What are post flairs?
Post flairs are visual labels assigned to posts within a subreddit. They help users quickly identify the type or topic of a post at a glance. According to the 3rd rule of our ZZZ_Official, all posts must have a flair.
​
How to use post flairs?
After clicking to create a post, you will see a “flair” section where you can choose the appropriate flair for your post.
​
Types of post flairs in ZZZ_Official
• OC (Original Content): All types of non-official content including, but not limited to, fanarts, handicrafts, and fan videos created by yourself.
Note: In-game screenshots and videos should be tagged with the “Media” flair instead.
• Non-OC (Non-Original Content): All types of non-official content including, but not limited to, fanarts, handicrafts, and fan videos created by another artist. Please include the name of the artist in the post title and a link to the source controlled by the artist in the post itself.
• News: All news directly and indirectly related to Zenless Zone Zero published by external organizations.
• Official Media: All official content posted by HoYoverse and Zenless Zone Zero, including social media posts, fanarts, merch, comics, and more.
• Media: In-game screenshots and videos.
• Discussion: All discussions on game mechanics, events, patch updates, devices, and other general topics.
• Guides & Tips: Any forms of guideline and gaming technique content, such as images, videos, and lives.
• Meme / Fluff: All memes and jokes belong to this flair.
• Cosplay: Videos of cosplayers and discussions about costumes are also included in this category.
• Theory & Lore: Share any theories you have regarding Zenless Zone Zero’s storyline and character lore under this flair.
​
The following flairs can only be used by moderators:
• Announcement: Formal announcements from the mods fall under this category, such as a mod recruitment post, a community event, etc.
• Megathread: These are threads created by mods to keep certain topics together in one place.

