This is a continuation from my last post, but I've decided that I preferred the title "Lost Memoirs". This series is dedicated to re-establishing the Dead Men as the fearsome warriors that they are, as I am still a bit miffed that Temper Fray is more scared of Valkyrie than Skulduggery.
I plan on writing a Shudder-based one next, maybe one of Erskine. If you have any ideas, let me know. All of these are planned to be written in the POV's of Mevolent's soldiers, with a little spin to show they're not completely evil. Enjoy.

Lost Memoirs; February 12th, 1768

Captain Farvery Ditch walked through the trench, the wooden boards failing in their duty of being a dignified safe harbour from the mud that squelched underneath his boots, splashing up to coat his trousers. The tall dark trees of the Black Forest, their branches laden with snow, cast deep and long shadows over the area, saving them from the sun but dooming them to the cold. His breath billowed out in front of him as he walked, the freezing temperatures of the German landscape forcing him into a fleece coat, hiding away the muscles he’d spent years developing. Despite being a German citizen by birth, the War had taken him to lands far away from Germany, their temperatures warmer and less harrowing. Over the time he’d spent away, his body had gotten used to the warmer temperatures. Had conditioned to it. But now he was back, three years going, and he was suffering the temperature like many under his care. Sent back home on the outskirts of Lörrach, right on the border of the Black Forest, tasked with the objective of pushing further into Europe in the hopes of eventually pressuring the Australian Sanctuary from the north. During those three years, they had suffered losses, but had also won many battles, the land they were on highly contested. As such, something of a stalemate had occurred between them and the German Sanctuary, neither able to truly triumph over the other.
As he walked, he passed men and women huddled in groups in the mud, some reviewing maps and battle strategies, others polishing swords and cleaning muskets, and more still merely trying to share the warmth. On any other occasion, Farvery would have reprimanded them. Put them on toilet duty or on lookout. But this time, he allowed it. They needed even the smallest amount of morale to keep them after the battles they’d had to suffer through in recent months. Battles that had seen family members separated, either by death or by distance, and much blood had been spilt. Many of their men and women were somewhere in the Black Forest, constantly engaged with the guerrilla forces of the German Sanctuary. It was unfortunate that family had to be separated, but that was war.
Reaching his destination, which was the front of a small make-shift wooden cabin, he checked to make sure his sword was properly strapped to his waist, as well as the dual holsters behind him that provided a snug place for his twin pistols. His prized possessions, marking him out as someone of rank. Someone to be listened to. Someone to be feared. Knocking once on the wooden door, he let himself in, enjoying the warmth that rushed to envelope him as he stepped through the threshold and closed the door. Standing in the middle of the room was the only man in the land who succeeded him in rank: Major Burgundy Dalrymple.
“Sir,” Farvery bowed his head respectfully. “You wished to see me?”
“That I did,” Burgundy growled. “Our soldiers are taking a beating. We’ve been trying to push out of Europe and into Asia for the past three years with little success. Can you perhaps explain why this may be the case?”
“Communication,” Farvery responded immediately. “Specifically, the lack of it.”
“Exactly. We have soldiers and armies spread out all over Europe, and yet none of us can get past Germany, because we’re not communicating. We’re fighting a force as large as us in smaller groups. Unfortunately, we simply cannot overrun the German line. It’s too heavily guarded by German sorcerers, and the German Sanctuary has managed to thwart us at every turn, even successfully standing against the Unveiled, blessed be their name.”
“Blessed be their name.” Farvery murmured, acknowledging the family's legacy.
“I’ve recommended we go in and tear the place down. Get the Diablerie in and show the Sanctuaries that if we’re capable of destroying one Sanctuary, we can most certainly destroy others. Seeing as how the French Sanctuary wasn’t a good enough lesson for them, I’m hopeful the destruction of a second will be.”
“Getting rid of the German Sanctuary would be a great boon for us,” Farvery said. “I doubt it will take much convincing.”
“Agreed,” huffed Burgundy. “But right now, we must focus on the real problem. The crux of the issue. I’m under the belief that the reason behind their success is due to our own failure to establish a new line of communication to compensate for our newly-found shortage of teleporters.”
Farvery nodded, recalling the day their teleporter had been visited by Haze Netting, a fellow teleporter, and told that Mevolent was recalling all their teleporters for safekeeping. A response to the Sanctuaries crackdown on teleporters, cutting down any that didn’t swear allegiance to them.
“In the absence of our Teleporters, we must rely on our Sensitives. Which is why I am entrusting you with this.” From underneath the map, Burgundy produced a manilla envelope sealed with a stamp in black wax. “I need you to take this through the Black Forest to the encampment at Todtmoos, where a Sensitive will be waiting to provide instructions to other Sensitives around Europe. It’s a nine-hour hike, so you’ll be supplied with a horse and provisions. But you’ll be on your own. This envelope contains crucial information, so the less people going means less people know about it. A large group attracts attention, one man leaving does not. Can I trust that you’ll get this to the men at Todtmoos by nightfall?”
“You can, sir,” Farvery confirmed. It’s a nine hour walk, four with a horse. I should arrive before midday.”
“Good. Get moving then.”
Knowing when a conversation was over, Farvery sharply saluted, turned and left the cabin, feeling the cold slice through his jacket and chill his skin once again. Tucking the envelope into the inside pocket stitched in his jacket, he made his way to the rudimentary stables they’d erected. Reaching them, he paused to watch the young recruits sparring, laughing and dancing as they battered each other with sticks and blunted blades. He watched them eating together, still capable of smiles and laughter. He saw young couples holding hands, holding each other, sharing memories. The sight before him hardened his resolve, dispelling the cold around him. As a man with children of his own, Farvey knew that they fought for the good of the next generation. To give them a life free to do what they wanted, whenever they wanted, out in the open. The kind of life he’d never gotten but had always wanted growing up. Reaching the stables, he approached a chestnut-coloured horse, her coat clean and rippling with muscle. He’d trained with this horse, and knew that it was prepared for long adventures.
“Good girl,” he murmured, patting its flank. The horse swayed its head to him and butted his chest lightly. Smiling, he was stroking the horse's snout when a young boy rushed over, red in the face and carrying a burlap sack.
“For you, sir. To accompany you on your journey.”
“Thank you, Thomas. Have you been thinking of a name for yourself yet?”
“I was thinking about Hickory Ditch, sir,” the youth said cheekily, grinning to reveal a gappy smile.
“Oi,” Farvery chuckled, swiping at the boy, who ducked under his arm with ease. “That’s my name. Get your own, you little bugger.”
Thomas laughed. “I like to think I could carry it so no one will ever forget your name, sir. Everyone needs to hear about the hero of the Inferni Battle in Mexico.”
Another boy joined Thomas, eyes wide with awe. “Oh my gosh, it’s Captain Ditch,” he breathed, his small frame shaking with excitement. “Will we be allowed to run around using magic soon, sir? My mum and my dad told me that soon we will be allowed to be free and we can live with the mortals without having to hide who we are.”
Farvery reached over and ruffled the kid’s hair. “You sure will be. But don’t forget your parents are heroes as well. They’re fighting for your freedom as well.”
Thomas and the boy cheered as Farvery jumped on top of the horse, getting himself comfortable in the saddle as his feet sought the stirrups. As he coaxed the animal out of the stable, Burgundy walked over, a look of amusement on his face as other young sorcerers rushed over to see the Captain off. “Looks like you’ve got yourself a little procession there, Captain. A fitting send off for the mighty hero.”
Farvery laughed, waving off his superior's jests and dug the stirrups into the horse, prompting it into a brisk walk as it navigated the winding trench and to the entrance facing the Black Forest. Turning his horse around one final time to wave to the crowd that had gathered, he saw the children grinning and waving wildly, the parents behind them more conservative with their goodbyes. A certain weariness had filled the air, but its heaviness was lightened with hope. Hope that this could be the beginning of the end. Hope that their children will see a brighter future. With a final royal wave, he spurred his horse into a gallop, charging deep into the Black Forest.

