This might be long so bear with me: Also My apologies if this kind of post isn't allowed, other subreddits I've thought about asking this on haven't been active in a really long time.
I started this job as a health service assistant for my local school district back in October 2021, I got put on as a float where I would just go to schools and help out in the nurses office for students (I have a medical background for a career) initially I loved it. And around the end of the school year, I was mainly placed at one school which happened to be one of the more higher needs middle schools in the district. I really started to like this since I knew where I was going everyday, and the co-workers that I got to be with really grew on me. We had a great working relationship and we were on top of our stuff. (I should mention that my job title was a covid Health service assistant since part of my job was not only helping out nurses but also testing students when they were sick to see if they had covid).
Cut to summer of 2022, the job I was doing was opening up as a permanent job at the school I was mainly with for the spring. The nurse there REALLY wanted me to work there since she knew I had really good skills and I had a good relationship with the staff there. I quickly jumped at the opportunity, and they not only gave me the job, but gave me a pay raise and more hours (I was previously working only 6 hours a day for $24 per hour as a float, now I was getting paid around $28 for 8 hours per day, so I considered this a win). The job was going great in the fall, however as the school year has progressed, there have been some bad parts in the job (and school) that have become too much to bear.
first off: the nurse that wanted me ended up resigning early December, I thought it was due to her feeling overwhelmed by her schooling, but later found out she was part of a really bad scandal involving another students and drugs. And second off, our principle followed saying he was going on leave which was announced in mid-January (he hasn’t been back since and announced he won’t be back next year). And because of a combo of this, the admin at our school has been “misusing” my work space to put students in there when they need to cool down (due to behavioral issues or otherwise) and then saying they want to talk to those students, but then a whole hour an a half has passed and they still aren’t there. I’ve been fortunate in that the district has sent help everyday. I have a float nurse here who has been much more helpful, and another HSA that I get along with, but outside of those two people, it’s been a struggle. I don’t get the sense that the staff at the school think I exist, I’m usually the last one to know about things, and I’ve been scrutinized about some of my methods on how I’ve treated kids. It’s just ultimately making me not enjoy the job.
I’ve been told that 1. A new admin staff is coming in next year who is supposedly MUCH more strict on things and actually sounds like they care about their staff and 2. Because I’m classified as a covid HSA, with the pandemic basically being over they’re no longer renewing the job. However the new principle (who btw I’ve never spoken to face to face) wants to keep the HSA position for the school. So I’m hearing a bunch of different things from different people, on top of that the school is having an EOY celebration for next Friday morning, at the SAME time the health department in the district is having there’s (I found out about the school one today, where as the health department notified up a week and a half ago, so I’ll be going to that one). I’m REALLY on the fence about returning to the school/ district if I were to possibly be offered my job back or if I should start looking for something new.

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Cover Art <<Previous Start Next >>
Copying their original shape and color for now, Mordecai started his forest with the mushrooms that had a single stalk and cap. Or rather, that showed above ground that way, all mushrooms were merely the ‘fruit’ of the actual fungus. They wouldn’t entirely behave that way when he was done, but the main body would always be below the ground.
The very tallest ones were thin with narrow, pointy caps, while each successive tier of shorter mushroom had wider caps and thicker stalks. The very shortest, broadest of these had a clearance of about 10 feet between the ground and the bottom of the cap. Once he had enough for a thick canopy, Mordecai switched to the mushrooms with more interesting designs.
Some grew in small, tightly packed clumps, others spread out in branching layers. Over here was a cluster that looked like horns, while another one looked almost like a piece of coral or a brain. And there were so many colors to go with the endless variety of shapes; bright oranges, vivid reds, and even the occasional delicate blue. It was rather beautiful he had to admit. But he wasn’t done.
Now that he had a common layer done, he started adding rarer ones. In one area he added some mushrooms that ‘bled’ a crimson fluid out of its cap as well as a beautiful pink-capped mushroom that ‘bled’ a pale yellow fluid from its white stalk. While the first was completely inedible as the fluid was an anti-coagulant, the second one was merely bitter, and someone with the right knowledge could tell the difference, and possibly make a weapon coating to increase the bleeding of cut and pierced foes. Keeping in theme with the forest, they were 1 to 2 feet tall, much larger than their normal variations.
And that was one thing Mordecai was being very careful of, any mushroom that was an upscaled version of a normal mushroom would have the same properties. So he continued creating clusters of various normal mushroom varieties until there were only a few types he hadn’t placed. Those were going to be the base for some of his more creative work, and he wanted them to be a bit more obvious that they weren’t the same as the normal mushrooms. At least, if you knew what a normal one was supposed to look like.
But before that, it was time to work in a bit of precaution. While most druids were better with plants and animals than they were with fungi, some specialized in fungi, and he’d already been served up his reminder about druids. So he drew on the living crystal that they had created for flowers and incorporated it into this level as well. As the theme here was mushrooms, he used the living crystal concept to create new mushrooms. These were tiny buds that liked to nestle amongst other mushrooms, and their mycelium wove between and intertwined with the mycelium of the other mushrooms. Their crystalline nature would resist most attempts at controlling them through normal nature magic, while their living aspect resisted elemental control.
The top layer of soil was almost a veneer, more than a foot down and one would find a thick matting of mycelium, and this structure wove its way even deeper, to the crystalline sheathing he and Kazue had started integrating into all of the dungeon’s outer structure.
Now it was time to have fun. He’d need to give everything a less lethal mode, but he was going to start with the deadly version to make the design feel right. Puff balls were a good start, these he enhanced to make their spores more aggressive and faster to grow, making exposure dangerous and inhalation worse. Then he added variety, imbuing some with a stronger version of a stink horn's odor. While not particularly dangerous, direct exposure can be overwhelming and leave one sickened and retching as they tried to recover. It left people vulnerable while making noise that might draw unwanted attention. He also made sure that these spores, but not the puffball itself, were sticky and luminescent to visibly mark the victim as well.
Now, the stinkhorns brought up another idea. Many varieties had netting which was used to spread their scent. They didn’t act like traps, but they looked like they could be actual nets. So he was going to make some that were. The first step was to alter the secretion to be a subtle, attractive scent that would lure people closer even if they didn’t realize they were smelling it. And instead of having the netting just grow, it stayed rolled up until something was close enough to trigger it, not unlike a puffball’s explosive action. The netting was coated in the sweet-scented secretion, which was also sticky, acidic, and contained a digestive enzyme. The combination was designed to entangle prey and keep it trapped while it was dissolved, and in such concentration the sweet scent proved to also be a soporific, dulling the mind and potentially sending the prey to sleep.
His next trap mushrooms were more direct in their attack, but didn’t come with a lure. Instead, they grew in spread-out groupings, tightly packed clusters at the tip of foot-long stalks that could hide among other mushrooms. They had a basic motion sensor trigger, and the groups were always all the same organism. When movement happened close enough to trigger three or more stalks at the same time, every triggered stalk’s tip exploded with tethered, razor-sharp darts, whose edges were hardened by living crystal. The darts were coated with a paralytic neurotoxin, and when they hit home would inject even more. The outer coating ensured that even a glancing blow to the flesh would at least deliver some of the toxins and hopefully slow the prey down enough to get caught.
The tethers were simple strands, designed to act like harpoon lines and give the toxin time to take effect. There were no digestive enzymes here, the goal was simply to down the prey and let it decompose in place, enriching the soil. The tethers dropped off the stalks about 10 minutes after the darts were fired, the prey was either disabled or free by then, and the stalks could start regenerating a new set of darts.
Mordecai moved on to creating his final active hazard. He created a new type of mushroom tree to populate the forest, about 12 feet tall and with a wide, thin cap whose underside glowed with a soft violet light. Most of them were actually perfectly safe, and the light actually promoted quicker healing for most creatures, but a small percentage of them were actually a look-alike species, differentiated from a distance only by a subtle change in the color of its light.
This light created a soothing effect, but it was designed to slow and distract creatures rather than promote healing. This left them more vulnerable when tendrils unfurled from the cap to lash about, wrapping around anything unfortunate enough to be hit by them. The tendrils didn’t stop whipping about when they caught something, the violent motion shaking its prey hard enough to potentially snap necks, limbs, or spines, depending on what portion of a creature had been grabbed. The violent motion lasted for about a minute before the tendrils came to a stop. It took about 20 more minutes for them to retract into the gills of the cap, carrying any prey into the mushroom’s flesh where it could be properly digested.
With the hazards finished, and one of them giving off light, it seemed like a good time to work on more lighting. There was a type of mushroom that grew out from vertical surfaces, dipping down and curving up before forming its cap. This made it look a bit like a wall-mounted lantern, and Mordecai ran with that idea. The first variants he spawned near the waterfalls and the springs near surfaces that let them hang out over the water. After making sure they were adjusted to only want very wet or humid environments, he gave them luminescence in a variety of orange, red, and goldish yellow colors, then made them prolific spore producers, with the spores glowing in the same colors. The spores were about neutrally buoyant to water, with a bit of variation to ensure the glowing spores spread out to different levels in the streams. The visual effect was somewhere between that of water reflecting fire and the molten glow of lava. It did not compliment the violet glow coming from some of the mushroom trees at all.
The spores would also get brought to the edge of the water, deposited by various ripples and splashes, making it hard to see exactly where the edge of the water was. This wasn’t helped by the spores finding niches to grow more of the little lantern mushrooms, leaving all the waterways a confusing haze. The spores and mushrooms were all perfectly harmless and reasonably nutritious, so the streams could be used as a water source without worrying about poison at least.
And for a third light source, Mordecai used the same style of lantern mushrooms but made these ones not like humidity as much, and also adverse to direct violet illumination from the mushroom trees that glowed. These glowed a sickly greenish color, and could grow on almost any vertical surface but did not like growing in high concentration. This left their glow diffuse and unreliable as a light source.
None of these three colors worked well together, and were never in enough concentration to combine evenly into a roughly white illumination. The waterways were the only consistent illumination available naturally, but that would also leave one’s outline visible against the glowing water. The other choice was to make one’s way through the patchy light and shadow of the forest.
Of course, one could produce one’s own light source of a proper white and easily wash out the effects of these other colors, but such glow would also be quite noticeable to anyone close enough. Most of the time there would at least not be a direct line of sight to make a light source visible to anyone too far away.
Overall it was rather disorienting for most types of vision and forced adventurers into making trade-off decisions about light and visibility as they prepared to contest the dangers of the level.
Once he was satisfied that the environment was well set, it was time to start modifying some inhabitants, and he had quite a few ideas he was eager to try out. There were some serpentine variants of draconic body shapes he had plans for.
<<Previous Start Next >>
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Here's a very informative post because I'm very serious about finding the right person for me. I've clearly marked and categorized everything, so feel free to skim the parts that interest you the most.
What brings me to reddit for dating: For the short of it, I've been doing online dating for about 7 years, and could only describe my experience as a sisyphean struggle. With more traditional dating platforms having been absolutely worthless and a complete waste of time less than productive, I'm hoping this might give me a breakthrough.
Age: 26, open to 18-32~. I’m less about age, more about attraction.
Appearance: 5'8", medium length blond hair (pictures are from when it was short), blue eyes, white skin, slim fit body type. I dress almost exclusively in black if I can help it, hence "closeted goth". I've been told I'm fairly handsome, but I'm including a few (poorly taken) pictures, so you can decide for yourself whether or not I've been lied to!
(Imgur seems to be having problems lately so if you're getting an error that's why. My posts tend to get automatically removed if I include any other image hosters but if you message me I can send alternatives no problem.)
Face: https://imgur.com/a/ykiCkwQ
Body (Warning: Shirtless): https://imgur.com/a/zO96e63
Interests: Many of my interests fall into the "nerd" category. Games (video and tabletop), anime, music, art, sci-fi and fantasy stuff of all varieties. I enjoy a lot of RPG's, and some of my favorite game series include kingdom hearts, fire emblem, dark souls, and a fair few others. I play a lot of league at a fairly high level, but I'm not exactly proud of that because the game damages my sanity at times.
In general, I like to keep in shape, play games with friends, share music I think is great, watch tv/movies/anime (horror and psychological stuff especially), share memes, read, and do some amateur writing. I'm also rather intelligent/insightful and enjoy some nuanced discussion.
Location: Currently in central NJ, somewhere in the no man's land between nyc and philly. I'd prefer someone local who I can meet in person, but won't pass up someone great online who's willing to eventually relocate or that I can eventually relocate to.
Looking For: Monogamous relationship, ideally something serious. I feel that what I'd like the most is to find someone very special to me, who I can love with all my heart and spend my life with. It'd probably be my greatest joy in life to be able to do that, and have someone do so in return. That said, this is just a description of my ideal scenario, not what I'd expect out of every relationship.
Traits I'm Looking For: Kind, loving, trustworthy, understanding. Good sense of humor, emotionally intelligent, communicates well. In this regard, I wouldn't ask for anything I don't freely give. I also very fond of women who are dominant/aggressive in a playful way, as well as role reversal dynamics.
Personality: Generally cool headed, laid back, and kind. Introverted, but can be extroverted when I'm in my element and otherwise comfortable. Deceptively intelligent despite how incredibly basic my pictures look, but I also tend to clown around a lot so that's not easy to discern at first. I’m also very reasonable, with a strong preference for peacefully resolving issues, so you can expect very little to no drama and good communication. Oh, and according to a myers briggs test, I'm an INFJ?
Fun facts: I have a deep and sexy voice which many people don't expect, and a great many people tell me I should get into radio or voice acting. I'm also a bit dead on the inside but that's probably because there's a skeleton living inside me.
Partner preferences: I'm a big fan of goth/alt girls, as well as tomboys. I also really like short hair, usually between pixie and neck length, and have a sizable interest in women that are taller than me. But these aren't dealbreakers! As long as I find you attractive, everything is fine.
Dealbreakers/Requirements: Similar interests are pretty important for me. I tend to play a lot of games in my free time for entertainment, so having a partner that I can do that together with is my ideal. I do have a strong preference for body type that I unfortunately can't get past, with that preference being the thinner end of the spectrum when it comes to proportions/body fat. So basically petite/slim/fit/muscular. PLEASE DON'T BE A SOCIOPATH, OR ACT LIKE ONE!
If you have any questions about anything I mentioned (or didn't), just ask and I'll absolutely answer them for you. I'm very friendly so absolutely feel free to come talk to me.

Here's a very informative post because I'm very serious about finding the right person for me. I've clearly marked and categorized everything, so feel free to skim the parts that interest you the most.
What brings me to reddit for dating: For the short of it, I've been doing online dating for about 7 years, and could only describe my experience as a sisyphean struggle. With more traditional dating platforms having been absolutely torturous and a complete waste of time, with me rarely ever finding matches and those I do get ending up being ghosts or people who just don't respond less than productive, I'm hoping this might give me a breakthrough.
Age: 26, open to 18-32~. I’m less about age, more about attraction.
Appearance: 5'8", medium length blond hair (pictures are from when it was short), blue eyes, white skin, slim fit body type. I dress almost exclusively in black if I can help it, hence "closeted goth". I've been told I'm fairly handsome, but I'm including a few (poorly taken) pictures, so you can decide for yourself whether or not I've been lied to!
(Imgur seems to be having problems lately so if you're getting an error that's why. My posts tend to get automatically removed if I include any other image hosters but if you message me I can send alternatives no problem.)
Face: https://imgur.com/a/ykiCkwQ
Body (Warning: Shirtless): https://imgur.com/a/zO96e63
Interests: Many of my interests fall into the "nerd" category. Games (video and tabletop), anime, music, art, sci-fi and fantasy stuff of all varieties. I enjoy a lot of RPG's, and some of my favorite game series include kingdom hearts, fire emblem, dark souls, and a fair few others. I play a lot of league at a fairly high level, but I'm not exactly proud of that because the game damages my sanity at times.
In general, I like to keep in shape, play games with friends, share music I think is great, watch tv/movies/anime (horror and psychological stuff especially), share memes, read, and do some amateur writing. I'm also rather intelligent/insightful and enjoy some nuanced discussion.
Location: Currently in central NJ, somewhere in the no man's land between nyc and philly. I'd prefer someone local who I can meet in person, but won't pass up someone great online who's willing to eventually relocate or that I can eventually relocate to.
Looking For: Monogamous relationship, ideally something serious. I feel that what I'd like the most is to find someone very special to me, who I can love with all my heart and spend my life with. It'd probably be my greatest joy in life to be able to do that, and have someone do so in return. That said, this is just a description of my ideal scenario, not what I'd expect out of every relationship.
Traits I'm Looking For: Kind, loving, trustworthy, understanding. Good sense of humor, emotionally intelligent, communicates well. In this regard, I wouldn't ask for anything I don't freely give. I also very fond of women who are dominant/aggressive in a playful way, as well as role reversal dynamics.
Personality: Generally cool headed, laid back, and kind. Introverted, but can be extroverted when I'm in my element and otherwise comfortable. Deceptively intelligent despite how incredibly basic my pictures look, but I also tend to clown around a lot so that's not easy to discern at first. I’m also very reasonable, with a strong preference for peacefully resolving issues, so you can expect very little to no drama and good communication. Oh, and according to a myers briggs test, I'm an INFJ?
Fun facts: I have a deep and sexy voice which many people don't expect, and a great many people tell me I should get into radio or voice acting. I'm also a bit dead on the inside but that's probably because there's a skeleton living inside me.
Partner preferences: I'm a big fan of goth/alt girls, as well as tomboys. I also really like short hair, usually between pixie and neck length, and have a sizable interest in women that are taller than me. But these aren't dealbreakers! As long as I find you attractive, everything is fine.
Dealbreakers/Requirements : Similar interests are pretty important for me. I tend to play a lot of games in my free time for entertainment, so having a partner that I can do that together with is my ideal. I do have a strong preference for body type that I unfortunately can't get past, with that preference being the thinner end of the spectrum when it comes to proportions/body fat. So basically petite/slim/fit/muscular. PLEASE DON'T BE A SOCIOPATH, OR ACT LIKE ONE!
If you have any questions about anything I mentioned (or didn't), just ask and I'll absolutely answer them for you. I'm very friendly so absolutely feel free to come talk to me.