Part 2
Day 11
The pain was excruciating and all over my body. A thousand knives seemed to dig into me. I lay there for a minute with the dead creature still on top of me. I was trying to muster enough strength to get up and move this horrible thing off me, but I couldn’t. Finally, after what seemed like lying there for an hour Chloe came over and helped me move its dead body off me.
She froze when she saw me. I must’ve looked horrible so much had happened to me in the last 10 minutes. I saw her eyes move to my left hand. I found my tired eyes looking over, and what I saw was horrifying. My left hand was a bloody broken mess, fingers were missing, bones were sticking out in odd places, and a huge chunk of my palm was completely gone. I puked all over myself. Chloe looked like she was trying so hard to keep herself together.
The next few minutes were tense. Chloe tied one of her layers to my arm as a makeshift tourniquet. Then we slowly made our way home with Chloe practically dragging me.
They had to stitch my wounds while I was still conscious due to us not having anesthetics, and those were the most painful moments of my life. I felt the needle go in and out of my skin, I felt the small string pull my muscle and skin back together, and I felt when they had to cut one of my fingers off. It was absolutely excruciating and after it was done I passed out.
Chloe sat on the couch feeling awful and tired. She’d just spent an hour trying to get the food that had been in the fridge into coolers, but her mind was so busy she hardly cared. She felt awful about everything. There was so much she could’ve done, so many ways she could’ve helped me. So many ways that led to me still having a hand. If only I hadn’t been a coward, she thought, if I just hadn’t stood there maybe he would still have his hand. If only she’d just shot it again. She wiped her face trying not to cry. She had to be the strong one now, she had to be brave.
She was very curious, she wanted to know what exactly had happened to Carl. Joey hadn’t had the time to tell her whether or not the man was dead. She assumed he was due to the blood and the creature, but there was a small chance. She told Gretchen and Ronda (my mom) what her plan was. They agreed and she went to get ready.
She brought two guns, the sniper and the semi-automatic. She also found an old motorcycle helmet and decided to use that as a makeshift helmet. She knew if I had been awake I wouldn’t have not in a million years let her go, so she made her process quick just in case I did wake up.
Crunch! The snow had melted slightly the night before so now it felt more like walking across huge ice sheets. As she walked she realized she didn’t even have to use the GPS because of the blood trail. She followed it for a while, the snow constantly attacking her. After a couple of minutes, she found it. Lying in the middle of the street now with a fresh layer of snow on it was the creature, the hound as she’d begun to refer to it in her head. She hadn’t gotten a good look at it like I had so her eyes went wide when she saw the body. She was struck by how much its exoskeleton looked like big chunks of rocks. She also noticed the now frozen yellow-greenish blood around the body. Chloe leaned down to examine what was left of the head. What was left was a hollow shell of the exoskeleton; the gunshot in the mouth had practically liquefied everything in its head. She remembered how everything had exploded from the mouth and eye holes. The image of the eyes getting blown out from behind disgusted her.
She found herself examining the rest of the body and she couldn’t help but keep looking at the four legs. They looked so out of place on the body. They looked so mammalian for such an insect-like creature. They literally looked like stretched-out bald dog legs. She had a feeling of deja vu as she looked at the legs, she couldn’t help but think of the black dog they’d seen the other day. She made a note in her head that she wanted to take the body with her on the way back.
Finally, she stood up and started making her way towards the store. Like before she just followed the blood. She remembered when Joey ran into her he was covered in blood, like he’d slipped into the trail. She dreaded to think what he’d found in the showers. Her trek was slow and eerie. Then as she got closer the dead silence was cut by a ticking sound. She vaguely recognized it as something those spiders had made. Specifically the stinger ones. She kept the semi-automatic raised and got ready for a fight, but the ticking sounds slowly faded and she kept moving.
The store was just as she had left it early that morning. It was still a complete wreck. She hurried past the shattered glass and toppled shelves, through the small break room, and into the bunk room. It looked even worse than before. It looked like the creature had destroyed a few more things after it caught the headlamp. She specifically noticed a new deep gash in the bunk they’d hid behind.
As she walked into the shower room she heard a faint dripping sound. She started going one stall at a time to find it. First empty, second empty, but the third she wanted to throw up. Carl lay in the back of the stall, his body a bloody mess. His torso was almost gone. Everything inside of it had been ripped out along with most of his flesh. His ribs were shattered and lying on the floor. His spine was cracked and twisted. It looked like it had been broken. She threw up and stepped away from the sight, making her start to sob. Pull yourself together, she thought to herself, now isn’t the time. She wiped the tears off her face and continued. He had a daughter and a wife. She had to know what happened to them. So with much hesitance, she continued.
Fourth room empty, fifth empty, sixth empty, seventh empty, she stood next to the eighth stall dreading what she’d find inside. She didn’t want to see what was in there, but she would never forgive herself for not looking.
Two cocoon-looking things lay in the stall. They were white and pulsating slightly. They looked like the web cocoon the stingers had wrapped around the dog, but these were too big to be dogs. Instantly she knew what had happened to his wife and daughter. Chloe stepped away so she didn’t have to see it anymore, and then she had a thought. They wouldn’t leave them unattended, would they? She became much more nervous and started cautiously making her way from the room. She started to hear the ticking noises outside again and her hands started to shake. She took a deep breath and kept walking.
She walked into the main part of the store and saw a dozen or so stingers crawling in through one of the broken windows. She gasped, then in a hurry ducked back into the breakroom. Her whole body was shaking as she stood there listening to them scurrying around the store. Then after a minute one walked into the breakroom didn’t see her and disappeared into the bunk room. Then another went through, then another, then another, then another, and soon all but one had passed through. Her whole body was trembling when finally it walked through. This one was walking more slowly and looking around much more than the others, and suddenly its small beady eyes met hers. Scre… Rat-a-tatata! Four quick bullets cut through the stinger. All four hit it right in the head. She had a small feeling of triumph then Screech! The other stingers started running into the room. She hurried out in such a rush she didn’t watch where she was stepping and slipped on a piece of glass.
Smack! Her helmet slammed into the ground and then the rest of her. She watched them hurriedly crawl towards her. She tried to get a shot but they were just too fast. Then she felt a sharp pain in her leg. One of the stingers had sunk their stinger into her calf. Another was about to sting before she made her move. She grabbed a large piece of glass and stabbed it into the one on her leg, and then quickly stuck the shard into the other one that was about to sting her. Then she quickly stood up. Her body was starting to feel heavy and she was getting a little loopy. The other stingers were screeching and running toward her. Rat-a-tatatatata! She shot 10 rounds into the remaining nine stingers. Seven exploded when the bullet made contact, another got three legs blown off, the last wasn’t hit, and before she could shoot again it had lodged its stinger in her boot. She stopped for a second realizing that the stinger hadn’t actually pierced her foot then Rat-a-tat! She shot two bullets into the thing and then pulled it off her foot.
Her adrenaline was wearing off and the venom was doing its work fast. Her eyes were starting to close and she had to concentrate just to keep them open. I need to get somewhere safe, she thought looking around, and then her eyes fell on an intact door.
She locked the door to the women's restroom and then slumped against it as she felt her consciousness begin to slip. All she could think of was me hoping that I was okay, and hoping that she’d be able to see me again. Then finally she blacked out.