The wind roared in his ears as the horse charged through the undergrowth, her hooves churning up snow and dirt. The trees blurred past, the combination of oak, pine, spruce and maple trees throwing dancing shadows on the floor of the forest. Farvery remained silent, his thoughts keeping him company as he considered the future. It had been an hour since he’d left Lörrach, and he was making good time. He’d get to Todtmoos before the noon sun, if his horse maintained its speed.
As he rode, he enjoyed the silence of the Black Forest, only his horses' hooves stamping against the ground. It was calming, being away from the encampment. It was freeing. After a while, he slowed the horse down to a halt. Jumping off, he dug into his pack and withdrew a waterskin. Taking a deep gulp out of it, he cupped his hand and let some of that precious liquid fall into it. Making sure to keep as still as possible, he lifted the hand up to the horse, letting her drink from his hand. After a few moments, the horse was ready. He patted it, absentmindedly pondering on the fact that he hadn’t named the horse.
“I feel like I should name you,” he murmured. “My parents had a farm when I was younger. They’d allow me to ride their horses. Yes, they did. Even when the townsfolk were banging on our door with their torches and pitchforks, my mother was telling me to take a horse and ride it to my favourite spot in the countryside, and that I wasn’t allowed to come back until my father came to find me,” he patted the horse gently, resting his head against it. “He never did. Took me years to realise what had happened. I told them I didn’t want to leave Germany.”
The horse whinnied softly.
Farvery smiled. “I think I’ll call you Hope. Hope that one day we will get rid of the mortal scum and live our lives in peace, forever. The world would be better off anyway, wouldn’t it?”
The horse bumped its head against his chest. As it snorted, the surrounding quiet was punctuated by the snap of a branch. Farvery twisted around, instantly alert. He looked around him, moving in a complete circle, parts of the forest flat, others on a decline, others on an incline. It was impossible to discern exactly where the noise had come from, and it was entirely possible that it had simply been a branch falling from a tree. Forcing himself to relax, he got back in the saddle and continued.
After a while of more riding, he saw a sign up ahead, crude and roughly made with stones and sticks. Reigning Hope in, he forced the beast to a steady walk, giving him the opportunity to read the sign.
“Path clear up ahead.”
“Well, isn’t that considerate,” Farvery murmured. He’d sent a small group of young men into the forest to survey the area and map it out for future battle strategies. They’d told him of a large hole that had consumed part of the path. Evidently, they didn’t tell him they’d fixed it.
Pleased with his men’s intuition, he reached down to pat his horse’s neck. “See that girl? That’s the sign of boy's maturing into men. Don’t you think so?”
The horse snorted in reply. Smiling, he straightened up and looked back up to continue on when he saw something move in the corner of his eye. A shadow flickering between the trees up on the hill. Moving his head quickly, he scanned the hill, his trained eyes spotting a badger bumbling through the snow and a red squirrel climbing up a tree. Otherwise, nothing but the leaves falling in synchronicity with the light snow made any movement. Clicking his tongue, he prompted the horse forward, trying to shake the sense of foreboding. If the War had taught him anything, it was the fact that it didn’t matter where you were, there was always an enemy nearby. But he knew that they had encampments in the forest. No one could have slipped through unless they knew exactly where the sentries were. Comforting himself with that fact, he continued riding, his thoughts traveling back to how he planned on taking the German Sanctuary, considering Thomas’ suggestion of completely destroying the place.
As he rode, his ears perked up as a second set of drumming ricocheted through the trees. There was another horse rider out here. Slowing his horse, he heard the other horses footsteps, louder than before and too slow to match his own. In a split second’s decision, he pressed the stirrups into Hope’s flank, prompting the horse to get faster before the other rider sensed their realisation. Deep in thought now, he thought back to the figure he thought he’d seen in the trees. Now he knew it was, in fact, someone he’d seen, and that the person was following him.
“What do I do?” Farvery murmured to Hope, the horse flicking its head as it galloped as a response. He was still deep in his thoughts when he was abruptly ripped into reality, his body violently pitching forward, his horse screaming as it fell into the hole that a large pile of leaves had been hiding. Thrown forward, Farvery’s body slammed against the wall of the hole, and he scrabbled at the ground for purchase, his nails ripping and tearing as he grabbed at snow and dirt. Finding solid earth to latch onto, Farvery managed to prevent himself from falling in. For a moment, he remained in that position, his mind processing what had happened, but he knew he couldn’t remain like this. Not with someone following him. Looking up, he began to claw his way back to solid ground, dragging his body upwards and ignoring his screaming muscles. Reaching the surface, Farvery drew in deep breaths, shaking his arms to loosen his taut muscles. Looking over the edge, he felt his heart yank as he saw Hope at the bottom, impaled in various areas by large wooden spikes.
“No,” he whispered. “No, no, no.” A sob erupted from his chest, and he sucked in some gasping breaths as he stood up shakily. He looked up at the clouds, seeing the sun set to his left. It was the afternoon sun now. He was almost at Todtmoos. Staggering away from the horrific scene, he continued on foot, drawing his jacket around him for comfort. Gritting his teeth, he twisted his head around like it was on a swivel, glaring at anything that moved or could hide a person. Which was everything that surrounded him. Sweating now, his heart hammering within him, he heard leaves rustle and he twisted around, baring his teeth. Drawing one of his pistols, he marched forward, mustering his courage, and waved it around. “Where are you!?” He roared. “You cold, heartless bastard! Who does that to a horse?!”
There was silence, and he turned, staggering away and down into a gulley that was overflowing with vines, brush and ferns. Halfway across, he turned his head and saw a figure dart through the trees. Cursing, he turned, pulling the trigger of his pistol. There was a spray of bark as his bullet hit the tree, but there came no response. Charging forward, he made it to the tree and looked behind it, expecting someone to be standing there. But as he stared, he felt the colour drain from his face as he stared at the piece of parchment with two words scrawled on it
‘Missed me.’
Fear jolting in him now, Farvery plunged back into the brush and threw himself into a large bush, trusting that it would hide him. As he crouched there, trying to slow his breathing, his mind ran through the possibilities.
‘Sensitive? They knew I was going to look there. No, I would’ve seen them. Invisibility? I would’ve seen tracks of some kind. Unless they’re that good. A hunter. Couldn’t be an Elemental, they would’ve struck by now.’
His thoughts were interrupted by an arrow impaling the ground in front of him, spraying him with snow. Hesitating, looking around the area, he picked it up. There were three tiny letters scratched into the shaft of the arrow.
‘I C U’
Terror seized him and he launched himself out from the bush, snow flying everywhere as he ran towards the steep decline of the hill, knowing that was his best opportunity, the arrow’s trajectory meaning the hunter was behind him. Diving, he skidded down the decline, feet first. Twisting his body on the way, he looked up and saw the dark figure, bow in hand, staring down at him. Fear coiled in his veins and he willed his descent to go quicker. Reaching the bottom, he staggered to his feet and continued on, doggedly making his way forward. In the distance, he could see a warm orange glow. A fire. Camp. It was Todtmoos. He was almost there. Then a sharp pierced his leg and he let out a scream of pain, falling to the earth. Looking over, he saw the arrow that had sliced through his leg, destroying his ability to run. Whimpering, he scanned the landscape and saw no one. No dark figures. No notes on trees. Nothing. Trying to hold his breath, he dragged himself over to a bush, once more accepting its shade and cover. Suddenly, the figure appeared. A man, tall and strong, walking steadily over the hill. He was smiling, a rough beard forming, as messy as the dark hair on his head.
‘He can’t see me. He can’t fucking see me.’ Farvery thought, his teeth bared in fear. The man paused for a moment, his head slowly moving from left to right, scanning the landscape. Farvery held his breath, knowing that breathing meant dragon’s breath, and dragon’s breath was a dead giveaway. Slowly, he reached for one of the guns as the man slowly approached, that damn smile still on his goddamn face.
The man stopped a metre away from the bush Farvery was hiding in. Farvery didn’t dare move, his hand by his side resting on his pistol. ‘Just look the other way, and I’ll blast that damn smile off of your face.’
The man shook his head and spoke. “It took a while to catch you. It wasn’t easy, you know, making sure that hole remained a hole. Your boys did a fair good job with it, but nothing’s too hard when you’re Saracen Rue.”
As the man said his name, Farvery felt his blood run cold. ‘No. No, not you. Please tell me it isn’t you.’ He’d heard of Saracen Rue. Head of the spies for the Sanctuaries, no man, no animal, no Soul had ever escaped Rue. Rue always found his targets. Always. And he’d play sick games with them. Leave them little notes to tell them that he knew they were there. He should’ve known. He should have fucking known.
“Yeah, I’ll admit, you gave a good chase and all, but you can only hide for so long, you know?” Saracen Rue shrugged, the dark, cracked leather giving him a wraith-like look in the snow. He knocked an arrow to the bow and stretched it taut, keeping it pointed at the ground. “I’m sorry about the horse. Hope, did you say? A fine name for an animal. But it’s kinda what you get for siding with Mevolent.”
Hot rage filled Farvery, and he started to raise his pistol, inch by inch, knowing how much satisfaction he’d get from seeing a bullet ruin that fucking grin.
Saracen Rue tilted his head. “But seriously though, you’re really rubbish at hide and seek.” He turned, and stared down directly at Farvery. And Farvery knew that Saracen had known he was there the whole time. “Oh dear, did you really think that would work?”
Farvery let out a sharp breath, and the bow snapped as the arrow flew and then Farvery Ditch knew nothing.