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The Big List Disney codes are split & do not include the GP portion, but the DMI points are included. All Sony titles include points as long as the title is eligible. Please only redeem the portion of a code you are paying for. Prices are firm for now. I accept Cashapp, Venmo, Zelle, Fb pay & PayPal F&F. Comment & pm if interested. Thanks!

🦝

MISC

Bram Stoker's Dracula + Mary Shelly's Frankenstein double feature HD $6 (MA)
Will Ferrell 3-Film Collection SD [Talladega Nights, The Other Guys & Step Brothers] $3 (MA)

🦝

$5 4K UHD
House With A Clock In It's Walls, The (MA)
Mortal Kombat [2021] (MA)
Sonic The Hedgehog (Vudu or iTunes)
Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent, The (Vudu or iTunes)
🦝

$4 4K UHD

Allied [2016] (Vudu)
Ant Man & The Wasp (iTunes/ports + 150 points)
Beauty & The Beast [1991] (iTunes/ports + 150 points)
Captain America: Civil War (iTunes/ports + 150 points)
Despicable Me [2010] (iTunes/ports)
Guardians Of The Galaxy (iTunes/ports + 150 points)
Halloween [2018] (MA)
Hell Or High Water (Vudu)
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (iTunes)
Spiral: From The Book Of Saw (Vudu or iTunes)
Sting, The [1973] (iTunes/ports)
Terminator: Dark Fate (Vudu)
Top Gun (iTunes)
Toy Story (iTunes/ports + 150 points)
🦝

$5 HD

Dentist 1 & 2, The (Vudu)
Elysium & District 9 bundle (MA)
Inside Llewyn Davis (MA)
Jerry & Marge Go Large (Vudu HD or iTunes 4K)
Rescuers: Down Under, The (MA + 150 points)
🦝

$4 HD

Alien3 [Theatrical] (MA, iTunes or Google Play/ports)
Alien: Resurrection (MA, iTunes or Google Play/ports) or both for $7
Company Of Heroes [2013] (MA)
Ever After: A Cinderella Story [1998] (MA)
How To Train Your Dragon 1 & 2 bundle (MA)
Jungle Book, The [1967] (MA + 150 points)
Legion Of Super-Heroes (MA)
Lilo & Stitch (MA + 150 points)
Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has A Glitch (MA + 150 points)
Lion King 1 & ½, The (MA + 150 points)
Men [A24] (Vudu or Google Play)
Minions + Minions: The Rise Of Gru double feature (MA)
Nightmare Before Christmas, The (MA + 150 points)
Step Brothers [Theatrical & Unrated] (MA)
Transporter, The [2002] (MA or Google Play/ports)
🦝

$3️⃣ Movies

#$3 4K UHD
American Assassin (Vudu)
Apollo 13 (iTunes/ports)
Avengers: Age Of Ultron (iTunes/ports + 150 points)
Big Hero 6 (iTunes/ports + 150 points)
Birth Of A Nation, The (iTunes/ports)
Captain Marvel (MA + 200 points)
Everest [2015] (iTunes/ports)
Frozen II (iTunes/ports + 150 points)
Hocus Pocus (iTunes/ports + 150 points)
Interstellar (iTunes)
Midway [2019] (Vudu or iTunes)
Moana (iTunes/ports + 150 points)
Rambo: First Blood (iTunes)
Star Wars: Rise Of Skywalker (iTunes/ports + 150 points)
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon (iTunes)
Transformers: The Last Knight (Vudu)
Zootopia (iTunes/ports + 150 points)
🦝

$3 HD

Batman & Superman: Battle Of The Super Sons (MA)
Black Widow [2021] (MA + 150 points)
Book Of Life, The [2014] (MA or iTunes/ports)
Chicago [2002] (Vudu, iTunes or Google Play)
Cosmic Sin (Vudu or iTunes)
Cruella (MA + 150 points)
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (MA + 150 points)
Dolittle [2020] (MA)
Drive [2011] (MA + Sony points)
Encanto (MA + 150 points)
Eternals [2021] (MA + 150 points)
How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (MA)
Joe [2014] (Vudu)
Jungle Book, The [1967] (MA only/no points)
Legends Of Oz: Dorothy's Return (MA)
Les Misérables [1998] (MA)
Lightyear [2022] (MA + 150 points)
Lilo & Stitch (Google Play/ports)
Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has A (Google Play/ports) or both for $5
London Has Fallen (iTunes/ports)
Moonlight [A24] (Vudu)
Night At The Museum [2006] (MA)
Northman, The [2022] (MA)
Peter Pan [1953] (MA + 150 points)
Phantom Thread (MA)
Place Beyond The Pines, The (iTunes/ports)
Rescuers, The (Google Play/ports)
Rescuers: Down Under, The (Google Play/ports)
Shang Chi & The Legend Of The Ten Rings (MA + 150 points)
Sleight [2017] (iTunes/ports)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (MA + Sony points)
Still Alice (MA + Sony points)
This Is The End (MA + Sony points)
Thor: Love & Thunder (MA + 150 points)
Top Gun (Vudu)
Unholy, The [2021] (MA + Sony points)
Wedding Ringer, The (MA + Sony points)
🦝
All codes are $2. Prices are firm for now. Please only redeem the you are paying for. Any Disney codes are split. MA/iTunes Disney will include points but not the GP redeem. All Sony titles include points as long as the title is eligible. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I accept Cashapp, Venmo, Zelle, Fb pay or PayPal F&F. Comment & pm if interested. Thanks for checking out my list.
🦝

💲2️⃣ HDX

12 Years A Slave (MA)
21 Jump Street (MA + Sony points)
2 Guns (MA or iTunes/ports)
Action Point (iTunes 4K)
Adventures Of Tintin, The (Vudu or iTunes)
Age Of Adaline, The (Vudu, iTunes or Google Play)
Alien Covenant (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA/GP)
All Eyez On Me (iTunes)
Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Road Chip (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA)
Amazing Spider-Man, The (MA)
Amazing Spider-Man 2, The (MA + Sony points)
American Girl: McKenna Shoots For The Stars (MA or iTunes/ports)
American Reunion [Unrated] (MA or iTunes/ports)
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (Vudu or iTunes)
Annihilation [2018] (Vudu)
Ant Man (Google Play/ports)
Arrival [2016] (Vudu)
Assassin's Creed (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA)
Bad Boys For Life (MA + Sony points)
Bad Grandpa (iTunes)
Batman, The [2022] (MA)
Battleship [2012] (iTunes/ports 4K)
Beauty & The Beast [2017] (MA + 150 points/iTunes option is expired)
Beguiled, The [2017] (MA or iTunes/ports)
Big Wedding, The (iTunes)
Black Panther (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA + 150 points)
Black Widow [2021] (Google Play/ports)
Book Club (Vudu)
Boss Baby, The (MA)
Bourne Identity, The (MA)
Bourne Legacy, The (iTunes/ports 4K)
Brian Banks (MA)
Bridge Of Spies (Google Play/ports)
Cabin In The Woods, The (Vudu/GP HD or iTunes 4K)
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (MA)
Case For Christ, The (iTunes/ports)
Chi-Raq (Vudu)
Choice, The [2016] (Vudu)
Contraband (iTunes/ports)
Cruella (Google Play/ports)
Daddy's Home (Vudu HD or iTunes 4K)
Darkest Hour [2017] (MA)
Deepwater Horizon (iTunes 4K)
Despicable Me [2010] (MA)
Despicable Me 2 (iTunes/ports 4K)
Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (MA)
Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (MA or iTunes/ports)
Divergent (iTunes 4K)
Divergent Series: Insurgent (iTunes 4K)
Django Unchained (Vudu)
Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (Google Play/ports)
Dragonheart: Battle For The Heartfire (MA)
Duff, The (iTunes)
Dying Of The Light (Vudu)
Edward Scissorhands (MA)
Emoji Movie, The (MA + Sony points)
Ender's Game (iTunes 4K or Google Play HD)
Epic [2013] (MA or iTunes/ports)
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (MA)
Ex Machina (Vudu)
Expendables 3, The (Vudu 4K)
Fast & Furious 6, The [Extended] (iTunes/ports 4K)
Fifty Shades Darker [Unrated] (iTunes/ports 4K)
Fifty Shades Of Grey [Unrated] (iTunes/ports 4K)
Finding Dory (iTunes/ports 4K or HD + 150 points)
Flight [2012] (Vudu or iTunes)
Frozen (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA + 150 points)
Gambler, The [2015] (Vudu or iTunes)
Gemini Man (iTunes 4K or Vudu HD)
Ghostbusters [2016] [Theatrical & Extended] (MA + Sony points)
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (Vudu HD or iTunes 4K)
Girl On The Train, The [2016] (iTunes/ports 4K)
God's Not Dead 2 (iTunes/ports)
God's Not Dead: A Light In Darkness (MA)
Gods Of Egypt (Vudu/GP HD or iTunes 4K)
Good Day To Die Hard, A [Extended] (MA or Google Play/ports)
Grace Unplugged (Vudu)
Greatest Showman, The (MA)
Grey, The [2012] (MA or iTunes/ports)
Hacksaw Ridge (Vudu or Google Play)
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters [Unrated] (Vudu or iTunes)
Hardcore Henry (MA or iTunes/ports)
Hateful Eight, The (Vudu or Google Play)
Haunting In Connecticut 2: The Ghosts Of Georgia, The (Vudu)
Heat, The [2013] (MA)
Heaven Is For Real (MA + Sony points)
Hell Or High Water (Vudu or Google Play)
Hercules [2014] (Vudu HD or iTunes 4K)
Hidden Figures (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA)
Hitman's Bodyguard, The (Vudu/GP HD or iTunes 4K)
Home [2015] (MA)
Home Alone (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA/GP)
Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (MA, iTunes or Google Play/ports)
Hope Springs [2012] (MA)
How To Train Your Dragon 2 (MA)
Hugo (Vudu or iTunes)
Hunger Games, The (iTunes 4K)
Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The (iTunes 4K or Google Play HD)
Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part, The (iTunes 4K)
Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, The (iTunes 4K)
Huntsman: Winter's War, The [Extended] (iTunes/ports 4K)
Hustlers [2019] (iTunes 4K)
I Can Only Imagine (Vudu, iTunes or Google Play)
Ice Age: Continental Drift (MA)
Independence Day: Resurgence (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA/GP)
Instant Family (iTunes 4K)
Interstellar (Vudu or Google Play)
It's A Wonderful Life [1947] (Vudu)
Jackass 3 [Theatrical] (Vudu or iTunes)
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (Vudu)
Jarhead 2: Field Of Fire [Unrated] (MA)
Jason Bourne (iTunes/ports 4K)
Jaws (MA)
John Wick (iTunes 4K or Vudu/GP HD)
John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum (iTunes 4K)
Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (MA + Sony points)
Jungle Cruise (MA + 150 points)
Jurassic Park III [2001] (MA)
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (MA)
Kick-Ass 2 (MA or iTunes/ports)
Killer Elite (iTunes/ports)
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA)
Kingsman: The Secret Service (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA)
Kung Fu Panda 3 (MA)
Last Stand, The [2013] (Vudu, iTunes or Google Play)
Last Witch Hunter, The (Vudu/GP HD or iTunes 4K)
Lee Daniels' The Butler (Vudu)
Legend Of Hercules, The (Vudu/GP HD or iTunes 4K)
Little Mermaid, The (Google Play/ports)
Logan (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA)
Lone Survivor (iTunes/ports 4K)
Longest Ride, The (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA)
Lorax, The [2012] (MA or iTunes/ports)
Love & Mercy [2015] (Vudu)
Luca (Google Play/ports)
Lucy (iTunes/ports 4K)
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (MA)
Maggie (Vudu)
Marauders (Vudu)
Marvel's The Avengers [2012] (Google Play/ports)
Mechanic: Resurrection (Vudu/GP HD or iTunes 4K)
Mindgamers (MA)
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (iTunes 4K)
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (iTunes 4K)
Mountain Between Us, The (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA)
Mr. Peabody & Sherman (MA)
Mud (Vudu)
Mummy, The [2017] (iTunes/ports)
Murder On The Orient Express [2017] (MA)
Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA)
Noah [2014] (Vudu or iTunes)
Non-Stop [2014] (MA or iTunes/ports)
Now You See Me 2 (iTunes 4K)
Other Woman, The [2014] (MA, iTunes or Google Play/ports)
Overlord [2019] (Vudu)
Oz The Great & Powerful (MA + 100 points)
Pain & Gain (Vudu)
Paper Towns (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA)
Paranormal Activity [Theatrical] (Vudu or iTunes)
Paranormal Activity 3 [Extended] (iTunes)
Paul [2011] [Unrated] (iTunes/ports)
Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters (MA or Google Play/ports)
Peter Pan [1953] (Google Play/ports)
Pet Sematary [2019] (Vudu)
Pirate Fairy, The (Google Play/ports
Pitch Perfect (iTunes/ports 4K)
Pitch Perfect 2 (iTunes/ports 4K)
Planes [2013] (MA + 150 points)
Possession, The [2012] (iTunes)
Prometheus (MA)
Purge: Anarchy, The (iTunes/ports 4K)
Purge: Election Year, The (iTunes/ports 4K)
Quiet Place, A [2018] (Vudu HD or iTunes 4K)
Riddick [2013] [Unrated] (MA or iTunes/ports)
Ride Along (MA or iTunes/ports)
Ride Along 2 (iTunes/ports)
Risen [2016] (MA + Sony points)
Rise Of The Guardians [2011] (MA)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA + 150 points)
Russell Madness (MA or Google Play/ports)
Safe [2012] (Vudu or Google Play)
Safe House [2012] (MA or iTunes/ports)
Saving Mr. Banks (Google Play/ports)
Secret Life Of Pets, The (iTunes/ports 4K)
Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, The (MA)
Selma (Vudu or iTunes)
Sicario (Vudu 4K, iTunes 4K or Google Play HD)
Silver Linings Playbook (Vudu or Google Play)
Sing [2016] (iTunes/ports 4K)
Sinister (iTunes)
Sleepless [2017] (iTunes/ports)
Snatched [2017] (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA)
Snitch (iTunes 4K or Google Play HD)
Snow White & The Huntsman [Extended] (iTunes/ports 4K)
Space Between Us, The (MA or iTunes/ports)
Spider-Man: Homecoming (MA + Sony points)
Star Trek [2009] (iTunes 4K)
Star Trek Beyond (iTunes 4K)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA + 150 points)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (iTunes/ports + 150 points)
Straight Outta Compton (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA)
Super Buddies [2013] (MA + 100 points)
Ted [Unrated] (MA)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows (Vudu HD or iTunes 4K)
Terminator: Genisys (Vudu HD or iTunes 4K)
This Is 40 [Theatrical] (MA or iTunes/ports)
Thor: Love & Thunder (Google Play/ports)
Thor: Ragnarok (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA + 150 points)
Total Recall [2012] [Theatrical & Extended Unrated] (MA + Sony points)
Toy Story 4 (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA + 150 points)
Trolls (MA)
True Blood: Season 4 (iTunes)
True Grit [2010] (Vudu or iTunes)
Turbo [2013] (MA)
Tyler Perry's Temptation: Confessions Of A Marriage Counselor (Google Play)
Valerian & The City Of A Thousand Planets (Vudu)
Venom (MA + Sony points)
Walk Among The Tombstones, A (iTunes/ports)
War For The Planet Of The Apes (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA/GP)
Warm Bodies (iTunes 4K or GP HD)
War Room [2015] (MA + Sony points)
When The Game Stands Tall (MA + Sony points)
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (Vudu)
Wild Card (Vudu or Google Play)
Woman In Black, The [2012] (MA)
Woman In Gold (Vudu)
Wonder [2017] (Vudu/GP HD or iTunes 4K)
Won't Back Down [2012] (MA)
X-Men: Days Of Future Past (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA)
XXX: Return Of Xander Cage (iTunes 4K)
🦝