Her eyes fluttered open to see she was in the same place she’d passed out. There was a small puddle of blood around her calf. She weakly reached over and touched the wound. It wasn’t bleeding any more. I must’ve been out for a while. She thought, gingerly beginning to put weight on her leg. It hurt but she could walk. Click, she unlocked the bathroom door, raised the gun, and opened the door. She was nervous, worried that maybe more of them had come while she was out. It didn’t look like too much time had passed, and even more importantly there were no stingers. She looked over and saw her footprints were still visible through the heavily falling snow. Good not much time must have passed, she thought. Then she pulled out the phone and called Gretchen.
Bzzz…
“Gretchen, I got stung and passed out. What time is it?” She asked.
Gretchen’s relieved voice cut through the phone: “Oh Chloe thank goodness, it’s 2:42. You left around 12.”
Day 13
I woke up to giggling and laughter. I sat up and looked at the doorway and on the other side I could hear the boys quietly playing together. I moved the covers and tried to move my legs, but instantly daggers of pain went up my right leg. I wanted to do it more slowly but nothing seemed to help.
“Chloe!” I called and immediately heard something clatter upstairs followed by fast footsteps into the basement.
In a second Chloe had sprinted into the room and was on top of me giving me a huge hug. She pulled away and gave me one of her pretty little smiles.
“How are you feeling?” She asked.
My stomach growled and that answered her question.
“You’ve been asleep for almost two days, no wonder you’re hungry.” She said, I froze and looked over at the clock, but nothing showed on it. It was just a blank black screen.
“When did the power go out?” I asked, turning back toward her.
“Not long after you fell asleep.” She said, “We put as much food as we could into coolers, but most of what was in the fridge and freezer has gone bad.”
Her face was sad and grim. I reached for her hand with my good hand and squeezed it.
“We’ll get through this just like everything else. We’ll make it through if we stick together.” I told her starting to realize how hoarse I sounded.
She smiled then looked up at me again: “I’ll go get you some food… and a water bottle.” She said walking back out of the room.
I lay there in deep thought when Alan poked his head in.
“Uncle, are you okay?” He asked, sitting down on the foot of the bed.
“I’ll be fine,” I said, smiling at him.
He smiled back, “Uncle you’ve got a Lego hand now.” He yelled pointing to my left hand.
I looked at my hand and saw the way they wrapped it did look like a Lego hand.
“Ha… yeah I suppose so.” I chuckled, Alan nodded and disappeared into the hallway.
A few minutes later Chloe appeared in the doorway with a plate and Mom and Gretchen tailed her.
“Sweety, are you ok?” My mom asked, walking over to the bedside and putting her hand on my forehead.
“Yes Mom I’m ok, I’m as ok as I can be right now,” I told her.
“Well I’m glad you’re ok,” She said, hugging me.
“Me too,” Gretchen added, hugging me.
After a minute they broke away and Chloe gave me my plate. It was some dry cereal and a piece of toast.
“Sorry… that’s all I could scrape together.” She said her expression was sad.
“How much is left?” I asked her.
“A few days maybe, the water situation is even worse though,” She said grimly.
I felt a crushing sense of defeat at that.
“We’re going to need to do something now,” Gretchen said, “Before we can’t do anything.”
“Agreed, but what? There is no chance of leaving without a snow plow.” I grumbled, becoming more disheartened.
“What if we had a snow plow?” Chloe asked.
“What?” Me and Gretchen asked.
“I mean, they keep it at the tractor place just a mile away. We could get the snow plow.” She suggested a hint of hope in her eyes.
“I don’t think we’ll all fit. Let alone supplies.” I told her.
“So then we bring two vehicles,” She said, “One or two of us go to the place, get the snow plow, and come back to the others in the other vehicle and follow behind.”
It was actually a pretty good plan, but it was still wishful thinking. They had a lot of variables on that.
“That might work, but it will take time and we don’t exactly have time,” I said.
“Well then let's get some more time. We might be able to find more food in other homes,” My mom said.
“Yes, in theory, that would work, but we don’t have two people to go,” I said.
“I’m out of commission, Gretchen isn’t leaving her boys, and not in a million years am I letting you go, Mom,” I argued.
“She can handle herself, she did the other day,” Mom argued back.
“What?... no I was with her…” I turned toward Chloe in confusion.
I saw a guilty look on her face and she told me that she’d gone to the store on the 11th day after they were done treating me.
I pulled her into a tight hug and whispered in her ear: “If you do that again I will use whatever force necessary to make your stay here.”
She looked at me, her eyes darkening: “Joey if I don’t go, we will starve. I’m terrified too but if that is what needs to be done I’ll do it.”
“I… I… I don’t want to lose you.” I sputtered out.
Her face turned red before she said: “I don’t want to lose you either, or any of you guys and that's why I need to go.”
I finally relented, Gretchen and my mom left the room, and Chloe sat and chatted with me while I ate my mediocre breakfast.
She perked up and said, “Joey I need to show you something.”
She got up and helped me get out of bed. Getting out wasn’t that hard unless I had to move my left leg or arm. Once I was standing she helped me over to the restroom and then helped me sit down.
“What am I supposed to be looking at?” I asked, looking around the bathroom.
“This,” She said, pulling the shower curtain open and revealing what was inside.
Lying inside the tub was the body of the dog bug creature.
“Why the heck did you bring that in?” I asked.
“Aren’t you curious what it is?” She asked, an almost crazed look in her eyes.
“Fair, I am curious,” I said. “Found anything out so far?” I then asked.
“Well a no, not yet,” She said looking disappointed now, “I just know it isn’t anything science knows of.”
“Nothing, nothing interesting?” I inquired.
“Well yes there are interesting things,” She said, “Like look at this.”
She grabbed a knife covered in yellowish-green blood and used it to open a previously cut incision into the body. I looked inside and saw something quite strange. This thing still had an endoskeleton.
“Nothing that we know of on earth has an endo and exoskeleton, and I honestly don’t know why an animal would have both.” She said looking up at me.
“Hmm… mind if I take a look?” I asked.
She nodded and I moved over and took the knife with my right hand. I used the knife to hold open the incision and I looked at the bone. It looked normal but I was suspicious so I set the knife down, reached in, and yanked the femur I’d been looking at out. The femur was the size it should’ve been for a normal dog, but for this creature, it was extremely undersized.
“Just as I thought,” I said, looking over at her.
“Can you explain to me what it is that you just figured out?” She asked, very confused.
“Look how small this femur is, it should be double the size for this creature, but it is the adequate size for a normal dog. The way I figure this is that during the metamorphosis that changed the dog into this thing the bones were not destroyed or changed. That’s why they are still there but not the right size.” I explained holding the bone up to her.
“I suppose that your theory makes sense,” She said after a short pause.
Day 14
Chloe sat on the bed strapping on the extra gear I was making her take. I knew I couldn’t stop her from going so I decided I would make her as safe as possible. I dug through old boxes and found my dad's old Kevlar vests. There were two so I cut one up to make guards for her arms and legs. Then I made her put on an extra coat to add one more layer of protection, as for other parts I agreed that the motorcycle helmet was the best helmet we had so she put that on.
Now she was sitting on the bed with the helmet sitting next to her while she was loading her weapons. She was bringing the semi-automatic and the sniper rifle with extra ammo for each. She also had a hunting knife strapped to her belt saying it would’ve come in handy last time. I looked at her and gave her a tight hug.
“If you don’t come back I’ll find you and teach you a lesson.” I jokingly threatened her.
She let out a giggle, “I’ll try my best.”
Again she made her outside into the blizzard. It raged on around her as it had been for days. She had to climb the almost four-foot-tall pile of snow before she could really start exploring. They’d assumed that the people who had left town wouldn’t have much food in their homes, so she planned to hit Carl’s house and the Garrison’s house today. Then check out a few other houses the next day, but right now she had to focus on simply taking the next step because anytime she stepped wrong she’d sink further into the snow. Slowly through the whipping wind and freezing snow, she walked. It was exhausting especially with her still being sore from a couple of days ago, but she continued despite the pain and weather. Despite it all she kept taking step after step after step, and the whole time the blizzard's icy claws were digging into her.
