Alliant energy mason city iowa
The Iowa State Subreddit!
2008.09.30 15:34 The Iowa State Subreddit!
Welcome to the subreddit for the state of Iowa.
2011.12.21 01:25 SupreTyler Mason City, Iowa
2012.09.03 23:19 -redditors of north iowa
mason city, Hampton, Iowa Falls and surrounding areas.
2023.06.07 20:42 Bellweirboy 🚨🛩 UPDATE🚨 When you have to race back to Miami to be at the boss’s side for GME earnings call…. [Mayo Force One returned to Miami from Hong Kong yesterday]
![🚨🛩 UPDATE🚨 When you have to race back to Miami to be at the boss’s side for GME earnings call…. [Mayo Force One returned to Miami from Hong Kong yesterday]](https://preview.redd.it/49ee3lib5n4b1.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=66d845e26424b741da9e30598ada44a512eec225 "🚨🛩 UPDATE🚨 When you have to race back to Miami to be at the boss’s side for GME earnings call…. [Mayo Force One returned to Miami from Hong Kong yesterday]") | submitted by Bellweirboy to Superstonk [link] [comments] |
2023.06.07 20:41 SchlesingerMindy323 [HIRING] 25 Jobs in IA Hiring Now!
2023.06.07 20:31 Taken-Username7161 The Shroud stands tall, and so shall you. (Psionic Tall build)
Peace, Technology, Unity. These are what the council promises to its citizens
Empire size will remain under 100 for the duration of the game with this build if tall is what you are looking for, it is fall that you will recieve. we’re using 4 worlds, But it is technically possible with 3, Unity would be a problem in that case though.
Game settings i’ve tested this on, x1 tech, x1 habitables, x10 crisis, end game start year 2300, late game scaling, grand admiral. Normal ai aggressiveness.
TRAITS
Intelligent, because yes
Budding, it’s better than rapid Breeders for the late game, but rapid breeders can still be interesting since our early game economy kinda needs all the help it can get.
Natural engineers Or Traditional Or Talented if a leader build is what we’re going for, either one of theses is a good pick
Unruly is a free pick for the early years, and can be hopefully removed later, either by us or Composer RNG. An alternative would be nonadaptive, but it has a lot more of an impact early game.
Deviant, the negative governing ethics attraction will probably only end up as a rounding error, we are playing both psionic spiritualist, and tall. Ain’t no way we are getting any problems with diverging ethics.
Solitary is a nice alternative if ethic divergence scares you, we’ll be building city districts all over the place for the building slots, housing will not be an issue.. at all.
For our starting leader trait we’ll be going spark of genius, or logistic understanding, research speed is always nice, but the reduced ship upkeep would also be amazing in the late game, if you’re going with logistic understanding i would suggest picking a governor as a leader, for a couple reasons. Most notably we’ll be having some ringworlds with merchants late game, so the % increases to trade value are very interesting. Researcher is still better for research though, you can get a solid 20-25% so either one is worth a good amount of consideration.
ORIGIN
Teachers of the shroud for early Psionics. But in theory a lot of origins could do here if you are ready to give RNG a shot.
On a related note, the Patron we will be going for is ideally the Composer, since the bonus to pop growth is both good early game and invaluable to fill out our ringworlds. It also has the best Sanctum for our purposes and a decent ship component. Overall, a good option.
The instrument of Desire is also a good alternative, Job output and trade for our eventual ringworlds is good, but the real kicker is the mark of the Instrument, which reduces ship upkeep and increases sub light speed which is by far the best ship component of all the patrons.
Whisperers is okay-ish in the early game, but it really suffers once it gets time to actually fill our ringworlds and stuff. If you’re going for a weird, high evasion ships, super espionage build though.. eh, sure, why not. But otherwise it’s not ideal.
Since we’re going fanatic pacifist, we don’t have to worry about the Eater, like, ever. YAY !
Speaking of ethics…
ETHICS
:: Fanatic Pacifist, Spiritualist
Now this might come as a surprise, so why Fanatic pacifist ? It does lock us into defensive wars after all, and that’s awful… right ?
Well the defensive war only policy, doesn’t make as big a difference as it might sound like. Liberation war already only allows to make claims during defensive wars and that stays unchanged, and for a tall empire, losing the ability to impose ideology, or make a forced vassal through war, isn’t really all that much of a loss. If we want to declare war like, really badly, we will be getting alternative methods through the senate and general diplomacy.
On top of that, Fanatic Pacifist allows us to pick whatever authority we like, and frees up one civic slot which is actually pretty massive especially for build flexibility.
CIVICS
The first civic has to be. Master Crafters, the consumer goods are nice, but what is really a big deal here is the trade value, since with this play-style we’ll be staying with 3 to 4 planets only until our traditions are done, this will allow us to keep our original technicians on our homeworld and roll with it until the endgame.
The second civic:: can be, for exemple, Meritocracy, it’s just a good civic. But depending on what you’re going for you might want to look at something else entirely. Again picking fanatic pacifist really allows us to have a lot flexibility here.
The third civc:: Ascensionists. More Planetary Ascension effect is what the kids theses days would call, "very poggers".
AUTHORITY
Yeah just pick oligarchy. Or imperial if you plan on using feudal society or something.
TRADITIONS
1ST::
Expansion.
Expansion is a good pick for the reduced empire size from both systems and colonies, on top of the extra population growth, it’s just good, it also increases the weight to draw the Composer, which is the best patron by far for the late game. With the 20% to pop growth speed on top of the 10% increase to pop growth speed on Psi corps. It also has the best Sanctum of the patrons with a 5% empire wide production bonus on top of some habitability.
2ND::
Psionics
It’s just good for us to finish this one early so we will save up unity until we can finish the research for Psionic Theory which is generally the second to third technology pick after hydroponics and whatever else that shows up.
3RD::
Diplomacy::
Making a Federation is absolutely critical for our purposes, there is no other good reason to pick this, but the federation bonuses that the holy covenant gives are significant enough. If you’re not able to find someone with similar ethics, find a planet in the middle of nowhere and settle it, before releasing it as a vassal and then releasing the vassal to form a federation with it. That way they will have the same ethics and will be extremely willing to form a federation despite your war policy. You might want to leave that tradition incomplete until you at least get Champions of the empire to reduce the empire size.
4TH
Aptitude::
Leaders good. But the empire size reduction from champions of the empire is basically completely busted for tall players.
5th
Harmony, More planetary ascension, less empire size from pops, and even some extra leader lifespan, what more could a man want ?
6TH::
Mercantile, why mercantile ? Well, simply put. Money. Federations tax all forms of energy income other than trade, so you would be getting 15% more energy from all of your trade sources than any other sources by default with our current build, on top of that the extra merchants will allow us to make ringworlds with a massive amount of them, creating a downright obscene amount of energy, this perk is what fuels our energy economy in the late game, it’s vital that we take it.
7TH
Supremacy
It’s probably one of the best tradition trees in the game. It’s just straight to the point. It’ll ensure that our navy is as big as it can be given our small footprint.
ASCENSION PERKS
1st Imperial prerogative
2nd, Technological ascendency or transcendent learning.
3rd Technological ascendency or transcendent learning.
4th we’ll either be keeping around as free in order to pick Galactic wonders or we’re going to pick nihilistic acquisition (Yes, it requires authoritarian, but we’ll be electing our chosen one as divine sovereign, which switches us over to authoritarian.)
The rest is entirely up to you, you might want to pick up gardians of the galaxy for extra crisis damage.
THE GAME PLAN
2200-2230 is the hardest part, your economy is going to be in shambles very soon. Put down science labs as quickly as possible, homeworld is a tech world.
Find your guaranteed habitables, settle them as soon as you can, your first one will also be dedicated to technology, the second one will be consumer goods and once you find a fourth, it’ll be your unity world.
We aren’t going beyond that, we’re playing tall over here, empire size is our directive, if you want a more true to form approach, look up the 3k+ research by 2250 tutorial made by u/yzseven89, this dude knows how to play the game, he will bring you knowledge and technology.
We’re still aiming for a pretty cool 1k by 2230 and ideally 2k by 2250. It should be a pretty reasonable goal since we started off two tech worlds. Buy minerals, in the early years, don’t let the planetary queues be idle, build city districts, then buildings, and repeat. 3k is still theoretically possible, but it requires some good luck, it’s nice if you can achieve it, but i’d say a 2k goal is good enough.
You will want to switch to civilian economy.
In some cases you might even put the factory homeworld designation for a little while if necessary, ideally we want to avoid it since it shoots our alloy production in the foot and reduces our researcher output a little, but it might be necessary to relieve some stress off of your economy.
2230 - 2250 is the calm after the storm of death that is the early years, you have a few more pops to play around with, you have neighbours to make commercial pacts with and vassalize.
Genocidal empires will be the bane of your existence, you can’t out-power them in your current state, you just can’t, diplomacy is your only shield so you better use it well.
Make friends with your neighbours. Grant away favours early on in the relations if it looks like it’s going to turn sour. Friendship is mandatory.
Once the event pops up crown your chosen one as eternal god emperor, The council position it unlocks is the best in the entire game. Since you’re also authoritarian now, you can pick nihilistic aquisition, which will be very useful in the late game once we are starting to feel the effects of the relatively low pop growth that Psionic empires have.
Once you picked nihilistic acquisition with your free perk slot you had saved up, quickly embrace your pacifist faction once again, and say goodbye to the useless authoritarianism.
2250 - 2300
From then on it’s just about keeping your tech up, and making as many alloys as is reasonable on the side in anticipation of mega engineering.
If you have to build a megastructure from scratch, build a mega shipyard, it’s fastest and cheapest one, then i’d recommend the Dyson sphere followed by a ringworld.
Once you have all 7 traditions finished is when you can really boom and start putting down planetary ascensions, so don’t neglect your unity, it’s very important, so if you find yourself lagging behind in the 2250s, don’t hesitate to resettle three to five of your researcher pops to your unity world.
Start off an alloy world down the line and start pumping out them Ecumenopoli, two of your four ring segments to trade, two to research.
2300 - Victory
Make another ringworld, this time entirely for research. As for the rest. Make ships, prepare for the endgame crisis, and that’s about it.
submitted by Taken-Username7161 to Stellaris [link] [comments]
Empire size will remain under 100 for the duration of the game with this build if tall is what you are looking for, it is fall that you will recieve. we’re using 4 worlds, But it is technically possible with 3, Unity would be a problem in that case though.
Game settings i’ve tested this on, x1 tech, x1 habitables, x10 crisis, end game start year 2300, late game scaling, grand admiral. Normal ai aggressiveness.
TRAITS
Intelligent, because yes
Budding, it’s better than rapid Breeders for the late game, but rapid breeders can still be interesting since our early game economy kinda needs all the help it can get.
Natural engineers Or Traditional Or Talented if a leader build is what we’re going for, either one of theses is a good pick
Unruly is a free pick for the early years, and can be hopefully removed later, either by us or Composer RNG. An alternative would be nonadaptive, but it has a lot more of an impact early game.
Deviant, the negative governing ethics attraction will probably only end up as a rounding error, we are playing both psionic spiritualist, and tall. Ain’t no way we are getting any problems with diverging ethics.
Solitary is a nice alternative if ethic divergence scares you, we’ll be building city districts all over the place for the building slots, housing will not be an issue.. at all.
For our starting leader trait we’ll be going spark of genius, or logistic understanding, research speed is always nice, but the reduced ship upkeep would also be amazing in the late game, if you’re going with logistic understanding i would suggest picking a governor as a leader, for a couple reasons. Most notably we’ll be having some ringworlds with merchants late game, so the % increases to trade value are very interesting. Researcher is still better for research though, you can get a solid 20-25% so either one is worth a good amount of consideration.
ORIGIN
Teachers of the shroud for early Psionics. But in theory a lot of origins could do here if you are ready to give RNG a shot.
On a related note, the Patron we will be going for is ideally the Composer, since the bonus to pop growth is both good early game and invaluable to fill out our ringworlds. It also has the best Sanctum for our purposes and a decent ship component. Overall, a good option.
The instrument of Desire is also a good alternative, Job output and trade for our eventual ringworlds is good, but the real kicker is the mark of the Instrument, which reduces ship upkeep and increases sub light speed which is by far the best ship component of all the patrons.
Whisperers is okay-ish in the early game, but it really suffers once it gets time to actually fill our ringworlds and stuff. If you’re going for a weird, high evasion ships, super espionage build though.. eh, sure, why not. But otherwise it’s not ideal.
Since we’re going fanatic pacifist, we don’t have to worry about the Eater, like, ever. YAY !
Speaking of ethics…
ETHICS
:: Fanatic Pacifist, Spiritualist
Now this might come as a surprise, so why Fanatic pacifist ? It does lock us into defensive wars after all, and that’s awful… right ?
Well the defensive war only policy, doesn’t make as big a difference as it might sound like. Liberation war already only allows to make claims during defensive wars and that stays unchanged, and for a tall empire, losing the ability to impose ideology, or make a forced vassal through war, isn’t really all that much of a loss. If we want to declare war like, really badly, we will be getting alternative methods through the senate and general diplomacy.
On top of that, Fanatic Pacifist allows us to pick whatever authority we like, and frees up one civic slot which is actually pretty massive especially for build flexibility.
CIVICS
The first civic has to be. Master Crafters, the consumer goods are nice, but what is really a big deal here is the trade value, since with this play-style we’ll be staying with 3 to 4 planets only until our traditions are done, this will allow us to keep our original technicians on our homeworld and roll with it until the endgame.
The second civic:: can be, for exemple, Meritocracy, it’s just a good civic. But depending on what you’re going for you might want to look at something else entirely. Again picking fanatic pacifist really allows us to have a lot flexibility here.
The third civc:: Ascensionists. More Planetary Ascension effect is what the kids theses days would call, "very poggers".
AUTHORITY
Yeah just pick oligarchy. Or imperial if you plan on using feudal society or something.
TRADITIONS
1ST::
Expansion.
Expansion is a good pick for the reduced empire size from both systems and colonies, on top of the extra population growth, it’s just good, it also increases the weight to draw the Composer, which is the best patron by far for the late game. With the 20% to pop growth speed on top of the 10% increase to pop growth speed on Psi corps. It also has the best Sanctum of the patrons with a 5% empire wide production bonus on top of some habitability.
2ND::
Psionics
It’s just good for us to finish this one early so we will save up unity until we can finish the research for Psionic Theory which is generally the second to third technology pick after hydroponics and whatever else that shows up.
3RD::
Diplomacy::
Making a Federation is absolutely critical for our purposes, there is no other good reason to pick this, but the federation bonuses that the holy covenant gives are significant enough. If you’re not able to find someone with similar ethics, find a planet in the middle of nowhere and settle it, before releasing it as a vassal and then releasing the vassal to form a federation with it. That way they will have the same ethics and will be extremely willing to form a federation despite your war policy. You might want to leave that tradition incomplete until you at least get Champions of the empire to reduce the empire size.
4TH
Aptitude::
Leaders good. But the empire size reduction from champions of the empire is basically completely busted for tall players.
5th
Harmony, More planetary ascension, less empire size from pops, and even some extra leader lifespan, what more could a man want ?
6TH::
Mercantile, why mercantile ? Well, simply put. Money. Federations tax all forms of energy income other than trade, so you would be getting 15% more energy from all of your trade sources than any other sources by default with our current build, on top of that the extra merchants will allow us to make ringworlds with a massive amount of them, creating a downright obscene amount of energy, this perk is what fuels our energy economy in the late game, it’s vital that we take it.
7TH
Supremacy
It’s probably one of the best tradition trees in the game. It’s just straight to the point. It’ll ensure that our navy is as big as it can be given our small footprint.
ASCENSION PERKS
1st Imperial prerogative
2nd, Technological ascendency or transcendent learning.
3rd Technological ascendency or transcendent learning.
4th we’ll either be keeping around as free in order to pick Galactic wonders or we’re going to pick nihilistic acquisition (Yes, it requires authoritarian, but we’ll be electing our chosen one as divine sovereign, which switches us over to authoritarian.)
The rest is entirely up to you, you might want to pick up gardians of the galaxy for extra crisis damage.
THE GAME PLAN
2200-2230 is the hardest part, your economy is going to be in shambles very soon. Put down science labs as quickly as possible, homeworld is a tech world.
Find your guaranteed habitables, settle them as soon as you can, your first one will also be dedicated to technology, the second one will be consumer goods and once you find a fourth, it’ll be your unity world.
We aren’t going beyond that, we’re playing tall over here, empire size is our directive, if you want a more true to form approach, look up the 3k+ research by 2250 tutorial made by u/yzseven89, this dude knows how to play the game, he will bring you knowledge and technology.
We’re still aiming for a pretty cool 1k by 2230 and ideally 2k by 2250. It should be a pretty reasonable goal since we started off two tech worlds. Buy minerals, in the early years, don’t let the planetary queues be idle, build city districts, then buildings, and repeat. 3k is still theoretically possible, but it requires some good luck, it’s nice if you can achieve it, but i’d say a 2k goal is good enough.
