how-
Nausea quickly filled my thoughts and before I could even bend over, today's lunch spilled out of my mouth, and I wasn’t alone. At least a third of my fellow soldiers had the same reaction as me.
Good to know I’m not the only empathetic person here. Maybe they’ll agree that the arxur deserve to be treated like their prey after this. Oh, what I would do if I caught any of them.
“HELP!”
The krakotl’s hoarse scream sent a shiver down my spine. It sounded like they hadn’t used their voice for years. I hastily pulled up my bandana and checked that my visor blocked my entire face. I didn’t dare think about what would happen if they realized we were predators.
“P- P- Please help us…”
The screaming had quickly woken up the rest of the aliens who were looking at us with a mix of bewilderment, fear and hope. My eyes darted around the pens while my mind prayed that they wouldn’t land on anyone that recognized our ‘arboreal’ eyes. After what felt like the longest five seconds of my life, I finally allowed myself to breathe a sigh of relief. If no one had fainted yet, they probably didn’t know we were human.
“We’ve come to rescue you, you’re going to get out of here. Just stay calm.”
Richards immediately took command of the situation, preventing widespread panic from the aliens.
“T- T- Thank you… Is the f- f- federation winning?”
The brave krakotl who asked us for help clearly thought we were from the federation and I silently thanked god everyone else seemed to believe the same thing. If they didn’t there would be pandemonium. Those poor souls must’ve seen arxur bloodshed every single day. I could barely imagine how terrified they would be if our identity was revealed. In their eyes we would be nothing but another species of predators and this was the worst possible place to try convincing them we weren’t.
“We’re just going to make sure there are no arxur left in the building, then we’re getting you out of there. We’ll be back before you know it.”
Avoiding the question. I really hoped Richards didn’t tip off the aliens about us there. At least she didn’t deny that we were from the feds. As long as we got out of there as quickly as possible, everything would be fine.
“I- I- saw them leaving. They were a- a- angry, and before they l- l- left they- they…”
The krakotl lifted their wing and shakily pointed towards a dark corner of the room as their voice faltered. Some kind of poles with clumps in the middle filled the corner but any more detail was masked under the veil of darkness. Carefully avoiding looking at the flickering lamps filling the building with light, I turned on my night vision goggles and as soon as my brain registered what it was seeing, I wished that I had been born blind. The poles were wooden stakes and the clumps were the mutilated corpses of a dozen aliens. Deep gashes stretched across their abdomen and their intestines were pouring out of the holes. Not even their heads were spared. They were nigh unrecognizable from blunt force trauma and one of the victims still had the hammer buried in their face. Disgust and rage flared up within me, almost stronger than I’d ever felt before. I wanted to vomit and chop arxur into small pieces at the same time.
Why do they fucking exist? Why the fuck do I have to fucking see this. How can someone… do something like this? And why did we let them escape? Wait, the faster I clear this building, the faster we can hunt them down.
“You’re safe now, we’re getting you off this planet. Squad, we’re make sure there are no arxur left on the premises.”
Sergeant Richards’ command immediately pushed me to act. While about half our our force moved to clear out the rest of the building, my squad rushed for the back door at the other end of the cattle pens. We quickly made our way outside into a large yard, the dirt ground stretching several dozen meters from the building before slowly morphing into a field. In the distance, several large piles of timber were piled high next to a large, deforested area. The only feasible place for the arxur to hide on this side of the compound was the shack that stood at the edge of the yard. In contrast to the concentration camp, this building actually looked relatively structurally sound. Thick concrete walls, a door made of something other than sheet metal, and a roof with only a few visible holes. That was incredibly impressive for an arxur.
Just gotta check this shack, then we can start chasing the fuckers.
Following Richards’ directions, we quickly began making our way towards the building. Reminding myself there was no time to spare, I sprinted ahead of the others and squeezed through the slightly ajar door. A loud slam emanated from behind me as the door shut behind me and I emerged into something that almost looked like living quarters. Several bedrolls were laid out on the ground, piles of equipment were scattered across the floor, and a large scaly repti-
SHIT SHIT SHIT!
They hadn’t left. Those fuckers just laid in ambush, waiting for me to let my guard down. Its hideous body sat on one of the bedrolls, radiating bloodlust. I could feel its eyes bore deep into my soul, sending an involuntary shudder down my spine. Every single part of it was tailor made to kill, and nothing else. It could easily rip off my limbs with its massive claws, and then chop them into tiny pieces with its razor sharp teeth if I was careless.
Can’t be careless then. That fucker isn’t going to walk out of here alive. If I’m going down, it’s going down with me.
I instinctively threw myself to the ground, raising my rifle to take out my target. My rifle was aimed directly at the unarmed creature’s head, through the chain-link fence sectioning off the arxur from me. Just before I pulled the trigger, my brain connected the contradictory information, stopping me from firing from sheer bewilderment.
Why the fuck did that thing not have a weapon? And why were they in some kind of improvised prison?
“Hey! Oscar, the door’s locked. What’s your status?”
David’s voice and a loud banging on the door I just passed through snapped me back to reality. I was locked away from my squad in a room full of arxur. The same species that fucking impailed a dozen people out there. And here they were, right in front of me, behind a chain-link fence. Red flashed before my eyes as I realized what was happening.
They were trying to fool us. And those morons thought I wouldn't notice. They put up that barbed wire, trying to exploit our empathy. We’d try to imprison them, and then they’d strike. And they would have succeeded, had I not been alone.
I slowly stood back up, and shuffled backwards until I stood flush against some kind of railing. The multiple arxur that were hiding behind the chain-link looked at me with unreadable expressions but I could noticeably see their eyes widen as I raised my rifle.
Finally realizing the jig is up? They were going to pay for for the people they fucking impailed, for the venlil whose head they fucking ripped of, and for the fucking cradle.
All I had to do was tell the white lie that they attacked me and open fire. Then my squad wouldn’t be murdered and justice would finally be served. The arxur remained quiet as mice as I prepared to enact justice, probably in shock from their stupid ploy being seen through. I was eternally thankful that they were so stupid. The anger that had filled my entire system slowly melted away, being replaced by satisfaction at their imminent demise. Right as I was about to press down on the trigger one of the arxur began speaking but as I looked for the culprit I saw that all their mouths were shut. The voice was high pitched, almost childlike, and it echoed from… below.
What the-
“Hi, what are you? You look really cool!”
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Is Oscar being a bit delusional? Should he analyze the situation a bit more objectively? Possibly, but where's the fun in having completely sane characters.
Anyways, the two protagonists are about to meet. Will said meeting remain entirely civil or will Oscar "accidentally" drop a grenade into the pit? We'll find out next time.

This thread got me thinking... we are about to see a huge influx of a new kind of unemployed: unemployed, unemployable managers. We are about to see greatest meltdown of unemployed middle management in history, and it's not going to be pretty, it's potentially going to be 20-40 years of political problems, boomers all over again.
Maybe we're already seeing this with all the semi-psychotic alt-right rage-bros. But the wave I'm talking about is the result of ChatGPT and the general collapse of the old economy. ChatGPT can do planning, task assignment, business management, accounting--it makes it much easier to work for yourself and start your own business. The number of self-employed freelancers is about to skyrocket, decimating the management class.
We are going to see a new kind of bougie demand for handouts and the creation of useless jobs managers would like to have (such as government administrative jobs). Hopefully this will coincide with demand for better public welfare, but I think we can be cynical here and predict that it will not. The ex-manager polity will demand free handouts that can only be received by people who were already wealthy or leaving management jobs. In a way, this is a democratization of "too big to fail" to the upper-middle class (but all this does is deepen the financial serfdom of everyone else).
We will see a new discourse around these poor, forgotten middle-managers spring up. News articles will be written about how nobody is hiring managers anymore, "nobody wants to be managed", poor middle manager lost his home that he agreed to be in debt peonage to for 30+ years because he couldn't find another job as a middle manager, poor middle manager is confused about why his skills are no longer marketable. (It will be a primarily male, reactionary movement.)
As minimum wage (or market wages) and all the paperwork associated with running a business or being part of a company increases, it is increasingly the fact that only the most exploitative businesses can exist. Mere profit is not enough--in the environment of inflation + currency scarcity + massive red tape, only hyperprofits allow a business to remain in existence. Why does it cost half a million dollars to make even the simplest app? Why, because every single person associated with the project needs to be paid $200/hour--$120/hour for their salary and the rest for taxes and hiring expenses. Why are Hollywood movies so expensive and so stereotyped? Hmmm, maybe it has something to do with the fact that the credits for an average movie now contain tens of thousands of names, and each of those persons is being compensated with a comfortable middle-class paycheck?
I think everyone should live comfortably / be paid well, but I don't think we can ignore the receding boundaries of the blessed circle of capital, or the Capitol we could call it. Capitol companies are those that can offer a stable job, a living wage, even a career. Everything else--Uber, gigs, selling used things on eBay, doing local jobs under-the-table--is something that the mainstream economy and bougie people consider underpaid work that, if we examined it, would be deemed illegal by their standards.
Corporations are increasingly pay-me cartels, groups of people whose first job is the discursive production of their own class and the necessity that they remain at that class. How can an employee of a company possibly function without a comfortable income that allows them to rent an incredibly overpriced apartment in the city? The fact that this argument is presented in the terms, "How can we pay the bare minimum to allow our employees to function physically?", is now so normalized that employees advocate for themselves this way: Their class is justified in the terms of capital itself. They don't have a job unless, first of all, they produce this discourse together, mutually reinforcing and supporting each other's bid for class-production.
This class-production discourse is failing, about to fail, for the managerial class, because of advances in AI. I don't hear any individual concept artists complaining about being replaced by AI--I just hear companies complaining about copyright. However, I do think we are going to hear the managers complaining, because they were in a cushy position of getting to boss others around and get paid for it, and now those jobs are going to be disappearing faster than other jobs.