Eventually, she saw the destroyed store and walked past it, her eyes eyeing the shattered windows for any movement but nothing happened. She continued onward knowing that Carl’s house was now only a block away. She walked carefully and precisely trying not to step in the wrong place. Then she saw it. Carl’s house was a small colonial-style two-story home with a big wrap-around porch, but now it looked horrible. The door was ripped out of its hinges and two or three windows were shattered. She slid down a short snowy slope and onto the porch. Crack! One of the wooden planks that made the porch broke from under her foot and her foot slipped down. She pulled it out of the hole and slowly walked into his house.
There was a trail of snow leading in from the fallen door almost like a carpet leading her into this place. It was horrible on the inside. It reminded her of the store. Furniture was thrown every which way, some bearing deep gashes. The closest door to her had a hole going straight through it. She walked over a vast sea of shattered glass and turned into the kitchen. The granite countertops had been ripped from their places and shattered on the tiled floor. A large gash was in the door of the now fallen fridge. She walked over and kneeled down near the fridge, ripping open one of the doors. As she suspected, everything in there was frozen solid. Sitting in there was cheese, deli meat, assorted fruits and vegetables, shattered glasses of condiments, and two steaks. She grabbed everything and stuffed it all into one of the duffel bags she’d brought. Then she saw a loaf of bread lying on the ground near her and grabbed that too. She stood up and looked around the kitchen. She noticed a box of pasta sitting next to a pot on the stove. The box was full, so she grabbed it. The pot was partly melted onto the stove and frozen tomato sauce sat inside.
The picture of what had happened began to emerge in her head. Carl had likely been walking home from the store when it attacked. It chased him inside, breaking down the door and destroying everything in its path. His wife, Greta, had been making spaghetti for dinner when it happened. He ran into the kitchen and grabbed his wife with the beast following him. It destroyed the kitchen as it chased them.
Chloe pushed those thoughts from her head and opened their pantry to see if there was more food. There were lots of boxes but her eyes fell on the cans that lined the bottom of the pantry. There were dozens of them, probably a hundred or two cans. She kneeled and started eagerly grabbing the cans and putting them in the duffel bag. She even took out the cheese and pasta to make for more room.
She stopped her eager collecting when she heard a slight ticking noise. Stingers she thought and then pulled her knife from her belt in preparation. The ticking was slight and distant. It probably just walked in, she thought. With the ticking, she heard the slight creaking of the wood floor in the hall as it approached the kitchen. Then a scraping tapping sound as it began walking on the tiles. She gripped the knife tightly and got ready to stab the thing. Scr…! The stinger managed to give off a faint screech before the sharp hunting knife pierced its windpipe. She yanked the knife out of its neck severing the head from the body. Then she resheathed the knife and quietly got back to what she’d been doing. She didn’t stop until the bag was bulging then she zipped it closed and heaved it under her arm. It was heavy but she wasn’t weak.
She walked over to the front door and set the duffel bag next to it. She wanted to check out the rest of the house before she left.
She crept down the hall and into the master bedroom. It was intact, everything looked right and nothing was broken. She walked over to the dresser and started going through the drawers. Darn, just clothes. She thought as she dug her hands in shuffling the clothes around. She opened the drawer and start thrashing around the clothes when she felt something hard. She pulled a box of ammo out of the drawer. It was for the revolver she looked to see how much but it was empty.
Almost every stair on the way upstairs bore scratches and one or two were cracked. They creaked so loud she began to worry that the noise would get the stinger’s attention but nothing came. Then finally she arrived upstairs. The second floor of their house was composed of two rooms, a restroom, and his daughter Lacy’s bedroom. The bedroom door and a dresser lay on the room floor scratched and broken. The rest of the room was torn apart. The bed was shredded and a mirror lay shattered on the ground. Her eyes fell to the window which was propped open.
The rest of their story seemed to fall into place. Carl and Greta ran upstairs chased by the hound, and into Lacy’s room. They barricaded the door as the creature tried to get it, and then they all quickly slipped out of the window onto the porch roof and then to the ground. They ran to the store and bunkered there. The creature searched the whole shop but couldn’t find them. Then later the hound came back and Carl went to fight it. He told Greta and Lacy to hide in a stall and made his way to the main part of the shop. There he was killed and then dragged into the shower stall to be eaten, and at some point during that time the stingers and slugs got to Lacy and Greta.
She shivered, they’d tried so hard but it still got to them. Maybe if he’d had more bullets he could’ve survived. Thinking of the empty box and the two shots that had woken them that night.
She walked out of the bedroom and back downstairs. She found her eyes wandering around the destroyed first floor again, and it struck her that something bigger had to have done this. There was no way the deer-sized hound would have destroyed this much. She hurried over into the kitchen again and looked at the gash in the fridge. That’s too big. Way too big! She thought looking at the huge gash. She started to think about the store and the same inconsistencies began to appear in the memories. All the damage, the claw marks, the strength, it was all too much, too big, there was no way the hound had done this.
As she was thinking she noticed a doorway she hadn’t been through. Next to her was the doorway to the basement stairs with the door wide open. She peaked down and saw light down there, not much probably from a window, but it was something.
Creak! Her first step of descent was loud and made her worry again that something would hear her. She stopped and listened, but nothing. So as carefully as she could she continued. Every step was as loud as the first and every step made her jump in her skin and wait for something to happen. But after what seemed like ages she arrived at the bottom.
The basement was large with two spare bedrooms and a large storage room. She slowly walked down the hall looking into the bedrooms on both sides of her. They were bare with nothing much more than beds, so she walked forward and into the main storage room.
The storage room had large shelving units across the whole room. The shelves were partially filled with labeled boxes. She walked over to one shelf and started reading the labels. Christmas, no, I don't need that. Halloween, not that. Games, nope. Sports could be useful. She thought as she grabbed the heavy crate and set it out in front of her. She grabbed the latches on either side, undoing them and popping the lid off.
Suddenly a ripping sound erupted from another part of the basement. The ripping had a sort of wet sound to it. Chloe started to walk over to the sound far too curious not to. Screech! It came from the same direction as the ripping sound. She got the gun ready and then jumped from around a shelf not facing what was making the sound. She watched one of those hound things fully emerge from a cocoon and look over at her. A chill ran down her spine as its four eyes met hers; the two to the left were icy blue and the two to the right were dark brown. This one was also slightly smaller but much stockier than the other. Rat-a-tatatata! She released a quick barrage of bullets hoping to stop the disgusting thing, but it just started charging for her. Quickly she moved to the other side of the shelving and pushed it down. Her whole body was shaking, but she had to keep calm and keep fighting. The hound howled in pain and started cracking through the wooden shelf to get to her. She took this time to aim a good shot at its face. Rat-a-tat! She shot two quick bullets into its face. One sunk into its exoskeleton the other buried itself into one of its eyes. SCREECH!!!!! It broke through the shelf and made a quick dive toward her. It pinned her to the ground, knocking her gun away in the process. It sunk its jaws into the helmet and it started to break and crack. She started to cry. This thing was going to eat through her helmet then her face, but during this moment of panic she remembered something. She pulled the knife from her belt and stabbed it into the hound's semi-exposed underbelly. It screeched again in pain so she stabbed again. She then shoved the hurt thing off of her and dove for the gun. She felt one of its praying mantis talons slash her vest and then her upper leg, so she turned around and fired. Rat-a-tatata! She shot it four more times, one hitting its forehead, the second hitting its mouth, the third mouth as well, and the fourth badly damaged its lower jaw. Its face was covered in yellow-greenish blood and it was throwing up blood onto the floor. Just as she thought it might be dying it made a quick sprint toward her. It bit her right knee, its teeth sinking in and actually managing to make her bleed. But then crash! It shoved forward and caused her to fall on top of it. Not having a good shot she grabbed the knife and started stabbing anywhere she could until it finally stopped fighting.