💲2️⃣ SD

All About Steve (iTunes/ports)
Descendants, The (iTunes/ports)
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who! (iTunes/ports)
Inside Llewyn Davis (MA)
Juno (iTunes/ports)
Marley & Me (iTunes/ports)
Mr. Popper's Penguins (iTunes/ports)
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (iTunes/ports)
Rocker, The [2008] (iTunes/ports)
Tree Of Life, The (iTunes/ports)
We Bought A Zoo (iTunes/ports)
🦝

$1 Codes

💲1️⃣ HD

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi (Vudu)
Alex Cross (Vudu)
Avengers: Age Of Ultron (Google Play/ports)
Avengers: Endgame (Google Play/ports)
Avengers: Infinity War (Google Play/ports)
Beauty & The Beast [2017] (Google Play/ports)
Big Hero 6 (Google Play/ports)
Black Panther (MA without points or Google Play/ports)
Bourne Ultimatum, The (MA)
Captain America: Winter Soldier (Google Play/ports)
Captain Marvel (Google Play/ports)
Choice, The [2016] (iTunes)
Deadpool (iTunes/ports 4K or HD MA/GP)
Divergent (Vudu)
Divergent Series: Insurgent, The (Vudu or Google Play)
Doctor Strange (Google Play/ports)
Dog's Purpose, A (iTunes/ports)
Ender's Game (Vudu)
Escape Plan (Vudu)
Expendables 2, The (Vudu/GP HD or iTunes 4K)
Expendables 3, The [Theatrical] (iTunes 4K)
Expendables 3, The [Unrated] (Vudu, iTunes or Google Play)
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Fast Five [Extended] (MA or iTunes/ports)
Fate Of The Furious, The [8] [Theatrical] (HD MA)
Fifty Shades Darker [Unrated] (MA)
Finding Dory (Google Play/ports)
Furious 7 [Extended] (MA)
Girls Trip (MA or iTunes/ports)
Guardians Of The Galaxy (Google Play/ports)
Hillsong: Let Hope Rise (iTunes/ports)
Hocus Pocus (Google Play/ports)
Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, The (Vudu)
I Feel Pretty (iTunes)
Inside Out (Google Play/ports)
Iron Man 3 (MA only/no points or Google Play/ports)
John Wick 3 (Google Play)
Jungle Cruise [2021] (Google Play/ports)
Jurassic World (MA)
Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain (Vudu)
Kidnap [2017] (iTunes/ports)
Lightyear [2022] (Google Play/ports)
Lion King, The [2019] (Google Play/ports)
Lone Survivor (MA)
Maleficent (Google Play/ports)
Mission Impossible: Fallout (Vudu)
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (Vudu)
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (Vudu)
Moana (Google Play/ports)
Norm Of The North (Vudu)
Now You See Me (Vudu)
Oz: The Great & Powerful (Google Play/ports)
Pitch Perfect 2 (MA)
Planes (Google Play/ports)
Purge, The [2013] (MA)
Red 2 (Vudu/GP HD or iTunes 4K)
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Google Play/ports)
Secret Life Of Pets, The (MA)
Snitch (Vudu)
Snow White & The Huntsman [Extended] (MA)
Star Trek Beyond (Vudu)
Star Trek: Into Darkness (Vudu HD or iTunes 4K)
Star Wars: Rise Of Skywalker (Google Play/ports)
Super Buddies (Google Play/ports)
Taken 2 (MA or Google Play/ports)
Ted [Theatrical] (iTunes/ports)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [2014] (Vudu)
Thor: Ragnarok (Google Play/ports)
Toy Story 4 (Google Play/ports)
Transformers: Age Of Extinction (Vudu HD or iTunes 4K)
Transformers: Dark Of The Moon (Vudu)
Transformers: The Last Knight (Vudu HD or iTunes 4K)
Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection (Vudu)
Tyler Perry's Temptation: Confessions Of A Marriage Counselor (Vudu)
Unbroken [2014] (MA)
World War Z (Vudu)
XXX: Return Of Xander Cage (Vudu)
Zootopia (Google Play/ports)
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💲1️⃣ SD

22 Jump Street (MA + Sony points)
Act Of Valor (iTunes)
Amazing Spider-Man, The (MA)
Annie [2014] (MA + Sony points)
Call Me By Your Name [2017] (MA + Sony points)
Captain Phillips (MA + Sony points)
Concussion (MA + Sony points)
Despicable Me (iTunes/ports)
Devil Inside, The [2012] (Vudu)
Elysium (MA + Sony points)
Equalizer, The (MA + Sony points)
Family Guy: Blue Harvest (iTunes)
Family Guy: It's A Trap! (iTunes)
Fury [2014] (MA + Sony points)
Glee: The Concert (iTunes/ports)
Goosebumps [2015] (MA + Sony points)
Grown Ups 2 (MA + Sony points)
Haunting In Connecticut, The (iTunes)
Haywire (iTunes)
Heaven Is For Real (MA + Sony points)
Hobo With A Shotgun (iTunes)
Hope Springs [2012] (MA)
Hours [2013] (Vudu)
Hugo (Vudu)
Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs (iTunes/ports)
Immortals [2011] (iTunes)
Judy Moody & The Not Bummer Summer (iTunes)
Jumanji: The Next Level (MA + Sony points)
Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (MA + Sony points)
Life As We Know It (iTunes)
Magnificent Seven, The [2016] (Vudu)
Mama Mia! The Movie (iTunes/ports)
Monuments Men, The (MA + Sony points)
Mortal Instruments : City Of Bones, The (MA + Sony points)
No Good Deed [2014] (MA + Sony points)
One For The Money (iTunes)
Ong Bak 3 (iTunes)
Peter Rabbit (MA)
Predators [2010] (iTunes/ports)
Public Enemies (iTunes/ports)
Rio (iTunes/ports)
Robin Hood [2010] [Unrated] (iTunes/ports)
Safe Haven (iTunes)
Something Borrowed (iTunes/ports)
Star, The [2017] (MA + Sony points)
Think Like A Man (MA + Sony points)
This Is The End (MA + Sony points)
Total Recall [2012] (MA + Sony points)
When The Game Stands Tall (MA + Sony points)
X-Men: First Class (iTunes/ports)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (iTunes/ports)
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Expendables 2, The (Vudu SD only or iTunes SD only)
Frozen (Google Play/ports HD)
Hunger Games, The (Vudu SD or iTunes SD)
Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The (Vudu HD)
Perks Of Being A Wallflower, The (iTunes SD only)
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (iTunes/ports SD)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Google Play/ports HD)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Google Play/ports HD)
Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection (iTunes HD only)
What To Expect When You're Expecting (iTunes SD only)

Part 2 of 2: All constructive criticism is welcome and the more specific, the better.

Bringing a pitchfork to an android fight

This leaves the ruled with the sole strategic deterrent of their collective potential for violence. The deterrent is twofold:

1. Their potential as agents of coercive violence on the part of intra-class competitors
2. Their collective power as a ‘mob’ or mass movement that if necessary can overwhelm through numbers (a la Bastille)

In societies, where the institutions of legitimacy are hereditary, intra-class rivalries are more likely given the largely unconditional and irrevocable nature of legitimacy conferred by birth. No effective mechanism can remove class membership without challenging the legitimacy of the institution conferring membership.
Privileges and special treatment are often accorded to members of the same class in external societies with matching institutions of legitimacy. These privileges can even hold in wartime where either special treatment during capture or prohibitions against shedding ‘royal’ or ‘noble’ blood set class members apart from the ruled populace of either society.
This irrevocability of status limits the ability of a class to neutralize rogue members. Even if rejected by other class members, rogue members are often able to still garner support internally and externally based on their claim to legitimacy as in the case of James Francis Edward Stuart.
This inherent instability results in the courting of the ruled by competing members of the ruling elite as agents of violence. It can be as gross as the direct financing of the Clodian and Milonian gangs by Caesar and his opponents or the actual bidding war for the Roman Imperial purple by Didius Julianus. Or it can be as professional as purchasing the services of condottieri during the Italian city-state conflicts. The commonality is gathering enough of the ruled to bludgeon other members of the ruling elite into submission.
The 20th century saw the beginning of the end for hereditary institutions of legitimacy. The Chinese and Russian Communist revolutions as well as the ascent of Nazism in Germany represented the rise to power of ideologies that were fatally antagonistic to the aristocracy) and royalty. The post World II breakup of the British Empire - especially in India - saw the removal of more hereditary rulers as former colonies coalesced into independent modern nation-states. Even the former imperial leader saw radical institutional shakeups. The Labour Party’s victory in the 1945 elections started Great Britain’s transition from hereditary legitimacy as well culminating in the House of Lords Act 1999 and its following updates. In less than 100 years, a substantial portion of humanity transitioned their institutions of legitimacy and the basis of ruling elite power.

The end of elite intra-class conflict

Modernity has seen the irrevocable legitimacy of birth and descent replaced with the conditional legitimacy of intellectual compliance with the ruling elite’s philosophy or ideology. This phenomenon is most easily discerned in the Soviet Union, Communist China and other formecurrent Communist countries.
Elites were subject to constant surveillance and purged for even small infractions of ideological deviation. Surveillance was pervasive - so pervasive that in East Germany it was estimated that there was one Stasi (secret police) informer for every 6.5 citizens. Once identified as deviants, purged members were de-legitimized prior to removal in tightly controlled trials where ‘extracted’ confessions were presented as damning evidence of ideological nonconformity. This ‘delegitimization’ was so effective that popular uprisings on behalf of purged members were/are virtually nonexistent. With no legitimate claim or access to energy in the system, the purged members are rendered powerless to raise groups of the ruled to save them.
In Western Europe and the vast majority of the Anglosphere, credentialism is the preferred institution of legitimacy and can be revoked unlike inherited nobility or spiritual superiority. Credentialism (nominal meritocracy coupled with ideological compliance) forms a framework of class control slightly less punitive, yet every bit as pervasive as the Communist regimes.
In a credentials-based system, the institutions that bestow credentials - such as elite universities - represent a significant chokepoint of control over ruling elite members.
Attendance has its privileges. In the United States, Ivy League and Ivy League plus graduates are overrepresented in the upper echelons of US government, business and non-profit institutions. Currently 8 out of 9 US Supreme Court justices are graduates of just two law schools: Yale and Harvard Law. 4 out 5 of the last US Presidents graduated from Ivy League schools.
However, despite representation as a ‘meritocracy’, admission to and attendance at these institutions are not contingent solely on merit. The most obvious exceptions being legacy preferences and affirmative action. Legacy preferences and affirmative action are non-merit criteria for admission that enables ruling elites to play gatekeeper and prefer members of their class or preferred candidates for addition to the class.
Less obvious though is the implied ideological conformity to become a member of these credential granting institutions. During the 1950s and 1960s, the whiff of Communist sympathies could blacklist an individual from these institutions. In present times, differing views on gender, race, immigration or even ‘lack of personality’ can bar an individual from admission, cause rescission of admission or expulsion from these credential granting institutions. Earned credentials can be revoked for academic disagreement if it buts against the class consensus as is the case in California where disagreement with the ‘consensus’ over COVID now allows medical license revocation.
Technology makes possible the ubiquitous yet decentralized class policing to maintain conformity in the West. Stray comments from years in the past during literal childhood are now grounds for exclusion or ‘cancellation’. Social media and cancel culture allows class coordination in real-time with everything captured on phones and immediately shared on Twitter, Tiktok, Instagram to generate instant class outrage and cancellation - all without recourse to a government institution. There’s no longer a need to ‘eliminate’ someone when a bot can post inciting content that results in the loss of credentials, employment and social status for the problematic individual.
Whether the punitive Communist system or the slightly less punitive yet every bit as controlling Western system, the revocable nature of legitimacy in both systems enables modern elites to resolve intraclass disputes without having to resort to mass violence. Expulsion from the institutions of legitimacy is possible without death and can be instantaneous since unlike birth-descent legitimacy which only ends upon death, removal of a credential or Party membership doesn’t require the individual to be found, seized and killed. A few keystrokes and boom! - virtual death.
This ease and swiftness of delegitimization means class dissidents are less likely to be able to garner and maintain enough popular support necessary to violently contest for supremacy.
While beneficial to the ruling class, this removes participation in the informal violence of intraclass conflict within the ruling elite as a path of advancement or accommodation for the ruled. The ruled are no longer needed to maintain the intra-class balance.

We need pitchforks. Lots of pitchforks.

The ruled populace’s sole remaining leverage is to act as members of the formal security institutions of the society such as the armed forces or law enforcement.
The structure of the armed forces mimics the same control structure as other social institutions with the officers corps overpopulated with members of the ruling elites and the bulk of recruits from the other strata of society.
In the US, the bulk of the enlisted recruits - 80% - 90% of the total - are from households under $100k annual income. With an average income of slightly over $50,000, these recruits’ household incomes are significantly below the top 10% annual income average of $173,000 .
Doing the bulk of the fighting and dying has meant that the ruled populace has enough strategic value to the ruling elite as violent counterbalances to external elites that accommodations in energy distribution and class membership are a grudging but recurring feature of political history.
There’s a roughly direct relationship between conflict severity and the level of accommodation. The violent global paroxysms of the 20th century (WWI, WW2, the Korean War) saw the advent of socialized medicine), the GI Bill and other concessions throughout Western Europe and the Anglosphere. The Cold War saw the further growth of the welfare state in the societies of the West as well the advent of a series of development/aid programs directed towards the developing world. The ruling elites of the West and the Communist bloc competed with accommodations to shore up their popular support domestically and globally in case of another world conflict that might be nuclear and apocalyptic in nature.
The Vietnam War represented the beginning of the end of this type of popular accommodation in the United States. The usual inequities of socioeconomic status vs combat exposure were hyper-magnified as college and health related exemptions allowed many scions and aspiring members of the ruling elite to avoid the conflict altogether.
This left the armed forces composed of draftees - disproportionately from the lower socioeconomic classes - commanded by the few volunteer members of the ruling elite. The results were disastrous. Social justice protests, McNamara’s Morons, ‘fragging’ and other disciplinary and performance issues - caused by the imbalanced force structure - proved such a toxic stew that the US moved to an all-volunteer force in 1973.
The move to a professional army removed the need for broad-based popular consent to ensure force cohesion during conflict (or so the theory went). And with the decreased need for broad-based support, the US ruling elites began to contract the post-World War accommodations and welfare-state.
First to suffer was veteran treatment as the soldiers exposed to Agent Orange were denied compensation and care for the myriad health problems resulting from their exposure. The 1980s saw the beginning of the end for The Great Society welfare state and culminated with the ‘end of welfare as we know it’ being signed into law by President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. Offshoring began in the 1980s and accelerated with NAFTA and China’s accession to the WTO. This coupled with the Reagan-Bush-Trump tax cuts further eviscerated the middle class which typically provides the bulk of armed forces recruits.
Initial impacts on operational readiness appeared during the first Gulf War, Afghanistan and the second Gulf War but were ameliorated by extended and repetitive use of reserve forces. However, recruiting has plummeted across the board and the soldiers that fought the last three American conflicts are aging out of service eligibility. In 2022 and 2023, it is projected that all branches except the Space Force will have failed to meet recruitment goals.
The likelihood that new recruitment techniques will improve the situation are grim as the Army estimates that only 23% of the 17-to-24 year olds in the US would even qualify as recruits. The other 77% are unable to pass the basic armed forces entrance exam or are too overweight/obese to meet minimum fitness requirements.
A shrinking pool of recruits has not impaired the ruling elites’ willingness to engage in armed conflict to achieve their geopolitical goals. Currently, the United States and its NATO allies are engaged in a proxy war in Ukraine against Russia. The United States, Taiwan, Australia, South Korea, Japan and the Philippines stand on the verge of conflict over Taiwan and access to the South China Sea.
All of the actors in these brewing or ongoing conflicts are experiencing some degree of demographic decline with severe population declines projected for Russia, Ukraine, China, South Korea, Japan and much of Europe. The United States is projected to be buoyed by immigration however the native birth rate has already plummeted below replacement levels.
This leaves the ruling elites with the confounding situation where the current economic and political institutions they control have ennervated the ruled populace to the point it impairs their ability to project power externally. Rebuilding the middle class that provides the bulk of recruits would necessitate major structural changes that would greatly lessen their class’ control and at least a generation of time for enough children to be born to erase the recruitment deficit.
Reversing 40-years of rigged economic and political policy alone would represent a Herculean task. But couple this with natural class resistance to any loss of control egged on by the psychopathy of the class leaders, the necessary changes are improbable to the point of impossible.
With no change and conflicts on the immediate horizon, the ruling elites have one solution left to them to replace the dispossessed recruitment pools of the middle class - artificial intelligence and autonomous weapons.