The trivialization of doping in Jiu-Jitsu and the biggest fallacies in defense of its use.
Contrary to what people want to believe, the biggest advantage of those who use these resources is not the strength itself at the time of the fight, which should be welcomed, but the ability to recover faster from strenuous training sessions and injuries. If it were just the benefit of strength itself, some not well-versed could accept the argument that “Jiu-Jitsu is not strength, so put a weightlifter there to see if he wins”, but this is an argument from those who think about steroids as the thing that makes you bloated and muscular, when in reality the biggest benefit is different. In cycling, for example, there are no athletes with large muscle mass, so there are several cases of athletes caught using doping, even when strict control are applied.
Within everything I've heard and read about it, I'll say again that the biggest benefit is the possibility of much faster recovery between one workout and another and coming back from injuries faster. While one athlete arrives at the end of the week exhausted and in need of rest, the other is able to continue training without feeling drained. It then becomes a matter of logic: among athletes of similar levels, if one can train more than the other, whoever trains more has an advantage.
It is known that there have always been people using drugs to improve performance in training and championships, but those who used or still use them do not usually admit it outside their circle of intimate friends. For me, this is the biggest proof that whoever does it knows they are cheating. This person is ashamed to publicly assume their behaviour, as he secretly wonders if he would be capable of the same achievements if he were clean. Therefore, he does not want the public to raise concerns about his ability to achieve the same results, because, within himself, he bets he would not.
“The use of anabolic steroids does not make a person good at Jiu-Jitsu.” This is a common argument from those who defend those who test positive in the anti-doping test, but again it starts from a wrong premise, that the purpose of use is just to gain strength. The drug itself doesn't make anyone good at Jiu-Jitsu or even become good at strategies involving competition. If I were to give steroids to a lady walking on the Copacabana promenade, she won't enter and win any championship. But think of your gym partner who trains the hardest with you, that balanced out training, which you win one day and he beats you the next. You are always pulling and encouraging yourself to improve. Did you think of anyone? Now give this guy an enhancer. Will he have an advantage or not? The answer is yes and ends with the initial argument, which is a reasoning that only thinks about gaining strength, so it is used in the wrong circumstances and therefore leads to wrong conclusions. Faced with this example, I can still argue that yes, the use of anabolic steroids can make a person good at Jiu-Jitsu, as it allows them to train more often, bringing about faster technical evolution, if we consider that training evolves. Still using the same example with this training partner who now started to use enhancers. Imagine that before, he did 5 workouts a week and now he can do twice as much, because it doesn't take as long as for him to rest or recover from an injury. At the end of 12 months you trained 260 times and he trained 520. If the next year you stay clean and he doesn't, he will have accumulated 1040 trainings and you will have 520. It's like he advances two years for every year of training you did . Can you imagine how much more Jiu-Jitsu techniques evolve in someone who initially has a similar level to his, but manages to train twice as much? So I could even say that the use of anabolic steroids can actually make a person good at Jiu-Jitsu. Robbing a bank can also make a person rich, but I don't want to get rich that way. It goes from how you want to achieve your dreams and goals.
I can imagine some people arguing that “so I take it too”. Got it, but then it would be you and him getting undue advantage over two other friends or opponents from another gym. What's the problem? The problem with that is that it's illegal, it's prohibited, so whoever does it and enters a championship like the IBJJF that forbids it in the rules, is cheating.
A simpler and more direct example. If it were possible a confrontation between you and your identical version, but that makes use of these anabolic steroids. Who gets the advantage? Those who ask themselves know the answer and when they know it, it is impossible to support any defense of its use, unless the illegality in the rules and the health risks are disregarded.
"Those who don’t want to use it, simply don’t." When reading about the undue advantages of those who take it, without listing the health risks, it might even seem like an excuse. If it speeds up recovery from fatigue and injuries, should I take it? Let's ignore that it's against the rule for a moment, as I know that there are events that don't test and one could argue that in those events it's not illegal. Yet there are health hazards that some people are not willing to deal with..
“If you test everyone, there’s not one single person that will be clean.” This phrase has become a cliché in BJJ, as well as the idea that “you can only be a champion by taking enhances, because everyone takes them”. Phrases that also start from wrong premises, first because it is not true that everyone takes it, although many of those at the top do. What must be remembered is that there are those who prefer to respect the rules and not use enhancers, even if they have become a minority. These people may be eliminated in the early rounds or even in the qualifying stages. Those who are wronged are likely to be people much closer to yours and my reality than the reality of those false champions created in the laboratories. When you decide to admire someone who makes use of these subterfuges, you are choosing as an example someone who wins by cheating. I go back to giving the example of the person with financial success, because it is easy to understand, I admire those who conquer financial independence through honest work, even if their wealth is less than that person who achieved greater amounts, however dishonestly.
“I had to use it to keep up with the others” If you understand that using it is illegal, that by using it your opponent is cheating, do you want to do the same as him? I understand that you might feel wronged, but is your response to this to become equal? If that's your justification, I don't think you think any differently than who uses it.
“You have to take into account that I am older and fighting against the new generations” But the rule does not change according to age. There are categories for each age, if you choose to venture out with the younger ones, that doesn't give you the right to use enhancers. At least in championships that the rule prohibits it. It would be like signing up for a Jiu-Jitsu championship, being punished by knocking out my opponent with a punch and feeling wronged. NO, the rule is clear regarding the prohibition of punches, as well as the use of doping. If, due to age, the athlete is no longer able to face the younger ones, enter the category of the older ones or retire from competitions. Natural order. In addition, the veteran who assumes the use, leaves in the air the doubt that if in fact he was not already using it since he was young. If there are championships that don't test, why don't they fight only those? No one is obliged to fight in the only federation that tests it, the IBJJF, even so, everyone wants to, because they know it is the most prestigious one. The strategy is not a secret, they use it indiscriminately and seek the title and recognition by the IBJJF, if they are eventually caught in the weak test, they still enjoy the notoriety until the exam is released. They give more seminars, close sponsorships and are invited to compete in other paid events while they wait to pass the punishment deadline without fighting at the IBJJF. When it's over, they fight back and do it all over again. There are already athletes who have been caught more than once. They are not scared, as the punishment is not valid for other events and the number of people who still manage to defend it is alarmingly growing.
“But it's unfair to only test the champion” This phrase is a smokescreen against the real problem. Of course, the ideal is to test everyone and with more efficient tests, but it is financially unfeasible for now. Faced with this fact and the fact that this is usually said when someone “gets caught”, the phrase becomes just a distraction. Better to test only the champion than nobody at all, just as it is better to arrest only one assailant than none at all. Can you imagine someone arguing that it is unfair to arrest just one robber because it is impossible to arrest everyone?
“There is no undue advantage, I just do hormone replacement” an athlete told me trying to convince me. I was curious to understand better and I learned about it. In fact, there are some cases where hormone replacement is necessary, they are very specific cases or for much older people, over 65 years old. This black belt who told me that, a Brazilian champion in the adult category, saw absolutely nothing wrong with taking hormone replacement. As he was younger than me, I asked him at what age he had started and without any shame he said that at eighteen, only in doses to adjust the recommended levels. He was convinced that this was okay. I discovered that it is normal for athletes over thirty or forty who started using testosterone at a very young age to actually need to replace it, as the body stops producing it naturally. I cannot accept that these cases serve as excuses or justification for normalizing use.
“I've already been tested and I wasn't caught in doping” is not the same thing as saying with all the words “I've never used prohibited substances, I'm against it and anyone who does is cheating”. Have you ever asked yourself why you haven't heard from the lips of some great champions the repudiation of those caught in doping? I'll give you a hint, it's for the same reason certain politicians don't celebrate the arrest of other corrupt politicians. Deep down, they're just thinking "Thank God" for not being the ones to get caught.
Ask these 3 questions to your sports idols: 1) Do you use or have you used any substance to improve performance? 2) Do you consider that whoever uses this is cheating? 3) In your opinion, should athletes who have already been caught in the anti-doping exam be banned from fighting all events?
If they stutters when they answers, you may be suspicious. Most don't have the courage to assume it, but some, on the other hand, are already no longer ashamed and trying to normalize the use. In 2015, I heard a five-time black belt world champion, speaking at a crowded dinner table for anyone who would listen, so it shouldn't be a secret, the following statement: “The way the IBJJF tests, only on the day and with a urine test, only those who are very stupid are caught in doping. It is enough to use it accompanied by a good doctor who knows when to stop and that way the substance leaves the body before the test day, without disturbing the benefits during training”. I trained with several teams, lived with several athletes. I've heard confessions of using it from their own mouth or even from their training partners. I'm not saying this because I want to point out a specific person, and I don't even need to, anyone in the field already knows, but I see the problem as being greater than accusing just one individual, I'm just saying this because I see that they're trying to normalize something that can't be accepted in Jiu-Jitsu. Its use has become banal and that scares me, but not as much as realizing that defending its use has been broad and open, not only by athletes, but also by practitioners who use it as a hobby. They lost the shame of defending doping and seeking justifications for it. Even among students who are not professional athletes, who sometimes do not even compete or only do it sporadically, are using it indiscriminately. I consider this a dangerous path. It is possible to win fairly without enhancers. I speak not only based on my achievements, but also based on other champions I've seen rise to the top. Think about which choice suits you best and think that, for those who use it, it must be horrible to go home, look at the medal table and wonder if they would have being able to win them without enhancers
Wrote by black belt World Champion Felipe Costa