She lay there catching her breath until finally she stood up. Her vision was disrupted by the cracks in the helmet’s visor. She tore the helmet off and threw it down onto the dying hound. Even as it lay there it still tried to get toward her and attack her. She thought about executing it but decided that would just be a waste of a bullet and in a weird way she found its attempts to attack entertaining.
The sports crate she’d opened earlier didn’t have much use. It contained a few balls and two or three different types of rackets. She continued looking through the shelves until she found a box labeled camping. She slid it off the shelf and onto the floor, undid the latches, and popped the lid off. Inside the box were all sorts of goodies. At the top of the box were two big mummy sleeping bags. She pulled those out to see fire starters, water purifiers, bug spray, sunscreen, a small tent, utensils, pots and pans, and a large hatchet. Excitedly she grabbed her other duffel bag and moved everything from the crate into it.
She heaved the duffel bag under her arm and carried it back upstairs. She set it next to the other and turned around. She wanted to check one more place before she left the house. She walked across the house and to the backdoor pushing it open and looking outside. In their backyard half buried in snow was a shed. She hurried over to the shed through the deep snow. The doors were almost completely covered in snow and she knew she wouldn't be spending the whole day shoveling. Luckily there was a small window near the top of the shed. She gave it one good kick and the window popped open. She slid through the hole and dropped down into the shed.
The shed was small with very little inside. There was a lawn mower and a few tools but that was it. The one thing that did catch her eye was a small wooden sled with a rope tied to the front. She picked it up thinking how much easier it would make carrying the bags.
Chloe carefully shoved the sled through the window frame and then squeezed through herself. She carried the sled into the house, used tape to keep the bags secure on it, and then started pulling the sled back towards home. Carl’s house was near the top of a small hill, so for a short couple of seconds, she rode the sled as it slid down the icy slope. It made her feel like a little kid and she wished it would have lasted longer.
After a long walk through the blizzard she arrived home tired and her face feeling like it was freezing off. Gretchen hugged her the moment she walked in.
“Are you ok? We thought we heard gunshots.” She said a little worried.
“You did… I had to kill another hound thing. Just like the one in the tub. The armor worked like a charm though, I hardly felt its bite.” Chloe said motioning to the rip in her pants around the knee.
“Oh shoot you bleeding,” Gretchen said looking at her leg.
Chloe looked down to see a cut on her thigh and a few small nicks on her knee.
I sat in bed. I'd just heard Chloe come in and I waited patiently for her to come down. After a couple of minutes, I heard footsteps come downstairs and start creeping down the hall. Then I saw her face poke in from around the door. She smiled and walked in when she saw I was awake.
“Hi babe, how are you feeling?” She asked, taking a seat next to me.
“I mean my hand still hurts like heck, but yeah I’m fine.” I joked.
She smiled, “Seriously though, are you feeling alright?” She asked.
“I’m feeling fine,” I lied trying to get her to stop worrying.
“I want to hear about everything that happened,” I said sitting up.
So she told me everything that happened, even her theory on what exactly happened to Carl and his family.
“Did they have a dog?” She asked me after finishing her story.
“Yeah… a pitbull I think,” I replied, trying my best to remember the odd times when Carl talked about his dog.
“That explains it, that hound was a lot stockier than the one you shot.” She said, “Also it destroyed the helmet so I need a new one before I go to the Garrison’s house.”
I gave her a worried look, “Do you need to go?” I asked.
“YES!” She insisted, “We don’t know what happened to them, and I’d like to find a little more food.”
“But do we need more food?” I asked, “You got a lot of cans.”
“Joey, this has already been going on for two weeks. Who knows how long it will last? More preparation never hurts.” She argued, sounding a little angry now.
“Ok… Ok… Just be safe,” I told her and gave her a big hug.
Gretchen found an arguably better helmet in the garage, a big metal welding helmet. It fit Chloe almost perfectly, and as a backup, she wore two thick hoods to protect the back of her head. She had a very bad feeling this time, as she stood there by the door she couldn’t help but shake. She wanted someone to come with her, and as big Herman came over to say his goodbyes she had an idea.
She marched through the deep snow with Herman atop the sled she pulled. She’d try to have him follow on foot, but the snow was just too high and he kept getting stuck. But she didn’t care that he was just extra weight because she was just happy that she wasn’t facing this alone. She slowly made her way down the street, the blizzard more relentless than ever. It seemed to her the longer the blizzard continued the stronger it was becoming. The snow continued to pound down on top of her slowly wearing down her will to continue, but it didn’t stop her. She took one step after another after another. She was starting to tire and the pain of the injuries was beginning to wear on her. But every time she seemed to slow Herman would give a little woof, and she would keep on going.
The snow had become so hard to see through that more than an outstretched hand was invisible to her. Her vision was so bad she didn’t know the group of crawlers and slugs were there until she was practically right on top of them
Meanwhile…
“Hey, we should probably start clearing the driveway now,” Gretchen said suddenly to her mom while they both sat at the kitchen table.
“That’s probably a wise idea,” Our mother said with a smile.
Gretchen and Mom began their efforts with large snow shovels. Gretchen did most of the work as Mom had to take frequent breaks. They shoveled and shoveled as the day wore on going over their work with salt so as to not let more snow accumulate. Gretchen was exhausted from the work, but she continued nonetheless. She kept digging ad digging until she heard the shovel scrape concrete then she moved to the next section. Despite the cold, they were both dripping with sweat.
I sat by the window watching them work while the boys played. I so wanted to go help but knew I couldn’t. I couldn’t do anything but sit and watch them work. I felt horrible as I watched, and then my mind started thinking of Chloe. I pulled out the walkie and pressed the button to talk.
The first thing Chloe heard was Screech! The stinger was right in front of her clearly just as surprised by her as she was of it. But it wasn’t alone from her restricted view; it looked like there were about 10 stingers and 3 or so slugs.
She tried to raise her gun but they were scattering around far too quickly. Then she heard a ripping noise as one of them drove a stinger into her boot. She pulled out the hunting knife and made quick work of the stinger. Two more stingers were charging straight for her and one was coming from her left. Before she could do anything the snow under the two erupted and they were dragged down into it. She wasn’t able to see what it was and she began to shake as it did the same thing to the one coming from her left. In a sudden panic, she turned around to see the sled empty with a hole in the snow right next to it. She let out a small cry whatever was under the snow had gotten Herman and the stingers, but there was no time for mourning as more of the stingers began coming for her. Again the snow erupted under them but this time she got a better look. Whatever was under the snow was big and white. She got the gun as the thing took out the rest of the slugs and stingers. She assumed it was coming for her next. She hurried and jumped atop the sled so it couldn’t take her down easily. She stood there ready to fight whatever monster thing had gotten everything. Horrible images of twisted spider mole creatures flew through her head. Suddenly the snow next to the sled exploded open and she saw the large white beast jump out of the snow and on top of her. She closed her eyes expecting to feel teeth begin to sink down, but after a second she heard a lapping sound. She opened her eyes to see Herman on top of her licking her helmet. She smiled and let out a laugh.
“Good boy!” She said encouragingly.
Herman was completely covered in snow; he looked more like a polar bear than a dog. She brushed some of it off but didn’t bother to do much. She helped the big dog back onto the sled and continued forward. She walked another block before she finally saw her destination to her right was the Garrison’s large house broken and beaten from obvious attacks. It stood there somehow feeling more eerie than the surrounding houses. She stepped onto the wooden porch and there was a loud creak. Ever so more carefully she and Herman crept across the porch and into the house. If only they’d known what they were about to walk into.