Move over humans. It’s time for something scarier.

A.I. powered weapons offer a number of advantages over human combatants. Not only does A.I. already demonstrate tactical superiority against human opponents in simulation, but its unique nature is particularly appealing to the ruling elites.
Without conscience or kinship ties or moral safeguards, the A.I. soldiers will pursue any objective regardless of the dubious nature of the orders. History would have been markedly different if A.I. soldiers had been present in the Soviet Union during the hardline coup against Gorbachev or available to the Arab rulers during the Arab Spring. Implementing Asimov’s Laws of Robotics would be foolhardy in a combat android but even if implemented, the noted problems of AI control could result in unintended casualties.
Additionally, as non-humans, casualties no longer equal declining morale in the armed forces and society as a whole. The Vietnam War demonstrated the impact of seeing body bags of soldiers returned home. During the Afghanistan, Gulf and Iraq wars, this type of footage was banned (until 2009) to stop the type of social unrest that occurred during the Vietnam War when the public was faced with the direct cost of conflict. It is doubtful that humans will see injured or killed A.I. soldiers in the same empathetic light as they do human casualties. Risky missions start to have acceptable loss levels and this change enables more aggression on the part of ruling elites.
But the greatest advantage of the new A.I. soldier is that there is absolutely no need for accommodation by the ruling elites to the ruled populace to maintain their base of power. A newer, remorseless and completely obedient purveyor of violence is now available to the ruling elite. It makes no demands beyond bare functioning and feels no emotional remorse for immoral acts.
These A.I. soldiers that are capable of maintaining the developed world’s strategic parity to the global masses’ numbers can be also used internally to quell any possible dissent or mass movement. A.I. generally offers unlimited potential for surveillance and internal class discipline but coupled with advances in robotics, it will offer an ethics-free physical enforcer to combat protests like Sri Lanka, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States. There are no repercussions available for the A.I. soldier since they have no personhood or control so even the spotty administration of ICC justice isn’t a deterrent. Already law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles, New York and other jurisdictions are deploying robotic dogs - which is eerily reminiscent of the usage of attack dogs by oppressors through history. An A.I. soldier that was used for similar purposes would have no fear of punishment or injury or fear at all unlike the officer or even the dog in past situations.
Attempts to control this new technology and A.I. soldiers are manifesting in calls for A.I. regulation and licensing by the ruling elites of the US and Western Europe. The potential for positive change through a human-A.I. partnership is tremendous and widespread availability has the potential to provide the ruled populace with substantial technical and economic advancements without the overhead of the ruling elite. Citing the danger of extinction by A.I. while simultaneously continuing development of the technology highlights how disingenuous the call for regulation is by the ruling elites. In reality this is a call to restrict any dangers presented to their institutional control of education, finance and healthcare as well as their monopoly of violence within society.
The future is grim for the ruled populaces of humanity. At a time that technology could power the solutions to climate change, economic collapse and space exploration, the technology is being evolved and restricted to prop up the ruling class’ domination. And with no bargaining chips left - whether as producers or gangs or soldiers - the real extinction crisis may not be for humanity as a whole but for the ruled.

Appendix: A Classical Case of Control

Pre-Marian reforms

In the pre-Marian reform Roman Republic, strict divisions were made between patricians )and plebeians with severe restrictions on political and religious participation placed on the plebeian class. Military service was strictly limited to property owners to ensure that the landowning class maintained a monopoly on violence. A credo of tribal superiority ranking Roman -> Latin -> Italian -> non-peninsulars was embodied legally in tiered political membership of Citizen -> Latin Rights holder -> Foreigner. Membership was zealously policed by officials called censors who were initially exclusively patrician.
The patricians of Rome were successful in maintaining their monopoly of power until a series of secessio plebis (Latin: withdrawal of the commoners or secession of the plebs) or general strikes by the plebeian class forced the patricians to cede some power, privileges and land to the plebeian class. Faced with complete economic standstill, a series of accommodations were made to maintain the viability of the power structure itself.
This cession of power was largely illusory though. While technical class distinctions were removed, the old patrician class and the wealthiest of the plebeian class merged through co-option and intermarriage to form a new nobility that enforced their new collective will through property qualifications restricting political participation.
This new nobility fought any further accommodations to middle and lower classes such as the Gracchan, Marian and Livian reforms. The brothers Gracchi and Livius Drusus) were killed and Marius died in the middle of a civil war with Sulla and his noble adherents.
Conquest and the resulting ubiquity of slavery destroyed any further economic leverage the lower classes had. With literally millions of slaves now cheaply available, laborers, craftspeople, shopkeepers and domestic employees were dispossessed of their livelihoods as slaves replaced them in their jobs. Small landholders were driven off their farms and into the urban stews as the treasure of conquest inflated the price of real estate astronomically.

Post-Marian reforms

The Marian reforms left one avenue for the lower classes - the military. As the rich and powerful (Marius v Sulla, Pompey v Caesar, Augustus v Antony) fought each other for supremacy within their own class, the poor were courted with numerous concessions and bonuses to serve as soldiers for the powerful.
While always at the whim of the commander (barring assassination) who was always a member of the ruling class, military necessity served as a check on the ruler's ambitions. Armies need soldiers and another ambitious member of the same class could always bribe or recruit soldiers with better terms to topple the current leader. A degree of class balance was a necessity to preserve the power structure.
For those who couldn’t or wouldn’t join the army, panem et circenses (bread and circuses) dulled the need for rebellion. Gladiator games, free food distributions and occasional money distributions maintained a docile subsistence-based population that remained fairly quiescent until the late Western Empire despite depredations by the landed elite and nobility.
The system despite all its inequities suffered along for multiple centuries until external pressures and the depredations of the nobility overwhelmed the economic and military capacity of the Empire and resulted in its fall in 476 CE. But it’s important to note that the system wasn’t overthrown from within but overwhelmed from the outside.

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It is said that wars are not necessarily won by the boots on the ground, but moreso the men behind their leader. The palm-greasers and rumour mongers, the flagbearers and back-stabbers; the them who do the moving and shaking from backrooms and smoking parlors. The ones with tongues that dangle heavily over others in office, like a proverbial sword of Damocles.
We'll be taking a look at four games that let you crawl into such skin; games where you're not winning by having more dudes or bigger guns, but where you're instead trying to outmanoeuvre the other players while silently (or publicly) trying to exert your influence over the winner. Let's get started!
So why these games? All these games have the players influence a central board on which units are represented and interacted with which do not belong to the players. That also usually means that players can interact with most of or all the pieces on the board, rather than only the pieces that belong to them as a player. They also all feature area control to some extent, where you are trying to determine the winning faction in specific areas in order to determine who wins overall.
The interesting thing for these games, to me at least, is that all of them (at least to some extent) necessitate players trying to figure out what the other player's plans are. They're a little abstract in that sense, as you see players move pieces around to work towards plans that often don't immediately reveal themselves. The key difference with something like chess though, besides not being a two-player head to head duel, is the fact that players can have overlapping goals. Determining to what degree you're more successfully accomplishing this shared incentive is key, as these games usually allow you to pivot in some sense - you need to be able to figure out if your plan of sticking with faction A is going to pan out, or if it's better to abandon ship and start working towards empowering faction B. This idea, the idea of factional alliances that can shift, is key to these games. It's what differentiates them from something like a social deduction game - your team usually isn't static until you've invested too deeply.
Now that we have set up that thematic and mechanical framework, let's take a look at the games!
Turncoats Turncoats is probably the lightest of these four games. Played on a cloth board that can be cinched shut into a bag of holding, Turncoats (by design) has something ancient to it, like it was recently rediscovered after having been played for hundreds of years. This game has quite a bit of similarities with The King is Dead, but there's enough differences (luckily) to consider them apart from each other.
You start the game with eight stones in your grippy little paw that represent your influence with the four factions on the board. Each turn, you can use those stones to do one of four actions, three of which affect the board by either introducing new pieces, removing pieces or by moving pieces from one space to another. The fourth space has you draw a stone from the bag, and returning one from your hand to the bag. Once all players consecutively draw and return a stone on their turn, the game ends and you score.
In a bit of genius (again, similarly to The King is Dead), empowering a faction's position on the board means you'll have to reduce your influence with that faction. Moving pieces to a stronger position costs you one of the srones in your hand, weakening your score at the end of the game. That means that you've theoretically got only eight chances to affect the board, although you've got fewer than that in practice. It turns the game into this tight little game of chicken where you're redrawing stones maybe a little earlier than you should in order to bait your opponent into investing resources that they can't really miss, hoping that instead they won't also be satisfied with the state of the board. It's a game where you've got to reflect and wonder how lucky this punk really feels.
Even if this game's presentation help make the game feel ancient, it's also made the game feel the most abstract. While the inclusion of specific symbology and the map geography help make the game approach feeling like a kind of war game, I can't help but occasionally zoom out and realize that I'm just shuffling glass beads on a piece of cloth rather than set in motion wheels within wheels from my Machiavellian ivory tower. Plus, the tie-breakers in this game are crushing. I've won more than one game because my opponent had mis-remembered one of the many tie-breakers, and that never feels good. For being the lightest and leanest of these four games, it somehow does not end up being the cleanest. That said, it is really great and I love supporting a small designer who puts these games together by hand.
Of these four games, Turncoats is the game I feel most comfortable springing on a group of people who play few or no games. Yes, the ties get a little messy sometimes, but it's easy enough to digest while being beautiful, tactile and direct. Plus, I've seen zero other games that look like this and that has to count for something.
The King is Dead, 2nd ed. The King is Dead is our next step up in rules weight from Turncoats. Still small, still pretty lean, but now we have eight small contests and a hand of cards rather than one big struggle and a hand of beads. And we've even got a narrative hook - we're trying to influence who gets to be the next king of England! Will it be a Briton, a Scot, a Welshman or a Frenchman?
You start a game of the King is Dead by giving each player an identical set of cards to play, along with two public cubes in one of the three colours in the game (red for Britons, blue for Scots and yellow for the Welsh). You then shuffle a set of eight cards and deal then along the board to see in what order you will be resolving the necessary power struggles to see who will be the king! On your turn, you can either play one of the cards in your hand (all but one of which will influence the distribution of cubes on the board, while the remaining one changes the order in which you resolve power struggles) or pass. When all players pass, you resolve the contested region by looking to see which of the three factions is most powerful. If there's a winner, you place a disk of that colour in that region - it's now locked and worth one point of influence for that colour at the end of the game. If there's a tie, you instead place a black foreign invasion disk in that region, indicating that the French are using the discord in that region to make inroads into conquering the island! When all power struggles are done, you either look to see who has the most cubes of the most powerful faction in front of them, or whoever has the most sets of cubes in all three colours in front of them if the French invaded. And there's a bunch of tie-breakers too, more on that later.
So right off the bat, this game touches on a lot of similar mechanics as Turncoats, especially when it comes to taking actions. Both games have you sacrificing your win potential in one way in order to ensure you'll be able to win at all. In this game it's because of a rule I haven't talked about yet - whenever you play a card, you also take a cube off the board and add it to your court. Being tied to played cards means that nobody will ever have more than ten, as you'll never play more than eight cards in a game (and you of course start with two in yourp court), making every choice in this game deliciously agonizing.
And that agony is where the game distinguishes itself. You only have eight chances to affect the game, and (except for one action) those will all be different. This means you'll want to pass as often as possible, but you also don't want to give the whole game over to your opponents as they will just sculpt the game to goozle you as badly as they can. This dynamic usually forces players into a position where they are biding their time for certain power struggles that look like they're never going to go their way while playing a flurry of cards on a struggle that looks like it's the key to their kingdom. This tension is exacerbated by the fact that each player's hand is identical (in the regular game), meaning that you would know exactly what they could do next if only you had paid more attention.
Compared to Turncoats, this game has a more clearly defined feel of politics. That's partially aided by the artwork and graphic design, and partially by the theme. The game feels historic in its presentation and execution, but immersion is aided by the fact that this conflict has shown up in popular culture as well; people who don't know the War of the Roses can just transpose Game of Thrones onto this game and get exactly the same feeling out of it. There's also more political manoeuvring here because your affiliations are public. True motives are secret and people pivot HARD when the faction they were secretly gunning for gets locked out of contention. It's a much more... I don't necessarily want to say stressful, but definitely more high-pressured experience. It's the rare type of game where you get given the choice to not act on your turn and even that feels awful.
That said, there is some criticism to be levied against it as well. The early turns of The King is Dead, while being consequential, don't always feel like they matter. It's much easier to watch the board develop early on and base your strategy on that, even if in practice you need to make every card count which leads to situations where people feel locked into the late game without really understanding what they could have done differently. This is also the most tactical of all the games on here. That's not a problem for me personally, but I've played with people who hated this game because things would always change too quickly for them to make any actual plans. And lastly - the tie-breakers. More than once has a player lost a game at my table because they misunderstood the tie-breaker, and I can't seem to find a way to teach it without ambiguity. It sucks to see someone play a blinder only for them to realize they were playing to a different set of rules from the rest of the players. For a game that's so svelt and clean otherwise, this particular bit of messiness sticks out like a sore thumb.
That said though, The King is Dead is a very easy recommendation. Not as accessible to true beginners as Turncoats, The King is Dead is still really accessible and filled with good, agonizing decisions. It's a classic in my eyes, very easy to recommend.
A War of Whispers Taking a step up in both difficulty and size, we arrive at A War of Whispers! Another game of political manipulation, this game explicitly casts you and your compatriots as the wormtongues in this fight for power. Five factions, a circular board, clever cardplay and plenty of intrigue to be found.
As stated, you'll be playing the role of advisors to five nations who are at war. At the start of each round, you all place two advisors on spaces that correspond to different actions you can take with each of the five factions. These can include rallying troops, combat, movement or some other action that comes with a unique spin put on it by each of the factions. The goal here is to influence the board in such a way that the factions you care about have a strong board presence while the ones you don't care about have a small one, seeing that each faction scores you points. These points range from four points for each area they control to minus one point for each area they control. Most points at the end of the game wins!
Truthfully I enjoy A War of Whispers the least of these four games, even if it does do some very clever things. The action selection mechanism is very clever and has a fun push-your-luck element to it. All the actions are resolved in a set order (as indicated on the boarder around the board), and each time you reach an action that has a player's marker on it they get to do that action. However, if there are unchosen actions to the left of their marker, they get to do those actions as well. This leads to some fun jockeying of positions when choosing actions, and blocking other players is a big part of this game. The asymmetric factions are cool, although they're a bit of a double-edged sword.
The cool thing about each of the factions is that they're all good at specific things. One faction is good at fighting or mobilizing, one is good at mustering and another has action cards that make them powerful at wrestling control of fortifications from a faction's greedy hands. The problem that I run into here is that factions that take their turn earlier in the resolution phase are inherently weaker than those who act later, as the factions that act later can see how the dust settles before having to act. This wouldn't necessarily be a problem of players get to place their own bets at the start of the game, but these are instead placed randomly. The thing I like about both Turncoats, The King is Dead and Pax Pamir (which we'll talk about next) is that you have a very high degree of control over who you're supporting, but this is not the case here. Players do have an opportunity to swap their faction tokens (controlling how they want to score those factions at the end of the game), but that isn't free - you can only swap tokens you haven't revealed, and you can only swap unrevealed tokens.
Thematically it makes a lot of sense to make swapping tokens (and therefore allegiances) be costly - the game of politics bears a heavy price. My problem is that this isn't fun. Putting it bluntly, this game is hard enough as is. It's difficult to suss out exactly what your opponents are doing (seeing that there's now five factions to contend with), and this system makes improvising very difficult. So, this makes it entirely possible that other players will just kneecap you for the entire game or for you to be dealt a set of tokens that will just never win. It's frustrating is what I'm saying. A War of Whispers does a lot of very cool things, but as a game of factional politics I don't like the fact that it just sometimes offers you setups that you can't win and then punishes you for trying to get out of it. But, to be fair, that could be the side of me that's much more tactically rather than strategically-minded speaking.
And that's probably important to say: I flourish much more in tactical games rather than purely (or primarily) strategic ones. And that important to note, because A War of Whispers does give you a lot to strategize with. You get to see the actions your opponents are taking before you take yours, and table-talk is actively encouraged. There's also no hidden info except for the limited number of cards that players have in their hands (most of which do the same things if they belong to a specific faction) and combat is deterministic. This means that players who are able to plan ahead and band together with other players will have a much better time with this than I've had so far. Plus, choosing the right moment to swap tokens is most definitely key to doing well - it can even provide some delicious drama when done especially timely. I just feel that this game isn't necessarily one that I will gravitate to in the future. I'd much rather play this next game if given the chance.
Pax Pamir - 2nd edition And we end on the heaviest and (in my opinion) prettiest of these four games, Pax Pamir. Although The King is Dead is arguably about real-world history, Pax Pamir is the only one of these games that genuinely feels historic. Based on The Great Game, Pax Pamir explicitly aims to model a real-life political conflict. With that comes a lot of baggage; historical, cultural and ludological all at once. Pax Pamir is the hardest game in this list by far, and will also be the most abstractly discussed by force of necessity.
In Pax Pamir, you play an Afghani tribe during the time of The Great Game, a time period where Afghanistan was thrown into a power struggle between Russia, England and itself. You publicly ally your tribe with one of these three factions at the start of the game, hoping to position yourself favourably when one of the game's dominance checks rolls around. Pamir has a card market that forms the engine that the game runs on - it is both its engine and its enigma. The core of the game is simple though; players get twicely buy a card from the market (a Pax-series staple) or play a card from their hand. Played cards come equipped with symbols that can trigger when the card is played or as an action on your turn. These actions tend to affect the board by placing your tribes on regions, neutral blocks that either represent roads or armies of the faction you support, or by giving you some much needed spending money. There's a lot more going on in this game, much more than I can really do justice in this paragraph, but suffice it to say that the cards are where the magic happens in Pax Pamir.
But what about the politics? Pax Pamir, like The King is Dead, has you wear your allegiance on your sleeve. It's emblazoned on your cards, it's smacked on your player wheel and it is pinned on the prizes you've killed to curry favour with local and foreign warlords alike. It's a game about politicking in slow motion, almost; there's a much bigger sense of audiences and of greasing palms than in the other games. Part of that is due to length, of course, but it's also because most big plays in Pax Pamir don't happen out of nowhere. They're stemming from parts being put into place until the moment where the jaws snap shut; it happens slowly then suddenly all at once.
That said, this game really is about politics. It's also the only one of the games on this list where politicking with your opponents is even somewhat of a viable option. Bribing other players is as much of a thing as waving a tax is an incentive to do what someone wants. A single coin really can make all the difference in an economy as tight as Pax Pamir, so talking to the table is essential. By the same token, pivoting is a real option here as well. Allegiances can be discarded like dirty laundry when the tides of war turn, with as much or as little drama as is necessary. It can be as simple as letting a new alliance join your court, or as dramatic as an assassination attempt on someone in your own court. Where switching allegiances felt utilitarian (or sometimes even futilistic) in the other games I've talked about, here it feels both frivolous and monumental. Frivolous because it's potentially both temporary and easy, and monumental because it warps the remaining landscape around it nonetheless. It's a fascinating look at what foreign bonds and geopolitics actually look like.
Having said that, Pax Pamir is genuinely not for everyone. It is the hardest sell on this list, I feel, both in terms of cost and rules weight. While I personally feel that the product is worth the price, it really isn't cheap. That's mostly important if you don't have a group that's willing to put in the muscle for something that's genuinely hard. The game can't fare on looks alone; if your gaming group gets glassy eyes at the notion of considering the consequences of shifts in political climates, this is not for you. Then there's the difficulty. I've played Pax Pamir about eight times, and I'm only sure I've played it correctly, like, twice. Most of those were solo, so it's not too bad, but that's still not great considering the time I'm asking other people to invest in this. Playing improperly is much less of a problem if what you're playing is quick; people are much less willing to forgive that when they just lost a three hour game because you forgot that losing your political cards in a region also means you remove all your tribes from that region. It's an investment is what I'm saying, and one I can't promise will pay off.
Truly though, Pax Pamir is great. It's not my favourite Pax game (that would currently be Pax Renaissance), but it is one of my favourite solo games and arguably the best of these four games if your group can deal with actual, genuine and tremendous weight.
So what would I like you to take away from this? If the idea of playing a party outside of a power struggle who influences the outcome appeals to you, there's a bunch of options for you to choose from! If you want something relatively light, portable, beautiful and unique, get Turncoats. If you want something quick, tense, more classical in design yet still accessible, get The King is Dead. If you want something medium-weight, strategic and are willing to ride the waves of outragious fortune, get A War of Whispers. And if you want something heavy, singular, beautiful and truly historic, get Pax Pamir.
That's my TED talk, thank you for reading.
Other notes I think it's only fair of me to state that I've played A War of Whispers the least of all these games. All the others I've played, like, at least seven times, but I've only played AWoW twice. I just don't really like it all that much, but I do want to be transparent in why that is.
Some of these games might be hard to find at retailers, but you can get them on the websites of either the publisher or the designer. Turncoats, as far as I know, is only really available on Milda Mathilda's website. She uses a Google Form to process orders, which seems insane to me but works for her, and I had to wait about six months for my copy. That said, I feel it was most definitely worth the wait.
If you have any titles of this ilk that you think I should try, let me know! I've obviously missed games, but I'm always interested in trying new things of this ilk.
Lastly, I make no apologies for the reference I used when talking about Pamir. They were the right words in the right place.