Intro
Going to make this quick as I don't have much time these days. If you feel like your body is melting, it probably is, quite literally. There's been debate for years on whether or not your body can become acidic, and if alkaline or acidic foods make any difference. As I understand it those who cite that it doesn't matter say that because the pH of blood is supposed to be regulated by the body, which is true, at least for healthy individuals. However the body does this by releasing minerals from the bones, perhaps among other methods as well. This can lead to osteoporosis and likely other issues, and if you body cannot release enough it will become acidic. Excess acid in the body is called metabolic acidosis and is well studied, which is funny because in looking at those studies I don't believe there is really any debate that we can become too acidic.
When we become too acidic, there are many issues that result. Among them is impairment in collagen production. Here's a study looking at catabolism (muscle breakdown) as a result of metabolic acidosis. Other symptoms of metabolic acidosis are fatigue, kidney issues, and weakness. Probably sounds familiar.
How to Treat Metabolic Acidosis
Very briefly, you should understand certain foods increase and decrease your acid load. Meat, eggs, cheese, all increase acidity. I eat an animal based diet, so I get a large acid load from those sources. To balance this, fruits and vegetables are generally alkalizing. I don't do vegetables but I do eat a fair bit of fruit. However, for me trying to balance my foods doesn't come anywhere close to being enough, and it likely won't be for many others as well.
The best way to treat metabolic acidosis I have found is sodium citrate. Many also use sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), but sodium citrate can remove 3x the milliequivalents of acid that sodium bicarbonate can. Sodium citrate is often sold for making cheese dips. It's extremely cheap and extremely effective. I use this brand personally but I highly doubt there's much difference among the various brands out there.
If you want to learn more about sodium citrate and metabolic acidosis, I recommend looking up Dr. Dinicolantonio and sodium citrate or metabolic acidosis.
​
Side Note
I have been away from this sub for several years now. Some of you will remember me from the BPC-157 and GH peptides posts. To this day I still get messaged a couple times a week about people wondering if I still take them and if they help. I have gone on and off them, and I'm currently running that combination again. Yes they help. No they're not going to fix you. It's one of many tools I use.
I have to say it's fucking sad to see how this sub has grown since I first joined here. I remember when we were at 1,500 subs. Now it's 44k. That's a lot of suffering and trust me I know the horror of this disease. I'm sorry I haven't been posting here much, I'll try to do some more quick posts in the future of some things that have helped. I deleted social media off my phone but do check on my computer sometimes. Please message me if you have questions, I will respond when I can.

I am brand new to modding. All that I have installed are I&A collection, I&A Next Gen Graphics collection, and read the room (along with necessary mods). Since getting read the room and Nemisis my TK dodge has stopped working. I still lose stamina whenever I press the dodge key but the animation and player movement does not work. Any help greatly appreciated.

I'd really like to hear, as would probably others, any information about Artie. Is he doing ok? Does anyone here have any news? I miss that animal and I hope he's ok.
Eat a dick JD...

Hey does anyone know how much a used 2019 ecoboost non-active exhaust system stock with only 17K miles on it go for? I’m trying to sell mine but I want a good price for it and have no idea how much they go for.

After the war with Institute the First Fire Section of Concord is created.
-A month after the creation of the first fire section of Concord two new special units were made: The Castle Crushers and Bunker Builders. The Castle Crushers were a special unit that specialised in offensive operations in every type of terrain. They consisted of two power armour squads and one covert squad. Bunker Builders specialised in building of defensive constructions. They consisted of two engineering squads and one heavy machine guns squad.
-On the 2088 Island of Far Harbour. Fog condensers started to break down. As the fog closed in on the people of the island they emigrated to the commonwealth and settled on the Spectacle island. After few days they got approached by the minutemen with an offer of joining to the organisation. After series of discussions they agreed to join.
-On 27/03/88 The Concord Reorganised Territory was brought to life. The treaty established a Democratic country that consisted of: Sanctuary, Concord (as the capital), Abernathy Town, Drumlin Caravan Hub (from which supplies would be distributed) and the Military Base 111 (as the CRT's military base of operation). The whole thing was rigged by the minutemen high command to centralize the commonwealth one by one. In following months more areas would become part of the CRT.
-As the Minutemen started to become more organized the topic of a standard issue weapon was brought to light. The final decision was to keep the laser musket for now in the long stock long barrel configuration and as a secondary weapon the revolver in 38 configuration. But in following months the 10mm pistol replaced it as molds for 10mm pistol parts were found and put into use inside the Saugus Ironworks.
-On 05/04/88 a bunker containing over 200 Thompson submachine guns was found. It was split between CRT and the Minutemen and became the new standard issue weapon for both factions.

• The Saugus Ironworks were just a stronghold for the Minutemen. But after the First Conference of Fort Liberty (aka the Castle) it was decided to create a array of wind turbines that would once again activate the heart of the ironworks to start the production of equipment for the Minutemen. First was the 10mm pistol and then after creating molds for the Thompson it was too put into production.

-During the First Conference of Fort Liberty it was decided that civilians would not be allowed in to the Castle's perimeter. To accommodate all that lived inside the fortresses walls the body of water next to it was dryed out to build new homes. A wall was built around the site with guard towers to protect the more sensitive part of the building site.
-On 31/04/88 the Rat squad of the Castle Crushers had located a chinese submarine. It was decided to check what was inside of it. During the raid one chinese ghoul was captured and several feral ones were shot and killed. After checking it was found that the submarine was in a repairable state. With the help of institute scientists the boat was repaired and became the mobile headquarters of the Castle Crushers after being renamed to MNV "Catfish".
-On the 25/05/88 MNV "Catfish" has swam to the coast near Quincy and all of the Castle Crushers has exited the submarine to begin the operation. After 3 hours of fighting all of the Gunners of Quincy had either died or fled. Quincy would be once again established as a trading city where the first Quincy Fire Group would be established making the number of official Minutemen militia 45 soldiers.

• On 06/06/88 A four days long joint military operations were conducted by the Minutemen with the brotherhood of steel. First stage was familiarising with each others equipment. Second stage was a laser fight (using laser rifles weaken down just to lightly burn) conducted in Boston airport. The third stage was taking down the legendary behemoth named swan. All three stages were conducted successfully and helped in Minutemen-Brotherhood relations in the long run.