My name is Evaline and my sister who is vital to this as well is named Vivian and we are twins aged twenty-three. Yesterday we went on a graveyard investigation, and I don't think we came back alone.
We pulled up to the graveyard In Vivians beat up red bug. She shut off the car and looked over to me.
“I have a weird feeling, Evaline, are you sure you want to do this?” asked Vivian.
“Oh yeah everyone keeps telling me about this place!” I exclaimed.
As we exited the car and walked up to the property Vivian turned on the ghost box (A tool used for communicating with ghosts by scanning through radio frequencies and white noise).
The ghost box said one word very abruptly “STOP.”
We looked at each other with puzzled faces.
“Do you not want us here?” asked Vivian.
“STOP.’ Came through the ghost box again.
“Uh color me crazy but I think we should still go in.” I said.
Vivian looked at me for a moment and then agreed we heard one final “STOP.” as we entered and then it was dead silent for 15 minutes.
We were walking around when my sister Vivian stopped and looked at a specific tree. This tree is twisted looking literally it has two parts to it that twist together to make sort of an arch way.
“A woman is over there.” Vivian whispered and pointed towards the tree (Vivian Is a medium by the way)
“Well let’s go check It out.” I enthusiastically said.
As we reached the tree the ghost box said the name “ANNIE.”
Vivian Greeted Annie and asked her why she was there.
But I was more Interested In trying to find Annie’s headstone.
“Hey, ask her for her last name!” I shouted over to Vivian who gave me a thumbs up.
I walked further away scanning all the different headstones with my flashlight. Some of these guys are really old, like 17th century old.
“Maybe that’s why it’s so haunted.” I thought to myself.
As I looked up to scan the next headstone, I saw a figure of a man standing by a headstone. “Holy shit where'd he come from?” I thought “Hey Vivian do you see hi-” I cut off because when I pointed back to where I saw him no one was there.
“Okaayyy.” I said in a hushed tone “I’m just going to go walk over there and see what the headstone says.” I made my way over to the headstone.
“Oh no way Vivian come over here, look who I found!” I shouted
“What’s up, what'd you find?” Vivian asked excitedly.
She looked down as I shined my flashlight on the fading stone the words “Annie Forester Beloved Mother and Wife” were shown.
“ME.” Said the ghost box We both looked at each other. We normally don’t get very intelligent responses so this was a big deal.
“What happened to you Annie?” I asked “HUNG.”
“Oh Jesus, that took a dark turn.” I said
“Evaline, stop it.” Vivan shouted, "Can you tell us why?” she asked,
“WITCH.”
“Oh she must have been a part of the old witch hunts that happened all through England and Ireland.” Vivian said
“Yeah but why are you still here Annie?” I asked Nothing happened for a good five minutes before the response
“TO PROTECT” came through.
“Protect what Annie?” I asked another few minutes pass by before the ghost box says “THE LAND”
“Huh that's awfully sweet of you do you make sure the living are safe?” Asked Vivian
“YES” the ghost box replied almost Immediately
“LEAVE” It says.
“Why do you want us to leave?” I asked
“Yeah what's wrong Annie?” Asked Vivian
“HIM”
“Who is him?” Asked Vivian
“PLEASE GO”
Those were the last words the ghost box said for another twenty minutes
“Maybe we should go, it's been a while and we haven't gotten anything else.” Said Vivian
I Looked around the graveyard I had a bad feeling
“Yeah lets get outta here this place is starting to creep me out.” I said as I stood and shook myself off trying to get rid of the odd energy.
We packed up all of our things and headed to the entrance. We said a prayer so nothing negative would follow us and threw our bags in the trunk. As I opened the door I slumped down In the passenger seat.
“Phew.” I breathed
“We got some pretty good stuff from Annie. I just wanna know who the mysterious him is.” Giggled Vivian
The drive home was uneventful but I couldn’t shake that odd energy from my body.
“Hey Viv do you feel weird or is that just a me thing?” I asked looking over at Vivian
“Mmm yeah ever since we left I felt odd, hopefully it's just our nerves.” Vivian said with a warm smile. But something was hidden behind the warmth of her smile : fear.
We pulled up to the house and unloaded our bags onto the kitchen table. It's become sort of a ritual at this point, every time we finish an investigation we unpack and load in all the recordings to listen to with high quality noise canceling headphones. We also order some kind of takeout tonight's meal of champions was Chinese food my favorite.
I stirred together my orange chicken and rice as I pawed through the recordings settling on the third one when Annie mentions “HIM”. The recording fills my ears as I intently listen.
“LEAVE.” Says the ghost box
“Why do you want us to leave?” you can hear us asking
“HIM” the ghost box says
“Who is him?” Vivian’s voice says
I listen closely as silence fills the space
“I'm Him.” A deep voice says not over the voice box but right next to the recorder.
I screamed and jumped out of my seat throwing the headphones on the ground.
“What what what!” Says Vivian
“Oh hell no, that sounded like satan.” I said laughing In disbelief
I rewinded the recording so Vivian could hear it. I saw her face turn into a huge grin.
“Now this is solid stuff we have to go back there!” Exclaimed Vivian
“Yeah I'm down but you're reviewing the tapes next time that voice is creepy.” I said with a smile
“Deal!” Said Vivian as she stuck her hand out for a hand shake. I took it and shook hands.
“I'm gonna get ready for bed Viv goodnight!” I yelled as I walked away
“Goodnight!” yelled Vivian
I stepped into the poorly lit bathroom and turned on the shower
“That voice is seriously creepy.” I muttered to myself as I took out my High ponytail and let my dark brown curls bounce down to my shoulders. My hair always did look nice with my pale skin
“Thanks to you mom.” I said looking up at the ceiling
I stepped into the shower and started washing my hair when I heard something fall.
I opened the shower curtain to see the culprit my cat Leo
“Oh Leo you're going to be the death of me.” I puffed out closing the shower curtain again
Another crash comes from outside the shower curtain
“Leo Get ou-” I ripped open the curtain to find the toilet paper holder in the sink
I stared dumbfounded as to how my small cat could have body builder lifted the toilet paper holder into the sink.
“VIIIIVIAN” I screamed
Heavy footsteps pound down the hallway but no Vivian
“Vivian?” I called
Pounding assaulted the walls to the point they were vibrating as the footsteps continued
“VIVIAN” I endlessly scream for what seems like hours until the door bursts open and the walls stop pounding immediately
“Are you okay, what's wrong, what's going on?” Exclaimed Vivian with a very worried look.
“You didn't hear me screaming for you?” I sobbed
“No, I just now heard you and came in. What happened?” asked Vivian
I told her all of the events that had just occurred she looked towards the sink and back to me with a confused face
“The toilet paper holder isn't in the sink Evaline.” She said pointing towards the sink which was in fact empty
“What no I swear it was!” I exclaimed
“I believe you Evaline you never cry it's just odd try and get some sleep okay maybe you're really tired? Cooed Vivian
“Yeah maybe” I said
I finished my shower without any problems and climbed into bed.Covering myself with the plushy blanket I let sleep take me over.
“Evaline wake up!” Vivian yell whispered as she shook me awake
“What's going on?” I groggily asked and then I heard it pounding on the walls but it was everywhere The walls were all slightly shaking
“Is this what happened in the bathroom?” Vivian asked me
“Yeah pretty much just not as loud.” I said standing up I'm gonna go check it out stay her Vivian
“You're that white girl that dies in the horror movie.” Vivian said with a smirk
I shook my head and stepped out into the hallway. Literally all of the walls seemed to be buzzing with the pounding. I made my way past the family portraits and got to the back door slowly putting my hand on the door knob and twisting it till I quickly pulled it open and the pounding stopped. I Looked around the dark backyard and I noticed something: the figure of a man standing by our fence. I looked closer trying to get a better look it was definitely a man.
I turned around to grab the bat sitting on our porch.
“Hey buddy you better beat it!” I yelled, turning back with bat in arm to see he was gone.
“Weird.” I thought and went back inside the house. I closed the back door and turned to walk back to Vivian when I saw the shadowy man standing right in front of me.
“AH-” I started to scream but the air seemed to be sucked from my lungs and the only thing that came out was a small peep.
“I don’t like you creatures.” The man said in a voice I can’t even begin to describe. It wasn't human.
“But still you exist to only displease me.” He went on
“Who are you?” I stammered
“You wouldn't know the word but you gave a soul hope tonight which made her free of me so now I need another soul in return for the one you greedily took.” The man like thing said
“Annie?” I asked shakily
He made an odd gurgling crunching noise reminiscent of a laugh but sounded more like a garbage disposal.
“Obviously” he replied
“Now you're going to replace that soul.” He said calmly
“Evaline?” Vivian placed her hand on my shoulder
“Evaline Are you there helloooo?” Vivan said snapping her fingers in front of my eyes
“Yeah sorry Viv I just was thinking.” I replied
Now i'm writing this to you hoping someone out there knows what this thing is and how to get rid of it before I become the next soul to be taken by HIM.