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Things are happening!
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The new album is well underway :) Sorry it’s been so long since our last email, things have been pretty busy in our personal lives over the last year (in case you didn’t know, Britt and Scott had a baby girl last October!) So we wanted to reach out and just give you a little update on what’s going on in the world of UTA! We took 2022 off from touring to write a new album, as it can be really hard to focus on new music when you’re constantly having to stay in shape to play live. By December we had ten demos that we were happy with and scheduled studio time for the spring. We rented a studio on Vancouver Island and stayed in an airbnb together (with a six month old as well haha!) for the entire month of April so we could stay distraction-free. We wrapped tracking on April 31st but Brittney did a few more solo sessions in May to record some harmonies and a few vocal lines that were missed. The tracks are now in the insanely talented and highly capable hands of Jacob Hansen, who will be taking on the mixing and mastering duties for us once again. During our time on the island we also did a photo shoot with our favourite photographer, Shimon Karmel, and shot a performance video with the boys over at RuneGate Studio; we can’t wait for you to see all their hard work and should be posting sneak peeks soon! In case you are wondering, yes this will be a concept record, and no it does not follow the story from Apex & Abyss. This is an entirely new world with new characters and we think you’re really going to like it! Brittney will be sure to do her Track-By-Track videos to explain the story like always, but we’d love to hear what you think the next album is going to be about ;) We are waiting on a release date from Napalm but we think you’ll get your first taste of singles this fall. Make sure to follow us on Instagram so you don’t miss out on the announcement!
INSTAGRAM
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We also wanted to let you all know that we just happened to find 50 copies of our Explorers EP on the shelves at IndieMerch that had mistakenly been archived! We got them shipped up to us and will be holding a lottery to give everyone a fair chance to get their hands on a copy. Make sure to join our Discord channel as we will be announcing how to enter the lottery on there before posting it anywhere else!
DISCORD
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Lastly, we just wanted to thank you all so much for your patience and support over the last couple of years. A lot of you had tickets to our shows that were cancelled in 2021 and we want you to know that we haven’t forgotten about you! We are working on eastern Canadian dates as well as dates in Europe to coincide with the release of the new album. We are also starting to confirm festivals for next summer and should begin announcing those shortly. Touring is going to be different for us now that Scott and Britt have a kid, but they promise they are going to make it work somehow, someway ;) Can’t wait to see you all on the road very soon! Keep in touch! UTA \m/