-After joint military exercises with the Brotherhood the Minutemen had purchased two vertibirds for stable food deliveries and valuable technology. Minutemen with the help of institute scientists had made their own version of the vertibird using ones that they purchased.
-A month since the immigration of Far Harbour residents New Far Harbour would be established. There with the help of Minutemen and the Brotherhood (after the joint military trainings) a democratic country would be established. As a part of the help for new formed SIR (Spectacle Island Republic) a training of a single Marine Corp would be conducted by Brotherhood and Minutemen instructors. The Corp would consist of 25 men in five soldiers squads. Those Marines would be equipped with special Marines Armours brought from the Far Harbour. Minutemen instructors would teach the recruits about the terrain of the commonwealth and guerrilla fighting styles whilst the Brotherhood instructors would teach about discipline and military doctrines.
-On the 27/06/88 in the capital of CRT a lot of business started to pop up like: Johnson's Typewriters Company, Toyland, The Big Stick Armoury and The Liberty Clinic. Also a school was opened with professors from the institute. A chapter of the church of all faiths was allowed to settle. All this was thanks to a series of laws passed by the High Council Of Concord.
-On the 01/07/88 a gathering of all the representatives of the commonwealth had begun. The representatives of: Minutemen, Brotherhood, Diamond City, Bunker Hill, CRT, Gunners, RSI, Good Neighbor and 6 other independent villages had gathered in the Parliament of CRT. There they have cleared up their relations to one another and decided to build a heavy cruiser that could enforce any further decisions and rules. The construction would start in the RSI. Every participant of the gathering would contribute to the construction in some way or another.
-On the 06/07/88 a conference was held to settle the borders of the Commonwealth. There an agent of the railroad showed up to make a secret amendment was made to isolate certain lands of wastes the plan was to grant them breathing space and keep the base a secret. During the conference the Brotherhood was granted the peninsula where the Boston airport is. CRT got a big chunk of the Commonwealth as they were powerful and were supported by the Minutemen. The Minutemen mostly retained their old territory's and a little bit of new land. The independent villages got around two kilometres in every side from their centre. Gunners were restricted to their old territory's without Quincy.
-After the Diamond City conference the CRT had seen the potential of other factions and decided to acquire some kind of leverage against other powers of the commonwealth. Firstly they recruited the scientists from the Concord university. Then they hauled three vertibirds that had crashed before the war after that they hauled three APC's that can be seen around military checkpoints. After two months all of them were in a working condition. With that two new branches of the CRT military were created: CAG (Concord Air Guard) and CAF (Concord Armoured Force). The CAG's base of operations was CAG Satellite Station Olivia and CAF's was Military Base 111.
-On the 21/07/88 CRT has established the Commonwealth Intelligence Bureau. It was an organisation made with the help of Minutemen and Concord University. With a standing force of 20 agents from all over commonwealth that worked in sectors in which they were born, it's task was to gather intel and test prototypes, every agent was equipped with the newest technology provided by Concord University.
-On 06/08/88 the minutemen had decided to expand its navy. A ship would be constructed armed with a 57mm double cannon in the front and a 20mm anti-aircraft cannon in the back. It would be constructed on a pre-war fishing boat hull also it would be equipped with a radio that had strong enough signal to connect to the satellite array in the minutemen control.
-On 21/10/88 the minutemen and CRT had unionized with leaders of minutemen having more power but adopting the CRT constitution. The new organisation would be called CMR (Commonwealth of Massachusetts Republic).
-After the Concord Union the SIR has looked to join as the food supplies weren't plentiful. Needing to buy food from Minutemen cities. The leaders of SIR wanted to retain their power but be able to count on stable food supplies that would be free. They got what they wanted.
-A second siege of Quincy had begun. The gunners equipped with better guns than ever before have attacked Quincy. But the supresive fire from newly built USS Commonwealth had helped win the battle. After repelling the invaders it was noticed that the advanced equipment they possessed came from the Brotherhood.
-On December 3, 2289, Capral Clallum of the CMR was giving a speech in Concord to alleviate fears of raider attention in the nearby areas.
In a nearby building, a former BoS Knight who had deserted his post named Brett Walker had a scoped bolt-action pipe rifle which he had brought up with him.
The speech had lots of security however it was somewhat difficult to pinpoint how Walker had bypassed them.
At roughly 8 minutes into the speech the gunman fired and hit Clallum first in the lower neck, and then a second later the head. Clallum was killed immediately by the second shot.
The gunman was apprehended 6 minutes later and did not resist arrest. He was imprisoned in a CMR facility with a life sentence.
The assassination eventually lead to the discovery of the Left Hand.
-Shortly after the assassination of Caprul Clallum of the CMR, the gunman Brett Walker was interrogated and revealed that he was an AWOL Brotherhood knight.
CMR’s CIB (Commonwealth intelligence bureau) told him that he would live if he told them his motive.
Walker explained that a secret organization within the brotherhood called the Left Hand who wanted to eliminate all other factions to make the Brotherhood the sole dominators on the East Coast (and possibly the continent) had employed him to kill the general.
He complied with them due to an unexplained hatred against the CMR and explained that Left Hand were growing and planning a coup d’état against the east coast brotherhoods current leadership. -The combined discovery of the Left Hand and the scandal at Quincy had made the CMR very suspicious of the BoS’s true motives.
On January 3rd, 2289, a new division of the CIB was formed called the ‘Peace Division’. This was not made known to general people or low ranked CMR members due to the nature of the division.
The Peace Division was made up of loyal but not well known and skilled soldiers, with a rigorous and extensive training to prepare for their roles.
Members of the division would join the BoS to spy and inform on both the BoS itself and the other threat of the Left Hand.
The CMR also decided to not inform the leadership of the BoS of the Left Hand yet.
Communications between both sides began to be less friendly as the Brotherhood became aware of the position of the CMR and their suspiciousness of the Brotherhood.
Although they didn’t know exactly why yet, the Brotherhood figured it was due to the liberation of Quincy and the guns they had sold to the gunners.
Although originally, the sell was not intended to hurt the CMR, the Brotherhood became aware of the dangerousness towards the CMR’s position and allowed the Gunners to proceed anyways.
-Seeing raider raids coming from the glowing see CMR with the cooperation of Atom cultists had created a special firing squad compressed of two infantry squads and one support squad. MDC would use chemical weapons and radiation weapons to their advantage against human enemies. Most of the manpower would come from the coast part of the atom cult and its existence would anger all of Far Harbour immigrants (Marines included). MDC would be free to celebrate their beliefs but wouldn't be allowed to convert civilians that weren't willing to do so. MDC members would wear khaki cloaks, gas masks, grey helmets and knee pads. The rest of the equipment would come from themselves. CMR would give them Thompsons and 10mm pistols but sometimes a Fat man would be given to one of the soldiers.
-In the glowing sea, a nuclear bomb that had not yet detonated had been resting since 2077. On February 5th 2289, for unknown reasons, the bomb finally detonated, further irradiating the area and causing even more destruction.
The full power of the full sized nuclear bomb was so large that it caused constant rad storms and lots more radiation blowing in the wind around the Commonwealth.
CMR radiation teams stationed near the glowing sea first detected increasing amounts of radiation on the 7th of February and contacted headquarters in Concord.
CMR stations received word from CMR Radio Tower AE-114 (near where the radiation teams first detected rads) on February 11th stated that they were all feeling sick and feeling symptoms of rad sickness.
They explained that they were almost out of Rad-Away and wanted to evacuate however they were being attacked for unknown reasons by Gunners and it was dangerous to leave the safety of the radio station.
3 days later the first expedition team arrived at the scene and it was discovered that the CMR stationed there had all turned into feral ghouls.
The Gunners fighting there were now trying to kill the ghouls and a few had been killed on both sides. The CMR troops arrived and engaged the Gunners.
After the battle which lasted an hour, the CMR team was victorious. On the Gunner Captain’s body, they found a message.
The message detailed that the team had been hired by the Brotherhood of Steel to take any classified information from the station at all costs and to kill anyone there.
-When the information about Brotherhood paying for attacks on CMR locations was brought to the army command a plan was quickly drawn. It would consist of stages and its purpose was to steal the Prydwen and demand the Brotherhood to leave the Commonwealth on foot. An ambiguous plan but a doable one. 1 stage: relay the plan to the peace division. 2 stage: hire the gunners to turn on their employers. 3 stage: make the atom cultists (not part of the MDC) and gunners storm the defences of the airport. 4 stage: land the vertibirds on Prydwen with Castle Crushers squads 1 and 2 onboard. 5 stage: take control of Prydwen and fly off to the Castle and anchor it. The whole of the plan was up for debate and would play out during an radstorm.
-A second plan for a attack on the Brotherhood was to perform an amphibious on the airport. But two types of vehicles were needed. An amphibian tank and a APC. In the base 111 a group of scientists worked on the project: Sullivan McGregor, Professor Li, Sophia Goodman and Abraham Goldstein. Two Fully working vehicles were created: MAAV1 (Massachusetts Army Amphibious Vehicle) and MAAT1 (Massachusetts Army Amphibious Tank). After testing both were accepted into service with an order for 2 each type.
-Not wanting to spell bloodshed immediately CMR had invited all organisations in the Commonwealth to Diamond City to demand eviction of the Brotherhood from the Commonwealth. On 23/02/89 the case was opened and ready to be dissected. In following weeks many attempts at sabotaging the case followed. From stealing evidence to assassination attempts. Many representatives switched sides every day but finally the Brotherhood was proven to be at fault and subsequently were punished by needing to take back their part of the crew from USS Commonwealth and required to give 50% of settlements under their control to the CMR and in need of food it was to be bought from CMR. It was hoped that Brotherhood's reliance on CMR food deliveries would mean peace, but that thinking might be brought into question in the future...
-Knowing that for sure the railroad had agents within CMR, the highest army command had met in a pre-war bunker that was previously flooded with water to make sure no bugs were planted within it. Only the command was there no bodyguards. Inside a plan was formed to get a CIB agent in the railroad. A new agent was recruited to make sure that the operation remained a secret. After days of gruelling tests the agent was ready. After two weeks of getting information on the railroad from the public, the second stage was set off. After another week the agent got in. Through learning the code from the scattered letters around Boston the agent opened the secret vault under the church. After railroad trials to make sure that he was to be trusted, the agent begun gathering intel.
-As the Brotherhood civil war was going on the CMR and the Brotherhood had worked on a weapon that could be more powerful than power armour. To start the legs were elongated to be 10 cm taller than a normal set. Inside of the free space inside the legs amortization was placed to help with very long falls, as normal power armour would survive a high fall but it's user had a chance of dieing. A third arm was placed on the back fitted with a heavy machine gun that followed where was the user looking. In the corner of the armour's HUD a little screen was placed that allowed the user to look behind him (on the back a camera was placed). Also a rangefinder and a internal long distance radio station were fitted to convey acccurate intel on large distances. At the cost of the thickness of the armour various systems were installed. Like: internal oxygen tank to ensure safety in high places, underwater or in case of an toxic gases; an steel cutter to rescue trapped teammates; stronger exoskeleton with higher power to be faster, stronger and to carry all the new heavy equipment. Only two were created with one send to the Brotherhood and the second was given to the Castle Crushers.
-With the main attention of the CMR at the Brotherhood civil war there was a need for a new Firing Group that could protect the frontier. Equipped with scouting and mountaineer equipment the 1st Pioneer Firing Group was made.
-After renovating the section of Boston railway mostly hand cracked vehicles were used for transport. On the 24/06/89 the "Concord Merchant was released onto the tracks of Boston making some caravans change their routes as supplies were already delivered there by rail.
-The Vault Bureau and the Union of Old America
On May 20th 2288, the Vice President of the CMR announced the creation of the Vault Bureau and the subsequent action of the Vault Integration Act.
This would permit all operational, stable vaults designated area close to CMR territory and all unworking and abandoned vaults also to be subject to CMR law and occupation.
The only exception was Vault 111 which would remain a grave due to the significance to the CMR general, Nate.
Some vaults upon learning of this agreed to join the CMR and were happy to join a new, stable and seemingly positive group, a great change from what they mostly expected from wastelanders.
However, most of the vaults did not want to join, and representatives from 10 different vaults in the area (note: I am adding some fictional vaults here, these go over the official number of vaults) met in Vault 130 to discuss unification.
This ended in agreement, and the new nation the Union of Old America was formed, consisting of 18 vaults (including 8 that joined days later and weren’t present at the first congress).
The UOA subjugated nearby small towns mostly peacefully, although gunfire was exchanged with 2 deaths on the UOA side in the small community of Morgan Ferry.
The UOA also declared in their second meeting of representatives to discuss new plans, deals and issues that the vaults which has joined the CMR were traitors to the old United States and should leave at once.
-Military reorganization
In the CMR, the military was made up of many poorly trained militia members and conscripts.
In June 2288, the general of the CMR Armed Forces decided to start a military reorganization.
Troops of the CMR got better training, weaponry, and technology at the cost of a short economic downturn.
A new type of infantry armor and a new type of power armor were both made, the power armor model being called the AMAX-89, being based off the ‘Black Devil’ model of the enclave, and the infantry armor being based off the designs of the NCR due them both having known reliability.
This act legitimized the CMR’s military and reduced the amount of untrained militia fighters on the battlefield.