This post is inspired by a recent analysis I saw on this subreddit earlier that challenges the idea that Oshi No Ko is a tragedy, which I have linked below. I find it a great read and would highly recommend everyone to check it out! Note that this post isn't meant to respond to the linked post below, but an independent analysis of why Oshi No Ko could be a tragedy.
https://www.reddit.com/OshiNoKo/comments/13u6ke8/an_analysis_of_oshi_no_ko_the_story_is_not_a/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
This analysis will be split into three parts:

1. An analysis of the elements of tragedy and how Oshi No Ko aligns with it
2. Certain points of foreshadowing specific to the story that points to certain characters' deaths
3. Other miscellaneous reasons for why it would make sense for Aka to make it a tragedy (and maybe why it wouldn't)

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1) Elements of tragedy
I'm still a bit of an amateur at literary analysis, so I would love for others to add more insight into this which I might have missed.
According to Aristotle, a tragedy has three main characteristics (hamartia, anagnorisis, and peripeteia) that align with 6 other elements in the story (plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle and music). I'll explain each element and how the manga connects to its tragic aspects (as well as tragic characteristics, where applicable).
Plot (The Uncontrollable)
Quite intuitively, Aristotle says tragedies are supposed to end in tragedy. Tbh, there's not much to discuss here, since any protagonist dying would be disastrous to the other characters (as well as the entire fandom). What is more interesting to discuss though, is the claim Aristotle makes, which is the tragic events that happen in the plot should be out of the tragic hero's control.
I give you our very likely tragic hero: Aqua (this is not an assertion. The characteristics I describe later throughout the analysis also give reasons for why Aqua's character lines up with a tragic hero's).
Interestingly enough, Aqua has had a long track record of doing insanely reckless things that have earned him the ire of other characters and fate himself. Two main examples are his response to Akane's suicide attempt early on in the manga, as well as his decision to suddenly reveal his and Ruby's relationship with Ai to the public. Both times, Aqua was criticized for the averse impacts his actions have had (even though he later solves the Akane situation with the raw footage video), and honestly were highly dependent on a lucky response from the public. Even during his previous life, the mf ran after a stalker into the woods at night AND TOWARDS THE EDGE OF A CLIFF without any thought about his safety whatsoever. Especially in his currently emotionally-driven and irrational state, if Aqua keeps up this trend of doing reckless things, he could very well provoke a response entirely out of his control that might bring his downfall.
Character (Hamartia)
According to Aristotle, a tragic hero must have hamartia: a tragic flaw that eventually leads to their downfall. In this case, Aqua's progression as a character seems to be driven by one very large motive: his unhealthy obsession with avenging Ai's death. Given the current point in the story (the 15-year lie movie arc) is completely based on his obsession with Ai, it gives the necessary buildup to have that character trait backfire on Aqua to kickstart the tragedy. There are also explicit criticisms of this flaw of his, such as Akane's active opposition to Aqua's self-destructive behaviour, as well as some implicit ones like the recent interaction between Aqua and the crow girl in chapter 118. In the chapter, the crow girl says that Ai didn't get reincarnated unlike Ruby and Aqua, and that maybe he should consider the reason he was reincarnated. To many (including myself), this could imply a suggestion that he should reconsider his current path and use this second life of his to the fullest. When he let go of his intent for revenge for Ai earlier (because he thought his father was dead), he started TRULY living like a normal person. It is more than possible that Aqua's obsession with revenge and Ai could be his hamartia.
Diction (Anagnorisis)
Diction in tragedy is based on anagnorisis: the sudden realization the tragic hero has about their situation, and that eventually leads them to their downfall. I believe we've already seen this anagnorisis in the manga: When Aqua realizes that his father is alive, and who Hikaru is.
This is the point where Aqua begins his downward spiral, and we see him start to revert to his vengeful, self-destructive arc. Except for this time, we see it amplified tenfold since his motives previously were somewhat diverted from the story painting his rise and development as an actor. Now that that's done, this particular downward spiral is centred solely on its purpose: revenge. This realization is the turning point to turn him into the self-destructive, hateful mess of a person he is currently; which is what leads us to the next element:
Thought (Peripeteia/Catharsis)
A tragedy isn't just a story of the protagonist suffering at the end of it. It is a rollercoaster that constantly builds up the disaster the more twisted the tragic hero becomes, until it drops; and there is a release of emotions within the audience. Pity, sadness, grief. Relief. It is not a sudden twist of events, not an unexpected ending. It is an outcome everyone sees coming and when it finally hits, it releases all that buildup in a burst of emotions. This is catharsis.
Catharsis is primarily built with three components. The character (as mentioned earlier) of the tragic hero must begin with a morally upstanding individual, who the audience grows to root for. Then the downward spiral of events as a result of the anagnorisis. Then the release of emotions in the eventual downfall/death of the character.
It's very easy to argue that Aqua resembles that morally upstanding person. Even in his previous life as Goro, he's had many feats that point to his strong moral foundation. The fact that he was a doctor signalled his desire to help others. That he cared about his patients (Sarina) so much to the point of even taking up their hobbies post their death in their honour. That he actively stuck to his obligations as a doctor rather than to his instincts as a fan when he was with Ai. Up to his life as Aqua, where he is portrayed as a great brother who truly cares for Ruby (quite intuitive, examples are sprinkled throughout the manga). Additionally, a very common trope in these tragedies is to have the morals of the tragic hero into their very own hamartia. Guess whose hamartia could also be seen as a product of his undying love for his mother as a good son? Aqua himself.
But at this stage of the manga, we no longer see that loving Aqua. We no longer see his compassion and start to see him become a more twisted and hateful person in the current arc. The majority of his appearances now feature him with a black star in his eyes, which is typically referred to as a symbol of lies and manipulation, often with killing intent (this would take a whole other analysis). But even without making these assumptions, we've already seen him do some terrible things, such as actively manipulating Kana by playing with her emotions, casting Akane aside despite her good intentions, exposing his and Ruby's relationship with Ai without Ruby's consent, etc. I'm sure all of us still love Aqua and truly want to see him come out of this alive, but for most people, it is undeniable that he is the same compassionate, empathetic individual he was at the start of the story. That is the second component of catharsis to a tick.
The part we haven't seen yet is the ACTUAL release of catharsis, the horrific events that happen to the tragic hero at the end of the story. We haven't gotten to that part at this point in the plot yet, but since the first two components are present, it is fair to assume that the final release is impending.
Spectacle (Realism)
There's not much to discuss about spectacle here tbh, since this isn't a live play. However, Aristotle's view on tragedies is for them to work, they have to imitate reality to an extent to make them relatable to the viewer. We can see the manga adhere to this rule by not only using realistic settings but also tackling realistic issues related to the entertainment industry. This doesn't mean anything though, since it's a manga. Just wanted to point that out.
Music
Yeah, nothing much to discuss here. This is a manga, there's no music. The anime music banging though!
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2) Foreshadowing
"Yeah OP, you have a long essay about what a tragedy is and all, but what if I don't buy any of that?"
I wouldn't blame you. That's the whole point of starting this discussion with the analysis! But here are two more examples that I think foreshadow Aqua's tragic end.
Some might say this is a stretch, but I find it interesting why Aqua ended up playing the villain while filming the Sweet Today adaptation in the Entertainment World arc. He even explicitly mentions the irony of it all, playing the "stalker that killed Ai." But it is never brought up again throughout the manga. I can understand it being a lone tongue-in-cheek irony thing, but for a writer like Aka who is always so comprehensive with his motifs and symbolism even in this manga, it doesn't rule out the possibility that this was foreshadowing Aqua's eventual dark path. Also, the stalker ended up committing suicide after killing Ai. Which has also been expressed as Aqua's plan once he kills his father. Make of that what you will.
In addition, an enigmatic character who is showing some rising relevance in the story is the crow girl, who is not only a supernatural character, but also has some semblance of being a deity of death (crows are also a very widely-used symbol of death). We never truly see her before her appearance in the Private Arc, but when she interacted with Aqua and Ruby, both of them seemed familiar with her. They both may have met her somewhere off-screen during their reincarnations. The reason I bring her up is that the three appearances she makes, it often has to do with death in some way. Be it a discussion about Gorou's death or Ruby's discovery of Gorou's corpse. The one appearance that doesn't seem to have much immediate proximity to the theme of death is her latest one in chapter 118. Yes, this is during an arc that is about revenge for Ai's death, and Aqua's pursuit for Hikaru's death, but this interaction doesn't seem as linked to those as her other appearances. This interaction with Aqua was not about a previous death; hence, the logical conclusion is that it foreshadows an impending one. And while some might argue that the death might be Hikaru's, I believe this to be a bit too random, and Hikaru's character too insignificant (development-wise) to make this about his death. Consider that of all the appearances Crow Girl has made thus far, they have all been about one other character's death and one character only. Aqua, and his previous life as Gorou.
I want to note that it's been a while since I've read the earlier parts of the manga, and presently am writing this largely off my memory (I also really can't find the time to do a comprehensive re-read up to the current point in the story while taking notes). If there are any other possible moments of foreshadowing I've missed, please bring them up in the comments since I would love to know as well!
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3) Miscellaneous/Meta
As we cross the 2k word mark, I would like to end with an additional comment about the series in itself, and why it might make sense to Aka to make this story end as a tragedy.
Unlikely his other massively popular series (an absolute masterpiece), Kaguya-sama, Oshi No Ko is a series dedicated to dark themes. It is a series that exposes the dark side of the entertainment industry, actively tackles potentially triggering themes about suicide and parental abandonment, and has shown no mercy to the prospect of making its readers squirm with shock, discomfort, and sadness. It is a series that began by killing off its protagonist and ending its FIRST arc with one of the hugest and most emotionally devastating twists in manga history. This sends a huge message to the audience: do not expect happy endings, this series is dedicated to making you cry. While it doesn't rule out the possibility of Aqua getting a happy ending, a tragic ending would absolutely be consistent with the narrative that the story has had so far.
That said, in a small point for devil's advocate, this is also a series that largely hinges on twists and moments that shock readers (in a very NON-comprehensive list, we have Ai's death, Akane's imitation of Ai, the discovery that Aqua's father is alive (at the time we thought he was dead), Ruby and Akane suddenly discovering Gorou's body, and Sarina's absent mother showing up as the distributor for the 15-year lie movie in the latest chapter). Aqua, who has long been saying he doesn't intend to live once he's enacted his revenge, kind of deviates from that trend. If HE were to die, that wouldn't exactly be a shock to the audience, since it's been a long time coming. In short, it is possible that all my previous analyses about the release of catharsis and the foreshadowing might've also worked as reasons AGAINST the story ending in Aqua's death since it counteracts the whole strategy of the manga getting its appeal from its twists.
Therefore, if this isn't about Aqua's death, then there's one other plausible way this could be turned into a tragedy. An event that would absolutely break Aqua and might turn him into an empty shell of the person he once was, POSSIBLY resulting in him taking his own life by proxy.
I'm talking about Akane Kurokawa's death.
I won't get into a whole other analysis about whether or not Akane's death is likely. But one thing the post I linked above and I agree with is, if someone were to die, it might be Akane. This is also a thought that is shared by a lot of fans in the community and has been arguably foreshadowed through her flawless imitation of (a now dead) Ai, her strong resolve to oppose Aqua's plan and save him (which might result in her doing some things that might end in her death, potentially also making Aqua feel responsible), and even more explicitly, that damn bridge scene in chapter 97 that made most of us think she was going to die. There are a lot of reasons to expect a possible Akane death in the near future, since it would not only be consistent with said foreshadowing but would also arguably have the same if not stronger tragic impact on Aqua and the Oshi No Ko fandom if she were to die. I pray that I am wrong, but these are my speculations for now.
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Conclusion
Long story short, this was an analysis that looked into the elements of a tragedy and how the Oshi No Ko storyline thus far has fit within it. Independently of that, there are some additional reasons to suggest Aqua's death in the future; and if not, it MIGHT be Akane's (I REALLY HOPE I AM WRONG).
If you've read all 2.5k+ words of this analysis, thanks! I want to note that I am not a literary expert, and there are simply too many unresolved nuances to form a definite prediction on the outcome of the story now. Therefore, I'd love to hear some more of your thoughts in the comments and am very open to further discussion or debate on this matter. Hopefully, this has given some food for thought on the literary aspects of the series, and I can't wait to see where it goes!