Last month, I was driving along the highway, coming back from a trip to my grandpa's house. I can't remember the exact second, but as I was driving, apparently a truck collided with my car and I was knocked unconscious. While I was out, I fell into a dream. One that will stick with me.
I need to type as many details as possible, so here's every single thing I remember.
I was a 7 year old boy, living in New Jersey rather than my real world home state of Massachusetts. My parents would drop me off at a school I never went to in the real world, and I would play with friends I never met.
2024 and 2025 were calm, upbeat years for me. I didn't care much for world events, so I barely paid attention to the news. It was just my toys, Disney Plus, and my friends, Josh, Emily, and Ryan. We played war and crime themed video games and watched hilarious videos on social media.
2026, however, was when things took a bit of a downturn. In March, my friend, Josh, died in a car accident, and they noticed his eyeballs were missing from their sockets after the wreck. I was shown a picture for god knows what reason, and I teared up as I saw my friend's red eye sockets and lifeless face.
That night, I kept my bedroom light on. I don't know exactly what time it was when this happened, but I was lying on my back, staring at the wall when a pair of black pants popped up out of nowhere at the foot of my bed. Sidetracked, I looked up and saw a rusted face. The thing, whatever I saw, vanished as I made eye contact with it. My heart dropped and I called for my Mom.
I chalked it up to the thing having been a ghost. I brought it up to my friends, Ryan and Emily, the next day. Emily told me she was in the car behind the one Josh was in, and saw a man with a rusted-looking face running towards the car, but for some reason she doesn't remember what happened next. Chills ran down my spine as I realized the man was real.
Together, my friends and I decided he was a ghost we needed to avoid. This pact made me feel less alone, and being as afraid of the ghost as I was, decided to never break it.
I slept under my covers to avoid seeing him, and I didn't see him again until the trip I took to Canada's Wonderland that summer. I was riding the Leviathan when I swore I saw a man a few rows ahead of where I sat, with a rust-coloured neck. The adrenaline I felt riding the coaster turned to panic. Time slowed and I wanted off the ride.
This man stole my friend's eyes and was probably after mine too. Once I was off the roller coaster, I looked around frantically for him. I managed to catch him walking into a bathroom. Was he following me? I begged my Mom to take me home as soon as possible.
My friends and I decided to go hunting for the man one day. I think before the end of August 2026. We walked into a nearby forest and waited for an hour. We didn't know where he came from, but Emily pointed out he was around at times we felt the most emotional, and we were telling each other how scared we were of him, which had to count.
Fortunately, he didn't show up. I was overwhelmed with chills, and told the two I didn't want to search for the rusted man anymore, and began walking home.
2027 and 2028 were my preteen years. I took my mind off of the rusted man by focusing on my favourite shows and musical artists. For the sake of getting all the details down, I watched a lot of Simpsons, Gumball, and this show called Camedon that went viral in 2027. The music I listened to was a rapper named Pestilence 40 and a pop singer named Rhonda Miller. In the Spring of 2028, I realized I was Asexual and Aromantic, meaning I didn't feel a sense of attraction towards anybody.
I spent a lot of time researching my favourite things while I'd overhear my parents freak out over a war that involved China. I have a hard time remembering anything more about said war.
The next time I saw the rusted man was shortly after I turned 13 in 2029. I was going through the pictures of my trip to Chicago, and, at the bottom of my camera roll, there was a picture of his face. I jumped.
When did that happen?
I went into the photo's details tab and found out it was dated February 5, 1950. Odd, considering there's no way the phone I was using was manufactured anytime around that year, but I sent it to my friends. Both of them responded by telling me the image was coming up blank. I went back to my Gallary, intenting to study the image closely, but it was gone.
A lot of the time after that were just casual memories of being dropped off at school, playing GTA 6 with friends, watching my favorite shows, listening to my favourite music, and joking about Secret Wars on Reddit and a viral app called BL. Nothing much about the man...
That is, until sometime in 2032, when I saw him walk by my bedroom window while I was right in the middle of a depressive episode. The chills I felt were one of the four emotional highs I felt that year. For the rest of the year, and for a lot of the following year, I felt numb, anxious, and mentally vacant. I barely cared about anything. Not even the man, or the flu epidemic going on at the time.
My friends were going through the same thing, so we exchanged affirmations and shared quotes from singers who were part of an indie wave trying to bring music back to its Billie Eilish phase. I was pretty much over the man at that point. I cared so much less about him, I considered seeking him out to let him kill me. I didn't think I was going to make it to 2034 anyway... so, why not?
Then in 2033, my depression began to lift, and I started to dread the thought of him again. I started drawing pictures of him and posted them on BL. Over the course of months, I gained a following who claimed to have seen him too. Some told me they saw him in their dreams, some told me they spotted him in a crowd, and others saw him in the window of a house they happened to be driving or walking by. Then there were a few people who told me they saw him running across roads and ripping eyeballs out of the heads of homeless people. By the end of the year, I had 10,000 followers.
In 2034, articles were being published about him. He became one of those big internet mysteries with dozens of videos and posts revolving around him and his actions, with some specific autobiographical drawings of mine being used as artistic renditions.
Some people made and posted highly vivid AI generated videos of him performing various tasks like midnight break-ins, murders, and to be jokingly relatable, cooking and cleaning. The videos looked like big budget movies, and, as I watched each of them, I got a deeper sense of dread. I avoided watching the videos altogether, as they began to scare the living shit out of me.
There was a popular form of technology at the time that let people share thoughts and feelings with others. Aside from, joking around with my friends, I used it to let people feel exactly how I felt during my encounters with him. I told them I hoped we'd get to a point where we'd be able to share memories with others, in order to give them the full observer experience.
In the fall of 2036, the FBI announced they were on the case of the rusted man after a string of murders across the US left victims without their eyeballs. I was overwhelmed with chills as I read the announcement. It was official confirmation of the rusted man's existence. I called the police, reporting my encounters with the rusted man. They told me they'd keep a look out for him.
Throughout 2037, 2038, and 2039, I'd hear reports about more victims being robbed of their eyes, yet no official photos or video of the rusted man ever surfaced. There were dozens of fakes all over the internet that were debunked, and I just wanted an official one. At the same time, however, I wanted it to be a hoax. I wanted it to turn out the man with a rusted face was just a murderer trying to become notorious by cosplaying an internet legend. I distracted myself from the whole fiasco by keeping up with the mission to Mars.
In 2040, the lack of photo and video evidence of the rusted man began to bug me. That was until that summer, when something was found. The FBI released security cam footage showing a man with a rust coloured face beating a police officer in a parking lot. His face resembled a mask, but looked organic at the same time. It was him. I knew it in my gut. Comments from other victims commented the same.
"That's him! I can't believe it took this long to get official footage of him."
"Yep. Definitely him. Right down to his eyes. I feel cold watching that."
"Yes, that is the man who stalked me when I was 7."
I too felt cold watching it. I deleted it from my search history and closed all my blinds. He was real. It was confirmed. I knew needed to hide away, even though I hadn't seen the man since I was 13. My friends told me they felt the same way.
The early 2040s were full of fear and doing as many things from home as possible. I made most of my money from making videos about music and movies. Occasionally, I'd make a video about the man, but only whenever he hit the news. I decided to share part of my revenue with my friends so they didn't need to go out as much and risk another encounter with the man. Luckily, most people just ordered food online anyway, which solved the hunger thing.
Sharing revenue with my friends became more important amidst a recession I only barely remember taking place in 2041 through 2043.
I began to go outside more in late 2043/early 2044. The man hadn't been in the news for a year, so I joked the FBI had caught him and found out he was an alien. It found it weird he was only reported in Canada and the US. Maybe it wasn't so weird in actuality, but it was as if something was missing. Like he was present in other places, but no reports had gotten out. I chalked it up to a random assumption and went along with my days.
In the summer of 2044, I discovered a conspiracy forum dedicated to the rusted man. I can remember some of the post titles quite vividly.
"The 'Rusted Man': what is his face really made of?"
"Is the Rusted Man the Last Resort for the US Government on Homelessness?"
"DNA CONNECTS THE RUSTED MAN TO DINAH CORTEZ"
I got out of that forum right away and blocked it from my search results. There was no reason to read any of that bologna...
Throughout 2045, Pop singers would insert references to the rusted man into their promotional music videos, but they usually either butchered him, had him get arrested, or portrayed him as a metaphor for the singer's own mental health issues.
While I was glad he was getting attention, I kinda regretted giving him so much coverage, as it meant I had to hear about him everywhere all the time. I brought it up to Emily.
"Yeah, but, I feel the same way," she said. "I sometimes wish I could hit a button and give everyone amnesia for a week."
While I kept hearing about him, I sure as hell hadn't seen him for a while. I thought I was free of him. Maybe he just left me alone... Maybe he leaves certain people alone after teasing them for a bit...
I was wrong. On one especially sunny afternoon in September 2045, I was jogging along the sidewalk on a road not too far from where I lived. I couldn't help but notice the sky looked like a painting. A really good one at that. As I stared up at the oddity, I bumped into somebody. My face colliding with theirs. Their complexion was odd. It was rough and almost felt like duct tape at the same time. I looked at him and told him I was sorry, but that's when I saw his face.
It was him. The fucking man with the fucking rusted out face. I went cold and felt I needed to force myself to step backwards. When I did, the man let out a chilling shriek. It sounded metallic, but like the climax of a sneeze at the same time. He stared into my eyes, which began to tingle. My heart dropped and I broke the stare, turning around and sprinting along the sidewalk.
Once I got home, I shut all my curtains, reported the man to the police, and texted my friends about the encounter. All I could think was, how long do I have to go through this? At least I was 29 years old, so people would believe it when I say it happened to me. I wasn't a kid anymore, but even then, I wished the rusted man was nothing more than a normal childhood hallucination.
I went to my doctor for my eyes, just to make sure they were alright. He found an odd transparent substance under each of my eyelids and referred me to a specialist. Some tests were done and I was told substance was the same one found in every crime scene involving the rusted man. They concluded I needed to be quarantined in my home for upwards of 20 years. I'm not kidding. That was the protocol.
During quarantine, the man never showed up at, or in, my house. I could only wonder what he was doing other than probably killing somebody. I dreaded the idea of him showing up. I had nightmares once a week... other than that, I still had access to the internet, so I watched as society developed while I was unable to go outside.
A political uprising happened in favour of conservatism in 2046, which was met with equal push from the liberal side due to proclaimations of violence towards those that wanted science to be taught in school.
In 2050, Russia collapsed and fell into a civil war, but was avenged by China and India.
By 2053, we were able to use MRI-like devices to project imagined images onto a screen. I ordered one for $100 and used it to recreate my memories of the rusted man and share them online. They were chilling to look at, so I considered not opening them for a while.
In 2056, a major cyberattack brought down various websites. Luckily, no archival sites were taken down.
Personally I just spent the years making content and building a fanbase that sent me emails all the time. The switch from foldable phones to perfectly flexible phones in the late 40s was fun. The phasing out of laptops due to phones becoming ever more useful was welcome.
Things were pretty normal for that stretch of time, aside from the quarantining. I got pretty used to it though, and developed a habit of jogging on the spot for exercise.
Throughout the 2050s, the rusted man made the news once a month. Throughout the early 2060s, he was making the news once a week. This I wanted to look at the news less often, but I had to because it was important. It didn't matter how dreadful the increased volume of attacks was.
Throughout the mid 2060s, reports came out about him destroying AIs, possibly because he didn't have high tech glasses that identified AIs as one of its features, so he likely thought they were human. This led to an upping of security around AIs and advancements in their security protocols. By 2067, a report came out stating less AIs were getting attacked by him.
The man spent the rest of the 2060s and the beginning of the 2070s continuing his murder spree without much to be discovered about him. He was still an unsolved mystery, and had become one of the most notorious figures of the 21st Century.
In 2071, reports about the rusted man's eye thieving became daily and worldwide. Major news talking heads began pushing the idea the rusted man is an alien who could attack a major celebrity or politician. Or course, celebrities and politicians upped their security ten-fold during the mid-2060s due to the weekly attacks, so nothing could go wrong, right?
That's what I thought, until May 2073, when a famous rapper named Fenny DON was found dead, inside his Atlanta mansion, without both his eyes. The security cameras caught the rusted man popping out of nowhere (in a very specific way that's difficult to explain. Either way, I went cold watching it,) restraining the rapper to their bed, removing their eyes, then vigorously ripping their brain out of their head. It was mortifying, and many people said they refuse to watch it, recreate it, share it, etc, but everybody had to have seen the screen shot of the man standing in the rapper's bedroom one second after appearing out of thin air. It was shared all over the internet for months. The video itself was proof this guy could teleport and move objects telekinetically.
The Pentagon released a report soon after, which included speculation about the rusted man's intentions. It was thought the rusted man was after people's eyes because they are impossible to reproduce alone and nothing beats them in terms of perception.
That wasn't the only thing I was wondering, however.
"Why he needs them is still very unknown and multiple theories so far haven't passed the merit test."
There it was. It needed to be figured out soon, because I wanted to know. I anticipated the day the truth came to be known. I needed the damn closure so bad.
In March 2074, I started to thinking of my life as wasted by the rusted man and my fear of him. I was 59 and rotting from the inside out. I didn't open up to my friends about it until I started slipping into a depression in May, despite my quarantine having just ended. That was when my friends told me the most assuring thing they could.
"Remember the little things, and we're here for you," Emily said.
"Yeah, all we can do now is whatever we want to do, because we're probably going to be killed at some point anyway," Ryan said.
It was cliche, but true. The emptiness lingered on through mid 2075, then it sorta lifted. Maybe I was desensitized, but at least I had my friends and the emotionally cathartic shows I was watching.
By the end of that year, I was thinking of upping my dosage of anti-depressants. Emily, Ryan, and I, were hanging out a lot more to make each other happier in spite of our emptiness and fear the rusted man would barge into our homes, randomly appear on the foot of our beds, or chase us down a road. And it was working. On December 29th, I felt the emptiness lift. Who needed pills? We just needed to stick together, like we always had. Emily suggested covering our heads to confuse the man, but I pointed out we'd need to know when he would arrive. We can't wear bags on our heads forever.
"We'll figure something out," Emily said.
In mid April 2076, I was eating dinner when I started hearing a loud rushing water-like sound coming from outside. I went outside to check out what was going on, but I couldn't find the source. I watched as my next door neighbor walked out onto their front porch, then the neighbor directly across the street stepped onto their porch, both of them looked up at the sky with looks of confusion.
I checked the news later on to find the sound was being reported all over Canada, all over the US, in the UK, Australia, Spain, Japan, South Africa, Chile... then pretty much everywhere else. The entire world was hearing this thing. The noise went on for days, then weeks, comments under articles were mixed about the sound. Some thought it was annoying, others enjoyed its fuzzyness. Both Emily and Ryan both told me they thought it was ear-piercingly horrible. Comedians joked about aliens, and NASA started to theorize it was actually extraterrestrial in nature. The sound finally faded in June 2076, and Emily, Ryan, and dozens of people across the internet expressed their relief.
Around August 10, 2076, I was mowing my lawn when I noticed him standing across the street from my house. The rusted man. He stared my way, not moving an inch. As he stared sinisterly into my soul, I was overwhelmed with chills. But that wasn't it. I noticed something off about the my surroundings. The trees, bushes, grass, were no longer moving in the wind. The man even looked static himself. I couldn't help but stare at the oddity. Everything that should've been moving just seemed so two-dimensional all of a sudden.
I pulled my digital glasses out of my pocket and attempted to call the police, but the numbers weren't in the right order. Attempting to dial 9-1-1 brought up a different combination of three numbers each time.
I sprinted back inside and shut all the curtains again, except for the ones in the kitchen, as they refused to move when I tried to shut them.
Over the following week, the fleeting rushing sound returned to the sky. This time, it sounded familiar. Not just because I heard it for two months straight not too long before. It seemed as if I had always known that sound. I realized it more and more as the weeks went on. In early September 2076, I went to the Museum. On my way to there, I noticed the trees were still static and fake looking. I tried my best to not even think about them, but rather on the technology of the early 21st Century.
When my phone decided to work, I texted Emily. Apparently, I had missed 20 messages from her, but I was too freaked out about my surroundings.
"Does anything seem off about the trees?" I asked.
"No? They look fine to me," Emily responded.
"They look fake all of a sudden. The grass too," I said. "Also, I feel like I've heard The Buzzy Static long before this year, and sometimes my phone looks off, which is why I missed your messages."
"Have you told your doctor about this?" she asked.
I hadn't, but I decided to make an appointment. On the day of the appointment, my doctor immediately diagnosed me with Schizophrenia, but I knew there was more to what I was experiencing. The day after my visit to the doctor, Emily and Ryan came over. I showed them the trees across the street and the grass on my lawn. I told them how fake it looked to me. They told me it all looked normal. They didn't notice anything unusual like I did, which only made my obsession deeper. I looked around at everything for a while. My friends tried to convince me to do stuff with them, but I refused. Eventually, they left, and I stood there, trying to make sense of what I was seeing.
Every day, I stood in my front yard for two hours, looking at the trees, bushes, and grass. In late September, the Buzzy Static began to feel more localized to my heart, and I could hear a subtle wooshing along with the buzzing. It too came from the sky.
By mid October, the sound dissipated, but the ambient noise was still going strong. People would walk past my house like there was no sound coming from the sky at all. On October 15, 2076, I stood on my front lawn, listening to the wooshing noise, and watching the trees cease to convince me they were normal. Then, the wooshing sounded localized to my lawn, and then it hit me.
None of this is real.
Suddenly, I immediately alternated from standing to laying down on my lawn without having moved a muscle. I was staring up at the sky, which was getting brighter. I could feel my heart beating. I began to hyperventilate, as this was new to me.
Where the hell am I going?
I looked at the unrealistic trees, then everything went blurry. Pain erupted in my chest, then I was lying on a stretcher. I wanted to move, but I was in shock.
What the... hell...? What's happening right now?
Then I remembered my life. My real life. Then the drive... The crash... I fished my phone out and looked at the date. May 23rd. I checked the calendar for the year. It was 2023. I was overcome with a heavy feeling of sadness. I thought I had spent 53 years being friends with two amazing people, but I was really just... unconscious for a short time?
I can't stop thinking about Emily and Ryan. The whole thing about the rusted man was crazy, but some things will never make sense. Last Thursday, I was sweeping my room, still feeling like I had lost real friends, when I turned around to sweep near the door and saw... the rusted man standing right outside my room. I went cold. It was really him... that rust coloured face... those eyes... I thought I was hallucinating at first. I knew I wasn't dreaming though, as you know when you're awake when you're dead awake. The rusted man lunged at me, and, before I could react, I was being tackled to the ground.
This isn't a hallucination at all... Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Dread overcame me as I struggled. Pain shot up through my back. At some point, I managed to get him off of me, then I sprinted into the living room and out the back door. I didn't have my phone with me, so I couldn't call the police. I looked back and saw the man's silhouette in the door frame. He lunged at me through the dark of the night. My heart sunk and I sprinted away, but tripped and fell face first onto the grass. Not a second later, I felt a painful thump.
I woke up in the hospital with that unexplainable liquid under my eyelids. The liquid I had in the same spot in the dream. My heart sank even further. Great... The doctors told me I'd be going in for testing, and asked me what happened. I told them, describing the man to them as well, but in a plausible way.
"He probably had face paint on or something. Something that made his face look like rusty metal."
Later that day, one of the doctors told me my tests have been scheduled for the 9th.
Just yestarday, I heard Emily's voice in a dream, but she was nowhere to be seen. I woke up with tears streaming down my face, wondering why the rusted man had to be real, but not the two people who were always there for me, or the other victims of the man himself.
My curtains have been shut for days now, I've informed my neighbors of the madman, and the police told me they're still on the lookout. All I want to know is who this man is, what he wants with my eyes, how much longer I'm going to live with him stalking me, and how dreaming truly works.

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· Charlie Houpert – Charisma University 2023
· ▶️ [METHOD + GUIDE] ✅ Make Money ✅ with Kindle Books ⚠️ Even if You Can’t Write ⚠️ [STEP-BY-STEP] ⚡ NO INVESTMENT REQUIRED! ⚡
· Charlie Morgan – Easy Grow
· Nina Clapperton – Jasper AI Course for Bloggers
· Travis Stephenson – Simple Profit System
· Manny Khoshbin – Real Estate Starter Program
· Tanner Henkel & Jerrod Harlan – 7-Figure Email Machine
· [METHOD] Stop Wasting Money on AI Writers Train And Fine-Tune Your Own AI For Free With No Code ⚡⚡⚡Real Method & Practice Examples ⚡⚡
· Creator Hooks – YouTube Title Mastery
· Thomas Frank – Creator’s Companion (Ultimate Brain Edition)
· Sean Dollwet – Royalty Hero
· Jason Bell – Birthday Marketing Formula
· NXT Level FX – Investors Domain
· [METHOD] ⏩ My ETSY $40K~ Passive Income 2023 + HOT Products (Earning Proof) ⏪ Make Money No Marketing Easy $40K~ Guide FOR NOOBS ✅
· Rob Jones & Gerry Cramer – Profit Singularity Ultra Edition 2022 (AI & ChatGPT)
· Cody Wittick & Taylor Lagace – The Influencer Marketing Blueprint
· ⚡️➡️$390/Week BLUEPRINT+PROOF✅Scalable Method❤️Amazon to eBay Dropship✅
· Kody Ashmore – Simpler Trading – Drama Free Day Trades ELITE
· Youri van Hofwegen – YouTube Search Automation
· Montell Gordon – Agency Transmutation
· Csaba Borzasi – Breakthrough Conversions Academy
· Tim Denning – Twitter Badassery
· Geoff Cudd – AI Writing Course for Bloggers & Digital Marketers
· RED CPA FORMULA – UNTAPPED UNDERGROUND CPA SYSTEM
· BowtiedCocoon – Zero to $100k: Landing Any Tech Sales Role
· Holly Starks – Make LINK BUILDING Great Again!
· Mike Warren – Deeds4Cash
· BITCOIN BRITS – The Crypto Course
· Max Gilles – ⚡️☄️ UHQ Leak ❤️CPA JACKER – Epic CPA Blueprint✅⚡️
· Aidan Booth & Steve Clayton – 123 Profit Update 9
· Christina Galbato – The Influencer Bootcamp
· John Thornhill – Ambassador Program
· [Sales] 999+ Ultimate ChatGPT Prompts To Copy & Paste (250+ tasks)
· Pollinate Trading – Curvy Trading System
· Content Mavericks – The Greatest Hits Content System
· Andriy Boychuk – Flowium – Klaviyo Mastery 2.0
· Dagobert Renouf – How To Dominate Twitter (Advanced Growth Bundle)
· Darius Lukas – ⭐ The Marketer’s Bible to ChatGPT ✅ 1000+ ChatGPT Prompts to Copy, Paste & Scale
· Billy Gene – 5 Day A.I. Crash Course for Marketers
· Alex Cattoni – Posse Eye Brand Voice Challenge Program
· Casey Zander – YouTube Fame Game Blueprint
· Harlan Kilstein – Midjourney Mastery
· Shawna Newman – YouTube for Niche Sites
· [Marketing] 1099+ Ultimate ChatGPT Marketing Prompts To Copy & Paste (200+ tasks)
· Karen Foo – Star Traders Forex Intermediate Course
· TheMacLyf – Hive Mind & Masterclass (Onlyfans Course)
· Brittany Lewis – Top Seller Secret
· Dan Henry – Facebook Ads for Entrepreneur
· Russ Horn – Ultra Blue Forex
· Scott Phillips – Crypto Salary System
· Roland Frasier – AI Powered Expert Apprentice + Update 1
· Roger & Barry – Give Academy 1k/Day Platinum Mastermind [COMPLETE with LATEST UPDATE]
· Bretty Curry (Smart Marketer) – Smart Amazon Ecommerce
· Steven Dux – Traders Edge 2023
· Aidan Booth & Steve Clayton – 123 Profit
· Allie Bjerk – Tiny Offer Lab
· Dicke Bush – Generate 10x More Content Using AI
· Mateusz Rutkowski – New Money Blueprint
· Smart Raja Concepts (SRC) – Forex 101
· Chase Reiner – Short Form Riches Bootcamp 2023 – AI ChatGPT Bot Update 3
· Chase Reiner – AI Profits
· Travis Sago – Cold Outreach & Prospecting AMA Offer (Best Value with All Bonuses)
· Live Traders – Professional Trading Strategies
· Allan Dib – The 1-Page Marketing Plan Course
· Dan Koe – Digital Economics Masters Degree
· The Trading Guide – The Gold Box Strategy
· The Complete XAUUSD GOLD Forex Scalping System On Real Trading Account
FREE to download Here http://smmacourses.site/