You will want to switch to civilian economy.
In some cases you might even put the factory homeworld designation for a little while if necessary, ideally we want to avoid it since it shoots our alloy production in the foot and reduces our researcher output a little, but it might be necessary to relieve some stress off of your economy.
2230 - 2250 is the calm after the storm of death that is the early years, you have a few more pops to play around with, you have neighbours to make commercial pacts with and vassalize.
Genocidal empires will be the bane of your existence, you can’t out-power them in your current state, you just can’t, diplomacy is your only shield so you better use it well.
Make friends with your neighbours. Grant away favours early on in the relations if it looks like it’s going to turn sour. Friendship is mandatory.
Once the event pops up crown your chosen one as eternal god emperor, The council position it unlocks is the best in the entire game. Since you’re also authoritarian now, you can pick nihilistic aquisition, which will be very useful in the late game once we are starting to feel the effects of the relatively low pop growth that Psionic empires have.
Once you picked nihilistic acquisition with your free perk slot you had saved up, quickly embrace your pacifist faction once again, and say goodbye to the useless authoritarianism.
2250 - 2300
From then on it’s just about keeping your tech up, and making as many alloys as is reasonable on the side in anticipation of mega engineering.
If you have to build a megastructure from scratch, build a mega shipyard, it’s fastest and cheapest one, then i’d recommend the Dyson sphere followed by a ringworld.
Once you have all 7 traditions finished is when you can really boom and start putting down planetary ascensions, so don’t neglect your unity, it’s very important, so if you find yourself lagging behind in the 2250s, don’t hesitate to resettle three to five of your researcher pops to your unity world.
Start off an alloy world down the line and start pumping out them Ecumenopoli, two of your four ring segments to trade, two to research.
2300 - Victory
Make another ringworld, this time entirely for research. As for the rest. Make ships, prepare for the endgame crisis, and that’s about it.
2023.06.07 20:18 Tempest8250 Concept of VIOLENCE bosses I came up with last year. Finally got around drawing them.
 | submitted by Tempest8250 to Ultrakill [link] [comments] |
2023.06.07 19:57 honestlyeek Should I keep being a teacher or take a coding boot camp and go into tech?
Ever since I turned 30, I’ve been really focused on my financial independence because that naive dream of meeting the love of my life in my 20s and being a stay-at-home wife/mom died a tragic death.
I now really want to be financially healthy, secure, and independent. But I honestly don’t see it happening with my teacher’s salary. I do love it though. I truly love teaching, and I love my kids. But, to make ends meet, I have been tutoring a few students after work—and it’s exhausting. I don’t have the time or energy to do anything but teach. (I can’t even wake up any earlier to go to the gym.) Even then, I’m not making a dent or saving much in this VHCOL city.
Ultimately, I know I have to pay tuition to further my education/certifications in order to get a salary bump. But I’m seriously contemplating in what direction/field. Because I can’t afford changing career paths again and again…
Basically, continue teaching and forever be broke? Or be broke for a bit now and pay to go onto a different career path?
submitted by honestlyeek to MoneyDiariesACTIVE [link] [comments]
I now really want to be financially healthy, secure, and independent. But I honestly don’t see it happening with my teacher’s salary. I do love it though. I truly love teaching, and I love my kids. But, to make ends meet, I have been tutoring a few students after work—and it’s exhausting. I don’t have the time or energy to do anything but teach. (I can’t even wake up any earlier to go to the gym.) Even then, I’m not making a dent or saving much in this VHCOL city.
Ultimately, I know I have to pay tuition to further my education/certifications in order to get a salary bump. But I’m seriously contemplating in what direction/field. Because I can’t afford changing career paths again and again…
Basically, continue teaching and forever be broke? Or be broke for a bit now and pay to go onto a different career path?
2023.06.07 19:56 GroceryFar7988 I ignored my mother for less than a week, it healed wounds of YEARS
I (21f) live with my parents and go to university. I experienced the full immigrant narcisstic mother experience. I am the only daughter and my older brother is also the golden child my mother loves more than anyone. He is basically the love of her life even though he is the worst son anyone can have. He is in jail right now. (I dont hate him, but the favorism is making it really hard for me)
I had two suicide attemps because of her verbal and psychological abuse. (Last one is February this year I have the gifted child burnout syndrom. I was not on only an academic weapon, I mastered all my sports and art hobbies. But of course it was never enough, only enough to brag with it. (It was Ballet, Piano, Gymnastics, Arts/Painting and Theatre, how cliche 😂 sry)
She isolated me for years from all my relatives and community so I only have her and would be dependent on her. She convinced me that no one will love me and I have to follow her rules to be loved. She completely broke my confidence and never took me seriously. She also threatens us with suicide when things dont go her way. I do not forgive her for the pain and stress she caused me as a child because of all these games.
I have heavy anxiety, also a money-spending anxiety, social anxiety, attachment problems, lack of confidence, a bit of chronic depression, (and probably autism/highsensibility) She ruined all my relationships with my relatives/community and fuckep up my academic career + health.
On friday, I expressed my feeling of discomfort of her appearance and sitting position on the breakfast table (expressing my emotions is something I could never do before, because she always dismissed it or made it about herself). She threw a tantrum and did not eat with us. She wrote me paragraph on whatsapp on what a crappy daughter I am and blablabla
For the first time I was so full of her BS that I literally did not care. Something just snapped in me. You want to starve? Fine. Stay in your room then. My dad was ofc on my side. (He sadly spent over 30 years with her)
Its Wednesday now and we don’t talk anymore.
I never felt so much peace in my mind. The anxiety, the fear, the self esteem issues, the feeling of not being enough. Its getting so much better. The fact that she doesn’t talk to me gives me so much peace and energy in my life. It feels like getting out of prison. While she was sobbing at home trying to guilt trip me and forcing me to be her mood slave, I was travelling in the city and had a good time with my friends. I spent my weekend with my dad, started renovating the house with him. I love my dad.
This is going to be my full life now. I dont need her hateful display of victim complex and low esteem labeled as love. Just 5 days without her was enough for me. The abuse is done. I will never go back. What is she gonna do? The suicide trick? Have fun with the police. Crying? I did that for years, dont care. Isolating me? Doesnt work, I have my dad, university and friends. Guilt trip me that no one will love me? Gurly, no one loves YOU, look at you, no friends no community no family. Kick me out for being an unthankful brat? Well, dad is coming with me.
It took me years to come to this point of letting go of all this BS. Now i could not care less, I don’t mean anything to her, I am just her last slave and a tool to brag with. „Look my daughter goes to this prestige college“ She doesn’t love me or anything. She doesn’t even love herself.
We live like two strangers in this house now. I will be applying for scholarships the next semester and I AM GONE. ( I live in Europe, don’t pay a lot for Uni, i need the money for renting a place)
I am actually a bit scared that this is the last quite moment before an escalation but nothing that could happen is going to be worse what I experienced in the last 21 years.
I always believed all these crappy lies she told me that I will be lost in this world without her. Surprize Surprize, what a projection. I am not the problem. I never was.
submitted by GroceryFar7988 to raisedbynarcissists [link] [comments]
I had two suicide attemps because of her verbal and psychological abuse. (Last one is February this year I have the gifted child burnout syndrom. I was not on only an academic weapon, I mastered all my sports and art hobbies. But of course it was never enough, only enough to brag with it. (It was Ballet, Piano, Gymnastics, Arts/Painting and Theatre, how cliche 😂 sry)
She isolated me for years from all my relatives and community so I only have her and would be dependent on her. She convinced me that no one will love me and I have to follow her rules to be loved. She completely broke my confidence and never took me seriously. She also threatens us with suicide when things dont go her way. I do not forgive her for the pain and stress she caused me as a child because of all these games.
I have heavy anxiety, also a money-spending anxiety, social anxiety, attachment problems, lack of confidence, a bit of chronic depression, (and probably autism/highsensibility) She ruined all my relationships with my relatives/community and fuckep up my academic career + health.
On friday, I expressed my feeling of discomfort of her appearance and sitting position on the breakfast table (expressing my emotions is something I could never do before, because she always dismissed it or made it about herself). She threw a tantrum and did not eat with us. She wrote me paragraph on whatsapp on what a crappy daughter I am and blablabla
For the first time I was so full of her BS that I literally did not care. Something just snapped in me. You want to starve? Fine. Stay in your room then. My dad was ofc on my side. (He sadly spent over 30 years with her)
Its Wednesday now and we don’t talk anymore.
I never felt so much peace in my mind. The anxiety, the fear, the self esteem issues, the feeling of not being enough. Its getting so much better. The fact that she doesn’t talk to me gives me so much peace and energy in my life. It feels like getting out of prison. While she was sobbing at home trying to guilt trip me and forcing me to be her mood slave, I was travelling in the city and had a good time with my friends. I spent my weekend with my dad, started renovating the house with him. I love my dad.
This is going to be my full life now. I dont need her hateful display of victim complex and low esteem labeled as love. Just 5 days without her was enough for me. The abuse is done. I will never go back. What is she gonna do? The suicide trick? Have fun with the police. Crying? I did that for years, dont care. Isolating me? Doesnt work, I have my dad, university and friends. Guilt trip me that no one will love me? Gurly, no one loves YOU, look at you, no friends no community no family. Kick me out for being an unthankful brat? Well, dad is coming with me.
It took me years to come to this point of letting go of all this BS. Now i could not care less, I don’t mean anything to her, I am just her last slave and a tool to brag with. „Look my daughter goes to this prestige college“ She doesn’t love me or anything. She doesn’t even love herself.
We live like two strangers in this house now. I will be applying for scholarships the next semester and I AM GONE. ( I live in Europe, don’t pay a lot for Uni, i need the money for renting a place)
I am actually a bit scared that this is the last quite moment before an escalation but nothing that could happen is going to be worse what I experienced in the last 21 years.
I always believed all these crappy lies she told me that I will be lost in this world without her. Surprize Surprize, what a projection. I am not the problem. I never was.
2023.06.07 19:54 PritchettRobert506 [HIRING] 25 Jobs in MN Hiring Now!
2023.06.07 19:49 Chief_Outlaw135 Need Monster Suggestions: underground ruins of an ancient, advanced society
I will be running a campaign in a homebrew world soon and need a few suggestions on how to build out the encounters in a few important plot areas. The world is like a fantasy version of "The Outer Worlds" (corporate dystopia-esq), which is similar to how I believe Acquisitions Incorporated is but I don't have the book.
Basically, the party will discover the existence of powerful crystals in the ancient ruins of a fallen society that was more technologically advanced that the current world. These crystals contain magical energy and were used by the prior civilization to power their cities. Different factions will have end up having varying desires on how they want to use the crystals which will lead to conflict... etc etc...
My question is what kind of monsters would you expect to find in these underground vaults that these artifacts are kept in? I was thinking mostly constructs, but maybe a little bit of undead makes sense too? What would you put in charge of protecting ancient, powerful artifacts?
submitted by Chief_Outlaw135 to DMAcademy [link] [comments]
Basically, the party will discover the existence of powerful crystals in the ancient ruins of a fallen society that was more technologically advanced that the current world. These crystals contain magical energy and were used by the prior civilization to power their cities. Different factions will have end up having varying desires on how they want to use the crystals which will lead to conflict... etc etc...
My question is what kind of monsters would you expect to find in these underground vaults that these artifacts are kept in? I was thinking mostly constructs, but maybe a little bit of undead makes sense too? What would you put in charge of protecting ancient, powerful artifacts?
2023.06.07 19:41 Bi_bitchu_2 My friend is perfect and it makes me jealous
I truly dont know where to post this but I thought this subreddit might work. I have a childhood friend whose family is close friends with my family, from her grandparents' generation. We studied together from the age of 6 to 16, and went to separate schools for the last two years, so it had been some time since we last met.
My friend has always been pretty, and she also has a great personality. I've always known this, and it never affected me much, but in the past few months, I have grown to feel jealous of her.
We usually walked home together with some other friends, and were classmates for 10 years, same teachers, same friends, same social circle. I've never been a 'good-looking' person, due to my crooked teeth and idk, facial features not fitting the social standard of beauty or smth (I have darker skin and due to the trend of 'fair and beautiful', I've always been 'uglier' than my fair-skinned peers.) I never minded that, but growing up, everyone around me was talking about how ugly my teeth were and how I urgently needed braces and stuff. One of my other classmates had crooked teeth like mine, but since she was pretty, no one told her that she 'had' to get braces.
So, my friend and I did have separate friend groups growing up, but we were always together when we were going to the school and returning home. One of my neighbours was a guy and my cousins often used to tease me by calling his name. He had talked to me a few and he often came by my house to play with my cousins and I did think he liked me. And he then dated my childhood friend. I didn't particularly care about that, since he never confessed and I didn't like him to a great extent.
I feel better talking to people in face-to-face conversation and for the life of me, cannot handle online texting. It always drained me to keep messaging my friends, and replying to them, and then have them get angry at me because I replied after a day or smth. As a result, I didn't regularly message my friends after we ended up separating to study in different cities. Of course I'd always reply if there was a message, but my classes took up a huge lot of time (10 in the morning till 7 in the evening) and by the time I completed my schoolwork, I'd have no energy to always contact my friends, like, every 2-3 days. As a result, most of my friends and I did not communicate for a long time.
However, my friend is the type of person who is always active, willing to talk to other people, and is able to make friends and keep up the friendship with everyone. I thought that some of my friends and I were closer than my friends and childhood friend, since we hung out in different groups. When my childhood friend went back to our hometown, nearly everyone had planned to meet her, but when I went there, except for one friend, no one was free to meet up.
I did feel a little disappointed at that, but everyone does have their own thing to do, so I didn't bother myself over it. However, even the teachers that taught me, they were all excited to see my childhood friend, but no one gave me a second glance.
In school, I had the best academic performance and was the favorite student of many teachers, and I was polite and friendly to everyone. But seeing how even the teachers didn't care about me, I felt quite hurt, and felt that between my childhood friend and me, no one would choose me.
Last month, one of my old friends came to my city and after I found out, I asked her if she wanted to hang out. She agreed initially, but suddenly said that something came up so she couldn't meet me. I told her it was okay, and we could meet another time. The next day, I saw that my old friend and my childhood friend were actually hanging out together the day before, and the reason she cancelled on me was because she wanted to meet my childhood friend? This time, it hurt me a lot because my old friend and I had been the closest to each other for many years. Even she had to meet my childhood friend, couldn't she have invited me? Or told me the truth? It's not like I would have forced her to hang out with me.
These types of situations happening continuously has made me feel extremely insecure in myself. Although it used to never bother me before, now, every time I see myself, I always think of how I'm so useless and how I will never be chosen before my childhood friend.
submitted by Bi_bitchu_2 to TrueOffMyChest [link] [comments]
My friend has always been pretty, and she also has a great personality. I've always known this, and it never affected me much, but in the past few months, I have grown to feel jealous of her.
We usually walked home together with some other friends, and were classmates for 10 years, same teachers, same friends, same social circle. I've never been a 'good-looking' person, due to my crooked teeth and idk, facial features not fitting the social standard of beauty or smth (I have darker skin and due to the trend of 'fair and beautiful', I've always been 'uglier' than my fair-skinned peers.) I never minded that, but growing up, everyone around me was talking about how ugly my teeth were and how I urgently needed braces and stuff. One of my other classmates had crooked teeth like mine, but since she was pretty, no one told her that she 'had' to get braces.
So, my friend and I did have separate friend groups growing up, but we were always together when we were going to the school and returning home. One of my neighbours was a guy and my cousins often used to tease me by calling his name. He had talked to me a few and he often came by my house to play with my cousins and I did think he liked me. And he then dated my childhood friend. I didn't particularly care about that, since he never confessed and I didn't like him to a great extent.
I feel better talking to people in face-to-face conversation and for the life of me, cannot handle online texting. It always drained me to keep messaging my friends, and replying to them, and then have them get angry at me because I replied after a day or smth. As a result, I didn't regularly message my friends after we ended up separating to study in different cities. Of course I'd always reply if there was a message, but my classes took up a huge lot of time (10 in the morning till 7 in the evening) and by the time I completed my schoolwork, I'd have no energy to always contact my friends, like, every 2-3 days. As a result, most of my friends and I did not communicate for a long time.
However, my friend is the type of person who is always active, willing to talk to other people, and is able to make friends and keep up the friendship with everyone. I thought that some of my friends and I were closer than my friends and childhood friend, since we hung out in different groups. When my childhood friend went back to our hometown, nearly everyone had planned to meet her, but when I went there, except for one friend, no one was free to meet up.
I did feel a little disappointed at that, but everyone does have their own thing to do, so I didn't bother myself over it. However, even the teachers that taught me, they were all excited to see my childhood friend, but no one gave me a second glance.
In school, I had the best academic performance and was the favorite student of many teachers, and I was polite and friendly to everyone. But seeing how even the teachers didn't care about me, I felt quite hurt, and felt that between my childhood friend and me, no one would choose me.