What Is The Aurelian Empire?
The Aurelian Empire is a peaceful and diplomatic civilisation in the universe of "No Man's Sky". Originating in the Western edges of the Eissentam Galaxy. The Empire, throughout its history has expanded - through conquest or diplomacy - to encompass and directly rule a total of 266 systems, all of which centre around the home system of Regnum Solis.
The desire of the Empire is to invite and spread knowledge, experience, kindness, generosity, science and reason across the myriad of stars that make up the known universe. This community will be ever-present to contribute, aid and guide all travellers in their journey across the cosmos, no matter what form it may need to take.
So the legend has been told, two thousand years ago, the near-mythical founder of the Empire was born on the world of Alexandria Primus to humanoid parents. Named Aurelian by his mother and father, whose names were Isha and Tarrick, he lived a simple life for twenty-six years before necessity called for him to found his great Empire.
As the years has passed, the knowledge and teachings of Aurelian were passed from generation to generation, paving the way for an advanced wealthy and society of thinkers and scholars, architects and artists, scientists and inventors, explorers and pathfinders, who above all valued logic, reason, generosity and good will to all. These teachings, being exercised in the hands of Aurelian's descendants have allowed the Empire to reach out into the stars and leave their mark on the universe.
Our histories, lore and legends are of paramount importance to us and our identity and so we protect them fervently.
What Are The Citizens Of The Empire?
The citizens of the Aurelian Empire are known individually as a Praetorix, or plurally as Praetorixa . They can be identified by the colour of their capital ships, suits and bases, being styled in the traditional black, white and red. They choose to dedicate themselves to acquiring, freely sharing and teaching the knowledge and experienced they have gained with any who would seek it, free of monetary compensation, however no freely given donation will be turned away.
Within the Empire, there are various other ranks and titles by which citizens are known. There is no superiority or authority gained over any other citizen of the Empire by attaining a particular rank or title, rather it is a signifier of experience. The following ranks and titles, save for Praetorix, can only be granted by the Emperor of the Empire. They are as follows, (singulaplural) in order from "highest" to "lowest":

• Hetaera/Hetaeroi
• Strategos/Strategoi
• Legate/Legata
• Tribune/Tribuna
• Prefect/Prefecta
• Centurio/Centuria
• Praetorix/Praetorixa.

True citizens of the Empire, no matter their rank or title, who is flying our standard in any capacity, will never bare any ill will towards another traveller, whether they be a citizen or not. They will come open-palmed, and open-armed, present good will, kindness, generosity and an eagerness to assist in any way they can. They will accept and respect your opinions, life/playstyle and philosophies. They will gather and impart upon you also, inspiration, knowledge, experience and friendship from every encounter.
Who Is The Current Emperor Of The Aurelian Empire?
The current Emperor of the Aurelian Empire is a humanoid being known as Tiberius Magna Aurelianus, the last name being that of the founder of the Empire as per tradition. The official title of the Emperor is Invictus Imperator, and so the official title of the current Emperor would be Invictus Imperator Tiberius Magna Aurelianus.
The Emperor does not rule as an absolute monarch (thought hat is the extent of his power), however, and does hold close an inner circle known as Concilium Ferrum or the Council Of Iron. This inner circle is made up exclusively of the most experienced Hetaeroi, and acts not only as an advisory body to the Emperor himself but also as governors and diplomats of the ever-growing Empire.
How Can I Support And/Or Join The Aurelian Empire?
Support:

• Help other players by answering their questions on forums such as this one
• Help other players in-game, whether that be by building, exploring, collecting data, completing missions, or just hanging out
• Spread your wealth of knowledge and experience across the stars

If doing all of the above is innate to you, why not join and:

• Team up with other citizens of the Empire and build, learn, collect, create and discover together across the stars. Build outposts, farms, storage compounds and more
• Become part of a friendly and ever-growing community of helpful and open-minded travellers
• Make yourself familiar with the traditions and celebrations of the Aurelian Empire
• Contribute to the No Man's Sky wiki by discovering and learning all that you can
• Discover and claim new systems in the name of the Aurelian Empire
• Take a deep-dive into the lore of the Aurelian Empire or create your own character and submit it to u/PoisonPanc4ke for it to be approved and entered into the Lore.
• Be kind, be open-minded, be generous to and caring of your fellow traveller and citizen of the Empire. Lend a hand where you can, share your knowledge and expertise, support your fellow citizens and work together to create a truly wonderful and welcoming Aurelian Empire.

Supra Astra Ad Victoriam (Beyond The Stars To Victory)

Idk where I am heading to . I am lost , I just hope I could make something out of my life . Every other person has some goals or targets here , I don’t have any purpose in life, it’s like I am wasting my life . When I see people with blueprints of their life and openly discussing it with each other I just feel left out because I haven’t decided anything and I am fuckin scared but I still wake up everyday trying to understand everything and purpose of everything . Everyday I wake up to prepare for entrance exam and I don’t even know if I even passed the exam would it change my life for good or make it worse. Am I following my parents blindly to get their validation or attention? I haven’t figured out anything till now - where ever I am now it’s a hell hole. My life is now limited to my room wake up- study-eat-binge watch-sleep. And this time table has made me sick. I wanna live a real life , meet some people , discuss things, have a convo with them . Almost 5 days a week I don’t have anyone to talk to and other 2 days ( weekends ) my elder brother doesn’t talk to me much . And my parents makes it worse , they don’t let me go out much not even for 10 mins and my exams are near and the idea of me not getting accepted in college makes me precipitate and the face of disappointment my father would have on that day makes me wanna kms. I am dying inside but the small hope that everything would turn out great is making me alive.

This is just a vent. We're relatively happy just individuals fucked up by trauma and got married way too young. Don't think this is an accurate representation of our life. I'm just pissed.
I've got CPTSD, he's got ADHD (recent diagnoses and medicated). I'm the only one who does any real work on myself. It's like my entire personality is a trauma response and I'm just one big, ongoing, self improvement project. My beloved, however, just gets to take his meds and let Wifey handle all the shit he doesn't make space for. Which is a lot of stuff.
Medications don't work for me, so I don't get to be happily medicated until I find something that does work. The only thing that keeps me from the edge is the therapist once a week. So I'm constantly just at my wits end, trying to play catch up on "me time" and "self care" . Which isn't taken seriously by anybody else..
We had a fight a couple days ago about moving his mom in (my idea). And it wasn't even a fight, it was just him taking the opportunity to blow off steam by yelling at the only other person who's been in his fucking corner. He just acted like a complete brat and followed me around because he has stupid fucking abandonment issues just to yell at me about how he's suicidal and he has depression and emotional distress so he'd be so much happier if I was just gone.
He says he just "can't" work on himself, he can't live any other way, he can't developed better coping skills, he can't even be bothered with my concerns, my health, my issues, my needs. He can't contribute the home or to our plans unless I have already made the plan.
And I get that . YA KNOW WHY!? But again, nobody was there for me to pick up my fucking ass and my fucking mess, I just had to learn how to do it myself and function slightly better so shit got done.
God.. Anyway, it was just a dumb tantrum and I can't make him want to feel better. Afterwards, he profusely apologized and I explained to him that I can't function with him throwing a fit like this. I don't have the time or energy when MIL is moving in this week and we're house hunting. That I'll now have to find a way to self medicate just to keep afloat.
[Self medicate meaning wine and over the counter stimulants].
He tells me, "you don't have to function. you don't have to be put together" as in he's somehow being supportive by giving me permission to fall apart?
Ok well he might have that luxury but if someone doesn't keep it together than nothing will get done and EVERYTHING around us falls apart. He doesn't really mean it.. or maybe because he doesn't have to pay attention, he doesn't actually know what it would mean for me "not function".
And I'm about to fucking test it. He had the audacity to tell me "I can't" when he has a 6 figure job, premium fucking health insurance, driver's license, and a chick who has made it her life's mission to support and uplift him no matter what . I'm gonna show him that "can't" isn't a fucking option. I'm done with this dynamic. I'm done with him neglecting himself and acting as if I'm the one failing him.
Next time he asks me to do fucking anything, I'm telling him I can't function. He's gonna have to learn the way I did and it was such a mistake to enable this bullshit. It stops now one way or another.