-The USS Commonwealth disaster
On February 8th, 2289, the Commonwealth's largest and most advanced naval vessel, the USS Commonwealth, suffering from a disaster that almost led to a total sinking.
At roughly 8:00 AM, the Commonwealth was being transported to an alternate position for some minor repairs.
In a position that was supposed to be checked for hazard weeks earlier, multiple naval mines of unknown origin had been in the water.
At 8:21 AM, the Commonwealth hit one mine on her starboard (right) side, close to her bow (front). Seconds later, she hit another on her starboard side, this time closer to the stern (back).
The ship began to list (tilt) heavily, with almost a 25 degree list in just 5 minutes. The ship’s watertight bulkheads were dropped and halted the flooding of the water. Hand-cranked pumps were used to pump the majority of the water out.
In panic and not wanting to lose their new flagship so quick, the CMR called an emergency meeting in Lexington and assembled an elite crisis response team called the Commonwealth Advanced Crisis Unit.
The response unit repaired the ship over time, and by February 18th, the ship was as good as new.
31 died in the incident, 6 from the initial explosions and the other 25 from drowning.
The formation of the Advanced Crisis Unit was one of the first legitimate crisis response teams in all of the former US, and paved the way for the modern idea of organized emergency services in the Commonwealth.
-LAS-G7
Seeing that the Brotherhood's and CMR's armies had not a very easy time getting ammunition for waging war against the Left Hand, Concord University had begun working on a energy weapon that could be reloaded on front without getting new energy cells. The first batch of prototypes were very heavy and clunky like: LAS-G1;2;3;4 and 5 but LAS-G6 was pretty lightweight, slim, cheap, easy to use and wouldn't take a lot of time to charge BUT it wasn't very powerful and the internal battery meant that a Firing Group would need to retreat from battle after just an hour to recharge their LAS-G's (aka. Las Guns). The LAS-G7 combined the strengths of its predecessor having a good stopping power, short time of charging, not a very costly design and a light skeleton. Whilst having new features like a easy to take apart chassis and a battery that could be taken out of the gun and charged in the backpack of the soldier. To add to the firepower of a LAS squad the LAS-HMG was made being capable of penetrating heavy armour (in AP type), mow down infantry (in the full auto configuration), and blast ball of energy to an entrenched enemy (in Shock-Troop selection). It had its drawbacks like being very heavy, long reloading time and more.
-MNV "North Star"
The Brotherhood civil war was waged near the sea and the main base of the CAF was miles away from the front. In need of a mobile airbase the cargo ship near Quincy was cleared out sealed and tugged to the Spectacle Island dock yard. There the main deck was cleared and readied for vertibirds. After a month of repairs the carrier was set sail.
-Penal Legions
After the LAS-G rifles were made it became obvious that there wasn't enough manpower on the front. With that a series of anti-raider raids were made by the Massachusetts Death Corp in and around the frontier to capture and not kill bandits. After that the captured were given an offer: Join the war and get freedom or be executed in Concord square. Obviously most took up the offer and with that a 100 man Legion was made, it was equipped with LAS-G6 rifles as they were cheap and and couldn't get recharged if a Fire Section leader didn't do so himself, ensuring that the Legion wouldn't go rogue.
-Springfield expansion
Though the BCW (Brotherhood civil war) was going on, the expansion of CMR wasn't waiting. The next task was to expand to the area of Springfield and deeper into the west Massachusetts.
-Weird discovery
When entering ruins of Springfield two not seen before animals were discovered both named after being classified by ex institute biologist Dr. Richard Williams. A "horse" and a "chicken" both were great for farm livestock.
-UOA controversy
After entering Springfield and begin more expansion, the CMR decided it was time to act on the Union of Old America, who had been dismissing annexation attempts for months. The CMR held a meeting between multiple leading figures and decided a military confrontation was the best decision.
CMR and UOA forces met at Vault 129 in an armed standoff. The UOA militia was lacking in weaponry but largely outnumbered the CMR force. The CMR commander shouted through a megaphone a request to meet the leader of high executive in the Vault.
The UOA militia refused and tensions heightened. Both sides began to berate each other and both called each other dangerous and unnecessary. It is unknown who fired first, but a shot was fired and immediately a full battle began. Despite being better equipped, the CMR force was mostly captured with multiple wounded and 2 killed of a 19 man force.
This was later discovered to be caused by an unnoticed preparation by the UOA, who anticipated the CMR force and set up ambush positions.
-Operation "Radstorm"
Wanting to end the Brotherhood civil war, CMR had Gathered it's fleet at Spectacle Island to bombard the Boston airport and then send soldiers to deal with what remained. On 23/11/89 2:45 PM the bombardment commenced with all of 38 cannons (+ 5 artillery pieces that were in range) that were available the fortifications and headquarters of the Left Hand were turned into rubble. Then using vertibirds and MAAV1 and MAAT1 the Infantry deployed and fought for 5 hours until the last of defenders who didn't flee died. This would come to shape the tactics that the CMR would use in the future.
-M1SMG and the Springfield Steelworks
After entering Springfield a Museum was discovered containing many artifacts like schematics of weapons. In those a schematic was found which presented a submachine gun that used a minimal amount of resources and was so simple in production that local gunsmiths could make it in their workshops without issue. It was taken as a new primari weapon for low priority units. With that a steelworks was made in Springfield to mass produce the weapon with scrap metal and send it across the CMR so a big standing force would able to be made.
-Dissolving the Penal Legions
After the Brotherhood Civil War was finished, the CMR kept true to their promise but they gave a choice: you leave the Legion and get a home in Springfield and a job at the Ironworks or you stay and fight with better conditions than before and get paid for it. That said only 30 people accepted the offer to stay, those people became part of the new First Springfield Cavalry Firing Group and the First Springfield Armoured Cavalry Firing Group.
-Internal changes in the CMR
Due to territory expansion and the unreliable structure of the Concord council, a new system was placed in power. The CMR territory was divided into Commonwealths, and the power structure was rebuilt. The House of representatives would consist of 100 seats with each representative from top 100 settlements (population speaking). The Parliament would consist of 2 elected from the representatives (2 for every Commonwealth for example there are 3 Commonwealths so there are 6 members of the Parliament) at the moment there are 3 Commonwealths: Commonwealth of New Hampshire, Commonwealth of Springfield and the Boston Commonwealth. The House of Representatives will discuss reforms and vote which ones will go to the Parliament for further decisions. The Parliament will pass or veto reforms, in case of a veto the House of representatives will discuss the reform again and vote on it if 70 representatives will vote in its favour it goes to the Parliament again, then they will vote on it if they decide to veto again, they will need to describe the problem with the reform, in case of the representatives wanting to vote again the reform will be passed to the people for them to vote on it. The Parliament and the House of representatives vote on reforms in the Massachusetts State House. Due to the government changes the name of the CMR was changed to CMF (Commonwealth of Massachusetts Federation).
-Northern League-CMF Agreements
Contact and diplomatic relations were established between the CMF and Northern League in Mid-2290. The Northern League was a major force established in what used to be the Northern United States (in what also used to be Canada before it’s annexation. The country was a large union with a monopoly on trade in the area due to many resources, and newfound oil supplies. The League itself was a union between New Ottawa (formerly Ottawa), Sherbrooke, Marshall City (formerly Montreal) and Québec City as well as smaller towns and cities in between the larger ones, with the capital being Marshall City. It is also believed it’s government was initially formed by surviving groups of Canadians after the war who had been parts of guerrilla movements to get the US out of Canada.
The League’s strong military and conscription laws, taxation policies and overall stability gave it a similar status to that of the NCR, although smaller and confined to the East. As trade relations improved the CMF began to increase in its own strength even more as they now had more oil for vehicles, more materials for weapons and other equipment, and enough food being grown and produced that newly packaged food en masse, some of the first since the Great War, was slowly becoming available in society.
-War on Raiders
In November 2290, a group of raiders organized and attacked the small community of Horseshoe Circle in CMF territory, close to the coast. After the civilians fought back and contacted nearby CMF units, the Raiders fought harder and ended up defeating them. The raiders lined up any survivors against the local City Hall and executed them. Around 76 died in total in the incident.
Afterwards, the horrified and furious CMF Law Enforcement Committee organized a huge division called the ‘Anti-Barbarism Unit.’ This units primary goal would be to combat raiders, bandits, and assist those suffering from raider attacks. In the capital of the CMF, Concord, war was declared on all raiders and a statement was put out that any raiders who entered the CMF territories, attacked CMF citizens or otherwise endangered lives and caused chaos in the Commonwealth would be sentenced to death if caught.
The CMF began active operations to quell and destroy raider cells.
-Concord Autoworks
In collaboration with Springfield Ironworks, a new government-run company known as Concord Autoworks was formed in the CMF. This company would be focused purely on making working ground automobiles which was something excessively rare in the post-war world.
-Industrialization Act of 2291
On February 1st, 2291 the Industrialization Act was passed which would begin the construction of more factories for hopefully more jobs and more luxuries like cars, built-well houses, as well as helping contribute to a stable currency
-CA Infantry Carriage M1
Wanting to grant infantry protection and fast travel without very pricy refiting of pre-war APC's the Concord Autoworks had designed the CAIC M1. With good armour and a capacity of 6 soldiers (including the driver) it was mostly a platform to build on for example: adding a small caliber artillery cannon instead off infantry space, adding a roof and a turret to create a APC with good punching power or adding a mini crane and tool spaces to create a mobile engineering vehicle. The options are endless.
-Nakho Epidemic
In early 2292, a disheveled and dirty traveler arrived at the merchant circle in Bunker Hill (at this point under CMF control) and then collapsed. Examination quickly showed he was dead, and from the Northern League. A group of doctors went to inspect his body when they noticed strange sores and fluids coming from the man.
They took him in for further analysis, and a few days later, the doctors became terribly sick, but had unintentionally already spread it to many at Bunker Hill. The disease was the same given by the dead man, and with the status of Bunker Hill as an important trading and merchant area, many were infected and then spread it through caravans.
The disease was highly deadly and absolutely miserable for any infected, with a death rate of about 60% and very contagious. The CMF issued an official quarantine over the area which forced civilians to stay inside unless they they absolutely had to leave while the brightest medical minds of the CMF begin to try and find a cure.
The disease was named the Nakho Virus.
-Dreyfuss act.
Wanting to regulate the amount of men at arms the House of Representatives has passed an act to limit and set goals for the amount of menpower in the army. It was decided that:
-2500 infantry men would be deployed around the Commonwealths, 1250 of them mechanized and motorized with 625 mechanized in squads of 5, and the other 625 motorized in squads of 10 (5 men in each group dedicated to leadership). All of those split into 5 combat groups: Group North in charge of defending north wastes, Group Boston garrisoning Boston and surrounding areas, Group Rhodes deployed on the CMF-UOA border to attack and defend, Group Springfield defending the industrial sector and also the frontier, Group Central responding to reinforcements requests.
-60 vertibirds: 50 split between the Groups and 10 on the MNV North Star.
-unlimited amount of militiamen supplied with SMG M1 and basic military uniforms.
Further editions are to be passed as the need for more army men will grow.
-F-1; F-2 and F-3
Planning to wipe out the UOA once and for all the CMF army command commissioned an jet aircraft capable of delivering payload for long distance and scouting. The Concord University's brightest minds had worked tirelessly on a design and a prototype coming up with 3 different designs:
•F-1 a light craft with 4 .50 cal machine guns and a recon camera. Mostly made as a base for two next fighter-bombers;
•F-2, it's equipment consisted of two 20mm auto-cannons fed explosive ammunition, also with a recon camera. Made as a final product but was deemed not heavy enough;
•F-3, the final product equipped with a pair of 20mm auto-cannons and a single .50 cal machine gun, also with a recon camera but could be switched for a bombing camera after confirming the location of a target, it had two 50kg bombs and a single 100kg bomb. In front of the 100kg bomb was a 10, 10 cal long rocket launching pod. The jet had a effective combat range of 350 km. Unlike it's predecessors it had a crew of 2: one pilot and one bomb operator.
General characteristics
Crew: 1 (2 in case of the F-3)
Length: 37 ft 1 in (11.30 m)
Wingspan: 39 ft 1 in (11.91 m)
Height: 14 ft 1 in (4.29 m).
Two F-3 were made, both being on the MNV North Star. With hull changes and adding a Air control tower to the ship.
-The Workers Party (WP)
Is as the name suggests a party for the betterment of working standards and other pro labour laws. It has an average amount of seats in the House of Representatives.
-Cleanse, Purge and Prosper (CPP) is a staunch anti-ghoul and anti-supermutant party which has been often accused of being a ploy of the Brotherhood of Steel. It only has one seat in the House of Representatives.
-MCW.Co
The Massachusetts Clean Water.Co, is a government company made to build public water purifiers around Massachusetts with the current goal is to build a basic sewage system in Boston, Quincy and Concord (Sanctuary included inside of the Concord system)
-Repairs of the 90th
A fast way to get from Boston to Springfield didn't exist until now. Only 3 lanes of the road were repaired with the rest planned for repairs 3 months after the first three. 2 lanes were for automobiles and the third for Caravans that couldn't afford cars.
-MEC (Massachusetts Electricity Company)
Problem with individual electricity grids for each settlement is that pollution affects crops and health of the people. So the MEC was formed to confiscate individual grids and combine them into a single grand power station, so far a GG (grand grid) was only made in Boston effectively allowing for resettlement of old skyscrapers and buildings with proper mostly unfaulty energy.
Quite a long read but a required one. Thanks to u/Eestirussia (now u/longmanhijacked2 ) for contributing with his amazing writing skills. Will pin the post for the future generations.