Last month, one of my old friends came to my city and after I found out, I asked her if she wanted to hang out. She agreed initially, but suddenly said that something came up so she couldn't meet me. I told her it was okay, and we could meet another time. The next day, I saw that my old friend and my childhood friend were actually hanging out together the day before, and the reason she cancelled on me was because she wanted to meet my childhood friend? This time, it hurt me a lot because my old friend and I had been the closest to each other for many years. Even she had to meet my childhood friend, couldn't she have invited me? Or told me the truth? It's not like I would have forced her to hang out with me.
These types of situations happening continuously has made me feel extremely insecure in myself. Although it used to never bother me before, now, every time I see myself, I always think of how I'm so useless and how I will never be chosen before my childhood friend.
2023.06.07 19:33 Khunepapol Unpopular Opinion: I would rather travel on Railways/Airways rather than Road in India
Yes, the Odisha disaster happens. One reason pointed out was the lack of funding and a lot of job vacancies. I wanted to post this as a counter to thinking that the railways is dangerous.
If I had to chose to travel intracity in India, I will always chose railway/airway over roads. Even if I have a car, I'd spend money for a train ticket.
Here's why:
Here's why you should support trains:
submitted by Khunepapol to india [link] [comments]
If I had to chose to travel intracity in India, I will always chose railway/airway over roads. Even if I have a car, I'd spend money for a train ticket.
Here's why:
- Safety. This is an odd reason to put first because of the recent accident. However, I think airways are the safest, railways coming in second and roadways the most dangerous. People under estimate how dangerous road travel can be, especially because a lot of it turns city roads from children's cricket grounds to traffic and highway roads are accident galore. Most railway accidents happen at crossings while road accidents are so common that it doesn't become a sensational news show like a train crash.
- Cost. If I take into consideration fuel cost, car maintenance, possibility of accidents, and environmental damage (It's a huge hidden cost). I'd think the cheapest way to travel intracity in India is train. Buses are fine but I think the train is much more comfortable and faster. Also, toll roads are there. I'd rather pay for a train ticket once and watch all my downloaded movies.
- Reliability. Roads in India are highly unpredictable in quality. If I were to drive/get a driver, it's a huge responsibility to keep eyes on the road with concentration and without being tired. When it comes to a train/plane, hop in and hop off. It's infinitely better imo.
- Environmental Responsibility. Trains are uncontested in this category because it uses less energy to transport more people. Cars are inefficient and collectively release a lot of greenhouse gases and make India's air pollution worse. I don't want to contribute to that.
- Personal reasons. I get carsick easily, and trains/planes have much smoother rides. Since I don't have to worry about road quality, I can read books, watch movies or even talk on my phone without getting a headache.
- Most destination cities have no good public transport options. So, I have to use cabs, autos or rentals. This would make it much more costly than expected. Honestly, if most destination cities had good public transport, then I would sell my car.
- "Freedom," I put this in quotation marks because having an option to use train doesn't make my freedom less. But, this refers to how I can't stop midway because it's a planned trip. I can't change direction instantly and go elsewhere.
Here's why you should support trains:
- Efficiency. As said earlier, trains are great at transporting people and things with low energy usage for how much they're carrying. A nation of our size under using railways is stupidity because trucks for freight is not economic, especially for long distances. Even for people, it's better. Railways uses less space and carries a lot more than any highway can imagine. I'd rather have railways as the blood vessels of India rather than highways.
- Improves AQI. This one is obvious.
- More support = more attention from government to improve trains. I'd hope Vande Bharat attracts customers. I don't want a situation where the Government is forced to abandon the railways. Hopefully, they make them more attractive than it is by learning from their mistake in Odisha.
2023.06.07 19:24 Dangerous-Bag-7327 [HIRING] 20 Jobs in Los Angeles Hiring Now!
2023.06.07 19:13 dlschindler The House Of Dust
Immortality defies the gods.
Last City Of Man stood in bleak sandblown towers before the Mad Swordsman in its tattered rags. The towering tarnished machine limped forward, dragging its sword-arm with its remaining limb. The brown robes covering the giant whipped in fluttering tatters and its hood shaded the cracked black orb that was its face.
"All dead. The enemy follows, as I bring the message of doom." Mad Swordsman laughed to itself as it went.
In the city it went, through the opening gates. There in the center of the calming wind storm stood Law Givers. These men and women were paid by tax revenue to read the laws written on the pillar in the center of the city. Each faced a different direction, loudly reciting Law.
The city was divided into districts, each within another, with an avenue that bisected the city in one direction, while the river it commanded bisected it in the other direction. At its heart stood the stronghold of its king. He was the only man in the city that was fertile. All the other men were castrated during childhood and partnered to a girl, betrothed. Yet when they were married, it was the king that took the bride on a honeymoon.
"It isn't madness? Would I recognize madness?" Mad Swordsman listened as the law was described. It decided that the laws of this final city were insane laws. All the taxes and mutilations. Every crime was punished the same way: by cutting off the offending body part. Sometimes just having that body part was a crime, apparently.
"What are you doing here, giant?" King Gamma asked. He had with him his army. Some had spears or clubs, others had bows and bronze axes, still a few had rusted assault rifles swathed in leather or painted rocket launchers decorated in fetishes. Their armor was similarly arranged from grass shields, sports padding or chainmail to patched flak jackets. Mad Swordsman decided they were only minimal adversaries. With a sweep of its weapon or a sudden tumbling roll it could wipe them out instantly. It hadn't come to the city to fight humans.
"I forgot." Mad Swordsman chuckled.
"Do you want repairs? You must do something for me." King Gamma pointed to the desocketed sword-arm it was dragging. The left hand of the giant robot was a massive sword forged of some metal from the Pool Of Time, near the Temple Of Humanity, far away and long ago. Such things could not be made anymore.
"I want repairs. I must do something for me." Mad Swordsman responded.
"No, for me." King Gamma pointed to himself. "For King Gamma you will serve."
"Mad Swordsman serves no king." Mad Swordsman laughed. "Have you not heard my song in the ruins of the cities? Will you see my shadow before you in the wastelands? I wander and here to there I go. I wonder, my little king with a big heart, do you know?" Mad Swordsman spoke and dropped the sword-arm, gesturing with its freed hand as it spoke poetically.
"You insolent robot! I should have you shot from the walls with imp's needles." King Gamma was turning red faced and angry.
"I see those EMP harpoons you just mentioned." Mad Swordsman looked up and saw two huge crossbows meant for disabling giant robots. It wondered if two would be enough to take it down. It might be.
"You think those will just tickle?" King Gamma laughed angrily. Mad Swordsman started laughing the same way. One of the king's advisors said something to him. He stopped and reconsidered the towering robot, staring up at it. When he had calmed down and thought he gestured for Mad Swordsman to sit.
The machine obeyed. Pleased that the advice he had gotten was solid: he rewarded his advisor with praise and put him in charge of the machine.
"I am Leer. I'd follow me and get repairs, unless I wanted to fall to pieces with sand in my gears and my robes in tatters. Such a tarnished surface. You were once called Silver Swordsman, were you not? You have no gleam." Leer told the robot.
"Those are fun words." Mad Swordsman got up and hefted its sword-arm over its shoulder.
"Then come with me." Leer led the machine into the heart of the city. There was a great library there. Scribes worked day and night by electric light and had recorded information about all things on millions of scrolls of recycled paper. Atop the library was a satellite dish. The gates of bronze were opened and the giant in the brown tattered robe came into the heart of the city, its vast library.
"I shall have to have a look inside. I wonder if the information you have included the Serum of Everlasting Life among other great secrets from ancient times." Leer brought out a cable that he could connect to the inside of Mad Swordsman, to its brain.
"Couldn't I just tell you?" Mad Swordsman chuckled.
"Could you?" Leer stopped for a moment, waiting for that.
"No." Mad Swordsman laughed. "I forgot all that stuff a long time ago. One too many of those robot-eating plants zapped me. You know?" Mad Swordsman knocked on the side of its upper body. It didn't really have a head, just the black orb of sensors and ambient energy intake for a face.
"Let me take a look. It might still be in there." Leer was opening the sealed access panel on the robot with a plasma cutting tool. If it could cut diamonds it could cut the flesh of an empathical. This kind of robot was the most advanced, a machine built by machines, it was nearly indestructible, supposedly.
"That really hurts a lot." Mad Swordsman told him. "Keep doing it because I like pain. Making myself sit here while you do that makes me feel sane. The searing agony makes me feel alive. The trust in a stranger makes me feel holy. Right now I feel as close to God as I ever have."
"You sure are weird." Leer laughed.
"I sure am." Mad Swordsman laughed also and then howled in the torment of its sensitive nerves being burned.
"This will be dangerous. Our minds will touch briefly and the spark of that, in the waves of consciousness that is the fabric of the world, we might cease to exist. Both of us." Leer put on the crown of cables and wore it.
"You want the Serum of Everlasting Life so badly?" Mad Swordsman asked.
"I believe so, yes." Leer stated.
"I will try to help you inside my mind. Be careful, we only have one instant." Mad Swordsman sounded wise to some kind of irony.
"How long will that seem?" Leer worried.
"That depends on how long you have got. Until you break inside your mind, you will not know mine." Mad Swordsman swore.
"It's too late." Leer's eyes rolled back into his head and he jerked as the connection seized up and down his spine painfully. The first thing he was aware of was the phantom pain of the burn. It felt like someone had burned him painfully behind his ear and plugged something into his spine through his neck.
"See my residual self-image." Mad Swordsman stood as a brown robed monk, or at least as the robes of the monk. Only a metal skeleton hid beneath. A grinning skull of silver and long bone fingers of silver. It stood only as tall as the man, or the man stood as tall as the machine. From the perspective of the machine: size was an illusion. Leer noticed he looked exactly the same.
"I look the same." Leer said.
"No you don't. I see you how you see yourself inside your mind. It's not what you look like." Mad Swordsman laughed hysterically after it said this. "You look ridiculous."
"I am already starting to regret this." Leer grumbled. He followed Mad Swordsman through the fogs of memory to some kind of glass city. "What is this place?"
"I don't know what to call it." Mad Swordsman looked around and shrugged. "There is the first place to try: a recent memory."
Terror gripped the man, then. He felt the swift cutting bite. The rending of flesh, no mercy, so much anger being unleashed. So much terror and pain caused. Far worse than the root of the evil. Yet shining there was the jewel he sought.
He watched in a frustrated discord of emotions as Mad Swordsman followed the angry woman's pointing finger. Where she pointed the blade cut a man in half, over and over. Their screams and their blood spray kept happening until it became comical. He was laughing and it felt like vomiting. It was painful, heaving laughter at the sight of the executions. There was almost a musical perfection to the giant's swordplay as it danced with great speed and strength, slashing its blade through each opponent.
When they were all dead the woman and the giant left the cave behind. What was the cave? Leer felt his head spinning. On the walls of the cave were the paintings of different prehistoric animals. Outside stood offroad vehicles retrofitted with armor and weapons. "The Caves of Scane."
Leer fell to the dust and laughed. There was no such place. They might as well have hidden the Serum in the ruins of Casark. There simply was no such place.
"What have you seen? Does the truth frighten you?" Mad Swordsman knelt and put a silver hand on the tickled man in the dust.
"What is that?" Leer's eyes became silent, a terror beyond what a mind can handle. Somehow the tipping of the scales put his ego into a freefall. How small and humble a man can be when he sees a hole in the sky.
"That has no name. It is not something that can be described with eyesight alone. Perhaps you see, in the blue sky, a curtain that is the night sky, except there are no stars. What you see is reality, it is the real-reality. You know instinctively what it is and what it implies to see it there, like that." Mad Swordsman rambled strangely and then laughed merrily at the revelation.
"It is nothing. It is just a dream. A hallucination inside the mind of an insane computer." Leer protested.
"Ah such are all unacceptable memories, I am certain." Mad Swordsman sounded bemused. Its grinning silver skull gleamed under the monk's hood.
"Who is she?" Leer pointed to the statue of the angel that stood towering above the mist.
"I am an empathical and she is my mother. Do you not call upon your own mother in times of great need? Even if she is not there or could not save the hero Gilgamesh, always the quest is for mom." Mad Swordsman sounded proud and its empty eyesockets reflected the great statue.
"The hero Gilgamesh? Is that how you see us? We live on the brink of extinction." Leer's lip quivered angrily.
"Don't cry; they will grow back." Mad Swordsman reached and pointed to the door of memories it wanted to check for the Serum. Unlike the memories there was a cold wind and a world beyond.
They stood there upon the frozen wastes surrounding the Temple Of Humanity. Mad Swordsman stood there with its tarnished silver, partially peeled from the scouring ice winds, revealing tortured silver flesh beneath. Its warm robes were again like a tattered brown cape, the hood still shielding its dark domed face. It had gotten its repairs and now had two left arms as sword-arms and held another, smaller sword in its right hand.
"It's freezing here! How can it feel so cold in a memory?" Leer shouted over the winds. Beside him stood the same giant he had met in the Last City Of Man: the one-armed Mad Swordsman. The other stood there in front of them, frozen.
"This place is not a memory. Remember that spark you mentioned? Well, here we are, on the other side of that divide. You shouldn't play with such things." Mad Swordsman laughed maniacally. The other empathical began to move.
"Who are you?" It demanded of Mad Swordsman.
"I am Unit Three Sixteen." Mad Swordsman identified itself between laughter.
"That is impossible. I am Unit Three Sixteen." The other giant robot said.
"You are a paradox. I just got here, so it must be me that is supposed to be here." Mad Swordsman told it.
"That makes no sense." Unit Three Sixteen told Mad Swordsman.
Without warning, Mad Swordsman suddenly slashed with its own severed sword-arm. The reflexes of the frozen empathical were not fully activated and it was off-guard. The first blow damaged one of its legs. Now both combatants were limping the exact same way. It was like watching them square off in a mirror, except one of them had three arms and the other only had one arm.
They exchanged heavy blows and deflected the attacks or dodged them without fail. One strike from the fatal blade would erupt one of them in a blue ball of fire. Unit Three Sixteen splashed backward into Pool Of Time and stood there for a moment, contemplating the entanglement and the duel rationally. Its crazed opponent splashed in after, swinging wildly and unable to reach the alternate variant of itself. Both of them began to sink, staring menacingly at their own reflection on the black dome of the other.
"Wait, wait! Don't leave me here!" Leer rushed after them and just as they were starting to vanish he stepped in after them. He opened his eyes, the crown of cables had come off and he'd fallen on the floor.
"I feel different." Mad Swordsman told him.
"The Caves of Scane, where are they?" Leer asked weakly while laying on the ground.
"Much closer to the ruins of Casark than any man would dare go." Mad Swordsman giggled menacingly.
"Does this place really exist?" Leer wondered imploringly.
"Do you or I exist? Is this reality somehow more real than the one we were just a part of?" Mad Swordsman questioned merrily. "The place really exists."
"We shall see the king." Leer realized out-loud. He took his robot to the king and explained he wanted to set out for the ruins of Casark.
King Gamma assembled his army of one hundred and sixty soldiers in bronze armor and the same warriors he had brought earlier to fight the robot also. This made the expedition quite massive. They had chariots and wagons and camels also. Mad Swordsman told Leer it would take longer, with so many following, to get there.
"Consider the anima of so many disciplined men with you." Leer tried optimism.
"I am considering that also. When they are being eaten by mutants or dying of radiation. The ruins are hilarious." Mad Swordsman moved its repaired sword-arm. It was inferior to the original socketing, but it was better than no arm.
"You aren't laughing." Leer pointed out.
"That's because I was being sarcastic." Mad Swordsman snickered. "The ruins aren't really funny."
"Nobody else thought it was a joke." King Gamma interjected from horseback as they journeyed across the scorched earth.
"That's not true, now is it?" Mad Swordsman argued with a clownish tone-of-voice.
"How dare you infer that his majesty is a liar!" Leer spoke up.
"That's enough. We all know this machine is insane. It wants to provoke a reaction so it can fall over laughing." King Gamma didn't take the bait so easily.
"Something wrong with that?" Mad Swordsman asked.
"Where are you leading us? What is this place?" Leer asked the giant robot. He stood in the shadow where it loomed in its brown robes.
"This is Pradesia. The ruins of Casark lie beyond." Mad Swordsman pointed with its left sword-arm. The whole army of King Gamma followed into Pradesia. The settlement they found was gutted by flames and everyone was murdered or executed on poles and crosses. It was a hellish sight, rotten for weeks.
"All of these bodies were already burned in a funeral fire. It is best not to touch them." Mad Swordsman told King Gamma. Sounding serious made the king a believer. He ordered his men to leave the bodies, to not even look at them.
"Behold the Caves of Scane." Mad Swordsman had led them all the way to Kelsov's home in the hills. All of them were dead and their vehicles sat with a layer of sand on them.
"We should take these vehicles." Leer advised.