The trivialization of doping in Jiu-Jitsu and the biggest fallacies in defense of its use.
Contrary to what people want to believe, the biggest advantage of those who use these resources is not the strength itself at the time of the fight, which should be welcomed, but the ability to recover faster from strenuous training sessions and injuries. If it were just the benefit of strength itself, some not well-versed could accept the argument that “Jiu-Jitsu is not strength, so put a weightlifter there to see if he wins”, but this is an argument from those who think about steroids as the thing that makes you bloated and muscular, when in reality the biggest benefit is different. In cycling, for example, there are no athletes with large muscle mass, so there are several cases of athletes caught using doping, even when strict control are applied.
Within everything I've heard and read about it, I'll say again that the biggest benefit is the possibility of much faster recovery between one workout and another and coming back from injuries faster. While one athlete arrives at the end of the week exhausted and in need of rest, the other is able to continue training without feeling drained. It then becomes a matter of logic: among athletes of similar levels, if one can train more than the other, whoever trains more has an advantage.
It is known that there have always been people using drugs to improve performance in training and championships, but those who used or still use them do not usually admit it outside their circle of intimate friends. For me, this is the biggest proof that whoever does it knows they are cheating. This person is ashamed to publicly assume their behaviour, as he secretly wonders if he would be capable of the same achievements if he were clean. Therefore, he does not want the public to raise concerns about his ability to achieve the same results, because, within himself, he bets he would not.
“The use of anabolic steroids does not make a person good at Jiu-Jitsu.” This is a common argument from those who defend those who test positive in the anti-doping test, but again it starts from a wrong premise, that the purpose of use is just to gain strength. The drug itself doesn't make anyone good at Jiu-Jitsu or even become good at strategies involving competition. If I were to give steroids to a lady walking on the Copacabana promenade, she won't enter and win any championship. But think of your gym partner who trains the hardest with you, that balanced out training, which you win one day and he beats you the next. You are always pulling and encouraging yourself to improve. Did you think of anyone? Now give this guy an enhancer. Will he have an advantage or not? The answer is yes and ends with the initial argument, which is a reasoning that only thinks about gaining strength, so it is used in the wrong circumstances and therefore leads to wrong conclusions. Faced with this example, I can still argue that yes, the use of anabolic steroids can make a person good at Jiu-Jitsu, as it allows them to train more often, bringing about faster technical evolution, if we consider that training evolves. Still using the same example with this training partner who now started to use enhancers. Imagine that before, he did 5 workouts a week and now he can do twice as much, because it doesn't take as long as for him to rest or recover from an injury. At the end of 12 months you trained 260 times and he trained 520. If the next year you stay clean and he doesn't, he will have accumulated 1040 trainings and you will have 520. It's like he advances two years for every year of training you did . Can you imagine how much more Jiu-Jitsu techniques evolve in someone who initially has a similar level to his, but manages to train twice as much? So I could even say that the use of anabolic steroids can actually make a person good at Jiu-Jitsu. Robbing a bank can also make a person rich, but I don't want to get rich that way. It goes from how you want to achieve your dreams and goals.
I can imagine some people arguing that “so I take it too”. Got it, but then it would be you and him getting undue advantage over two other friends or opponents from another gym. What's the problem? The problem with that is that it's illegal, it's prohibited, so whoever does it and enters a championship like the IBJJF that forbids it in the rules, is cheating.
A simpler and more direct example. If it were possible a confrontation between you and your identical version, but that makes use of these anabolic steroids. Who gets the advantage? Those who ask themselves know the answer and when they know it, it is impossible to support any defense of its use, unless the illegality in the rules and the health risks are disregarded.
"Those who don’t want to use it, simply don’t." When reading about the undue advantages of those who take it, without listing the health risks, it might even seem like an excuse. If it speeds up recovery from fatigue and injuries, should I take it? Let's ignore that it's against the rule for a moment, as I know that there are events that don't test and one could argue that in those events it's not illegal. Yet there are health hazards that some people are not willing to deal with..
“If you test everyone, there’s not one single person that will be clean.” This phrase has become a cliché in BJJ, as well as the idea that “you can only be a champion by taking enhances, because everyone takes them”. Phrases that also start from wrong premises, first because it is not true that everyone takes it, although many of those at the top do. What must be remembered is that there are those who prefer to respect the rules and not use enhancers, even if they have become a minority. These people may be eliminated in the early rounds or even in the qualifying stages. Those who are wronged are likely to be people much closer to yours and my reality than the reality of those false champions created in the laboratories. When you decide to admire someone who makes use of these subterfuges, you are choosing as an example someone who wins by cheating. I go back to giving the example of the person with financial success, because it is easy to understand, I admire those who conquer financial independence through honest work, even if their wealth is less than that person who achieved greater amounts, however dishonestly.
“I had to use it to keep up with the others” If you understand that using it is illegal, that by using it your opponent is cheating, do you want to do the same as him? I understand that you might feel wronged, but is your response to this to become equal? If that's your justification, I don't think you think any differently than who uses it.
“You have to take into account that I am older and fighting against the new generations” But the rule does not change according to age. There are categories for each age, if you choose to venture out with the younger ones, that doesn't give you the right to use enhancers. At least in championships that the rule prohibits it. It would be like signing up for a Jiu-Jitsu championship, being punished by knocking out my opponent with a punch and feeling wronged. NO, the rule is clear regarding the prohibition of punches, as well as the use of doping. If, due to age, the athlete is no longer able to face the younger ones, enter the category of the older ones or retire from competitions. Natural order. In addition, the veteran who assumes the use, leaves in the air the doubt that if in fact he was not already using it since he was young. If there are championships that don't test, why don't they fight only those? No one is obliged to fight in the only federation that tests it, the IBJJF, even so, everyone wants to, because they know it is the most prestigious one. The strategy is not a secret, they use it indiscriminately and seek the title and recognition by the IBJJF, if they are eventually caught in the weak test, they still enjoy the notoriety until the exam is released. They give more seminars, close sponsorships and are invited to compete in other paid events while they wait to pass the punishment deadline without fighting at the IBJJF. When it's over, they fight back and do it all over again. There are already athletes who have been caught more than once. They are not scared, as the punishment is not valid for other events and the number of people who still manage to defend it is alarmingly growing.
“But it's unfair to only test the champion” This phrase is a smokescreen against the real problem. Of course, the ideal is to test everyone and with more efficient tests, but it is financially unfeasible for now. Faced with this fact and the fact that this is usually said when someone “gets caught”, the phrase becomes just a distraction. Better to test only the champion than nobody at all, just as it is better to arrest only one assailant than none at all. Can you imagine someone arguing that it is unfair to arrest just one robber because it is impossible to arrest everyone?
“There is no undue advantage, I just do hormone replacement” an athlete told me trying to convince me. I was curious to understand better and I learned about it. In fact, there are some cases where hormone replacement is necessary, they are very specific cases or for much older people, over 65 years old. This black belt who told me that, a Brazilian champion in the adult category, saw absolutely nothing wrong with taking hormone replacement. As he was younger than me, I asked him at what age he had started and without any shame he said that at eighteen, only in doses to adjust the recommended levels. He was convinced that this was okay. I discovered that it is normal for athletes over thirty or forty who started using testosterone at a very young age to actually need to replace it, as the body stops producing it naturally. I cannot accept that these cases serve as excuses or justification for normalizing use.
“I've already been tested and I wasn't caught in doping” is not the same thing as saying with all the words “I've never used prohibited substances, I'm against it and anyone who does is cheating”. Have you ever asked yourself why you haven't heard from the lips of some great champions the repudiation of those caught in doping? I'll give you a hint, it's for the same reason certain politicians don't celebrate the arrest of other corrupt politicians. Deep down, they're just thinking "Thank God" for not being the ones to get caught.
Ask these 3 questions to your sports idols: 1) Do you use or have you used any substance to improve performance? 2) Do you consider that whoever uses this is cheating? 3) In your opinion, should athletes who have already been caught in the anti-doping exam be banned from fighting all events?
If they stutters when they answers, you may be suspicious. Most don't have the courage to assume it, but some, on the other hand, are already no longer ashamed and trying to normalize the use. In 2015, I heard a five-time black belt world champion, speaking at a crowded dinner table for anyone who would listen, so it shouldn't be a secret, the following statement: “The way the IBJJF tests, only on the day and with a urine test, only those who are very stupid are caught in doping. It is enough to use it accompanied by a good doctor who knows when to stop and that way the substance leaves the body before the test day, without disturbing the benefits during training”. I trained with several teams, lived with several athletes. I've heard confessions of using it from their own mouth or even from their training partners. I'm not saying this because I want to point out a specific person, and I don't even need to, anyone in the field already knows, but I see the problem as being greater than accusing just one individual, I'm just saying this because I see that they're trying to normalize something that can't be accepted in Jiu-Jitsu. Its use has become banal and that scares me, but not as much as realizing that defending its use has been broad and open, not only by athletes, but also by practitioners who use it as a hobby. They lost the shame of defending doping and seeking justifications for it. Even among students who are not professional athletes, who sometimes do not even compete or only do it sporadically, are using it indiscriminately. I consider this a dangerous path. It is possible to win fairly without enhancers. I speak not only based on my achievements, but also based on other champions I've seen rise to the top. Think about which choice suits you best and think that, for those who use it, it must be horrible to go home, look at the medal table and wonder if they would have being able to win them without enhancers
Wrote by black belt World Champion Felipe Costa