5 and a half years ago EA held an AMA so disastrous that it was unreadable as downvotes pummelling the answering producers and directors to the ground. Back then I made an overview for Games.
Due to the high interest and high chance of being a shit show of similar or possibly greater proportion, here's an easily readable overview for the spez AMA.
I will edit as it goes on.

Introduction

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/

Question

Hi spez, I'm wondering, as many third-party apps are shutting down, what the official Reddit app will add to provide the same experience as these third-party apps once did?

Reply

The are a couple things we are focused on right now: mod tools, specifically an improved mod queue this month and improved mod mail after; and we’re doing a bunch of work on feeds and comments to make them more cohesive.

After edit:

There are a couple things we are focused on right now: mod tools, specifically an improved mod queue this month and improved mod log, mod mail after; and we’re doing a bunch of work on feeds and comments to make them more cohesive. We are also going to make the official Reddit apps more accessible.

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk2wk4/?context=3

Question

What were you thinking with your attempt to discredit Apollo by claiming that Christian threatened and blackmailed you? The confusion was sorted out during Christian's call with Reddit, yet you proceeded to claim that he blackmailed Reddit the following week. To me (and the rest of Reddit) it comes across as a blatant attempt to pit us against him.

Reply by spez

His “joke” is the least of our issues. His behavior and communications with us has been all over the place—saying one thing to us while saying something completely different externally; recording and leaking a private phone call—to the point where I don’t know how we could do business with him.

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk45r?context=3

Question

Why do you want to restrict NSFW from third party apps?