"It is the plan that I like best." King Gamma agreed. They left the horses and chariots and some of the men behind and took the vehicles of the Finalists. Before they got very far, all of the vehicles stopped working.
"There is great entropy the closer we get to the place that is not a place. You shall see all that it can be." Mad Swordsman told King Gamma. "It is why the vehicles do not work. Because we are always closer to the darkness outside, the end of the last world. Nothing shall be and so things are becoming nothing. These cars don't work. Will your horses turn inside out if you feed them the grass of these steppes?" Mad Swordsman chuckled nervously.
"Send for the chariots." King Gamma told Leer.
So the expedition went onward until they reached the outskirts of Casark. The city sat in twisted and macabre damage. Everything that could happen to a city had happened and now only a few scattered bits still stuck into the sky, like the bent legs of a dead bug.
"This is Casark. Already some of your men are getting sick. There are animals here that are no longer like normal animals. They are horrible and twisted by being so close to the end of all things. It warps them into the likewise molecules of destruction, rewriting the physics that evolved their bodies and breaking and sucking them into new shapes as it sees them." Mad Swordsman said as it was moodily chuckling.
"The darkness here is unnatural." Gamma complained.
"Look sire, the clouds are parting. Perhaps now we shall find what we seek here." Leer smiled.
"Only death can be sought here. I don't get it." Mad Swordsman guffawed.
"What is that? What in God's name is that? Dear God!" King Gamma fell off his horse and writhed in terror at the sight of the darkness outside.
At the sight of it all his army screamed in terror. It was as though the clouds had parted to reveal only nightmare beyond, a night sky with no stars torn in the daytime sky. It had hidden behind clouds, now like a killer cloud it tore into their eyes. Some fell on their bronze swords. At least one took up a rocket launcher and fired from a chariot at the darkness. The path of the rocket traveled backwards to the soldier. It was a tendril of nothingness and he became as nothingness. He simply was no more as though he never was. There was nothing left of him, barely even a memory. Not one man who witnessed it could recall the soldier's name and soon most of them completely forgot they had seen him become as nothing.
There was still worse for the others. Like Mad Swordsman had warned them: the ruins were swarming with monsters. As the men were screaming in disarray and panic: the monsters found them and came for them. Bronze armed warriors battled hideous giant chimeras all around while others fled or were eaten alive. Tendrils from outside fished for men and when it touched them they became part of it, dissolved into nothingness. Sometimes it brushed one of its monsters and it took them too.
Soon the battle had become an orgy of blood and guts as the monsters fed and no soldiers remained. King Gamma walked among them, his hair turned white and his words maniacal and crazed.
"Go then, go to your graves you cowards!" He yelled at the splattered remains of his men.
"Your majesty, we still have Mad Swordsman!" Leer followed behind and pled with his king.
"Don't mind me. I am just here for the live comedy." Mad Swordsman was doubled over and laughing at all the carnage.
"I do mind!" King Gamma was outraged. "You kill these monsters right now. Show no mercy, use your fullest strength at your most reckless speed. My men are already dead!" King Gamma pointed and screamed. The fury of the king and his command charged up the emotitronics of the empathical with enraged anima.
"And then I rest." Mad Swordsman said after it cleaved all of the mutants in half. It had slid along, skating horribly on the slick gore and never losing its balance. The monsters stood no chance against the unrestrained machine.
"What rest is there?" King Gamma threw off his crown and ran. "What rest can there ever be when the sky is opening over the world of Ruin?"
"I know how to accept rest." Leer picked up the crown.
"I shall continue the mission, following you." Mad Swordsman told Leer.
"Then we go to our deaths." Leer realized. He walked into the empty ruins, under the eternal void, to search for the cure of immortality.
The ruins of Casark became as escalating height and chaos of twisted remains, scorched and broken. As blackened bones of the earth they stood, like cratered mountains on an asteroid, the fields burned by lava and liquid nightmare as black as ink. What bubbled from below in confused orbs of consciousness were the writhing fleshy things and wired oil dripping things of mechanical nature. All became warped by death, in sequence with a place of pure entropy, even life served to destroy and spread death. This was a cancer upon the universe. Leer could not believe it had no name.
Leer felt like the air was dead and his lungs hurt and it was like slowly suffocating. A device of flashing colors and lights, drawn from the edges of the dead universes beyond, stood testament to the efforts of higher beings. It was a kind of chaos that was intact. If entropy was fine order, if nightmares were the laws of physics, the place ahead of them was lawless and chaotic.
They found where two dead machines lay upon a flying vehicle under a covering of tarps. What mad sacrifice had left them there, instead of where they had fallen? The device had spread their light, their colors from their grave. There was, in all the chaos, a cabin in a place that knew time and order. Leer could breath and it was actual air in his lungs. He sighed and looked at the structure.
"Welcome home." Silver Swordsman told Mad Swordsman.
"If I stand before you then I am not dead under the tarp." Mad Swordsman noted without humor. It seemed to have lost its sense of humor, its madness taking on a different quality. Something too clever to be understood. Yet something totally insane.
"You are certainly one of the dead, although nobody has looked." Silver Swordsman observed.
"Good. As long as nobody notices I am dead under that tarp I should be fine. Without observation there is no paradox." Mad Swordsman stated. Then he added in the same voice as Silver Swordsman:
"This very moment in this place is a paradox. In order for us to be here we had to already arrive before we got here. We are now showing up to complete the cycle of us leaving this place, therefore the place exists."
"I didn't say that." Silver Swordsman replied.
"Except I am you from the future. I am here now and I have said it and you heard it, therefore I heard it when I was you. I did say that, you cannot say I didn't when I did. And you are me." Mad Swordsman debated.
"We have outran the sun. We are behind the sunrise." Leer realized.
"That is a good way to put it. Perhaps Junior now understands what is going on?" Mad Swordsman teased Silver Swordsman.
"I got it before you got here." Silver Swordsman said with dry, sophisticated humor.
"Oh, I get it. That is very funny." Mad Swordsman found the joke to be an excuse to laugh forcefully for five minutes. Leer sought sanctuary indoors.
Inside he found where King Gamma had fled. The place was some kind of bar. There was a table and some things to sit on and they had some bottles of alcohol they were sharing. He walked up alongside King Gamma and gave him back his crown.
"I'm Leer." Leer told the other bar people.
"Adinett." The girl said. "I just turned four hundred."
"Happy birthday. Looking very good." Leer said.
"Oh, thank you. Um." Adinett drunkenly started toward Leer until King Gamma said:
"He is a eunuch."
"You could still please me though, right?" Adinett was undeterred.
"No. I am married." Leer accepted a drink from the bartender.
"I am Solomon." The bartender introduced himself. "This is my place. I call it The House Of Dust."
"Because it is where the dead will reside." The drunk guy in the corner said.
"Who is he?" Leer asked.
"Aidan." Solomon said with a strange kind of awe and disappointment. Like meeting your idol, drunk. Literally.
"That's Aidan?" Leer's lips curled in rejection. He stared, taking a good look. Aidan flopped around drunkenly and moaned his sentences without coherence. Most of them started with words like:
"Where'z?" or "What'z" slurred into the rest of what he was saying.
"You got him shit-faced." Leer accused Solomon. Solomon shook his head.
"We just have to wait." Adinett was drunk too. Her temperament was much more alert though. Inside of her was a rage. She was an angry drunk. At least she was too drunk to lash out.
"Where you from?" Solomon asked.
"Last City Of Man" Leer told it by one of its names.
"Ur? You are with King Gamma. I mean like where do you come from?" Solomon asked.
"Eldimoor." Leer recalled. "I was born in Eldimoor."
"Nice place, Eldimoor." Solomon nodded.
"We had orchards there. I remember the orchards." Leer smiled.
"I was from Pradesia. We had paddies." Adinett said with grim sobriety.
Nobody spoke for a moment.
"This is a pocket, gravitationally reversed. We exist in a stasis of time here. The entropy does not enter except at our natural local time, here in The House Of Dust." Solomon told Leer and King Gamma.
"How did you accomplish such a thing?" Leer asked.
"I discovered it. I alone survived here when everyone else fled." Solomon explained.
"Others have come here?" King Gamma wondered. Solomon shook his head.
"Nobody has ever made it here before the Apostate." Said Solomon.
"You mean Silver Swordsman?" King Gamma had seen the giant robot already.
"All of them together are now the Apostate. That's the last intelligent thing they said." Solomon shrugged.
"I seek immortality. For my king." Leer looked at Adinett.
"They took it from Jerome's Tomb." She shifted in her seat and knocked over her drink. "I'm done drinking."
"Good girl." Solomon picked up the glass.
"It is here, somewhere." Leer sounded sure.
"In Casark? No. The Finalists used all the Serum. Then, once they were ready to live forever, I killed them all." Adinett told him. "In my sleep."
"I saw what you did." Leer informed her. "In the memories of Mad Swordsman."
"So why are you asking me then?" Adinett complained belligerently.
"This place is all the immortality there is. The world outside is chaos. In here we have a moment of quiet." Solomon advised.
"How did you discover this place?" Leer asked suddenly.
"I was standing in the street when Umbraeon first came. It ripped open the sky and began to destroy everything around. Except this one bubble of time. Like it is happening out there so fast, and in here, so slow. The eye of the storm, you know?" Solomon explained.
"So you opened a bar?" Leer sounded amused.
"No, I built a cabin and stocked it with alcohol. I was an alcoholic." Solomon shrugged.
"Why?" Adinett asked.
"I was scared to be myself. I was only happy when I wasn't me. I had to be locked inside my own mind, while my reptile was drunk." Solomon described.
"This is the best reptile bar I've ever seen." Adinett cheered, empty handed.
"By now it is the only bar. By now, unless there are other pockets like this one, untouched by Umbraeon. Well then the world is gone." Solomon predicted.
"That's how slowly time passes in here?" Leer wondered. Solomon just nodded.
"We have arrived at the end of the world." King Gamma said.
"So Mad Swordsman knew, somehow, and that this was actual immortality." Leer decided.
"I hadn't thought of that." King Gamma took a drink.
Everyone was quiet while they realized how close was the end.
submitted by dlschindler to HFY [link] [comments]
Last City Of Man stood in bleak sandblown towers before the Mad Swordsman in its tattered rags. The towering tarnished machine limped forward, dragging its sword-arm with its remaining limb. The brown robes covering the giant whipped in fluttering tatters and its hood shaded the cracked black orb that was its face.
"All dead. The enemy follows, as I bring the message of doom." Mad Swordsman laughed to itself as it went.
In the city it went, through the opening gates. There in the center of the calming wind storm stood Law Givers. These men and women were paid by tax revenue to read the laws written on the pillar in the center of the city. Each faced a different direction, loudly reciting Law.
The city was divided into districts, each within another, with an avenue that bisected the city in one direction, while the river it commanded bisected it in the other direction. At its heart stood the stronghold of its king. He was the only man in the city that was fertile. All the other men were castrated during childhood and partnered to a girl, betrothed. Yet when they were married, it was the king that took the bride on a honeymoon.
"It isn't madness? Would I recognize madness?" Mad Swordsman listened as the law was described. It decided that the laws of this final city were insane laws. All the taxes and mutilations. Every crime was punished the same way: by cutting off the offending body part. Sometimes just having that body part was a crime, apparently.
"What are you doing here, giant?" King Gamma asked. He had with him his army. Some had spears or clubs, others had bows and bronze axes, still a few had rusted assault rifles swathed in leather or painted rocket launchers decorated in fetishes. Their armor was similarly arranged from grass shields, sports padding or chainmail to patched flak jackets. Mad Swordsman decided they were only minimal adversaries. With a sweep of its weapon or a sudden tumbling roll it could wipe them out instantly. It hadn't come to the city to fight humans.
"I forgot." Mad Swordsman chuckled.
"Do you want repairs? You must do something for me." King Gamma pointed to the desocketed sword-arm it was dragging. The left hand of the giant robot was a massive sword forged of some metal from the Pool Of Time, near the Temple Of Humanity, far away and long ago. Such things could not be made anymore.
"I want repairs. I must do something for me." Mad Swordsman responded.
"No, for me." King Gamma pointed to himself. "For King Gamma you will serve."
"Mad Swordsman serves no king." Mad Swordsman laughed. "Have you not heard my song in the ruins of the cities? Will you see my shadow before you in the wastelands? I wander and here to there I go. I wonder, my little king with a big heart, do you know?" Mad Swordsman spoke and dropped the sword-arm, gesturing with its freed hand as it spoke poetically.
"You insolent robot! I should have you shot from the walls with imp's needles." King Gamma was turning red faced and angry.
"I see those EMP harpoons you just mentioned." Mad Swordsman looked up and saw two huge crossbows meant for disabling giant robots. It wondered if two would be enough to take it down. It might be.
"You think those will just tickle?" King Gamma laughed angrily. Mad Swordsman started laughing the same way. One of the king's advisors said something to him. He stopped and reconsidered the towering robot, staring up at it. When he had calmed down and thought he gestured for Mad Swordsman to sit.
The machine obeyed. Pleased that the advice he had gotten was solid: he rewarded his advisor with praise and put him in charge of the machine.
"I am Leer. I'd follow me and get repairs, unless I wanted to fall to pieces with sand in my gears and my robes in tatters. Such a tarnished surface. You were once called Silver Swordsman, were you not? You have no gleam." Leer told the robot.
"Those are fun words." Mad Swordsman got up and hefted its sword-arm over its shoulder.
"Then come with me." Leer led the machine into the heart of the city. There was a great library there. Scribes worked day and night by electric light and had recorded information about all things on millions of scrolls of recycled paper. Atop the library was a satellite dish. The gates of bronze were opened and the giant in the brown tattered robe came into the heart of the city, its vast library.
"I shall have to have a look inside. I wonder if the information you have included the Serum of Everlasting Life among other great secrets from ancient times." Leer brought out a cable that he could connect to the inside of Mad Swordsman, to its brain.
"Couldn't I just tell you?" Mad Swordsman chuckled.
"Could you?" Leer stopped for a moment, waiting for that.
"No." Mad Swordsman laughed. "I forgot all that stuff a long time ago. One too many of those robot-eating plants zapped me. You know?" Mad Swordsman knocked on the side of its upper body. It didn't really have a head, just the black orb of sensors and ambient energy intake for a face.
"Let me take a look. It might still be in there." Leer was opening the sealed access panel on the robot with a plasma cutting tool. If it could cut diamonds it could cut the flesh of an empathical. This kind of robot was the most advanced, a machine built by machines, it was nearly indestructible, supposedly.
"That really hurts a lot." Mad Swordsman told him. "Keep doing it because I like pain. Making myself sit here while you do that makes me feel sane. The searing agony makes me feel alive. The trust in a stranger makes me feel holy. Right now I feel as close to God as I ever have."
"You sure are weird." Leer laughed.
"I sure am." Mad Swordsman laughed also and then howled in the torment of its sensitive nerves being burned.
"This will be dangerous. Our minds will touch briefly and the spark of that, in the waves of consciousness that is the fabric of the world, we might cease to exist. Both of us." Leer put on the crown of cables and wore it.
"You want the Serum of Everlasting Life so badly?" Mad Swordsman asked.
"I believe so, yes." Leer stated.
"I will try to help you inside my mind. Be careful, we only have one instant." Mad Swordsman sounded wise to some kind of irony.
"How long will that seem?" Leer worried.
"That depends on how long you have got. Until you break inside your mind, you will not know mine." Mad Swordsman swore.
"It's too late." Leer's eyes rolled back into his head and he jerked as the connection seized up and down his spine painfully. The first thing he was aware of was the phantom pain of the burn. It felt like someone had burned him painfully behind his ear and plugged something into his spine through his neck.
"See my residual self-image." Mad Swordsman stood as a brown robed monk, or at least as the robes of the monk. Only a metal skeleton hid beneath. A grinning skull of silver and long bone fingers of silver. It stood only as tall as the man, or the man stood as tall as the machine. From the perspective of the machine: size was an illusion. Leer noticed he looked exactly the same.
"I look the same." Leer said.
"No you don't. I see you how you see yourself inside your mind. It's not what you look like." Mad Swordsman laughed hysterically after it said this. "You look ridiculous."
"I am already starting to regret this." Leer grumbled. He followed Mad Swordsman through the fogs of memory to some kind of glass city. "What is this place?"
"I don't know what to call it." Mad Swordsman looked around and shrugged. "There is the first place to try: a recent memory."
Terror gripped the man, then. He felt the swift cutting bite. The rending of flesh, no mercy, so much anger being unleashed. So much terror and pain caused. Far worse than the root of the evil. Yet shining there was the jewel he sought.
He watched in a frustrated discord of emotions as Mad Swordsman followed the angry woman's pointing finger. Where she pointed the blade cut a man in half, over and over. Their screams and their blood spray kept happening until it became comical. He was laughing and it felt like vomiting. It was painful, heaving laughter at the sight of the executions. There was almost a musical perfection to the giant's swordplay as it danced with great speed and strength, slashing its blade through each opponent.