I am seriously considering getting a pair of guinea pigs. I love animals, used to have a pair when I was a kid and I am devastated to find out I was accidentally mistreating them :( This time I want to make sure I do everything right.
So it seems fleece bedding is the most popular option. It would be easy to obtain. I’m wondering assuming they pee on it everyday, will I need a constant supply of clean ones and replace daily? And is it bad to use the washing machine so much? If so is there a safe/effective way to hand wash them? Does anything go underneath the fleece? I used to use newspaper as a base layer.
Next, are plastic hides always bad? Assuming they chew on everything, I should get wooden hides/toys, how about something like a wicker basket material? Too splintery?
Also, how would I go about clipping nails if their nails are black? Makes me a little nervous and seems inconvenient to always have a vet do it.

https://www.arabnews.jp/article/arts-culture/article_88549/
Saudi Arabia's Manga Productions announced on March 28 that it has partnered with Tsubasa Co., Ltd. to collaborate on the production and distribution of "Captain Tsubasa" and various other projects.
The signing ceremony was attended by world-famous manga artist Yoichi Takahashi, creator of Captain Tsubasa.
Manga Productions CEO Issam Bukhari told Arab News: “For more than 30 years, 'Captain Tsubasa' has been loved by many generations. The partnership between Manga Productions and Tsubasa Co., Ltd. will foster tomorrow's heroes and enrich the creative content industry in Japan and around the world. We aim to broaden our vision of
“Captain Tsubasa”, known as “Captain Majid” in Arabic, is a Japanese manga series drawn by Takahashi in 1981 and loved in the Arab world, especially in Saudi Arabia, in the 90s. The series revolves around an 11-year-old student with a deep passion for football.
Captain Majid, known in Japan as Tsubasa Ozora, takes viewers on a journey of competition, friendship and talent as he pursues his dream of one day winning the FIFA World Cup in Japan.
According to the Arab News and YouGov 'Survey on Arab Views of Japan', 75% of respondents named 'Captain Tsubasa' as their favorite anime.
“Captain Tsubasa” is one of the most memorable manga and anime series in the world, especially in Japan, for its popularization of football. In addition, it is said that there are not a few players who aim to become professionals after this series.
“Captain Tsubasa” is one of the most memorable manga and anime series in the world, especially in Japan, for its popularization of football. In addition, it is said that there are not a few players who aim to become professionals after this series.
Yoshihiro Iwamoto, President and CEO of Tsubasa Co., Ltd., commented as follows. “I am very happy that 'Captain Tsubasa' continues to be loved internationally, especially in Saudi Arabia and the (Middle East/North Africa) region, by people of all ages. We look forward to partnering with the production and continuing to build on our success with 'Captain Tsubasa' and business opportunities."
"Captain Tsubasa" was first announced as a Japanese manga series, then transitioned to an anime series, which aired from 1983 to 1986.
After that, it was dubbed into multiple languages, and in 1990, it was broadcast in Arabic in the Middle East and gained international popularity.
By 2010, it has been translated into English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.
Since 2017, several volumes have been released as official Arabic translations, and one-third of the first edition was donated to Syrian refugee children by the publisher, Kinokuniya Bookstore.
"Captain Tsubasa" is one of the best-selling manga series in the world with over 82 million copies sold worldwide, and the anime series is ranked 41st on the list of Top 100 Anime Series.