Tennessee adds another blue-chipper with the commitment of 2024 4* RB Peyton Lewis. Lewis announced his commitment surrounded by Tennessee staff, current commits, and future Vols during the '865 Live' recruiting event in Knoxville over the weekend (last year was called RockyTopalooza). This event was jam packed with other blue chip recruits and included a scavenger hunt, a putt putt golf contest, and a talent show. The Salem, VA native gives Heupel's staff their TWELFTH commitment in the 2024 class choosing Tennessee over Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Lewis was offered by the Vols in February 2023 and "always had aspirations of playing at Tennessee" so the commitment came just a few short months afterwards.
Tennessee anchors itself inside the Top 10 at #8 sandwiched between Florida State (#9) and Penn State (#7). See the other commitments below:

2024 Team Ranks: Nat'l #8 SEC #3

Rank	Team	Commits	5*	4*	3*	AVG Points	Total Points
1	Georgia	16	4	7	4	94.14	270.65
2	Michigan	17	1	10	6	91.34	250.12
3	Ohio State	13	2	9	2	93.05	238.14
4	Notre Dame	16	2	9	5	90.82	236.05
5	LSU	16	0	11	5	90.32	232.40
6	Oregon	14	0	11	3	91.01	224.58
7	Penn State	14	1	7	6	90.43	217.41
8	Tennessee	12	0	7	5	90.51	202.23
9	Florida State	11	2	5	4	90.45	192.35
10	South Carolina	9	1	7	1	92.95	183.60

2024 Commitments

Name	Position	Height	Weight	Class	Star	247Comp Rank	POS Rank	Rating	Commit Date
Jake Merklinger	QB	6-3	195	2024	4	65	8	0.9634	3/30/23
Jonathan Echols	ATH (TE)	6-4	230	2024	4	94	7	0.9525	7/4/22
JJ Harrell	WR	6-0	187	2024	4	143	20	0.9380	2/27/23
Kaleb Beasley	CB	6-0	179	2024	4	150	14	0.9351	10/21/22
Peyton Lewis	RB	6-1	190	2024	4	215	15	0.9208	5/27/23
Kellen Lindstrom	DL	6-5	235	2024	4	268	31	0.9117	5/5/23
Amari Jefferson	ATH (WR)	6-1	195	2024	4	270	23	0.9110	UT Baseball Commit
Marcus Goree Jr.	ATH (DB)	6-0.5	177	2024	4	416	37	0.8915	2/18/23
Gage Ginther	IOL	6-5.5	287	2024	3	604	37	0.8794	4/8/23
Edrees Farooq	S	5-11	180	2024	3	627	60	0.8778	4/16/23
Carson Gentle	DL	6-3	241	2024	3	804	81	0.8697	7/23/22​
Jesse Perry	OT	6-6	275	2024	3	851	69	0.8664	4/7/23
Jeremias Heard	DL	6-7	295	2024	3	NA	99	0.8552	4/21/23

2024 Top Targets

Name	Position	Height	Weight	Class	Star	247Comp Rank	Rating	Recent Notes
Williams Nwaneri	DL	6-5	250	2024	5	3	0.9971	247 Recruiting Director Steve Wiltfong said Vols were in "pole position" going into summer Official Visits. OV scheduled for 6/9/23. Primary competition: Oklahoma and Texas A&M
Mike Matthews	ATH	6-1	180	2024	5	9	0.9955	OV scheduled for 6/23. Primary competition: Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, USC
Sammy Brown	LB	6-2	230	2024	5	14	0.9928	Vols "set the bar high" during Official Visit for '865 Live' event on 5/27. Primary competition: Clemson, Georgia, Ohio State, Oklahoma
Eddrick Houston	Edge	6-3	255	2024	5	15	0.9907	Tennessee not yet scheduled for OV. Primary competition: Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Ohio State, USC
Ryan Wingo	WR	6-2	198	2024	5	21	0.9884	Tennessee not yet scheduled for OV but just visited for '865 Live' recruiting event. Primary competition: Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, Texas
Elijah Rushing	Edge	6-6	235	2024	5	22	0.9883	OV scheduled for 6/23. Primary competition: Arizona, Notre Dame, Oregon, UCLA
Jerrick Gibson	RB	5-10	200	2024	4	35	0.9799	OV scheduled for 6/16. Primary competition: Georgia, Miami, Texas
Jordan Ross	Edge	6-5	215	2024	4	38	0.9774	OV scheduled for 6/23. Primary competition: Florida, Georgia, Texas
Kamarion Franklin	DL	6-5	265	2024	4	39	0.9770	OV scheduled for 6/16. Primary competition: LSU, Miami
Aaron Scott	CB	6-0	170	2024	4	56	0.9665	Tennessee in Top 12 on 4/9/23 but no OV scheduled.
Kameryn Fountain	Edge	6-5.5	237	2024	4	81	0.9567	UT CRYSTAL BALL PREDICTION - OV scheduled for 6/23. Primary competition: USC and USCJr
Demello Jones	S	6-1	176	2024	4	84	0.9563	UGA commit - OV scheduled for 6/23. Primary competition: Alabama and Georgia
Daniel Calhoun	OT	6-6.5	355	2024	4	86	0.9561	OV scheduled for 6/16. Primary competition: Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Texas
Tylen Singleton	LB	6-1	208	2024	4	123	0.9422	Tennessee not yet scheduled for OV. Primary competition: Arkansas, LSU, TCU, Texas A&M
Max Anderson	OT	6-5	305	2024	4	191	0.9276	MULTIPLE UT CRYSTAL BALL PREDICTIONS - OV scheduled for 6/9. Primary competition: Georgia and Oklahoma
Daniel Hill	ATH (LB/RB)	6-1	220	2024	4	196	0.9261	Tennessee not yet scheduled for OV but just visited for '865 Live' recruiting event. "Top-three" after visit. Primary competition: Alabama and USCJr
Boo Carter	ATH	5-10	184	2024	4	240	0.9151	UT CRYSTAL BALL PREDICTION - Tennessee not yet scheduled for OV but just visited for '865 Live' recruiting event. Primary competition: Ohio State
Edwin Spillman	LB	6-1	216	2024	4	251	0.9137	MULTIPLE UT CRYSTAL BALL PREDICTIONS - OV scheduled for 6/16. Brother of UT '23 commit Nate Spillman. Primary competition: FSU, Georgia, Ohio State
Amaris Wiliams	DL	6-3	260	2024	4	261	0.9130	OV scheduled for 6/23. Primary competition: Florida, NC State, North Carolina
Amari Jefferson	ATH	6-1	195	2024	4	270	0.9110	UT Baseball commit - OV scheduled for 6/23. Primary competition: Alabama and Georgia
Ronan O'Connell	OT	6-4.5	288	2024	3	539	0.8833	UT CRYSTAL BALL PREDICTION - OV scheduled for 6/23. Primary competition: Clemson and Wisconsin

Recruiting Notes

• The team rankings do not include Amari Jefferson as a UT football commit but I have included him here due to his baseball commitment to Tennessee. Jefferson has been taking football visits and it is clear that Tennessee will be a finalist.
• 2024 4* ATH Jonathan Echols has announced he is being recruited to play TE at Tennessee.
• '865 Live' Recruiting Event had some very big names in addition to some of the top targets above including...
  • 2024 5* Edge Dylan Stewart
  • 2024 4* DL Aydin Breland
  • 2024 4* Edge Brian Robinson
  • 2024 4* ATH Kamron Mikell (announced an OV for 11/18 vs. UGA)
  • 2025 5* OT Josh Petty

Hi, I live in Bedstuy and need to rent a van to bring a table and two chairs for my backyard, the furniture is located in Chinatwon (two bridges) is there anybody here that can help me?
Thank you!

From what I've found, this item from Hemp Hop seems to be the only one that is Live Resin? Are any of their other products live resin or just distillates?
What other brands have CBD Live Resin carts? I am having a ton of trouble finding, thank you!

The Finals are here!
And it is a match-up that was on nobody's radar.
Here's a quick preview of how these teams match-up. Only looking at the Playoff stats till date. Throwing the Regular season out the window (just like the Miami Heat have done).
The Nuggets are heavy favourites, and rightfully so. Unfortunately for them, that's exactly how Miami likes it.
So, here we go!
First up, let's look at the Team Statistics.

• Denver has the edge in most categories, but when strictly looking at percentages, there is very little that overwhelmingly favours the Nuggets.
• Rebounding is a strong plus for the Nuggets. Their size can give the Heat some trouble. A lot of second chance points and easy points can get generated.
• Miami has a slight edge in defensive metrics, such as turnover rate and defensive rating. "Heat culture" is predicated on hard-nosed, resilient defense. That is what they will need to demonstrate vs Denver. Along with hitting 3's, that is going to be Miami's primary formula to overcome the Nuggets.
• Denver loves to get in and around the paint (3-10ft out), where approximately 29% of their shots come from. Dribble penetration, second only to the Pick and Roll, is their key offensive strategy. The likes of Murray, Brown, Gordon make a living with those cuts, drives and slashes. Managing that area of the court will be key for Miami.