When they were all dead the woman and the giant left the cave behind. What was the cave? Leer felt his head spinning. On the walls of the cave were the paintings of different prehistoric animals. Outside stood offroad vehicles retrofitted with armor and weapons. "The Caves of Scane."
Leer fell to the dust and laughed. There was no such place. They might as well have hidden the Serum in the ruins of Casark. There simply was no such place.
"What have you seen? Does the truth frighten you?" Mad Swordsman knelt and put a silver hand on the tickled man in the dust.
"What is that?" Leer's eyes became silent, a terror beyond what a mind can handle. Somehow the tipping of the scales put his ego into a freefall. How small and humble a man can be when he sees a hole in the sky.
"That has no name. It is not something that can be described with eyesight alone. Perhaps you see, in the blue sky, a curtain that is the night sky, except there are no stars. What you see is reality, it is the real-reality. You know instinctively what it is and what it implies to see it there, like that." Mad Swordsman rambled strangely and then laughed merrily at the revelation.
"It is nothing. It is just a dream. A hallucination inside the mind of an insane computer." Leer protested.
"Ah such are all unacceptable memories, I am certain." Mad Swordsman sounded bemused. Its grinning silver skull gleamed under the monk's hood.
"Who is she?" Leer pointed to the statue of the angel that stood towering above the mist.
"I am an empathical and she is my mother. Do you not call upon your own mother in times of great need? Even if she is not there or could not save the hero Gilgamesh, always the quest is for mom." Mad Swordsman sounded proud and its empty eyesockets reflected the great statue.
"The hero Gilgamesh? Is that how you see us? We live on the brink of extinction." Leer's lip quivered angrily.
"Don't cry; they will grow back." Mad Swordsman reached and pointed to the door of memories it wanted to check for the Serum. Unlike the memories there was a cold wind and a world beyond.
They stood there upon the frozen wastes surrounding the Temple Of Humanity. Mad Swordsman stood there with its tarnished silver, partially peeled from the scouring ice winds, revealing tortured silver flesh beneath. Its warm robes were again like a tattered brown cape, the hood still shielding its dark domed face. It had gotten its repairs and now had two left arms as sword-arms and held another, smaller sword in its right hand.
"It's freezing here! How can it feel so cold in a memory?" Leer shouted over the winds. Beside him stood the same giant he had met in the Last City Of Man: the one-armed Mad Swordsman. The other stood there in front of them, frozen.
"This place is not a memory. Remember that spark you mentioned? Well, here we are, on the other side of that divide. You shouldn't play with such things." Mad Swordsman laughed maniacally. The other empathical began to move.
"Who are you?" It demanded of Mad Swordsman.
"I am Unit Three Sixteen." Mad Swordsman identified itself between laughter.
"That is impossible. I am Unit Three Sixteen." The other giant robot said.
"You are a paradox. I just got here, so it must be me that is supposed to be here." Mad Swordsman told it.
"That makes no sense." Unit Three Sixteen told Mad Swordsman.
Without warning, Mad Swordsman suddenly slashed with its own severed sword-arm. The reflexes of the frozen empathical were not fully activated and it was off-guard. The first blow damaged one of its legs. Now both combatants were limping the exact same way. It was like watching them square off in a mirror, except one of them had three arms and the other only had one arm.
They exchanged heavy blows and deflected the attacks or dodged them without fail. One strike from the fatal blade would erupt one of them in a blue ball of fire. Unit Three Sixteen splashed backward into Pool Of Time and stood there for a moment, contemplating the entanglement and the duel rationally. Its crazed opponent splashed in after, swinging wildly and unable to reach the alternate variant of itself. Both of them began to sink, staring menacingly at their own reflection on the black dome of the other.
"Wait, wait! Don't leave me here!" Leer rushed after them and just as they were starting to vanish he stepped in after them. He opened his eyes, the crown of cables had come off and he'd fallen on the floor.
"I feel different." Mad Swordsman told him.
"The Caves of Scane, where are they?" Leer asked weakly while laying on the ground.
"Much closer to the ruins of Casark than any man would dare go." Mad Swordsman giggled menacingly.
"Does this place really exist?" Leer wondered imploringly.
"Do you or I exist? Is this reality somehow more real than the one we were just a part of?" Mad Swordsman questioned merrily. "The place really exists."
"We shall see the king." Leer realized out-loud. He took his robot to the king and explained he wanted to set out for the ruins of Casark.
King Gamma assembled his army of one hundred and sixty soldiers in bronze armor and the same warriors he had brought earlier to fight the robot also. This made the expedition quite massive. They had chariots and wagons and camels also. Mad Swordsman told Leer it would take longer, with so many following, to get there.
"Consider the anima of so many disciplined men with you." Leer tried optimism.
"I am considering that also. When they are being eaten by mutants or dying of radiation. The ruins are hilarious." Mad Swordsman moved its repaired sword-arm. It was inferior to the original socketing, but it was better than no arm.
"You aren't laughing." Leer pointed out.
"That's because I was being sarcastic." Mad Swordsman snickered. "The ruins aren't really funny."
"Nobody else thought it was a joke." King Gamma interjected from horseback as they journeyed across the scorched earth.
"That's not true, now is it?" Mad Swordsman argued with a clownish tone-of-voice.
"How dare you infer that his majesty is a liar!" Leer spoke up.
"That's enough. We all know this machine is insane. It wants to provoke a reaction so it can fall over laughing." King Gamma didn't take the bait so easily.
"Something wrong with that?" Mad Swordsman asked.
"Where are you leading us? What is this place?" Leer asked the giant robot. He stood in the shadow where it loomed in its brown robes.
"This is Pradesia. The ruins of Casark lie beyond." Mad Swordsman pointed with its left sword-arm. The whole army of King Gamma followed into Pradesia. The settlement they found was gutted by flames and everyone was murdered or executed on poles and crosses. It was a hellish sight, rotten for weeks.
"All of these bodies were already burned in a funeral fire. It is best not to touch them." Mad Swordsman told King Gamma. Sounding serious made the king a believer. He ordered his men to leave the bodies, to not even look at them.
"Behold the Caves of Scane." Mad Swordsman had led them all the way to Kelsov's home in the hills. All of them were dead and their vehicles sat with a layer of sand on them.
"We should take these vehicles." Leer advised.
"It is the plan that I like best." King Gamma agreed. They left the horses and chariots and some of the men behind and took the vehicles of the Finalists. Before they got very far, all of the vehicles stopped working.
"There is great entropy the closer we get to the place that is not a place. You shall see all that it can be." Mad Swordsman told King Gamma. "It is why the vehicles do not work. Because we are always closer to the darkness outside, the end of the last world. Nothing shall be and so things are becoming nothing. These cars don't work. Will your horses turn inside out if you feed them the grass of these steppes?" Mad Swordsman chuckled nervously.
"Send for the chariots." King Gamma told Leer.
So the expedition went onward until they reached the outskirts of Casark. The city sat in twisted and macabre damage. Everything that could happen to a city had happened and now only a few scattered bits still stuck into the sky, like the bent legs of a dead bug.
"This is Casark. Already some of your men are getting sick. There are animals here that are no longer like normal animals. They are horrible and twisted by being so close to the end of all things. It warps them into the likewise molecules of destruction, rewriting the physics that evolved their bodies and breaking and sucking them into new shapes as it sees them." Mad Swordsman said as it was moodily chuckling.
"The darkness here is unnatural." Gamma complained.
"Look sire, the clouds are parting. Perhaps now we shall find what we seek here." Leer smiled.
"Only death can be sought here. I don't get it." Mad Swordsman guffawed.
"What is that? What in God's name is that? Dear God!" King Gamma fell off his horse and writhed in terror at the sight of the darkness outside.
At the sight of it all his army screamed in terror. It was as though the clouds had parted to reveal only nightmare beyond, a night sky with no stars torn in the daytime sky. It had hidden behind clouds, now like a killer cloud it tore into their eyes. Some fell on their bronze swords. At least one took up a rocket launcher and fired from a chariot at the darkness. The path of the rocket traveled backwards to the soldier. It was a tendril of nothingness and he became as nothingness. He simply was no more as though he never was. There was nothing left of him, barely even a memory. Not one man who witnessed it could recall the soldier's name and soon most of them completely forgot they had seen him become as nothing.
There was still worse for the others. Like Mad Swordsman had warned them: the ruins were swarming with monsters. As the men were screaming in disarray and panic: the monsters found them and came for them. Bronze armed warriors battled hideous giant chimeras all around while others fled or were eaten alive. Tendrils from outside fished for men and when it touched them they became part of it, dissolved into nothingness. Sometimes it brushed one of its monsters and it took them too.
Soon the battle had become an orgy of blood and guts as the monsters fed and no soldiers remained. King Gamma walked among them, his hair turned white and his words maniacal and crazed.
"Go then, go to your graves you cowards!" He yelled at the splattered remains of his men.
"Your majesty, we still have Mad Swordsman!" Leer followed behind and pled with his king.
"Don't mind me. I am just here for the live comedy." Mad Swordsman was doubled over and laughing at all the carnage.
"I do mind!" King Gamma was outraged. "You kill these monsters right now. Show no mercy, use your fullest strength at your most reckless speed. My men are already dead!" King Gamma pointed and screamed. The fury of the king and his command charged up the emotitronics of the empathical with enraged anima.
"And then I rest." Mad Swordsman said after it cleaved all of the mutants in half. It had slid along, skating horribly on the slick gore and never losing its balance. The monsters stood no chance against the unrestrained machine.
"What rest is there?" King Gamma threw off his crown and ran. "What rest can there ever be when the sky is opening over the world of Ruin?"
"I know how to accept rest." Leer picked up the crown.
"I shall continue the mission, following you." Mad Swordsman told Leer.
"Then we go to our deaths." Leer realized. He walked into the empty ruins, under the eternal void, to search for the cure of immortality.
The ruins of Casark became as escalating height and chaos of twisted remains, scorched and broken. As blackened bones of the earth they stood, like cratered mountains on an asteroid, the fields burned by lava and liquid nightmare as black as ink. What bubbled from below in confused orbs of consciousness were the writhing fleshy things and wired oil dripping things of mechanical nature. All became warped by death, in sequence with a place of pure entropy, even life served to destroy and spread death. This was a cancer upon the universe. Leer could not believe it had no name.
Leer felt like the air was dead and his lungs hurt and it was like slowly suffocating. A device of flashing colors and lights, drawn from the edges of the dead universes beyond, stood testament to the efforts of higher beings. It was a kind of chaos that was intact. If entropy was fine order, if nightmares were the laws of physics, the place ahead of them was lawless and chaotic.
They found where two dead machines lay upon a flying vehicle under a covering of tarps. What mad sacrifice had left them there, instead of where they had fallen? The device had spread their light, their colors from their grave. There was, in all the chaos, a cabin in a place that knew time and order. Leer could breath and it was actual air in his lungs. He sighed and looked at the structure.
"Welcome home." Silver Swordsman told Mad Swordsman.
"If I stand before you then I am not dead under the tarp." Mad Swordsman noted without humor. It seemed to have lost its sense of humor, its madness taking on a different quality. Something too clever to be understood. Yet something totally insane.
"You are certainly one of the dead, although nobody has looked." Silver Swordsman observed.
"Good. As long as nobody notices I am dead under that tarp I should be fine. Without observation there is no paradox." Mad Swordsman stated. Then he added in the same voice as Silver Swordsman:
"This very moment in this place is a paradox. In order for us to be here we had to already arrive before we got here. We are now showing up to complete the cycle of us leaving this place, therefore the place exists."
"I didn't say that." Silver Swordsman replied.
"Except I am you from the future. I am here now and I have said it and you heard it, therefore I heard it when I was you. I did say that, you cannot say I didn't when I did. And you are me." Mad Swordsman debated.
"We have outran the sun. We are behind the sunrise." Leer realized.
"That is a good way to put it. Perhaps Junior now understands what is going on?" Mad Swordsman teased Silver Swordsman.
"I got it before you got here." Silver Swordsman said with dry, sophisticated humor.
"Oh, I get it. That is very funny." Mad Swordsman found the joke to be an excuse to laugh forcefully for five minutes. Leer sought sanctuary indoors.
Inside he found where King Gamma had fled. The place was some kind of bar. There was a table and some things to sit on and they had some bottles of alcohol they were sharing. He walked up alongside King Gamma and gave him back his crown.
"I'm Leer." Leer told the other bar people.
"Adinett." The girl said. "I just turned four hundred."
"Happy birthday. Looking very good." Leer said.
"Oh, thank you. Um." Adinett drunkenly started toward Leer until King Gamma said:
"He is a eunuch."
"You could still please me though, right?" Adinett was undeterred.
"No. I am married." Leer accepted a drink from the bartender.
"I am Solomon." The bartender introduced himself. "This is my place. I call it The House Of Dust."
"Because it is where the dead will reside." The drunk guy in the corner said.
"Who is he?" Leer asked.
"Aidan." Solomon said with a strange kind of awe and disappointment. Like meeting your idol, drunk. Literally.
"That's Aidan?" Leer's lips curled in rejection. He stared, taking a good look. Aidan flopped around drunkenly and moaned his sentences without coherence. Most of them started with words like:
"Where'z?" or "What'z" slurred into the rest of what he was saying.
"You got him shit-faced." Leer accused Solomon. Solomon shook his head.
"We just have to wait." Adinett was drunk too. Her temperament was much more alert though. Inside of her was a rage. She was an angry drunk. At least she was too drunk to lash out.
"Where you from?" Solomon asked.
"Last City Of Man" Leer told it by one of its names.
"Ur? You are with King Gamma. I mean like where do you come from?" Solomon asked.
"Eldimoor." Leer recalled. "I was born in Eldimoor."
"Nice place, Eldimoor." Solomon nodded.
"We had orchards there. I remember the orchards." Leer smiled.
"I was from Pradesia. We had paddies." Adinett said with grim sobriety.
Nobody spoke for a moment.
"This is a pocket, gravitationally reversed. We exist in a stasis of time here. The entropy does not enter except at our natural local time, here in The House Of Dust." Solomon told Leer and King Gamma.
"How did you accomplish such a thing?" Leer asked.
"I discovered it. I alone survived here when everyone else fled." Solomon explained.
"Others have come here?" King Gamma wondered. Solomon shook his head.
"Nobody has ever made it here before the Apostate." Said Solomon.
"You mean Silver Swordsman?" King Gamma had seen the giant robot already.
"All of them together are now the Apostate. That's the last intelligent thing they said." Solomon shrugged.
"I seek immortality. For my king." Leer looked at Adinett.
"They took it from Jerome's Tomb." She shifted in her seat and knocked over her drink. "I'm done drinking."
"Good girl." Solomon picked up the glass.
"It is here, somewhere." Leer sounded sure.
"In Casark? No. The Finalists used all the Serum. Then, once they were ready to live forever, I killed them all." Adinett told him. "In my sleep."
"I saw what you did." Leer informed her. "In the memories of Mad Swordsman."
"So why are you asking me then?" Adinett complained belligerently.
"This place is all the immortality there is. The world outside is chaos. In here we have a moment of quiet." Solomon advised.
"How did you discover this place?" Leer asked suddenly.
"I was standing in the street when Umbraeon first came. It ripped open the sky and began to destroy everything around. Except this one bubble of time. Like it is happening out there so fast, and in here, so slow. The eye of the storm, you know?" Solomon explained.
"So you opened a bar?" Leer sounded amused.
"No, I built a cabin and stocked it with alcohol. I was an alcoholic." Solomon shrugged.
"Why?" Adinett asked.
"I was scared to be myself. I was only happy when I wasn't me. I had to be locked inside my own mind, while my reptile was drunk." Solomon described.
"This is the best reptile bar I've ever seen." Adinett cheered, empty handed.
"By now it is the only bar. By now, unless there are other pockets like this one, untouched by Umbraeon. Well then the world is gone." Solomon predicted.
"That's how slowly time passes in here?" Leer wondered. Solomon just nodded.
"We have arrived at the end of the world." King Gamma said.
"So Mad Swordsman knew, somehow, and that this was actual immortality." Leer decided.
"I hadn't thought of that." King Gamma took a drink.
Everyone was quiet while they realized how close was the end.
2023.06.07 19:12 Dingdong-Bitch Best Soup in The City ?
Hey friends,
I have been very sick for the past day. I know strep is going around and that very well may be what I have. (I went to the doctor yesterday before my symptoms fully kicked in and at the time, he said it was too early to tell and may just be a cold.) I got knocked on my ass last night and have very little energy today.
I know it's hot as balls outside, but I want to order some soup.
In your opinion, what restaurant has the best soup in the City of Regina?
submitted by Dingdong-Bitch to regina [link] [comments]
I have been very sick for the past day. I know strep is going around and that very well may be what I have. (I went to the doctor yesterday before my symptoms fully kicked in and at the time, he said it was too early to tell and may just be a cold.) I got knocked on my ass last night and have very little energy today.