I’ve sizably sacrificed for both PLS and PLSX. I generally agree with the overall community sentiment that long-term hold (and staking, etc) is the likely way to go here.
That being said, I also think it’s important to check my biases at the door and always be looking for blind spots. I’ve been in crypto since 2014 and the only thing I know for certain is that nothing is for certain in crypto. I’ve lost big on “sure thing” opportunities and won big on things that shouldn’t have had a chance.
So the purpose of this post is to make sure staying “all in no matter what” isn’t just a biased mindset because, like the whole RH community, I think this platform has significant potential. But the 10000x meme has become so prevalent (esp among new entrants) that every post/vid you see seems to have a rose-colored hue. So I just wanted to get some thoughts on possible existential threats that “could” affect the value of this RH Ecosystem (and crypto generally) over a longer 2-5 year horizon, since I think the goal of many is to do some cashing out in a hopeful ~2025 bull run timeframe.
Putting on my contrarian hat, here's a brainstorm of possible existential risks to counter the “go all in and hold long term no matter what because pls/plsx can’t possibly fail” mindset:

1. LEADERSHIP: RH dies (or is put out of reach in some way). Grim, I know, but he’s the primary force behind the community, ethos and project. Being completely realistic…What really happens? Besides community impact, does anyone know if he has talked about continuity issues? Picking just one possible issue in this realm, what happens to (his portion of) the OA address tokens in an estate battle in the event of his death? I can tell you from my experience with estate battles in real estate deals—the heirs fight viciously and scramble to liquidate every single thing they can get their greedy paws on at any discount to rip any meat off the bone. It’s not pretty. Say what you will about the decentralization of Pulsechain (I’ve heard solid arguments from both sides), there appears to be a centralization of leadership that makes it NOT decentralized when it comes to leadership/OA/etc status in the event of his death or disappearance. Never heard this mentioned before so hopefully someone else has insight.
2. LEGAL ISSUES: The SEC/others come after RH, Hex, Pls/PlsX sacrifice (or all of the above). This seems highly likely to happen at some point, on some level, especially considering the veracity of Chokepoint 2.0. And RH has been fairly flippant and arrogant about there being no risk here, which might put a target on his back (wanting to make a prominent example of him/hex/etc). Realistically, like XRP, it would be a long investigation; but looking at the XRP chart, it has definitely affected value for years. The important thing here is the potential “bank run” panic of selling if this were to happen (e.g. say they go after all 4 at once, and imply that sacrificing was just thinly veiled SEC-avoidance and all sacrifices are at risk, etc).
3. GAME-THEORY EXPLOIT: Someone out-games the game-theory master. What if someone extremely clever figures out a way to make a bot that undermines the value proposition(s)? This has become a complex technology stack and even the best blockchains/DEXes have been hacked or gamed. And brand new technology always has exploit risks. And this stack has some hackable moving parts that others didn’t—the AMM fixer, the PulseX buy/burn functionality, the ratio trading in the first 48 hours, the copying over of the system state and all those new pVersions of tokens, etc. These are clever game theory elements that have elevated the hype train…but they’re also possible attack vectors since they’ve mostly never been tried before. And bad actors have had almost 2 years to think about these angles, and now 3 testnets to watch activity and have nasty bots tested. I hope I'm wrong, because to me, this is one of the most credible and worrisome on the list. Thoughts?
4. ON/OFF RAMPS DAMAGED / ALTS SLOWLY BLEED OUT: Chokepoint 2.0 (or 3.0 at some point?) actually succeeds and the rest of the developed world foolishly follows the US’s lead. This is more of a general crypto existential risk (not just the RH ecosystem) and while it’s unlikely, I think it’s worth considering. They’re trying to cut off access to on/off ramps and there are some in European leadership hell bent on the same to protect their disgusting CDBC/fiat systems. But what if they succeed? All alts except maybe eth could possibly do a slow bleed. Other countries tend to follow the US. When the US overreacted to the 60s psychedelic movement and banned all psychedelics to Class One status, the whole world followed and buried the potential of these medicines for 5 decades. Since the US is drastically threatened by losing global reserve currency status—coupled by the “pay to play” reality of traditional finance’s power over the US government—what if they pull off the unlikely and cut off all on/off ramps and the rest of the world follows suit? Stablecoins look like the other big target that could damage crypto's potential (for years? decades?). I'd love to say it couldn't ever happen, but one would never think that holding gold could be made illegal either--but when the threat is great enough, and the leadership is clever enough, they can make some terrible rules that damage innovation due to the power old and entrenched systems.
5. PULSECHAIN LONG-TERM ADOPTION: The most boring fail of all—the possible slow death by “meh.” Each new bull run, there are radically evolved blockchain technologies that take the crypto space by storm. Pulsechain is clever with the airdrop and PulseX mechanisms and certainly great for Hex stakers/investors. But it’s not really innovative as a blockchain. It’s basically a copycat of Eth/Uni/etc. So after the initial hype dies down, what if no one really uses it (besides Hex users)? “Cheap transactions” isn’t really a "silver bullet" reason to move over anymore, there are PLENTY of fast blockchains that are dirt cheap: BSC is the home of scams/memes, SOL gaming/NFTs, Arb and FTM are strong in DeFi, etc… And next bull we have so many new blockchains that will be ready to run with new takes on old tech… Sui, Sei, Shardium, Starkware, Celestia, Aptos, Optimism, Conflux, Kaspa, canto, AlephZero, _____, _____, _____ etc. Blockchains live or die by adoption and usage. 180 projects at launch could mostly be useless after the hype dies down. Buy/burn means nothing if no one is there except Hexicans. You get my point. It's not a pretty scenario, but it does seem feasible that if this were to happen, initial liquidity (from the "new" airdrop people, etc) just bridge out and take their liquidity elsewhere. Is the Pulse/Hex community enough to prop up a whole blockchain without the value just depleting over time? I'm not sure what would happen in this boring possible scenario?