WANT:

Bad End Theater
Bug Fables
Phoenotopia: Awakening
Other things I want:
Wishlist
TF2 keys
I'm open to game offers, send me your lists.
(no Paypal)

HAVE:

-April 2023:
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante (might keep)
Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp
Revita
Founders' Fortune (might keep)
-July 2022:
Lawn Mowing Simulator
Atom RPG Trudograd
-April 2022:
Destroy All Humans (might keep)
Chicken Police
Rouge Heroes: Ruins of Tasos
Chicken Police
-March 2022:
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl
Red Solstice 2: Survivors
Police Stories
-Feburary 2022:
Calico
-December 2021:
Mordhau
Beyond the Wire
Partisans 1941
8 Doors
Fling to the Finish
-August 2021:
Out of Space
Carto
As Far as the Eye
Cepheus Protocol
Nowhere Prophet (might keep)
Blue Fire
Encodya (GOG key)
-March 2021:
XCOM: Chimera Squad
Peaky Blinders: Mastermind
Boreal Blade
Ageless
Hotshot Racing
-December 2020:
Children of Mo
Still There
Struggling
Path of Giants
-September 2020:
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York
Fun with Ragdolls: The Game
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
The Occupation
The Shapeshifting Detective
-July 2020 (can only choose 2):
Battlestar Galactica Deadlock
Railway Empire
Sigma Theory: Global Cold War
Basingstoke
-April 2020 (can only choose 1):
Truberbrook
Shoppe Keep 2
Driftland: The Magic Revival
-Other:
Regular Human Basketball
Fluffy Horde
Chasm
TF2 keys (see my steam profile inventory for how many I have left)
My IGS rep: https://www.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/tlgmwl/infinityjkas_igs_rep_page/

WANT:

Bad End Theater
Bug Fables
Phoenotopia: Awakening
Other things I want:
Wishlist
TF2 keys
I'm open to game offers, send me your lists.
(no Paypal)

HAVE:

-April 2023:
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante (might keep)
Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp
Revita
Founders' Fortune (might keep)
-July 2022:
Lawn Mowing Simulator
Atom RPG Trudograd
-April 2022:
Destroy All Humans (might keep)
Chicken Police
Rouge Heroes: Ruins of Tasos
Chicken Police
-March 2022:
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl
Red Solstice 2: Survivors
Police Stories
-Feburary 2022:
Calico
-December 2021:
Mordhau
Beyond the Wire
Partisans 1941
8 Doors
Fling to the Finish
-August 2021:
Out of Space
Carto
As Far as the Eye
Cepheus Protocol
Nowhere Prophet (might keep)
Blue Fire
Encodya (GOG key)
-March 2021:
XCOM: Chimera Squad
Peaky Blinders: Mastermind
Boreal Blade
Ageless
Hotshot Racing
-December 2020:
Children of Mo
Still There
Struggling
Path of Giants
-September 2020:
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York
Fun with Ragdolls: The Game
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
The Occupation
The Shapeshifting Detective
-July 2020 (can only choose 2):
Battlestar Galactica Deadlock
Railway Empire
Sigma Theory: Global Cold War
Basingstoke
-April 2020 (can only choose 1):
Truberbrook
Shoppe Keep 2
Driftland: The Magic Revival
-Other:
Regular Human Basketball
Fluffy Horde
Chasm
TF2 keys (see my steam profile inventory for how many I have left)
My IGS rep: https://www.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/tlgmwl/infinityjkas_igs_rep_page/

WANT:

Bad End Theater
Bug Fables
Phoenotopia: Awakening
Other things I want:
Wishlist
TF2 keys
I'm open to game offers, send me your lists.
(no Paypal)

HAVE:

-April 2023:
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante (might keep)
Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp
Revita
Founders' Fortune (might keep)
-July 2022:
Lawn Mowing Simulator
Atom RPG Trudograd
-April 2022:
Destroy All Humans (might keep)
Chicken Police
Rouge Heroes: Ruins of Tasos
Chicken Police
-March 2022:
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl
Red Solstice 2: Survivors
Police Stories
-Feburary 2022:
Calico
-December 2021:
Mordhau
Beyond the Wire
Partisans 1941
8 Doors
Fling to the Finish
-August 2021:
Out of Space
Carto
As Far as the Eye
Cepheus Protocol
Nowhere Prophet (might keep)
Blue Fire
Encodya (GOG key)
-March 2021:
XCOM: Chimera Squad
Peaky Blinders: Mastermind
Boreal Blade
Ageless
Hotshot Racing
-December 2020:
Children of Mo
Still There
Struggling
Path of Giants
-September 2020:
Vampire: The Masquerade - Coteries of New York
Fun with Ragdolls: The Game
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
The Occupation
The Shapeshifting Detective
-July 2020 (can only choose 2):
Battlestar Galactica Deadlock
Railway Empire
Sigma Theory: Global Cold War
Basingstoke
-April 2020 (can only choose 1):
Truberbrook
Shoppe Keep 2
Driftland: The Magic Revival
-Other:
Regular Human Basketball
Fluffy Horde
Chasm
TF2 keys (see my steam profile inventory for how many I have left)
My IGS rep: https://www.reddit.com/IGSRep/comments/tlgmwl/infinityjkas_igs_rep_page/

If ANYONE WANTS them (http://smmacourses.site/)
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· Miles – The FBA Roadmap + The Profit Vault
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· Miles – The FBA Roadmap + The Profit Vault
· Dan Vas – Ecom Freedom Shopify Blueprint 2023
· Alexander J.A Cortes - WiFi Money Machine
· Kody Knows - Native Mastery
· Bastiaan Slot - Six Figure Consulting
· Kaibax - Centurion agency
· Joe Robert - Print On Demand Accelerator
· Ryan Hogue - Ryan's Method Dropshipped POD
· Kevin Zhang - Ecommerce Millionaire Mastery
· Ryan Lee – 48 Hour Continuity
· [METHOD] ⚡️TikTok Algorithm Domination Skyrocket your engagement TODAY Updated 2023✨
· Troy Ericson – Email List Management Certification
· Larry Goins – Filthy Riches Home Study Course
· Ry Schwartz – Automated Intimacy
· Patrick Bet-David – All Access Bundle
· Andrea Unger – Master the Code & Go LIVE
· Jon Benson – 10 Minute Sales Letter
· Alen Sultanic – Automatic Clients & Bonuses
· Taylor Welch – Cashflow for Consultants
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· The Futur Greg Gunn – Illustration for Designers
· Trading180 – Supply And Demand Zone Trading Course
· Jim McKelvey (Foundr) – How To Build An Unbeatable Business
· Master of AI Copy – Copy School by Copyhackers
· Copyhackers – Copy School 2023
· Matei – Gann Master Forex Course
· YOYAO Hsueh – Topical Maps Unlocked
· Tyler McMurray – Facts Verse Youtube Automation Course
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· Rene Lacad – Rockstar Marketing Blueprint
· Top Trade Tools – Hedge Fund Trender
· Brandi Mowles – Conversion For Clients
· Glen Allsopp – SEO Blueprint 2 (DETAILED)
· Trading Busters – Prop Trading Formula Course
· Sam Woods – The AI Copywriting Workshop (Complete Edition)
· Brian Anderson – Recovery Profit System
· LOW COMPETITION KEYWORDS IN MINUTES ⚡ 70+ REVIEWS ✅ BONUS PDF WORTH $200+
· Devon Brown – Easiest System Ever
· Duston McGroarty – St. Patrick’s Day 2023 Live Event
· Dan Wardrope – Click & Deploy Sales Android
· Lost Boys Academy – How To Make Life Changing Money With OnlyFans!
· WealthFRX Trading Mastery Course 2.0
· TOM & HARRY – Digital Culture Academy
· 100+ Cold Email Templates
· [METHOD] ✅ Make Real Cash with Auto Blogging ⛔Get $1199 Worth of Resources ❌ CUSTOMIZED SECRET PROCESS⚡DONE FOR YOU SITE ⭐ Unlimited Niche Opportunity & So on
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· Raul Gonzalez – Day Trading Institution 2.0
· Rasmus & Christian Mikkelsen –Impact Academy 2023
· [METHOD] ☢️ The Quick eBay Money Loophole Guide ☢️
· Apteros Trading – March 2023 Intensive
· Rob Lennon – Zero to 10k Twitter Accelerator
· Rob Lennon – Next-Level Prompt Engineering with AI
· Rasmus & Christian Mikkelsen – NEW Audiobook Income Academy Download
· Grow and Convert – Customers From Content
· Charles Miller – The Writersonal Branding Playbook
· Kaye Putnam – Convert with a Quiz
· Forex Mentor – London Close Trade 2.0
· Chase Reiner – Fortune Bots Update 1
· Andrew Ethan Zeng – Social Marketing Mastery
· [Method] Upload FULL, 100% Unedited Copyrighted Videos on Youtube! Content ID DESTROYER!
· Digital Daily – Top 150 ChatGPT Prompts to Make your Life Easy
· Patek Fynnip – Psychology Course
· Thomas Frank – Creator’s Companion (Ultimate Brain Edition)
· [METHOD] ⚡ See the MAGIC of Bulk Posting ✨ Untapped Method ✅ [ BONUS ChatGpt and Affiliate list Pdf]✅
· ⭕️ YouTube Content Machine – Unlimited FREE traffic for CPA – Fully Automated Method ⭕️
· Jakob Greenfeld – Scraping The Web For Fun and Profit
· Adrian Twarog – OpenAI Template Starter Kit for ChatGPT / GPT3
· The Secret Merchants List of Over 2000+ Dropshippers and Amazon FBA Suppliers Based in The US
· Top Trade Tools – Top Swing Trader Pro
· Charlie Houpert – Charisma University 2023
· ▶️ [METHOD + GUIDE] ✅ Make Money ✅ with Kindle Books ⚠️ Even if You Can’t Write ⚠️ [STEP-BY-STEP] ⚡ NO INVESTMENT REQUIRED! ⚡
· Charlie Morgan – Easy Grow
· Nina Clapperton – Jasper AI Course for Bloggers
· Travis Stephenson – Simple Profit System
· Manny Khoshbin – Real Estate Starter Program
· Tanner Henkel & Jerrod Harlan – 7-Figure Email Machine
· [METHOD] Stop Wasting Money on AI Writers Train And Fine-Tune Your Own AI For Free With No Code ⚡⚡⚡Real Method & Practice Examples ⚡⚡
· Creator Hooks – YouTube Title Mastery
· Thomas Frank – Creator’s Companion (Ultimate Brain Edition)
· Sean Dollwet – Royalty Hero
· Jason Bell – Birthday Marketing Formula
· NXT Level FX – Investors Domain
· [METHOD] ⏩ My ETSY $40K~ Passive Income 2023 + HOT Products (Earning Proof) ⏪ Make Money No Marketing Easy $40K~ Guide FOR NOOBS ✅
· Rob Jones & Gerry Cramer – Profit Singularity Ultra Edition 2022 (AI & ChatGPT)
· Cody Wittick & Taylor Lagace – The Influencer Marketing Blueprint
· ⚡️➡️$390/Week BLUEPRINT+PROOF✅Scalable Method❤️Amazon to eBay Dropship✅
· Kody Ashmore – Simpler Trading – Drama Free Day Trades ELITE
· Youri van Hofwegen – YouTube Search Automation
· Montell Gordon – Agency Transmutation
· Csaba Borzasi – Breakthrough Conversions Academy
· Tim Denning – Twitter Badassery
· Geoff Cudd – AI Writing Course for Bloggers & Digital Marketers
· RED CPA FORMULA – UNTAPPED UNDERGROUND CPA SYSTEM
· BowtiedCocoon – Zero to $100k: Landing Any Tech Sales Role
· Holly Starks – Make LINK BUILDING Great Again!
· Mike Warren – Deeds4Cash
· BITCOIN BRITS – The Crypto Course
· Max Gilles – ⚡️☄️ UHQ Leak ❤️CPA JACKER – Epic CPA Blueprint✅⚡️
· Aidan Booth & Steve Clayton – 123 Profit Update 9
· Christina Galbato – The Influencer Bootcamp
· John Thornhill – Ambassador Program
· [Sales] 999+ Ultimate ChatGPT Prompts To Copy & Paste (250+ tasks)
· Pollinate Trading – Curvy Trading System
· Content Mavericks – The Greatest Hits Content System
· Andriy Boychuk – Flowium – Klaviyo Mastery 2.0
· Dagobert Renouf – How To Dominate Twitter (Advanced Growth Bundle)
· Darius Lukas – ⭐ The Marketer’s Bible to ChatGPT ✅ 1000+ ChatGPT Prompts to Copy, Paste & Scale
· Billy Gene – 5 Day A.I. Crash Course for Marketers
· Alex Cattoni – Posse Eye Brand Voice Challenge Program
· Casey Zander – YouTube Fame Game Blueprint
· Harlan Kilstein – Midjourney Mastery
· Shawna Newman – YouTube for Niche Sites
· [Marketing] 1099+ Ultimate ChatGPT Marketing Prompts To Copy & Paste (200+ tasks)
· Karen Foo – Star Traders Forex Intermediate Course
· TheMacLyf – Hive Mind & Masterclass (Onlyfans Course)
· Brittany Lewis – Top Seller Secret
· Dan Henry – Facebook Ads for Entrepreneur
· Russ Horn – Ultra Blue Forex
· Scott Phillips – Crypto Salary System
· Roland Frasier – AI Powered Expert Apprentice + Update 1
· Roger & Barry – Give Academy 1k/Day Platinum Mastermind [COMPLETE with LATEST UPDATE]
· Bretty Curry (Smart Marketer) – Smart Amazon Ecommerce
· Steven Dux – Traders Edge 2023
· Aidan Booth & Steve Clayton – 123 Profit
· Allie Bjerk – Tiny Offer Lab
· Dicke Bush – Generate 10x More Content Using AI
· Mateusz Rutkowski – New Money Blueprint
· Smart Raja Concepts (SRC) – Forex 101
· Chase Reiner – Short Form Riches Bootcamp 2023 – AI ChatGPT Bot Update 3
· Chase Reiner – AI Profits
· Travis Sago – Cold Outreach & Prospecting AMA Offer (Best Value with All Bonuses)
· Live Traders – Professional Trading Strategies
· Allan Dib – The 1-Page Marketing Plan Course
· Dan Koe – Digital Economics Masters Degree
· The Trading Guide – The Gold Box Strategy
· The Complete XAUUSD GOLD Forex Scalping System On Real Trading Account
If ANYONE WANTS them (http://smmacourses.site/)

I was hoping to take my son camping this summer in RMNP. But their largest campsite is under renovation until next year so all the other sites are full. I’ve been looking online for hours and can’t make a decision. I want him to fall in love with hiking and the mountains like I have, so I can’t screw this up. Haha.
Details: I’m driving from Estes Park through Boulder and Colorado Springs on our way back to Texas. My son is 12. We’ll be tent camping and have an SUV. Hoping to find something with nice views and fun hikes in or around these areas.
Please let me know if anyone has any recommendations.