I know it's hot as balls outside, but I want to order some soup.
In your opinion, what restaurant has the best soup in the City of Regina?
2023.06.07 19:08 PritchettRobert506 [HIRING] 25 Jobs in MD Hiring Now!
2023.06.07 18:33 realcloudyrain Raising rent due to baby
I’ve been living in my apartment since 2017 so my rent is currently below market rates. My landlord wants to raise the rent by $300 per month because I had a baby. If I don’t agree to signing a new lease with increase (I’m currently month to month) they want to evict me. I’m a single mom and I am at my capacity financially, emotionally and spiritually. I will be going to arbitration but I barely have the energy to deal with this stress. I tried to complete the online dispute resolution application yesterday but it was so overwhelming. If I lose this apartment I will be priced out of the city.
Has anyone been in a similar situation?
submitted by realcloudyrain to NiceVancouver [link] [comments]
Has anyone been in a similar situation?
2023.06.07 18:32 mozziemke Rejected Club Names
Now that all 64 potential team names have been announced, let’s hear the names y’all submitted that weren’t chosen! I’ll start us off (ngl, I thought these were strong contenders):
Milwaukee Resistance: The people of Milwaukee are passionate, loud, and bold. We have a longstanding history of fighting for what is right. Our fight will continue on the pitch as the Milwaukee Resistance. Resistance is also a term related to electricity - and you better believe that our fans and our stadium will be electric. In fact, the rule is that when power increases, resistance also increases. And the Milwaukee Resistance will certainly be a powerhouse. The Milwaukee Resistance is a strong team name that pays homage to the city’s past and channels that energy to the future.
Milwaukee Freeze: The people of Milwaukee are warm - but when it comes to soccer, we are cold-blooded. We love and cheer for our home teams with the ferocity of a frigid Milwaukee winter. That same Milwaukee winter that is powerful, intimidating, and sometimes even crushing. And when the Milwaukee Freeze wins, that loss will sting the opposing team’s face just like a harsh winter wind gusting off Lake Michigan. The Milwaukee Freeze is a force to be reckoned with.
submitted by mozziemke to Milwaukee_USL_Soccer [link] [comments]
Milwaukee Resistance: The people of Milwaukee are passionate, loud, and bold. We have a longstanding history of fighting for what is right. Our fight will continue on the pitch as the Milwaukee Resistance. Resistance is also a term related to electricity - and you better believe that our fans and our stadium will be electric. In fact, the rule is that when power increases, resistance also increases. And the Milwaukee Resistance will certainly be a powerhouse. The Milwaukee Resistance is a strong team name that pays homage to the city’s past and channels that energy to the future.
Milwaukee Freeze: The people of Milwaukee are warm - but when it comes to soccer, we are cold-blooded. We love and cheer for our home teams with the ferocity of a frigid Milwaukee winter. That same Milwaukee winter that is powerful, intimidating, and sometimes even crushing. And when the Milwaukee Freeze wins, that loss will sting the opposing team’s face just like a harsh winter wind gusting off Lake Michigan. The Milwaukee Freeze is a force to be reckoned with.
2023.06.07 18:16 PeakOregon998 Okay so I was reading X-Force Annual #3 and Dani is talking about how her have changed and how she has Valkyrie
 | Also imagine having to live on that same island your friend died on and you were to busy fighting to even notice submitted by PeakOregon998 to xmen [link] [comments] |
2023.06.07 18:03 Splicer94 9 months jobless, is there any hope for a creative industry job or am I f'd?
(24-25NB) Last autumn my contract for a dream job was rescinded last-minute and ever since then, I have not been able to recover. 100+ applications and over a dozen interviews later that all turned into rejections on the last step, I'm feeling less and less hopeful.
In the meantime I've been living from the severance that was given to me after the rescinding, but that amount is getting smaller and smaller by the day and I don't have much runway left.
For context, I work (or have worked) in the creative industry doing everything from graphic design to video and photo editing. During this jobless period I've tried to pivot into UI/UX by creating new personal projects for my portfolio, but it's not panning out because there's very few jobs to begin with, and the few that are available are in the cities very far away from me.
I'm also self-taught so I have no completed tertiary education: and I don't have a driving license either so can't get a delivery driver gig, AND I'm very weak physically so no warehouse/factory jobs either.
The biggest problem is that I'm burned out of life in general, I don't enjoy doing this work anymore, but at the same time I've got no energy to be learning new things either (like I used to have back when I was teaching myself graphic design and the like).
And not to mention the AI onslaught... while I've been using it myself and trying to keep up with it, I can see how both it and the current financial crisis would result in companies that would've normally put out job postings, instead just doing their design work in-house.
Ideally, I would love to have a remote job (or at least an office job in the 4 mid-size cites that are 20-50 min away from me) that's creative in nature and STABLE, but this seems to be mission impossible in the present day (and likely in the future).
So what do?
Moving out is not an option because, even if I were to land a job in the capital, the cost of moving + living there would eat up any salary I was offered there so it'd be a bunch of effort for no gain and possibly even lower quality of life.
Maybe it's worth pointing out that I also have two elderly family members whose earnings are barely enough even for them, so if I don't soon figure out a way to earn money again, not only will I be broke but they will too (and they are yet another reason why moving out isn't an option).
Lastly, it seems this subreddit is very US-focused, so if you can, please refrain from giving advice that's only applicable there. I live in one of those countries that's nearly entirely centered around its capital city, all the while that city itself is unlivable both in terms of life quality and in terms of how much money is required to live there.
submitted by Splicer94 to findapath [link] [comments]
In the meantime I've been living from the severance that was given to me after the rescinding, but that amount is getting smaller and smaller by the day and I don't have much runway left.
For context, I work (or have worked) in the creative industry doing everything from graphic design to video and photo editing. During this jobless period I've tried to pivot into UI/UX by creating new personal projects for my portfolio, but it's not panning out because there's very few jobs to begin with, and the few that are available are in the cities very far away from me.
I'm also self-taught so I have no completed tertiary education: and I don't have a driving license either so can't get a delivery driver gig, AND I'm very weak physically so no warehouse/factory jobs either.
The biggest problem is that I'm burned out of life in general, I don't enjoy doing this work anymore, but at the same time I've got no energy to be learning new things either (like I used to have back when I was teaching myself graphic design and the like).
And not to mention the AI onslaught... while I've been using it myself and trying to keep up with it, I can see how both it and the current financial crisis would result in companies that would've normally put out job postings, instead just doing their design work in-house.
Ideally, I would love to have a remote job (or at least an office job in the 4 mid-size cites that are 20-50 min away from me) that's creative in nature and STABLE, but this seems to be mission impossible in the present day (and likely in the future).
So what do?
Moving out is not an option because, even if I were to land a job in the capital, the cost of moving + living there would eat up any salary I was offered there so it'd be a bunch of effort for no gain and possibly even lower quality of life.
Maybe it's worth pointing out that I also have two elderly family members whose earnings are barely enough even for them, so if I don't soon figure out a way to earn money again, not only will I be broke but they will too (and they are yet another reason why moving out isn't an option).
Lastly, it seems this subreddit is very US-focused, so if you can, please refrain from giving advice that's only applicable there. I live in one of those countries that's nearly entirely centered around its capital city, all the while that city itself is unlivable both in terms of life quality and in terms of how much money is required to live there.
2023.06.07 17:57 Independent-Box132 How do I make it?
I am currently in a really debilitating PMDD/Endometriosis episode.
I haven’t been able to work for over a month. I’m negative 20 dollars in my bank account and my bills are continuing to pile up.
I am getting married in September.
I don’t know what to do.
I have been deeply, spiritually healing.
I want to use my creativity to make money when I actually have the energy to get on my feet.
I feel stuck. And sad, not only from finances but really just the constant pain in general.
What do you all do to make money when you aren’t able to offer consistent time?
I have thought about getting a booth at one of the boutiques in Kansas City. I love redoing furniture. I also have thought about teaching.
I am learning to move beyond my fear. And then the money talks around the corner and I’m in chaos again…..
submitted by Independent-Box132 to PMDD [link] [comments]
I haven’t been able to work for over a month. I’m negative 20 dollars in my bank account and my bills are continuing to pile up.
I am getting married in September.
I don’t know what to do.
I have been deeply, spiritually healing.
I want to use my creativity to make money when I actually have the energy to get on my feet.
I feel stuck. And sad, not only from finances but really just the constant pain in general.
What do you all do to make money when you aren’t able to offer consistent time?
I have thought about getting a booth at one of the boutiques in Kansas City. I love redoing furniture. I also have thought about teaching.
I am learning to move beyond my fear. And then the money talks around the corner and I’m in chaos again…..
2023.06.07 17:56 uggsandstarbux Defending the Draft 2023: Minnesota Vikings
Link to Hub
Recapping 2022
2022 was a dangerous year to be a Vikings fan, especially if you have a pre-existing heart condition. While a season of 13 wins -- tied for the most since 1998 -- may seem like the team is in a position to make a Superbowl push, the actual quality of the team is a lot more... well, mediocre.The 2022 Vikings ranked 19th in offensive EPA per play, 25th in defensive EPA per play, 27th in Overall DVOA, and 15th in Pythagorean Wins (with 8.4 expected wins). Kevin O'Connell always preached the performance of the team in priority situations. The team finished 12th in 3rd down conversion rate and 8th in red zone conversion rate. And the team led the league -- by far -- in the number of 4th quarter comebacks and game winning drives. When it was time to put up or shut up, the team put up hard. Except for in the playoffs.
2023 Offseason
All of that made the future of the Vikings tough to read. But Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and the rest of the front office told us what they thought of the team with their free agency moves. In a league where teams are trading the farm for Hall of Fame QBs and giving $20M/Year deals to nose tackles and guards, the Vikings' big free agent splash were a one year deal on an injury-prone DE and a good-not-great corner that doesn't even crack the top 20 highest AAVs at the position. Concurrently, the team parted ways with half of the team's 2022 captains to try to get under the cap. All of this while the team is not done with transactions -- Dalvin Cook still presents as a cut candidate due to his age and contract structure.Notable Departures:
- WR Adam Thielen ($6.4 Saved / $13.5 Dead)
- LB Eric Kendricks ($9.5 Saved / $1.93 Dead)
- CB Patrick Peterson (Unrestricted Free Agent)
- DT Dalvin Tomlinson (Unrestricted Free Agent)
- CB Byron Murphy (2Y / $17.5TOT / $8.1GTD)
- EDGE Marcus Davenport (1Y / $13TOT / $10GTD)
- TE Josh Oliver (3Y / $21TOT / $8.2GTD)
- DT Dean Lowry (2Y / $8.5TOT / $4.2GTD)
- EDGE Za'Darius Smith (Post-draft trade)
- Re-Signed C Garrett Bradbury (3Y / $15.75TOT / $5.15GTD)
- Re-Signed RB Alexander Mattison (2Y / $7TOT / $6.35GTD)
- Re-Signed FB CJ Ham (3Y / $5.6TOT / $3.3GTD)
- Re-Signed All-Pro LS Andrew DePaola (3Y / $4.025TOT / $1.515GTD)
Draft Needs
Cornerback - Arguably the Vikings' biggest need, the team was without a true CB1. Byron Murphy comes aboard as the most experienced player. Pegged a slot-only player through his first three years, Murphy spent most of his time in 2022 outside and had a career year. After that, the team looked to rely on improvements from their 2022 draft class with Andrew Booth and Akayleb Evans, two players that combined for fewer than 300 defensive snaps last season primarily due to injury. You can see how KAM and crew, confident in their scouting ability, are betting on health to affect the secondary for the better. But taking another bet on a young player is a smart move at a position where depth is always a good thing.Interior Defensive Line - The loss of Dalvin Tomlinson -- who played 551 snaps last year and compiled 14 pressures -- leaves issues next to Harrison Phillips. Jonathan Bullard was third on the IDL with 319 snaps last season and returns on a one year deal. Tonga and Lynch had some flashes, and the team brought in Lowry. The rotation (optimistically) can get to competent. But finding a true winner on the inside of the line was viewed by many as a priority.
Wide Receiver - The Vikings starting personnel at WR heading in to the draft was Justin Jefferson (stud), KJ Osborn (decent), and... Jalen Nailor? Brandon Powell? Oh dear Lord don't tell me it's Jalen Reagor. The loss of Adam Thielen was expected, but nevertheless leaves a gaping hole next to JJ and KJ in the lineup. Keenan McCardell is arguably the best WR coach in the league, and playing with Jefferson would give one-on-one opportunities for any receiver. But having somebody that can actually win those one-on-ones remains a question.
Inside Linebacker - Eric Kendricks's jersey change marks the true end of an era at LB. Kendricks struggled in Donatell's scheme last season, as did most players. But he was a longtime leader on the defense and a valued community member. Jordan Hicks, Brian Asamoah, and Troy Reeder sit atop the depth chart. Hicks can be solid and Asamoah had flashes, but counting on this group as every down players is a risk to say the least.
Offensive Guard - Ed Ingram was one of the worst starting guards in the league last season. But he's a rookie. Maybe he gets better in year 2. Maybe he stays terrible. Even if you're optimistic there, Ezra Cleveland is entering a contract year at left guard. Adding interior offensive line depth is always smart.
Quarterback - This offseason, reports surfaced that the team and QB Kirk Cousins could not finalize a contract extension. That means for the first time in his Vikings tenure, Cousins is entering a contract year. Cousins has been an above average QB during his time in Minnesota. Last year saw him finish 4th in yards, but he was painfully mediocre at efficiency stats like TD percent (17th), ANY/A (18th), and ADOT (20th). Entering his age-35 season, it would be wise to look for a successor even if the team plans on retaining Cousins past 2023.
The Draft
*Indicates measure is taken from Pro Day1.23 WR Jordan Addison, USC
Profile: Jr 5'11 173lbs 31.5 Arm\ 8.75 Hand 75.125 Wing* 4.49 40 1.57 10 34 VJ 10'2 BJ 4.19 SS* 7.05 3c 5.95 RAS*
2022 Stats: 11 Gm 59 Rec 875 Yds 8 TD 2 Drops
Steve Smith Sr: "Addison has one of the highest ceilings among WRs in this draft due to his blend of route running chops and his all around athleticism. He is a three level route runner: intermediate, deep, and short... The way he can get in and out of his breaks is so natural. He uses leverage. And he manipulates the DB consistently"
Addison -- a Biletnikoff Award winner during his Pitt days -- is one of the highest floor players in the class. He is a route running technician with proven dominance playing inside and outside. He had more than 3 yards per route run in two different offenses. He understands how to marry his athleticism and quickness with the breaks in his routes. He finds the DB's blind spot and forces them to lose. Addison is a bit on the small side, but not abnormally so given this draft class. He does have some concerns with his hands -- his drop rates as a freshman and sophomore were 14% and 10%, respectively -- but he showed improvement in this as a junior.
The need here is clear. As mentioned earlier, the WR depth past JJ and KJ is abysmal. Even with Thielen and Osborn on the roster in 2022, the Vikings needed juice in the WR room. The 2022 Vikings had one top 5 WR in yards per route run (Jefferson). There was no other receiver in the top 100. Teams were not worried about Thielen or Osborn. Teams could put two or three defenders on Jefferson without any fear of what anyone else might do to their defense. Hockenson fixed this a bit down the stretch, but an outside playmaker was still needed.
The real question here is why the team opted not to go for CB Joey Porter Jr, who filled what many considered to be the team's biggest need and was a higher ranked prospect for Lance Zierlein, PFF, Danny Kelly, Matt Miller, and Dane Brugler. The answer here -- if I can take a guess and stretch my logic a bit -- is that the need at WR2 was greater than the need at CB. Patrick Peterson was the biggest loss in the secondary, and the team brought in Byron Murphy to try to fill that role. On offense, Minnesota had not brought in a replacement for Adam Thielen. The depth chart past Jefferson and Osborn was filled with bodies that might not make a 53-man roster on a lot of teams.
Trade: MIN gives 3.87 to MIN for 3.102, 5.164, 7.222
| Jimmy Johnson | Rich Hill | Fitzgerald-Spielberger | Harvard | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total give | 155 | 48 | 737 | 115 |
| Total get | 117.7 | 45 | 1334 | 197 |
| Absolute Diff | -37.3 | -3 | +597 | +82 |
| Percent Diff | -24% | -6% | +81% | +71% |
3.102 CB Mekhi Blackmon, USC
Profile: 6Sr 5'11" 178lbs 31" Arm 9.25" Hand 74.625" Wing 4.47 40 1.47 10 36 VJ 10'5" BJ 11 Bench 7.44 RAS
2022 Stats: 14 Gm 66 TKL 2 TFL 1 FF 15 PD 3 INT
Brett Kollman: "Feisty, physical press corner who definitely has to play more under control in the NFL to avoid flags, but he has all the competitiveness you want to see from a potential CB1 at the next level. Never backs down from anyone. Has easy gas to stay in control of a route from top down, even against true burners. Legit 4.4 speed and gets up to it quickly. Outstanding ball production... Held up extremely well despite being targeted often. Battle tested, aggressive, and confident... Very similar to Desmond Trufant."