Team Stat	DEN	MIA	Diff.
FG%	.490	.472	DEN + .018
FT%	.815	.804	DEN + .011
3pt%	.386	.390	MIA + .004
2pt%	.548	.524	DEN + .024
TS%	.595	.583	DEN + .012
eFG% For	.559	.548	DEN + .011
eFG% Against	.530	.530	Tied
Stocks Per Game (Stl +Blk)	11.4	11.2	DEN + 0.2
TOV% (opp. TO per 100 poss.)	10.9%	12.7%	MIA +1.8%
Off. Rating	121.0	116.3	DEN + 4.7
Def. Rating	112.4	111.9	MIA + 0.5
Off. Reb %	25.6%	21.8%	DEN +3.8%
Def. Reb %	81.1%	74.6%	DEN +6.5%
0-3ft: FGA % / FG%	19% / 69.3%	21.4% / 70.6%	MIA takes more shots within this range, with a slightly better efficiency
3-10ft: FGA % / FG%	29% / 50%	18.2% / 40.6%	DEN takes more shots within this range, with significantly better efficiency
10-16ft: FGA % / FG%	8.6% / 50%	14.1% / 45%	MIA takes more shots within this range, but with a worse efficiency
16-23ft: FGA % / FG%	7.7% / 42.2%	7.5% / 43.1%	Just about even, less than 1% edge to MIA in efficiency
23+: FGA % / FG%	35.6% / 38.6%	38.9% / 39%	MIA takes more shots within this range, with a negligible edge in efficiency

Next up, let's take a bit of a deeper dive into the Players and what sort of match-ups we'll see in the Finals.

• Both Coaches have basically set up a traditional 8-man playoff unit, with the occasional appearance by a deeper bench player. Coach Spo is more likely to tinker and offer minutes to guys like Cody Zeller and Highsmith. Whereas, Coach Malone will barely sniff at his deeper bench guys like DeAndre Jordan and Reggie Jackson.
• The potential return of Tyler Herro could have a huge impact on this series. We all know that Tyler can be instant offense. While he may lack defensively, the Heat do have enough to surround him with more than capable team defenders.
• Star player v Star player:
  • The edge goes to Nikola Jokic. He has been the best player in these playoffs. Offensively, the show runs through him. He has his detractors defensively, but he's still a big body that can change shots and grab rebounds to clean things up. Who on Miami can stop him? It's going to have to be a team effort and special schemes drawn up by Coach Spo.
  • On the other end, we have Jimmy Butler, a true, gritty, never say die leader of men. He epitomizes what a leader or a captain should be. He impacts both ends of the floor and commands respect. He's not a great jump shooter, but he'll often make them in the clutch. Denver has a lot of length and can throw many bodies at him. This is where guys like Vincent, Martin, Robinson and Lowry need to make their shots if Miami has any shot at winning this series. They've done it thus far, they got to keep at it.

Position	Players (DEN)	Players (MIA)	Who has the edge?
Center	Nikola Jokic	Bam Adebayo	The Joker. Nuff' said. Bam will have his hands full. That said, Bam is good on his feet, and at the very least can make Jokic work for his points and rebounds. That's his only chance. Bam needs to be competitive and bring it each and every play.
Forwards	Michael Porter Jr., B. Brown, J. Green, Aaron Gordon	Jimmy Butler, Caleb Martin, Max Strus, Kevin Love	The Forward group will be the make-or-break for the Heat in this series. If they can outdo Denver's group, then the Heat will have a strong chance to win. Jimmy is the best of the lot, but Denver's length and versatility could pose problems. I give the slight edge to the Nuggets, but as we saw vs Boston, the Heat forwards can absolutely ball when the chips are down.
Guards	Jamal Murray, Caldwell-Pope, C. Braun	Kyle Lowry, Gabe Vincent, D. Robinson	Murray is the 3rd best player in this series. If he plays like it, Miami will be hard pressed to match his offensive punch. Lowry, Vincent and Robinson all had their moments vs Boston, but can they replicate that output? How healthy is Vincent, that is going to be a determining factor in Miami's guard play. KCP will be important for Denver. He proved vital vs LA and will be required to do so again. There is greater degree of trust and output with KCP vs Duncan Robinson. And that can be a X-factor punch that pushes Denver over the line.
Deep Bench / Possible returns	Reggie Jackson, DeAndre Jordan	Tyler Herro, Cody Zeller, Haywood Highsmith	Miami's deeper options are more playable and fit into their system better than the Nuggets options. It's no wonder Coach Malone just doesn't play these guys. Add to the mix that Tyler Herro might be able to suit up - it could be a huge boost for the Heat.

​

Hi, I’m not sure if I should be taking this as a sign, I have lived in my house for 3 years and we have never seen any wasp or nest. Within the last week 3 or more have appeared on my patio empty. The nest was not connected to anything just sitting on a table on the patio area. I know nest can be used for stuff what can I use it in?

I have in front of me an X-T3 and a A7III and I can't choose even if my life depended on it. They have both camped on my table for two weeks now. I dont have a specific need that any cant do. I'm just a guy wanting to take sharp pictures to hang on the wall in my living room.
I'm a budget shooter and I plan to shoot family, vacation (Jason Vong style?), zoo and astro. I've been looking at the used market and I first bought the X-T3 because the body was really cheap and people told me that fuji was lightweight and cheap to get in to.
But then the someone decided to dump their A3 for a really good price so I decided to shoot my shot and got it. I looked closer at the market and used FE lenses with approx the same aperture/focal range run for about the same.. even weight. However I don't have a lens for the A3 so I can't test it.
My take is that if I'm paying roughly the same for the lenses. Why am I choosing fuji over FF? Am I missing something?
I know it shouldnt affect my decision but most people (new ones, hobbyist and creators) seems to be using Sony - so resources should easier to find. The dials on the fuji is nice to have, but I find myself just using the scrollers on the front and back anyway. Screen and EVF is really nice on the XT3. And honestly I would say the fuji fits a bit better in hand. But the battery is worse. Sonys AF is also very tempting as it gets praised a lot.
Any thoughts?

This started about 1 month ago. I’m trying to think of any and all contributing factors. I do have some potential causes but none that truly make sense because I just don’t have enough information.
My dog just turned 2. He never had this issue before. Is this when allergies pop up?
He’s completely biting his feet to the point it’s bloody. All day he becomes obsessed with biting them and licking them. he has never done this last year or anytime this year up until beginning of May.
It just seems so weird it was like literally overnight this happened.
Anyway ‘medically’:

• Cytopoint
• apoquel again - unfortunately he becomes very, very restless and anxious when on apoquel it’s very noticeable with his behavior change. But I’m starting it again and carefully going to watch his behavior and see if it’s still manageable while also seeing if apoquel is effective.
• treating all lesions for secondary infections or prevention of infections. Includes topicals, medicated baths, etc.
• a cone to prevent further issues when necessary.
• he’s also being sedated nightly with gaba or traz because his behavior at night is a problem. He wakes up every hour or so to lick or bite and if he has a cone the behavior is much worse: he paces and whines because he hates the cone and can’t sleep and is extremely anxious and distressed, so he basically is sedated via pills every single night.
• daily anti histamine twice a day.
• skin supplements.

an appointment with my dog dermatologist isn’t available until dec which I’ve already scheduled
So I’ve already scheduled a blood serum allergy test(idexx) with my vet later in week. I know blood tests aren’t ideal but I’d rather do this now in the mean time if I can’t get in to see a dermatologist until winter. any reasons why I shouldn’t do this now??
my dog can’t keep living like this for months. All training classes have come to a halt, what was once a happy, energetic, engaging, trusting dog who went to weekly sport classes, came with me on my trips, allowed me to do all sorts of cooperative care things has basically turned into this itchy painful dog that’s now skeptical of me even approaching him to apply medication, who stays home all day (besides walks or the park etc).All my summer road trips have been cancelled. All my training classes are cancelled including the one I’m currently enrolled in that I’ve already paid for because he’s just too itchy to go and it’s too stressful for him to go and engage while also being itchy and painful (which I realized after trying to still go in the beginning).
All in the course of 1 month. I’m terrified of what’s going to happen in 2 months. In 3 months. How much of an effect this is going to have on my dog…. Why is this happening now suddenly?
Major changes/ things I noted: all symptoms started beginning of may

• switched to a RX diet in February. His stools are so firm and never had any GI upset so I’m unsure if it’s food allergy related?
  
• moved to a different house in April 16. So 3-3.5 weeks before this started happening.
  
• beginning of may: I gave him a bath but played with him outside in the dirt before giving him a bath? Shampoo is dermallay by dechra. First time using it, but he isn’t itchy anywhere else (back etc) except his paws.
  

I’m doing my best to manage symptoms which I’m barely barely able to do. I’m also desperately trying to figure out causes by seeing my vet NOW for a blood serum allergy test for the time being and get started on immunotherapy as soon as possible since it takes a long time to work - if it does.
I don’t know what else to do or consider or test. Does anyone have any ideas or things they’ve done to help figure out the root cause?
I feel like the medication used to keep his symptoms from worsening primarily apoquel, is a double edged sword that causes behavioral issues (I know this is rare, but I’m reporting what’s happening to my dog specifically) and I just need to pick which is more important.
What I’m going to do now: a mold kit test (since we just moved), HEPA air filter inside the home. I doubt this will help but I just want to do everything I can.