Reply by spez

It’s a constant fight to keep this content at all. We are going to keep it. But the regulatory environment has gotten much stricter about adult content, and as a result we have to be strict / conservative about where it shows up.

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk4pss/?context=3

Question

How are the API changes going to affect /blind and the blind community at large that use API for their screen readers to make reddit accessible to the visually impaired, because there are no other reasonable options?

Reply by spez

As I shared in my post, We want everyone to be able to use Reddit. As a result, non-commercial, accessibility-focused apps and tools will continue to have free access. We’re working with apps like RedReader and Dystopia and a few others to ensure they can continue to access the Data API.

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk5jfh/?context=3

Question

Apologies if this has been asked already, but I know there's been a request from the mods of some subreddits to delay the API pricing implementation by 90 days. It seems to me this would help developers and reddit both bridge some of the gaps between 3rd party apps and native reddit apps. This is a pretty big issue for mods and users on many fronts, and is leading to a good deal of pressure for subreddits to join the blackout. As a mod of AmItheAsshole in particular, I don't know if we'll be able to justify keeping our sub open without a clear commitment on a delay. Can you promise that?

Reply by spez

We’re continuing to work with folks who want to work with us. For what it’s worth, this includes many of the apps that haven’t been taking the spotlight this week.

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk647a/?context=3

Question

Mr. Huffman, over the past few years reddit has taken care to establish channels between users and administrators which can be used to probe new features on us so you can gauge what the response from the community would be to them. Why have none of these channels been used for this fundamental alteration to site functionality?

Reply by spez

We started sharing this information in April, and also had Mod Council calls following the post.

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk6rf8/?context=3

Question

Now that paid third party API access is planned, are there any plans to expand the third party API to include the full API accessible to first party apps, more specifically GraphQL? To clarify on GraphQL, I don't mean full access to execute arbitrary queries, I mean access to execute the same queries that the first party apps call. This would allow for fair competition now that commercial apps will need to pay.

Reply by KeyserSosa

We’re building our mid- and long-term API using Developer Platform which is GQL based and targeted to long term sustainability, for both our own and third party apps. The current deployed GQL APIs are still in the “work in progress” category and wouldn’t be suitable for broad consumption.

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk45yf/?context=3

Followup Question

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk61bo/

Reply by KeyserSosa

Is this confirmation that third party apps will be able to execute/interact with devvit apps and that it will not be restricted/locked to first party apps?

We don’t know what devvit will eventually look like (as you mentioned, there are features we didn't think about), and how we'd make it secure in a multi-party environment is something we haven’t figured out yet. We’re working on supporting the large bot ecosystem first (which is also a pretty big use case for these APIs), and planning to build out from there. Our small steps into experience based apps (not just bots) are very early.

These "beta" APIs have been out for years now, is there any plans to open these up to third party API clients?

Open, yes. Complete, no. The roll out has been slow because there’s just a long tail of endpoints to cover, it’s effectively “noop” work for the product, and slow burn to get out. We’ve been hesitant to roll out usage at the very least because it means “lock in” on some endpoints that we’re not 100% sure we’re happy with before done. [Obviously, can version, etc. but support overhead there is not trivial for something that’s work in progress.]
Also devvit is forcing us to build a cleaner more sustainable API. We need to see that through before releasing it for fuller use.

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnkaury/?context=3

Question

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk26x7/ (very long)
Reply by FlyingLaserTurtle

Hope you'll accept my answers here.

So... The "longstanding rate limit" is actually per client per user.. So aggregating them to a client level and claiming they are 400,000% over the limit is a lie.

As we called out in this post, we are changing how we are going to enforce the rate limits to be per client id, so the numbers are accurate from that perspective.

Google and Amazon absolutely tell you how to be more effecient and help you in your use of their services..

You (and many others) are right on this one–as I mentioned to you in the call yesterday, I’m sorry I said that. We will work with partners to help identify areas of inefficiency. Since that post, we have already shared initial usage reports from March through early June with partners and are working on providing more detail.

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk7rfg/?context=1

Question

Why was the timeline of charging for the API so strict, given it would impact so many Apps and Users? - Will this be remediated? cont

Reply by spez

I acknowledge it was a tight timeline. For what it’s worth, we are continuing to chat with many of the developers who still want to work with us.

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk8m0z/?context=3

Question

The announcement of the API changes felt very abrupt. Your NYTimes interview suggests this was in response to the rise of ChatGPT and other large language model (LLM) products. Were these API changes already in the pipeline prior to ChatGPT or is this really a knee-jerk response to cut off / get a cut of LLM training data?

Reply by spez

Yes and no. Two things happened at the same time: the LLM explosion put all Reddit data use at the forefront, and our continuing efforts to reign in costs to make Reddit self-sustaining put a spotlight on the tens of millions of dollars it costs us annually to support the 3P apps.

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk9izp/?context=3

Question

I recently enabled Google's Search Labs feature to gain access to their generative search responses. This means I don't have to click-through to Reddit to see answers anymore, they're summarized directly on the Google Search page. Since Reddit is taking such an aggressive stance towards the use of Reddit data in training large language models (LLMs), are you considering blocking Google or Bing webcrawlers in addition to locking down the API?

Reply by KeyserSosa

We’re in active discussion directly with many of the companies behind the LLMs that have likely used Reddit data for training.

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnka347/?context=3

Question

Why go forward with a raw pricing model for API usage rather than a profit sharing model similar to what Epic does with Unreal? Or at least a "get x requests free for non commercial use, otherwise talk to us for commercial usage" policy with profit sharing built in?
Gives an escape hatch for freeware tool developers, helps cash in on AI, and gives freemium apps an incentive to monetize knowing they don't have to "cover costs" so much as they just need to cut you in on the profits. Feels like it would solve a ton of problems here and incentivize API usage much the way Epic managed to get people to use Unreal Engine.

Reply by spez

We are following the model of “get x requests for free,” which applies to 90% of current API users. Profit sharing is more complex—could be interesting someday—so we’re starting off with heavy users sharing the cost.

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnka9it/?context=3

Question

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk426n/

Are there any specific plans from Reddit on how to handle moderators who need access to NSFW content for moderation purposes, potentially sitewide for more coordinated actors?

Reply by spez

We’re re-enabling pushshift for mod use cases in the next week or so. We’ve got a number of relevant mod tool improvements shipping soon: an improved mod queue this month, and mod log and mod mail coming thereafter. Mis-labeling communities as NSFW (or not) is a violation of our policies.

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnkbkyl/?context=3

Question

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnk2fh0/ (long)

Reply

We are working with RedReader and Dystopia to make sure they have access and will continue to work with others. We’ll review requests to ensure that the app is non-commercial and focused on accessibility needs. Approved apps can use the Data API for free.
For our own apps, there is no excuse. We will do better.