An unrecruited high school positionless player out of high school that signed with JuCo San Mateo, Blackmon followed up four seasons at Colorado with a breakout 2022 campaign as one of the best defenders on the USC defense. The Trojans played a man-heavy scheme, which let Blackmon shine. He has great anticipation and instincts. His production this year says as much. He plays bigger than his size, and he has inside-outside versatility. He will have to clean up some of his physicality to avoid flags at the next level. He will also have to refine his technique to stay with the more complex routes he'll see. But he is a strong culture and scheme fit for what Brian Flores is bringing to the defense.
The need at CB was obvious even before hiring Flores. The Vikings ranked 31st in passing yards allowed, 26th in Passing DVOA, and 24th in EPA allowed per pass attempt. Bringing in Byron Murphy helps. So do the healthy returns of Booth and Evans. But Murphy has not yet shown that he can be a consistently great player (or at least not markedly better than what we got out of Patrick Peterson last year). And Booth and Evans are unproven. Blackmon -- taken with the last pick on Day 2 -- is not expected to come in and be Jalen Ramsey or Sauce Gardner. But in a shift to a more aggressive man-coverage defense with a thin CB room, Blackmon is an upside player that will have every chance to take a starting spot on a porous defense.
Trade: MIN gives 4.119 to KC for 4.134, 2024 5th\*
| Jimmy Johnson | Rich Hill | Fitzgerald-Spielberger | Harvard | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total give | 56 | 24 | 578 | 88 |
| Total get | 58.4 | 24 | 898 | 133 |
| Absolute Diff | +2.4 | 0 | +320 | +45 |
| Percent Diff | +4% | 0% | +36% | +34% |
*Here we assume a future pick in round n is valued at the middle pick of round n+1, not accounting for compensatory picks. In this case, a 2024 5th is equated to pick 176.
4.134 S Jay Ward, LSU
Profile: Sr 6'0.5" 188lbs 32.5" Arm 8.25" Hand 76.875" Wing 4.55 40 1.54 10 34.5 VJ 11' BJ 4.35 Shuttle\ 7.31 3c 16 Bench 6.70 RAS*
2022 Stats: 13 Gm 60 TKL 2.5 TFL 5 PD 1 INT 2 FR TD
Nate Tice: "A ton of fun. I just like this fit because of Brian Flores's defense. Just picture all of those mixture guys that the Patriots have used over the years... Jay Ward can be that"
A three year starter with reps at safety, slot, and outside CB, Ward is one of the most versatile players in the class. He possesses excellent length and movement skills. His experience at CB make him a fluid player in coverage. In the run game, Ward's size is a concern. His 188lbs Combine weight puts him in just the second percentile for safeties. This translates to issues with taking on blocks. He is a very aggressive player, beelining to the ball as soon as it's out. But his size coupled with his impatient playstyle lead to a lot of missed tackles. He was also flagged seven times last season.
In his final season in Miami, Flores was extremely creative with how he employed his safeties. Jevon Holland had the 2nd most blitzes in the league at the position. The number 1 player? His teammate Brandon Jones. With the defense taking on Flores's amoeba identity, an aggressive player with experience at multiple positions has the potential to find a role early on. The defense will look to utilize him similar to how Jevon Holland was used as a rookie. And with Harrison Smith well into the twilight of his career, Ward is a timely pick as the team attempts to thread the needle in their competitive rebuild.
Trade: MIN gives 5.158, 6.211 to IND for 5.141
| Jimmy Johnson | Rich Hill | Fitzgerald-Spielberger | Harvard | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total give | 32.4 | 13 | 722 | 103 |
| Total get | 36 | 15 | 492 | 74 |
| Absolute Diff | +4 | +2 | -230 | -29 |
| Percent Diff | +10% | +13% | -47% | -39% |
5.141 NT Jaquelin Roy, LSU
Profile: Jr 6'3" 305lbs 32.75" Arm 10.125" Hand 78.125" Wing 5.13 40\ 1.82 10* 26" VJ* 8'5" BJ* 5.00 Shuttle 8.01 3c 30 Bench 3.72 RAS*
2022 Stats: 13 Gm 49 TKL 3.5 TFL 0.5 SCK
Lance Zierlein: " The more you watch, the more you like the way Roy plays the game... Despite limited starting experience at LSU, he already displays signs of a rush plan and the athletic talent to execute it. Roy is an ascending talent with the potential to become a quality starter. "
After a 30 tackle, 1.5 sack campaign as a rotational player in 2021, Roy shifted from a penetrating 3T position to more of a traditional nose tackle under new HC Brian Kelly. This transition let Roy shine as a run stuffer. He eats space and is incredibly tough to move from his spot. He averaged almost 52 snaps a game in 2022 and his motor never let up. He has some work to do if he wants to be a three down player, particularly as a pass rusher. His bend and balance in this front are especially lacking.
The Vikings' front office seems to be a lot more comfortable with the current IDL room than I am. Harrison Phillips is a plus starter. Past that, the roster is filled with unproven youth or proven subpar players. As a 5th round pick, Roy has an uphill battle to separate himself from that group. But he's a good lottery ticket at this price. His positional versatility ensures that the defense can simply put their best players on the field.
5.164 QB Jaren Hall, BYU
Profile: RSr 6'0" 207lbs 39.75" Arm 9.5" Hand 71.875" Wing 4.63 40\ 1.59 10* 4.19 Shuttle* 7.06 3c* 7.96 RAS*
2022 Stats: 12 Gm 248 Comp 376 Att 66% Comp 3171 Yds 31 TD 6 INT 86 Rush 789 Rush Yds 9 RUsh TD
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah: "We added a really talented player that has a ton of upside... The ability to make decisions, throw the football accuracy, deal with conflict when it comes his way, and sometimes try to make a play outside the framework of the playcall. He does all those things at a really great level... That's an outstanding young man. I'd like to see him lead my team or any organization I'm a part of."
Despite being the third oldest prospect in the QB class, Hall only has 24 starts under his belt due to two years on religious mission and one year with a hip injury. But when Hall took over for Zach Wilson in 2021, he hit the ground running. BYU went 10-3 in that first year with Hall compiling a 4:1 TD:INT ratio. He is a two time team captain, and all reports of his character are off the charts.
Hall is a poised pocket passer capable of extending plays and picking up yardage on the ground. He was only sacked 12 times in 2022, which is a testament to both BYU's offensive line and Hall's ability to create under pressure. There are conflicting opinions on Hall's upside and arm strength, with Lance Zierlein calling his arm "unimpressive" while Kyle Crabbs claiming that hall has a "live arm with the ability to throw with juice off platform". Where there was near-universal agreement was in his understanding of the scheme, as Hall operated BYU's RPO-heavy offense like a machine. He has a clean release and quickly gets into a rhythm. His largest universal concerns are his age (he turned 25 in March) and his injury history (missed 20 games in the last 4 years). He also has ball security issues with 13 fumbles over his career.
I expected the Vikings to draft a QB in this class. The only question was if it would have been via a trade up on Day 1 or a flyer on Day 3 (or a falling Will Levis). With his age, size, and injury history, there are plenty of questions about what Hall can be. He will have a year in practice to put together his audition tape to be Kirk Cousins's replacement -- it's certainly a viable path for this team to take a RiddeHowell/Mills-esque year to evaluate Hall while they continue retooling the defense. But the more likely path is that Hall becomes a long-term backup for the team. Cousins has been the model of health, but that doesn't mean that QB2 is an unimportant position. Sean Mannion, Kellen Mond, and Nick Mullens have manned that position to various degrees over the past few years. None has shown that they can be a competent plug-in player if needed. There is some hope that Hall -- who operated the BYU offense with a mechanic efficiency -- can be that player.
7.222 RB DeWayne McBride, UAB
Profile: Jr 5'10" 209lbs 30.625" Arms 9.5" Hands 73.125" Wing 20 Bench\*
2022 Stats: 11 Gm 233 Att 1713 Yds 19 TD 7.4 Y/A 2 Rec 10 Rec Yds
Dane Brugler: "Overall, McBride is unproven as a pass catcher and blocker, which might restrict his NFL role, but his contact balance, vision and lateral agility are among the best this running back draft class has to offer"
In an era of advanced metrics and Combine showmanship, perhaps the trait that has gone underappreciated more than any other in RB scouting is balance. McBride may have the best balance in the entire RB class outside of Bijan Robinson. He comes from a heavy outside zone scheme at UAB, where he led the FBS in yards per game and set school records for single-game and single-season rushing. McBride absorbs contact like a sponge. His short area burst is strong, and he makes defenders miss with power and finesse. McBride has ideal size and toughness. His concerns are simple. He was not utilized as a receiver in college, and he had more career fumbles than catches in that time. McBride profiles as a two-down player at the next level. Although Adofo-Mensah has voiced his belief that McBride's passing game usage was a product of scheme rather than ability, McBride still has to prove that he is more than just a short yardage runner in the NFL.
After spending a pick in back to back years on RB and re-signing Mattison to a modest contract, RB was a bit of an unexpected pick for this regime. Dalvin Cook still seems to be movable (a likely cut candidate at this point), which would make this pick more logical. Chandler struggled with injuries as a rookie, but both he and Nwangwu profile more as speedy scatbacks than true between-the-tackle runners like Mattison. Even Mattison has never been a true three-down back. McBride plays much more similarly to Mattison than the other backs on the team. He will try to carve out a role behind him as the future thunder to the lightning provided by Chandler and Nwangwu.
UDFA
FB Zach Ojile, Minnesota DuluthProfile: 6Sr 6'0" 241lbs 31.5" Arms 8.5" Hands 75.5" Wing 4.78 40\ 1.79 10* 31" VJ* 9'1" BJ* 4.40 Shuttle* 31 Bench* 4.15 RAS*
2022 Stats: 11 Gm 12 Rush 53 Rush Yds 3 Rush TD 25 Rec 289 Rec Yds 5 Rec TD
A Twin Cities native, Ojile was a late addition to the roster, joining after a May rookie minicamp tryout. Ojile played LB, QB, FS, and RB in high school but found a role as an H-Back at UMD. He served as a team captain the past two seasons and finishes his collegiate career with over 1100 total yards and 24 total TDs. He was an All-Conference player for the DII NSIC Bulldogs. Whether Ojile participates at FB or TE, he'll need to prove his versatility to beat out the veterans on the depth chart. Working in his favor is Kevin O'Connell's shift to a more base-heavy offense in 2023.
WR Cephus Johnson, Southeastern Louisiana
Profile: 6Sr 6'4" 223lbs 33.25" Arm\ 8.5" Hand* 78.625" WIng* 4.57 40* 1.59 10* 36.5" VJ* 10'1" BJ* 4.39 Shuttle* 7.25 3c* 18 Bench* 9.48 RAS*
2022 Stats: 11 Gm 184 Pass Att 65% Comp 1354 Pass Yds 10 Pass TD 5 INT 89 Rush 488 Rush Yds 5 Rush TD
Johnson is making the fulltime switch from QB to WR as he attempts to latch on to an NFL practice squad. He earned the starting role for South Alabama as a redshirt junior before transferring to SE Louisiana, where he took some snaps at WR in spring games. Johnson's stats were unimpressive as a starting QB, notching just 1354 yards and a 2:1 TD:INT ratio in 11 starts. He has good size and instincts as a runner, but he has basically no experience playing WR.
WR Lucky Jackson, W Kentucky / XFL DC Defenders
Profile: RSr 6'0" 179lbs 9.624" Hand\ 32.25" Arm* 75.875" Wing**
2023 Stats: 10 Gm 36 Rec 572 Yds 5 TD 1 Fmb
Jackson last put on a college uniform before the pandemic for Western Kentucky, where his 2019 season saw him put up over 1100 yards on 94 receptions. Following his college days, Jackson spent time in the CFL and the Spring League before joining the XFL's DC Defenders and becoming an All-XFL receiver.
WR Malik Knowles, Kansas St
Profile: RSr 6'2" 196lbs 32.25" Arm 8.75" Hand 77.625" Wing
2022 Stats: 14 Gm 48 Rec 725 YDs 2 TD 8 Rush 164 Rush Yds 3 Rush TD 23 KR 592 KR Yds
Knowles is a vertical threat with good size and length. He offers value as a kick returner and leaves Kansas State with a top 5 rank in all-purpose yards. Knowles is an undeveloped route runner that struggles with quick change-of-direction. He also has trouble with press coverage. He'll need to prove his value on special teams, where he has plenty of collegiate experience as a kick returner.
WR Grant Maag, North Dakota
Profile: 5Sr 6'4" 206lbs 9.25" Hand\ 31.875" Arm* 77.625" Wing* 4.49 40YD* 1.60 10YS* 40.5" VJ* 10'5" BJ* 4.34 Shuttle* 6.90 3c* 8.50 RAS*
2022 Stats: 12 Gm 41 Rec 540 Yds 5 TDs
Maag was brought in following the announcement of Ben Ellefson's retirement. He is an Inver Grove Heights native and a graduate of St Croix Lutheran in St Paul. He leaves North Dakota with over 2000 yards over his five years and served as a team captain the past two seasons. His size gives him an advantage with a shorter WR group ahead of him, but Maag is a far cry from a roster lock.
WR Thayer Thomas, NC State
Profile: 6Sr 6'0" 198lbs 9" Hand\ 30.125" Arm* 73.5" Wing 4.56 40* 1.63 10* 37" VJ* 10' BJ* 4.03 Shuttle* 6.93 3c* 15 Bench* 7.85 RAS*
2022 Stats: 13 Gm 57 Rec 642 Yds 4 TDs 2 Rush Att 44 Rush Yds 1 Rush TD 17 PR 128 PR Yds
A multisport athlete that was drafted by the Red Sox in 2019, Thomas walked onto the Wolfpack football team and got onto the field any way he could. In 2018, he saw work as a receiver, punt returner, and passer. Thomas has good hands (a career drop rate of 4%) and a high work ethic, but he is an undeveloped route runner that struggles to create much after the catch. He will need to prove his worth on special teams if he wants to make the roster.
TE Ben Sims, Baylor
Profile: RSr 6'4" 250lbs 33.125" Arm\ 9.5" Hand* 80.125" Wing* 4.58 40YD* 1.56 10YS 36" Vert* 10'2" Broad* 4.41 Shuttle* 7.46 3c* 15 Bench* 8.40 RAS*
2022 Stats: 12 Gm 31 Rec 255 Yds 3 TDs 2 Drops 1 Rush TD
Sims projects as a blocking tight end with limited ability as a receiver. He's a patient run blocker with good balance and toughness, but he is still cleaning up some technique. He isn't a creator with the ball in his hands and his tape fails to demonstrate the explosiveness that his testing suggests.
OL Alan Ali, TCU
Profile: RSr 6'4" 301lbs 32.875" Arm 9.5" Hand 77.625" Wing 5.23 40\ 1.89 10* 26.5" VJ 8'5" BJ* 4.91 Shuttle* 7.94 3c* 3.80 RAS*
A 5 year starter for TCU and SMU, Ali is a fundamentally sound center prospect with good body control and core strength. He has experience playing at all 5 OL positions but spent most of the past 4 years at center. His lack of athleticism and length are likely the reason he went undrafted.
OT Jacky Chen, Pace
Profile: RSr 6'5 1/4" 299lbs 10" Hand\ 34.5" Arm* 80.75" Wing* 5.41 40* 1.81 10* 29" VJ* 8'10" BJ* 4.74 Shuttle* 7.90 3c* 24 Bench* 5.39 RAS*
It's hard to find very much information on an undrafted lineman from a DII school whose toughest opponent was the University of New Haven. Chen is an OT prospect that is viewed as a ball of clay. Chen's 40 yard dash and 3 cone were underwhelming to say the least, but he was an above average tester in burst and explosiveness drills. That combined with his length make him an interesting project.
EDGE Andre Carter II, Army
Profile: Sr 6'6.5" 256lbs 9.375" Hand 33.275" Arm 81 Wing 4.91 40\ 1.65 10* 30" VJ 9'1" BJ 4.36 Shuttle 6.97 3c* 11 Bench 6.29 RAS*
2022 Stats: 10 Gm 41 TKL 7 TFL 3.5 SCK 2 PD
The highest profile UDFA signing of the class, Carter was getting 1st round buzz this time last year. At that time, Carter was coming off an 18.5 TFL / 15.5 sack season. However, Carter struggled to repeat his production as a senior, notching just 3.5 sacks. Carter finished out the draft cycle with lackluster testing, failing to run under a 4.90 in the 40 yard dash and weighing in at a mere 256 lbs -- a big concern given his 81 inch wingspan and towering stature. Carter has a ton of upside, but he doesn't have the frame to be a real NFL player right now. After 4 years training to be an officer in the US Army, he will need at least one season (maybe more) in an NFL weight room where he can focus on building muscle mass. He'll look to follow the mold of fellow Army player Alejandro Villanueva, who added 43 lbs to his 277 lbs frame entering the league before becoming a 7-year starter. Luckily, he joined the team with one of the best training facilities in the league.