I know it’s not a perfect analogy, but I’ll pick one possible and recent “too big to fail” project as an example for you to run parallels in this list of risks—the terra luna collapse. There are some similarities: Prominent and outspoken leader, some questionable centralization (worse with Luna, but hopefully benevolent or not, having a massive OA is not the norm), rabid community who felt there was no way it could ever fail (sound familiar?), and ultimately, an attack vector that likely was backed by massive amounts of capital (FTX? Others?) to target a huge pool of liquidity that was vulnerable when the market turned down. It seems naive to not at least be cautious of the possibility. LUNA is now all but dead and Do Kwon in custody. 2 years ago, very few would have EVER expected this was even a remote possibility.
if you're so inclined, please comment on any of these but number that you feel you have insight on (and add any others I missed). I’m a PLS/PLSX sacrificer and really appreciate the enthusiasm/strength of this community. And I’d love to just never sell a single pls/plsx, but is this really smart in light of the list above? And if not, anyone have thoughts on smart/small/reasonable take profits plan at launch and beyond?
Appreciate you and your ideas.

Hi everyone,
This is my first post here.
I had planned on buying a flat-bottomed wok for my stove as my first wok, but after TONS of reading I have been pulled out of the dark and into the light… I am going full on round-bottomed wok on an outdoor 65,000 BTU burner! Thanks in no small part to many of you. For my wok, I am about to purchase the Craft Wok Traditional Hand Hammered Carbon Steel Pow Wok with Wooden and Steel Helper Handle (14 Inch, Round Bottom).
My question is… has anyone used the Big Kahuna from Eastman Outdoors? Not the portable one, but the one that comes with a wok (which I will most likely sell afterwards). I ask because the portable one does not come with the ring and proper walk holder. It only has prongs.
The devil is in the details, so I’m wondering if there is a slight difference from the one that everybody raves about which is the portable one which makes it not compatible with a 14” wok or isn’t as efficient or what have you.
Thanks,
Andrew

In your opinion, when a company improves its offer by expanding its business on online platforms (e.g., a retailer selling its products on Amazon) does this move relates to an horizontal or vertical integration?

I'm currently on a trip somewhere and saw a guy selling a pair of these speakers for $550. The pictures look good but I couldn't find any information whatsoever on these speakers. I found some for the S2 but not the S1. Does anyone know anything about these speakers and if I negotiate it to 400-450 is it a good deal?

I decided to give the game a go once more but I am running around Thurston aimlessly with no idea where to find food. I want to start mining in peace somewhere and live a gank-free life but I am in a mustang and have no idea if its viable for mining or where to land to mine gems or anything. I've watched youtube videos but with how much the game keeps changing I don't even know if they are viable. So I left my character in the spaceport slowly starving because the bar apparently doesn't sell food and neither does Tamany Bros.
Plus: the orange HUD is killing my eyes in that Mustang. I hate to be a noob complaining but coming from games like ED, Spacebourne 2 and NMS I feel like this game might be wrong for me.

I started playing trap team on RPCS3 and noticed pretty early that there is an issue with the traps. (I'm using the virtual Portal here)
Trapping an enemy in a level doesn't work at all, I see them getting sucked in by the portal, but then get stuck in an empty Portal screen.
Loading in traps that do not hold a villain yet can cause the game to become oblivious to any skylanders I might load in, forcing me to restart it.
While having a trap loaded that does hold a villain, the game will randomly act like I have cleared the portal and then put everything back on, interrupting my gameplay with the load in animations.
Does anyone know if there is a way to fix this? I want to be able to play as the villains, but I don't want to have my gameplay suddenly interrupted like that.

Rockstar Games may already be planning Grand Theft Auto VI DLC. Fans have been chomping at the bit for more info on GTA 6 for a while as it will likely be one of the biggest games of all-time. Rockstar Games continues to raise and set the bar in a way no other developer is capable of and that will likely be no different with this game. Red Dead Redemption 2 was an absurdly innovative game that is a benchmark for open-world gaming and GTA 6 is both the follow-up to that and the second-best-selling game of all-time, Grand Theft Auto V. The developer is taking its sweet time on its next game and we've already caught a couple of glimpses at it thanks to leaks, but we're still waiting to learn more about it.
With that said, a recent comment from Rockstar Games insider Tez2 noted that they believe Rockstar is on track to announce GTA 6 this year and likely release it next holiday season, with room to delay into early 2025. In order to ensure the game does not get delayed more, Tez noted that Rockstar may have to start cutting content from the game which could then be finished and repackaged later as DLC. It's not something that's totally out of the question, as Rockstar did repurpose some stuff that was cut from Grand Theft Auto V later in GTA Online. Reports also suggested that when Bully 2 was canceled, some of its concepts and features were salvaged for Red Dead Redemption 2.
"I personally see an announcement as a given this year," said the insider. "I don't think the upper management is in a position to delay further to holiday 2025/2026. Cutting more portions of the game to package into DLCs to release later on may be sustainable for management than delaying further."
With all of that said, it's not necessarily a bad idea. In order to get the game out in a reasonable time, stuff will have to be cut, that's the nature of game development. However, it's always a good thing if it can be recycled for other content later down the line. Not only do you get a more fleshed out experience, but it keeps the core vision of the game in-tact. Rockstar has largely moved away from premium story DLC in recent years, so it's unclear what this DLC would look like, but it will likely be years before we even see it.

Thanks to another post here, I've discovered the KSA keycap profile. I have light and dark blue osa keycaps, but I'd really love the KSA version. It seems that Keychron used to have this product on their site, but I'm not seeing it anymore. Does anyone in North America have a set that they no longer want, and want to sell me?:)

Man-eater is a common term for an animal that preys upon humans. This does not include scavenging. Although human beings can be attacked by many kinds of animals, man-eaters are those that have incorporated human flesh into their usual diet. Most reported cases of man-eaters have involved tigers, leopards, lions and crocodiles. However, they are by no means the only predators that will attack humans if given the chance; a wide variety of species have also been known to take humans as prey.

I got a ticket to see &Juliet on TDF and accidentally bought it for the wrong day. I sent them an email and book exchanged with no extra fees and no issues whatsoever! Just go a new confirmation and I am good to go!
Shoutout to Kennedy Center for offering us an equivalent exchange when we mixed up the date for Solider Play and missed the show!
Other places have let us change the tickets for a fee. I believe CSC does and so do certain Broadway houses, but I cannot remember which.
I will say the only stinker here is Barrow St Theater who did not let us exchange our tickets for Great Expectations. Luckily, we were able to sell them and get another set.
The moral of the story is if you have a problem it is worth calling to see if things can be exchanged as it might not always be possible, but if you're polite the worst case scenario is they say no.