Disclaimer: I often struggle with imposter syndrome so this post could just be that I’m just too critical on myself.
Anyhoo…
Background story:
I started coding in high school when I was 16 or 17 years old. I started with Java, learning the basics through fun projects using NetBeans to build desktop applications for beginners. Honestly, I didn't fully grasp what I was doing or why the code worked, but it intrigued me enough to consider studying Computer Science in varsity.
Now in uni:
1st year: We only did C++, your basic intro to algorithms stuff
2nd year: I shifted to Java for Android development. I also dabbled in PHP and XML. Additionally, I took a module that heavily focused on databases and database management, specifically MySQL.
3rd year: I continued with Java for advanced algorithm analysis modules and also touched on some JavaScript, which was primarily for 3D games using three.js
Honours year: Python became prevalent as most of my modules were centered around Machine Learning.
Now considering my university background, it's evident that I have explored various programming languages, making me somewhat of a "jack of all trades." However, I didn't master any of them and I feel I lacked in-depth understanding.
Throughout my studies, I attempted some internships. One involved working as a front-end developer using React Native - overwhelming and enjoyable.
Another internship focused on Data Science, this is where I first encountered Natural Language Processing (NLP). I became so captivated by NLP that I decided to base my Honours research on building a translation engine and assessing if sentiment is preserved during translation. It was quite exciting.
After completing my Honours degree, I decided to enter the job market instead of pursuing a Master's degree.
My first professional job, after leaving school, was as a Java developer (2021).
This is the job I’m currently doing.
Feb 2021: Started interning for the company Jan 2022: Moved to a permanent role as a Junior Java Developer Nov 2023: Moved to Intermediate Java Developer
I’m working on the backend of a mobile application for a bank. Pure Java and xml. No Spring, just legacy stuff.
The work is routine and gets boring. There’s also too much downtime I feel like I’m getting brain rust. Also, the work I do here only makes sense for as long as I’m with the bank, this bank.
When you think about it, this could be detrimental to my career since my skills may not be transferable outside of this organization.
I’m in my mid-3rd year but I still lack confidence. I struggle to understand RESTful services and haven't had much opportunity to work with APIs. Due to my limited skills, I hesitate to label myself as a backend engineer. My confidence levels are low, and I feel like my knowledge is becoming stagnant. I’m only learning Spring now, not on the job - in my spare time. It’s a little overwhelming but we’ll see.
I've made the decision to step out of my comfort zone and start applying for new job opportunities, but I’m worried I might not be hireable.
Please advise, do I stand a chance out there?
P.s. I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing

Side by side, we continued on our path, skirting through the lower section of the factory. After my initial shock, my heart rate had slowed to a healthier pace again. Frankie had assured me that his old boss most likely hadn’t heard us (“She used to have her earbuds in all the time with the volume cranked way up—you couldn’t have gotten her attention if you’d tried”), but we still considered it prude to move forward at a more hurried pace.
We soon came to the conclusion that we would have to go up one of the outside staircases. Frankie admitted in humiliation that his memories of the factory weren’t as accurate as he’d thought—either that or FunFlair had made a few changes to the building. The upper floor containers all had glass doors, presenting us with a sticky problem. If we were to go up there directly, we’d probably be spotted immediately.
“This warrants a change of plans,” I declared soberly, keeping my voice low. “We’ll have to knock her out, then.”
Frankie whimpered.
“Wouldn’t you like that?” I prompted. “I’d be the one to do it, of course.”
“Ye-es.” He shuddered. “It’d be satisfactory for sure, but that’s only assuming nothing goes wrong.”
“She can hardly be stronger than I am.”
“No. I guess not. She, uh… yeah.”
“Let’s go, then.” I offered an encouraging smile as I started leading the way back outside.
We rounded the container with the lights on inside, ascending the metal grate staircase connected to it. Every step carried us closer towards the light. Just before the door fully came into view, I turned to Frankie one last time. “Are you alright? This’ll be it in a moment.”
He made another chew-toy sound.
“Fran, what is it? If you know something I don’t about what might happen in there…”
“She shouldn’t see me,” he squeaked out. “I can’t control myself around her.”
“I don’t understand; did you two use to be an item?”
“No! No, no, no. I can’t explain it any other way. She can make me do things I don’t want,” he told me, his tone growing in desperation.
“How?”
“It’d take too long to explain now, it’s… it’s really very complicated. Please, can you do it without me? I can’t go up there after all, I’m so sorry but I can’t…”
I sighed, leaning in to put my arms around him. “It’s okay,” I whispered into his hair. “I’ll do it. Wait here.”
“I’m so, so sorry, Eva. I swear I’ll make it up to you. This is the last time I’ll ask something like this of you.”
“I doubt it,” I replied. “But it’s okay.” I drew back, reluctantly letting go of him. “For now, it’s okay.” I continued marching up the stairs. Behind the glass door, a feminine figure in a black rubber apron came into view. She seemed to be nimbly skirting around another operating table, this one occupied by a fully formed, petite doll. Now or never. I reached for the doorhandle, pushed it down and crossed the threshold in a single, large step. I slammed the door shut behind my back, drawing the attention of the woman.
She looked up at me, her eyes widening in shock behind her thick glasses. With a swipe of her slender fingers, she removed her earbuds, dropping them into her pocket.
“Are you Philomena Wallis?” I asked.
For a split second, she appeared to be too stunned to speak. Her pale face was framed by messy strands of jet-black hair that had worked their way out of her long ponytail. When she broke from her silence, she spoke with an irritatingly pearly voice. “Who’s asking?”
“A former delivery girl. Well, are you?”
“I am. I don’t understand; I-I’ve never seen you before… How did you end up here? What do you want?”
I took in a deep breath. I glanced over at the door, inwardly cursing myself for what I was about to ask her. “I need to know what you did to Frankie Preston.”
For a couple seconds, silence reigned. The other woman was staring at me with knotted brows. “I don’t know who you’re talking about,” she said finally.
“About yay high—,” I raised my hand above my head, “slightly built, blond curly hair, dreamy smile…”
Philomena narrowed her eyes. I cleared my throat, holding her gaze. Then a look of cold comprehension settled on her features. “Oh my god,” she muttered. “Holy shit… hold on.” She turned around, pulling up a photo on her computer. “Is that him?”
I cautiously stepped closer to get a better look, only to shrink back slightly. It was, indeed, a picture of Fran. He was entirely naked in it, lying on a table similar to the one I was standing in front of now, his wrists and ankles locked in restraints. His neck was craned, his face averted. The camera had caught him mid-motion, a blur around his head visually conveying a kind of violence in the movement. I couldn’t bear to look at it any longer. Instead, I moved closer to the doll on Philomena’s table, taking her in fully. Another blonde—her hair was straight, though. Her body was exaggeratedly curvy, her face delicate and fawn. Speechless, I locked eyes with Philomena from across the room again. She gave me a light shrug. “You look like you need some time for this to sink in,” she remarked, drawing out the words. “I take it you didn’t have all the information previously.”
“That’s okay,” I replied. “I think I get it now.” My head felt empty, my own voice seemingly echoing back and forth between my ears.
“So, you know my prototype,” she stated, confusion and disbelief mixing in her tone. “He told you how to get here, then?”
“In a way.”
“And you came here to find out,” she concluded. “There’s not much I can tell you that you haven’t figured out by now. We wanted to create the most detailed doll there was. He was our first attempt. I started developing him back in the late nineties as just a hopeful pet project. I kept adding more functions as time went on, though, and he turned into an insanely lucrative prospect. I wanted him to be able to move and dance and mimic an airflow, and it worked out better than I’d ever expected. So he can do a lot of things, but I never intended for him to have any sensory awareness or to talk… I have no idea how that happened. It just did. One day, I turned him on and he simply looked at me. There was something different about his eyes, and I knew right away he wasn’t the same as before. And then of course he spoke.”
A shudder ran through her entire upper body at the memory. “I have no idea how. None of us did at the time. He had no recorded voice lines or anything of the sort. And yet, he opened up his mouth and there was just… words coming out, like.” She shook her head in bewilderment at the memory. “After I got over the initial shock, I realized how big of a problem this was. He was telling me to stay away from him; he wouldn’t do a thing I told him anymore. There was my best invention in the entire field yet, rebelling like a teenager. When I tried to get him back in line, he got physical, too. Thrashed around like crazy. One of my assistants ended up concussed because that thing threw him down a flight of stairs. So we had to put an end to that, as well.”
A faint feeling of nausea seeped into the pit of my stomach, strengthening by the second. “What did you do?”
“Well, we had to take him apart, of course! And put him back together. Wash, rinse, repeat. We kept trying to figure out what was wrong with him, or at least to find a way to stop his babbling and hitting people. We didn’t, though. We managed to control his outbursts, though. He was made to react to voice commands, but obviously, that wasn’t working anymore. So after the umpteenth time we rebuilt him, we managed to make it so he couldn’t physically attack people. Don’t ask me about the finer details of his programming; the process was beyond tedious. Anyways, he kept talking and moving around on his own even afterwards. He’d only listen to what we told him occasionally and even then, he’d mouth off. We didn’t want to discard all the progress we’d made, though. He was still an incredibly well-made doll, even if he was… apparently possessed and sentient.
“We built two more like him. We tried harder with their faces seeing as that of the prototype had fallen very far into the uncanny valley. They turned out great, perfectly shaped and working smoothly. Their development took a lot less time than that of the prototype. Once we were sure they were all good, we started talking about destroying the first one. We’d kept him locked up in the meantime, but the little fucker kept on breaking out. We’d literally cuff him to the wall and moments later, he’d come up behind me and scare me half to death. He was becoming a bigger nuisance every day. We were set on taking him apart a final time, but before we could, he disappeared. He’d destroyed all our equipment he’d gotten his hands on, stolen unnameable sums from our online banking accounts—Lord knows how he did that—and worst of all, he somehow managed to… activate the two new builds. He destroyed most of the cameras, but the footage that was left clearly showed them walking around with him. And that’s that.” She palmed her forehead. “How did he get away from the people I sent after him?”
“Largely with my help.”
“Huh. So who are you?”
“Still just a former delivery girl.” Shrugging off my jacket, I made room for my extra limbs to breach my skin, simultaneously opening my mouth as my teeth morphed into fangs.
Philomena watched my transformation almost disaffectedly. Her steps as she carried herself over to her operating table however nearly faltered. Before I could advance on her, she’d cupped the sleeping dolls cheeks, causing the limp body to spring to life. The mannequin’s head jerked up along with her torso. In several clipped, mechanical movements, she slid off the surface, placing her naked feet on the floor. Her eyes flew open, fixing me with an empty glare.
“I don’t know what the fuck you are or what you want from me,” Philomena began, “but I’ve got weak nerd arms. So have fun dealing with this instead.”
I shrank back a step, the memory of Frankie picking me up like I weighed nothing fresh in my mind. Phil pressed her lips to the side of the puppet’s face, whispering something I couldn’t make out before quickly drawing aside. Before I could do so much as blink, the doll was upon me, crossing the distance between us in one impressive leap. She toppled me over, instantly reaching for my throat. I batted her cold, rubbery hands away, then pried her off of me with all my might. Using two of my tentacles, I flung her aside, sending her crashing into a shelf in the corner. Not wasting another second, I lunged at Wallis, delivering a blow to her head that sent her staggering. She sank back against her desk and I lashed out at her once more, briefly shutting my eyes to spare myself the sight of her face connecting squarely with the wooden surface as I bashed her down on against it.
She fell limp, and while I wasn’t sure if she was still breathing or not, I didn’t take the time to check. Her puppet was rising to her feet again, striding towards me in a vacantly determined fashion. I whirled around, bursting through the door and taking two steps at once. Frankie was waiting for me at the bottom of the metal staircase, his face falling when he caught my expression.
“Knocked her out,” I gasped. “We have a problem, though.”
Fran looked up at the glass door, the hinges of which were already groaning under the pressure of the mannequin throwing herself against it from the inside. With a sharp crack, a tear began to grow on the thick pane, and Frankie cursed loudly. “Get away from here!” he hollered, nudging me into the general direction of the woods. “I doused everything I could find down here,” he explained quickly. “If Phil’s out, I’ll do her room, too.”
“What about the—”
“Never you mind that! I can hold her off no problem.”
“I won’t—”
“You literally took out the one thing holding me back,” he insisted. “I’m not letting you get hurt out here. Just wait for me over by the trees.”
I still wouldn’t budge, so he grabbed a bunch of my tentacles and used them to turn me around. “Get your cute-ass face out of here, Sunshine!”
I started running, albeit reluctantly. A loud crashing noise rang out from behind me as the door burst under Phil’s puppet’s onslaught, but I forced myself to keep from turning around. Ignoring the searing hot feeling of panic raging inside my chest, I carried myself further and further away from the scene, only stopping when I reached the treeline. There, pressing myself up against the rough bark of the nearest trunk just to ground myself, I resigned to staring at the containers. I couldn’t see the waiter from where I was standing, but my eyes remained trained on the factory. They were gradually drying out, but despite the pain, I kept them wide open. I didn’t dare to blink.
For several minutes, all was still. The only sound I could hear was the frantic beating of my own heart and my pulse thrumming in my ears. Then, all of a sudden, inferno broke loose. Bright flames started to spread from around the sides of the building, quickly rising high into the sky. Crackling and roaring, they soon enveloped the entire site, lighting up the rooms behind the formerly dark windows. And emerging from the fire like a bird of myth came Frankie Preston. He was running, but with a light spring in his step that almost made it look like he was dancing.
He came to a halt in front of me, lifting his head to meet my gaze. His expression was difficult to read. It still looked empty, but in a different way. In a good way. “Hi,” he began.
“Hi.”
The firelight was bouncing off his curls and playing on his thick lashes, putting a reddish glint into his eyes. “You’re beautiful,” I added.
He drew in a little closer. No gasp preceded his smile. “Thanks.”
“How are you feeling?”
“I, uh… I don’t know yet.” He glanced between me and the burning containers.
“Okay. Take your time.” I stretched my arms and rolled my shoulders, shrugging my additional limbs back into the inside of my body.
“Say, where do they go when you don’t have them out?” Frankie asked with a raised brow.
“I never know.”
“Hm.” He turned to stand at my side. At first, his knuckles merely grazed mine, then he flipped his hand to link his fingers with mine. I briefly smiled at his profile, then went back to admiring the flames.
“Do you think the whole woods are gonna burn down?”
“Probably not,” he replied, shrugging. “Though that would be pretty cool…” He trailed off when I shot him a reprimanding look. “Yeah, yeah, we can call the fire fighters or whatever. Later, though, alright?”
I rested my head against the side of his arm. “Sure. Later.”
For a couple minutes, neither of us spoke. The only sound was the steady crackling and occasional thump as bit by bit, the structure collapsed. “So, um… this is pretty amazing,” Fran said in a low voice. “I mean, it’s not like I’ve never been happy before; my life’s kind of had its ups and downs, it’s just that this is better than any up there’s been so far. I guess I’m just really grateful and you ought to know that.”
“Don’t worry, I know.” I paused. “Can we get out of here? The place is starting to stink.”
He nodded agreeably and we turned our backs on the scene, only for our retreat to be abruptly stopped by a garbled, drawn-out screech. We spun around in perfect synchronicity. I couldn’t stop myself from letting out a sharp cry of shock. From the burning wreckage, a figure dragged itself forth on her hands. Philomena’s puppet had suffered immense damage in the fire. Her skin, obviously not made to withstand extreme heat, was melting off her face like molten candle wax. The wires that were bared beneath gave off angry sparks. She couldn’t seem to get up anymore, her legs were beyond repair and her movements overall were getting more and more arduous. She dug her fingers into the ground, pulling her body across the forest floor in slow, pained jerks.
“What the fuck? I thought I switched her off,” Frankie uttered beside me, sounding just as terrified as I felt.
“What do we do?” I exhaled the words in a single quick breath, unable to take my eyes off the doll.
“I got no idea… I-I don’t wanna deal with this…”
“We need to help her or something, she’s—she’s awake!” Before I could say anything else, the doll had emerged from the blaze. Rolling around, she managed to quench the remaining flames, pressing the dirt and leaves into her own dripping, melting body. Finally, she started trying to push herself up into a sitting position, only to fail miserably. I took a slow, tentative step towards her twitching form. Her face was contorted into a nightmarish grimace, and she let out an incomprehensible gurgle upon noticing me approaching. She reached out a mangled hand and I stumbled backwards before she could grab my ankle.
Despite the heat, beads of cold, fearful sweat were running down my face. I had no idea what to do. “We can’t leave her,” I said, my throat bone-dry. “There’s something in there, she’s not like before.”
Fran let out an exasperated, long-suffering sigh. “Is there any use in arguing?”
“Don’t be so cold.”
“Aren’t you used to it by now?”
I turned to look at him over my shoulder. He met my gaze and I could see something in his features change or perhaps even soften. He threw his head back, then pulled out his phone. “This is gonna ruin my night, but fine. I’m calling that insufferable news lady.”
X
1
2: deadbeat roommate
3: creepy crush
4: relocation
5: beach concert
6: First date
7: Temp work
8: roommate talk
9: a dismal worldview
10: warehouse
11: staircase
12: explanation
13: hurt
14: hospital
15: ocean
16: diner
17: government work
18: something in the caves
19: shopping cart
20: olms and Jewels
21: long hair
22: recruitment
23: waitresses
24: dollhouse