EDGE Junior Aho, SMU
Profile: 6'2" 260lbs 9" Hand 33.875" Arm 79.875" Wing 4.58 40\ 1.66 10* 33.5" VJ* 10'3" BJ* 4.90 Shuttle* 7.38 3c* 9.38 RAS*
2022 Stats: 13 Gm 23 TKL 2 TFL 2 SCK 1 FF
Quite simply, Aho is an athletic freak that should find his way onto the team thanks to the International Player Pathway roster spot. He takes pride in his speed and athleticism, but he also understands the limitations to his game. Aho was a solid rotational player for SMU. He will look to follow in the footsteps of other International Pathway players like Efe Obada and Jordan Mailata.
DT Calvin Avery, Illinois
Profile: RSr 6'1" 343 lbs 10" Hand\ 32.5" Arm 81.87" Wing 5.37 40* 1.84 10* 30.5" VJ* 8'5" BJ* 8.01 3c* 31 Bench* 3.12 RAS*
2022 Stats: 13 Gm 23 TKL 2 TFL 1 PD
Avery is a former four star recruit out of Texas, earning snaps in 12 games as a true freshman. He started 12 games in 2022, primarily at nose tackle. He has a wide, large frame that makes him hard to move. However, he is an underwhelming athlete to say the least, and his statistical production is nearly non-existent.
LB Abraham Beauplan, Marshall
Profile: RSr 5'11" 241 lbs 9.25" Hand 31.75" Arm 77 1/4" Wing 4.62 Shuttle 35.5" VJ 9'9" BJ 7.33 3c 22 Bench 4.52 RAS
2022 Stats: 12 Gm 66 TKL 6.5 TFL 1 SCK 3 PD
Beauplan started the draft process by making an appearance on Bruce Feldman's Freaks List, reportedly squatting as much as 565 lbs and benching as much as 285. The few reports that exist on Beauplan suggest he's an urgent, downhill run defender that will look to carve out a role on special teams early on.
LB Wilson Huber, Cincinnati
Profile: 6Sr 6'4" 241lbs 9.75" Hand 32.375" Arm\ 80" Wing* 4.70 40* 1.66 10* 35" VJ* 10'4" BJ* 4.45 Shuttle* 6.91 3c* 18 Bench* 8.34 RAS*
2022 Stats: 13 Gm 54 TKL 6.5 TFL 1 SCK 1 PD
A 3 star recruit out of Indiana, Huber started his career at Cincinnati as a TE. He played a hybrid role in his first 2 non-redshirt seasons, earning snaps on offense, defense, and special teams. He made a full role switch to the defensive side of the ball in 2020 and eventually earned the team captain moniker in 2022. Huber had some solid testing despite profiling as more of a thumper.
LB Ivan Pace Jr, Cincinnati
Profile: Sr 5'10.5" 231lbs 30.25" Arm 9.5" Hand 72" Wing 4.59 40\ 1.70 10* 35" VJ 9'8" BJ* 4.40 Shuttle * 7.18 3c* 22 Bench* 5.71 RAS*
2022 Stats: 13 Gm 137 TKL 21.5 TFL 10 SCK 3 FF 4 PD
Ranked the 11th best LB for Daniel Jeremiah, 9th for Dane Brugler, and 7th for PFF, many thought Pace could have gone as early as Round 3. Pace was a one year starter for the Bearcats after transferring from Miami (Ohio), and he hit the ground running. He led the AAC in tackles and TFLs. He is a smaller player (although not abnormally so in today's game) that plays with his hair on fire. He gives tremendous effort on every play and is always around the ball. Pace is a super tough player that loves to tackle. His size is a concern; he gets washed out of plays too easily. He is also lacking in coverage skills, struggling to stay connected in man coverage. Still, it's incredible that Pace went undrafted. He's an easy special teams projection as a rookie with the upside to be put in position to win under Flores.
CB CJ Coldon, Oklahoma
Profile: 6Sr 5'10" 186lbs\ 8.375" Hand* 31.125" Arm* 75.125" Wing* 4.60 40* 1.58 10* 37 1/2" VJ* 10'5" BJ* 4.24 Shuttle* 7.31 3c* 3.92 RAS*
2022 Stats: 12 Gm 42 TKL 2 TFL 4 INT 6 PBU
Coldon is an instinctual football player that relies on his feel to create ball production. He spent 5 years at Wyoming before transferring to Oklahoma and leading the team in INTs and PBUs. In zone, Coldon watches the QB and looks for the right cue to understand when and where the ball is headed.
CB NaJee Thompson, Georgia Southern
Profile: 5'10" 200lbs 9.125" Hand 32.75" Arm 76.625" Wing 4.57 40\ 1.63 10* 32" VJ* 9'8" BJ* 4.56 Shuttle* 7.40 3c* 13 Bench* 1.59 RAS*
2022 Stats: 13 Gm 37 TKL 1 TFL 11 PD 1 INT
Thompson's love for the game is undeniable. After struggling to latch onto the Georgia Southern WR room, Thompson approached his head coach asking to be exclusively a special teams player. He relishes being a gunner on punts. He eventually got moved to CB in 2021, logging 557 snaps at the position in 2022. He's undeveloped at the position, but his special teams prowess gives him a good shot at the roster.
CB Jaylin Williams, Indiana
Profile: RSr 5'9" 184lbs 9.125" Hand 29.875" Arm 71.75" Wing 4.43 40\ 1.58 10* 34.5" BJ* 9'11" BJ* 4.20 Shuttle* 7.01 3c* 13 Bench* 5.54 RAS*
2022 Stats: 10 Gm 40 TKL 2.5 TFL 7 PD 1 FR 1 BLK
A longtime role player for the Hoosiers before becoming a fulltime starter in 2019, Williams's 6 career INTs were the most amongst active players on the team last season. He earned second team All-Confernece honors in 2020 and was an honorable mention in 2021.
K Jack Podlesny, Georgia
Profile: RSr 6'0" 195lbs 29.25" Arms 9" Hands 74.75" Wing
2022 Stats: 31 Att 26 Made 50 Long 109 Kickoff 72 Touchbacks 74 PAT Att 73 PAT Made
Ranked as Dane Brugler's 4th kicker and Lance Zierlein's 3rd kicker, Podlesny enters Vikings camp following a career that saw him walk on to Georgia's football team and finish with an 82% hit rate. He hit all but one extra point last season for the national champion Bulldogs. A concern with Podlesny is his leg strength. His accuracy beyond 40 yards falls to just 54%. His clutchness may also come into question as he missed two kicks in the national championship semifinals against Ohio State.
Projected Depth Chart
Pos (Projected 2023 Rostered Count / 2022 Rostered Count): Starter, Rookie,QB (2/2): Kirk Cousins, Jaren Hall,
RB (4/4): Alexander Mattison, Kene Nwangwu, Ty Chandler, DeWayne McBride,
FB (1/1): CJ Ham,
WR (5/5): Justin Jefferson, KJ Osborn, Jordan Addison, Jalen Nailor, Brandon Powell,
TE (3/3): TJ Hockenson, Josh Oliver, Johnny Mundt,
OL (9/10): Christian Darrisaw, Ezra Cleveland, Garrett Bradbury, Ed Ingram, Brian O'Neill, Chris Reed, Austin Schlottman, Oli Udoh, Blake Brandel,
DT (7/6): Harrison Phillips, Dean Lowry, Jonathan Bullard, James Lynch, Esezi Otomewo, Jaquelin Roy, Khyiris Tonga,
EDGE (4/5): Danielle Hunter, Marcus Davenport, Pat Jones II, DJ Wonnum,
ILB (4/4): Jordan Hicks, Brian Asamoah, Troy Reeder, Ivan Pace Jr,
CB (5/6): Byron Murphy, Andrew Booth, Akayleb Evans, Mekhi Blakmon, Joejuan Williams,
S (5/4): Harrison Smith, Lewis Cine, Jay Ward, Josh Metellus, Camryn Bynum,
K (1/1): Greg Joseph,
P (1/1): Ryan Wright
LS (1/1): Andrew DePaola
KR: Kene Nwangwu
PR: Brandon Powell
2024 Needs
Starters Needed: QB, OG, EDGE, DT -- Whether due to expiring contracts (Cousins, Cleveland, Davenport, Hunter) or overall suckitude (Ingram, Lowry), we need to find new starters at this positions in 2024. Could we go on with average-level free agents? Maybe. Should we? Maybe not.We'll see how the group plays: CB, LB, RB -- These are positions where the front office is counting on young players (Booth, Evans, Asamoah) to fill the roles of departed starters. If those players take that step up, these positions drop on the needs list. Otherwise, we're in for a rough season.
Depth needed: WR -- The depth after Jefferson, Osborn, and Addison is not great. And Osborn is entering a contract year. Unless Keenan McCardell works some magic with Jalen Nailor or Trishton Jackson or Thayer Thomas, this should be a position we add to next year.
Final Thoughts
Versatility. When we look at this Vikings draft class, that's the first word that comes to mind, and it comes in big bold letters. Addison has inside-outside versatility. So does Mekhi Blackmon. Jay Ward is the most versatile of the group, capable of playing every DB position plus some spot snaps at LB. Roy has been productive everywhere from 0T to 4i. And the team has talked about how much they believe McBride can contribute as a pass catcher on top of his bruiser mindset as a between-the-tackles runner.On offense, this shift seems to stem from a philosophical change following the TJ Hockenson acquisition last year. O'Connell's unit went from trying to copy-paste Sean McVay's outside zone scheme (largely a 3WR offense) to Kyle Shanahan's outside zone scheme (largely a TE-FB offense). And in that mold, O'Connell was looking for players he could use to create the illusion of complexity. That is, how can we employ versatile players to present defenses the threat of multiplicity?
On defense, the answer is a lot simpler. By bringing over Brian Flores, the team is hoping for a jolt in tenacity and an overall move to a hybrid amoeba scheme. You can look historically at how Bill Belichick has utilized flexibility in his defenses to maximize his gameplan for whatever offensive scheme is next on the menu. You can look at players on the line of scrimmage that have experience in both 43 and 34 schemes (Hunter, Phillips, Lynch, Bullard). And in the secondary, look no further than the selection of Jay Ward as an attempt to clone players like Jevon Holland and Kyle Dugger.
As Adofo-Mensah has repeatedly said, he approaches his job with humility. He listens to those around him and he finds the point where stories marry data to make informed decisions. And in O'Connell, he found someone who shares that mentality. With the emphasis on versatility, that mindset can now be applied on a weekly (and play-by-play) basis to opponents. We'll see how successful that strategy is as the team continues to straddle the line between competitive and rebuilder, but there is certainly an energy around the fanbase with the continued success of the offense and the addition of Brian Flores.
2023.06.07 17:49 dontcaredidnotask Does this girl like me back?
So, i've liked this girl for a long time. i know for a fact she used to like me as well, but idk if she still does. so we're both in college, but we go to different schools and she lives in a different city now, about an hour away from me. i give her hella compliments. always sayin she looks good, smells good, etc. and i mean it when i say it. she isn't a person that's easily moved by words though, so sometimes all she says is "thanks 💕" "aww you're sweet" and shit like that. before we went to college and the pandemic started, we used to be so close. facetiming everyday, texting back and forth everyday, and when we were together in person she would hardly use her phone. after she got a bf (now her ex) in 2021, she kinda changed. she doesn't text or call as much, and the energy isn't there like it used to be. i alr know she was kinda depressed after having to leave him, but she's still not even the same. fast forward, abt a month after they broke up, i had told her i wanted to try things out bc she said we would get married if things didn't work with her ex. (she told me that before they started dating) she said she needed time and i just waited and stayed in contact. i fucked up a couple of times, saying shit i didn't necessarily mean, and misinterpreting shit. fast forward to recently, i got to see her at my friends graduation party, and she instantly hugged me and she made the sound she usually makes when she's excited. (it's a distinct sound id know it anywhere lmao) later at the party we spoke one on one and we hugged and we complimented each other. now we're planning a movie date and she asked if she could bring the friend that had the party. i said yea bc i didn't wanna be a dick since she's a pretty good friend of mine as well. todays my bday and she texted me her nickname for me and said "to my sweet friend, i hope you have the best day yet, happy birthday! 💕" is this underwhelming, or am i overthinking it. i appreciate her texting me at all today, but idk it falls short for me.
submitted by dontcaredidnotask to dating_advice [link] [comments]
2023.06.07 17:32 TheBlancheUpdate Ikeda Photography Master Class: Final Class Projects Due
In celebration of the SGIWhistleblowers' successful summiting of the 2,900-reader peak, it is time to complete another Ikeda Photography Master Class.
No, this isn't one of those nightmares where you're late to class and you didn't realize you were even enrolled and you haven't read the book and you aren't wearing pants. Or maybe you aren't wearing pants - the Daisaku Ikeda School of Photography is a judgment-free zone. Except for your class assignments.
As always, in the Daisaku Ikeda Pop-Up School of Photography, you have had all semester (since semesters begin and end any place we choose - no stodgy calendars for us elites!) to prepare your photo project that captures the spirit of Daisaku Ikeda's enlightened photography vision. Your submission will be in the style of the great photographer Daisaku Ikeda - the world's Photography Mentor. Please turn these in this week.
Here are a few of the top entries from the last class:
With the unlimited energy of the ocean all capable youth will win.
Boots on a chair outside my allotment shed
The stand alone spirit, to bravely and courageously forage the trash cans for leftover French fries
Plant in the restroom
Green Mountains in Colored Field
Now a few from our Photography Mentor himself, whose Å“uvres we are so fortunate to have, whose heart defines the photography spirit of our age, to serve as the guidelines for your submissions:
Everything aiming different directions
Left Lean with Lens Flare
Cities that lean to one side
Random image of manky-ass flowers w/questionable focus
Trees feeling wobbly
Keeping in mind that rules are for everyone else, never the Photography Mentor who sets the trends.
Absorb that subtle lean to the right
Landmarks that lean (a substandard grounded image by someone else for comparison)
Even when it's not leaning, it still looks like it's leaning, as here as well.
Who can tell?
Bonus points if your submissions can induce vague feelings of seasickness, raising their measure to the level of fine art.
When you are the world's Photography Mentor, it is your vision that sets the standard. Behold the cover for this book by our Photography Mentor. While I am confident that Photography Sensei did not take this photograph personally, you can see the influence of Photography Sensei's mind - compare to this obviously inferior photograph by some nobody of the same lighthouse. When you are the Photography Sensei of the entire world, you dominate the medium and triumphantly wrestle it into victorious submission!
Commence your fresh new departure, your mighty struggle to reply to Photography Sensei, class!
submitted by TheBlancheUpdate to sgiwhistleblowers [link] [comments]
No, this isn't one of those nightmares where you're late to class and you didn't realize you were even enrolled and you haven't read the book and you aren't wearing pants. Or maybe you aren't wearing pants - the Daisaku Ikeda School of Photography is a judgment-free zone. Except for your class assignments.
As always, in the Daisaku Ikeda Pop-Up School of Photography, you have had all semester (since semesters begin and end any place we choose - no stodgy calendars for us elites!) to prepare your photo project that captures the spirit of Daisaku Ikeda's enlightened photography vision. Your submission will be in the style of the great photographer Daisaku Ikeda - the world's Photography Mentor. Please turn these in this week.
Here are a few of the top entries from the last class:
With the unlimited energy of the ocean all capable youth will win.
Boots on a chair outside my allotment shed
The stand alone spirit, to bravely and courageously forage the trash cans for leftover French fries
Plant in the restroom
Green Mountains in Colored Field
Now a few from our Photography Mentor himself, whose Å“uvres we are so fortunate to have, whose heart defines the photography spirit of our age, to serve as the guidelines for your submissions:
Everything aiming different directions
Left Lean with Lens Flare
Cities that lean to one side
Random image of manky-ass flowers w/questionable focus
Trees feeling wobbly
Keeping in mind that rules are for everyone else, never the Photography Mentor who sets the trends.
Absorb that subtle lean to the right
Landmarks that lean (a substandard grounded image by someone else for comparison)
Even when it's not leaning, it still looks like it's leaning, as here as well.
Who can tell?
Bonus points if your submissions can induce vague feelings of seasickness, raising their measure to the level of fine art.
When you are the world's Photography Mentor, it is your vision that sets the standard. Behold the cover for this book by our Photography Mentor. While I am confident that Photography Sensei did not take this photograph personally, you can see the influence of Photography Sensei's mind - compare to this obviously inferior photograph by some nobody of the same lighthouse. When you are the Photography Sensei of the entire world, you dominate the medium and triumphantly wrestle it into victorious submission!
Commence your fresh new departure, your mighty struggle to reply to Photography Sensei, class!