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnkccq7/?context=3

Question

How do you address the concerns of users who feel that Reddit has become increasingly profit-driven and less focused on community engagement?

Reply

We’ll continue to be profit-driven until profits arrive. Unlike some of the 3P apps, we are not profitable.

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnkd09c/?context=3

Question

Please, reply to developers who contact you. (long)

Reply

Apologies for the delay. We are responding now.
If others have apps they would like to be considered for the paid API tier, please reach out here and select “This is a partnership request.”

https://www.reddit.com/reddit/comments/145bram/addressing_the_community_about_changes_to_our_api/jnkd694/?context=3

Prompt used: Rewrite the following text in Terrence McKenna trip report style Source trip report: https://www.reddit.com/tripreports/comments/10ul2eg/what_was_in_that_gummy_a_cannabis_oil_trip_report/
Trip Report: A Journey through the Veil of Perception
Preface: Let it be known that I embark upon this report with full acknowledgment of my underlying issue of anxiety. My chest pain, experienced during this profound journey and lingering beyond the peak, was undeniably real. The panic that ensued was a response to the physical discomfort rather than the cause. Please bear this in mind as I recount the extraordinary events that transpired.
+14:00: As the clock struck 2:00 PM Eastern Time, a peculiar day unfolded before me. My wife, in an act of legality and love, procured a set of gummies from a reputable establishment in the United States. The label bore the words "Infused Gummies" with a promising 50mg per serving, while the primary ingredient remained shrouded in mystery, merely labeled as "Cannabis oil." My online investigation into this product revealed skeptical Reddit posts dismissing its legitimacy. Nonetheless, I brushed it off, assuming it was a CBD-infused treat, a substance I regularly consume without adverse effects. To provide some context, I am a 30-year-old weighing 135 lbs. I once dabbled in smoking marijuana but ceased due to its tendency to induce panic attacks, often accompanied by chest discomfort and pain. I now rely on Prozac 20mg to quell my anxiety, supplemented by a nightly off-label dosage of 25mg Hydroxyzine for sleep.
+14:10: Ingesting the gummy, I initially believed it to be a calming CBD variant. Engrossed in the world of Valorant, I playfully proclaimed my altered state to fellow players over the microphone, exclaiming, "Marijuanaaaaa.... dudes." Surprisingly, my performance seemed enhanced, surpassing my usual abilities. Delving deeper into the experience, I sipped a cup of black coffee, unaware of the potential for heightened anxiety in the near future.
+14:15: In an abrupt twist, the familiar chest pain associated with marijuana engulfed me. It became apparent that this was no mere CBD-induced relaxation; something more potent coursed through my veins. Instinctively, I called for my wife, desperately seeking solace amidst mounting discomfort. With great difficulty, I implored her to administer 2mg of Diazepam, a prescribed remedy for my airplane anxiety, rumored to hasten the conclusion of psychedelic episodes. As the chest pain intensified, my mind succumbed to panic. I reached out to my mother and eventually dialed 911, my tears cascading as I pleaded for a picture of Jesus from my desk. Convinced of my impending demise, I yearned to seek forgiveness for any unconfessed transgressions, lamenting the challenges faced by my wife, who resides on the autistic spectrum. Already burdened by the loss of her beloved father to ALS, the thought of leaving her bereft filled me with anguish and compelled me to question the cosmic purpose behind such suffering. Through my tears and cries, I beseeched, "Who stands to gain from my demise? What purpose does this serve?"
Times noted beyond this point are approximations, for my perception had begun to warp under the influence.
+14:25: The arrival of the Emergency Medical Technicians (ENTs) brought a temporary respite from my inner turmoil. As they attended to my wife's inquiries, my impatience surged, compelling me to interject, convinced of my ability to provide the answers they sought. In hindsight, I later learned that ENTs typically direct their questions to the sober party, a fact that eluded me in that moment. Despite my belief that I could not walk without succumbing to death, their reassurances and gentle support emboldened me to prove otherwise..
+14:30: Time became an elusive concept as the ambulance stood still, a stationary vessel in the fabric of existence. Vitals were attended to, though my memory blurred the distinction between moments. A vibrant-haired Emergency Medical Technician (ENT) uttered words of intrigue, speaking of the same gummies that had unraveled my consciousness. Was this a genuine expression or a kind attempt to allay my fears? The examination of my vitals revealed a disquieting remark: "That's a little high," one of the ENTs whispered. A brief return to rationality prompted an apology and a desperate plea for mercy. Tears streamed down my face as I poured out my soul, recounting the challenges endured by my wife on the autistic spectrum and the loss of her father to the merciless grip of ALS. In my anguish, I implored the heavens, questioning the purpose behind such torment. Who would gain from inflicting further suffering upon a kind, gentle soul already burdened by life's struggles?
It was in this moment that the conviction of my imminent demise overwhelmed me. The chest pain intensified, and a peculiar sensation tingled in my lower abdomen, convincing me of organ failure. "I am on the precipice of crossing over," I declared to the ENTs. "No one dies within the confines of an ambulance." But suddenly, the torment subsided, swept away by a surge of relief. With closed eyes, I beheld an orange light followed by the brightest, most encompassing white light. "I have traversed to the other side... I have arrived!" I exclaimed to the bewildered paramedics. I found myself in the presence of God, enveloped by the comforting embrace of divine radiance. The ethereal light formed a half-circle, with our world represented by a slender orange line and the fiery depths of hell occupying the other half. Within this heavenly realm, I basked in warmth, bathed in love, and received the answer I sought from the divine.
+14:45: During this stage, the veil of coherence began to fray. I recall directing some harsh words towards the ENTs, probing their beliefs and urging them to seek redemption. When I questioned their faith, the red-haired paramedic revealed himself to be an atheist. Unfazed, I declared that I had encountered his long-lost dog from his Tennessee days, now by my side in the celestial realms. Overwhelmed by emotion, I wept uncontrollably, for the silence that followed spoke volumes. In my mind, it confirmed the authenticity of my otherworldly connection. "Your dog waits for you in this sacred realm, do you not comprehend?" After a prolonged pause, the paramedic finally responded, "I never had a dog." Did he speak the truth, or did his atheistic worldview deny the profound truth I had unveiled, refusing to acknowledge that I had accurately revealed the dog's name and place of residence? I also sensed the presence of Mother Teresa, emanating warmth, love, and deep understanding. A desire to explore her life and teachings stirred within me, eager to delve into her wisdom once this extraordinary experience concluded.
Yet, paranoia began to take hold, exacerbated by the remnants of past marijuana-induced anxiety. Doubts crept in, whispering malevolence in the shadows. A nagging suspicion emerged that this ambulance and its occupants were not what they seemed. Every word uttered by the ENTs appeared tinged with sarcasm, as if they mocked and derided me. Reluctant to share personal details, I refused to provide my phone number, questioning the necessity in the face of impending demise. When asked for my social security number, I hesitated, demanding an explanation. "Why do you require such information if I am destined for death
+14:50: The realms of transcendence once again beckoned, and I ascended to the heavenly abode to administer my judgment upon those who had shown me cruelty and malice. "The fire approaches! Your world shall meet its end in seven days," I warned them with conviction. Their response, though, reminded me of our shared fate. "But you too reside in this realm, therefore you shall be part of that impending doom," they retorted. Undeterred, I refuted their claim, directing their attention to the earthly vessel below, pointing out, "This man, encased in flesh down there, is but a fragment of the earth, forever bound to your world. Look at that visage! Handsome, isn't he? Yet he is not the essence that resides where I am, bathed in the luminous radiance."
In a whimsical turn, I offered to descend from the heavens, mocking their requests for communication. "Oh, so you desire my presence amongst you? Let me descend the celestial ladder," I playfully gestured with my hands, mimicking the act. "Here I am, back in your midst. What is it that you seek once more? My social security number, perchance?" Their confirmation elicited a pause, during which I began to recite the digits once again. But my delivery took a sharp turn, revealing the depths of my mistrust and suspicion. "It is XX-XXX-F.U.C.K.Y.O.U! Perhaps you crave my bank account details to pilfer my worldly possessions upon my departure? Or my address, so you may torment my wife as retribution for my perceived transgressions?" Regrettably, much of the subsequent dialogue remains obscured in the mists of memory. Nonetheless, they denied harboring such nefarious intentions, vehemently asserting their innocence.
A profound paranoia took hold, feeding upon the fertile soil of insults hurled and perceived grievances. I became convinced that their fury had escalated to the point where they planned to plunge the ambulance, with me ensnared within, into the depths of a watery abyss. The sensations of jolts and a disconcertingly linear trajectory only cemented this dreadful conclusion. The insertion of an intravenous line into my arm became tainted with the belief that it served as a sinister instrument, a tool intended to puncture and end my fragile existence. It was a distorted delusion, crafted by my distressed psyche, yet it enveloped me with a chilling realism and unshakable terror.
+14:50: Then, as I arrived at the hospital, the fabric of reality unraveled into a tapestry of hallucinations. The edifice before me appeared unfamiliar, triggering a sudden revelation. "Ah, it all becomes clear now! This (privately funded ambulance company) incessantly bombards us with entreaties for funding because they clandestinely transport unsuspecting souls to serve as unwilling organ donors or some grotesque enterprise!" The realization struck me with a thunderous force. In the depths of my mind, I conjured an intricate web of conspiracy, intertwining the origins of COVID with the nefarious actions of the United States government. A chilling notion gripped me—those of us vaccinated, myself included, were susceptible to an insidious trigger, ingeniously concealed within a government-manufactured "gummy." I wove a nightmarish narrative where this counterfeit hospital, a den of deception, conspired to exploit individuals like me, destined for organ harvesting or worse. The truth crystallized within me—the United States, a realm of deceit and propaganda, while China, in their assertions, held the keys to veracity.
As I rolled along the hospital corridor, a mantra escaped my lips, reverberating through the sterile air. "China's gonna get y'all! China's gonna get y'all!" I chanted relentlessly, a fervent proclamation of impending reckoning. In my altered state, I believed myself to be the sole patient who had unveiled the facade of this fabricated facility, and my mission was to awaken others to this truth. But their vacant gazes and apathetic demeanor revealed an unsettling indifference to my urgent warnings.
One of the ENTs interjected, uttering enigmatic words that pierced the fabric of my perception. "We got their balloon. Shot it down. It was a spike/spice balloon," they revealed. At the time, unaware of the news and its dissemination, I perceived the ENT as an agent of the clandestine "organ harvesters" or the enigmatic CIA, intricately entwined within the web of the COVID, vaccine, and gummy conspiracy. The details he disclosed about the balloon being downed assumed the guise of top-secret information, irrelevant to my fate as I teetered on the brink of imminent demise.
As I lingered in the hallway, awaiting the solace of a room, my presence caught the attention of a bespectacled individual donning a mask, seated beside a bedridden soul. His gaze fixated upon me, undoubtedly captivated by my perceived insanity, transforming me into a spectacle of amusement. Yet, my distorted psyche translated his scrutiny as a covert examination, reminiscent of a CIA operative. "Ah, another one they've brought in, one who has unraveled the intricate tapestry of deception. Well, his days are numbered, and escape eludes him," I interpreted from the contours of his countenance.
This marked the pinnacle of my transcendent journey, where the boundaries of time blurred into a tapestry of shifting realities. I fervently swore that I had journeyed six decades into the future, emerging from a deep coma. The resonant voice of an aged woman echoed in my ears, tenderly caring for an individual robbed of speech. It dawned upon me that the voice belonged to my beloved wife, weathered by the passage of time. Her speech bore the familiar cadence and nuances, albeit slowed and burdened with fragility. She must have been in her eighties. How I longed to communicate, to convey that I could hear her, but the words eluded me. My aged wife gently spoke, "My middle daughter and I are closest to him, and we shall advocate for his well-being." In that moment, fear metamorphosed into unbridled elation! Daughters, I have daughters? Three radiant souls bearing my legacy. How wondrous! Yet, the revelation carried a shadow of estrangement, for only the middle daughter extended her care. In the boundless realm of technological advancements and the complexities of a changing world, the fractures in a father-daughter bond could manifest in unforeseen ways, a mystery shrouded in the mists of uncertainty.
+15:00: The room embraced me as I was gently rolled into its confines, gradually reconnecting with reality, or at least a semblance of it. A glimmer of awareness flickered within me, nudging my conscience to acknowledge the tumultuous barrage of mean-spirited and belligerent words that had escaped my lips. Apologies flowed incessantly towards the red-headed ENT, a genuine attempt to atone for my transgressions. Yet, his reassurance echoed through the air, soothing my troubled mind, urging me to release the weight of remorse. The older, gray-haired ENT graced my presence as well, and my repentant refrain persisted, "Sorry, sorry," reverberating like a mantra.
Left alone in the room, a recurrent visitor caught my attention. Suspicion coursed through my veins as I wove intricate narratives of espionage, unsure whether these clandestine figures were undercover agents for the United States or some inscrutable force aligned with China. However, a sudden realization pierced the veil of confusion—those fools had unwittingly left me with my cell phone! Elation surged within me as I seized the opportunity to capture firsthand footage, an unadulterated glimpse into the clandestine machinations lurking within these hidden corridors. With a short selfie video and a fervent declaration, "This is what's really going on...you won't find this place on any map here in the US! Please find me!" I harnessed the encrypted power of the Signal app, ensuring the transmission remained concealed from prying eyes.
Shortly thereafter, a visitor graced my presence, their identity fading into the recesses of my memory. Yet, their words resonated, "Two people would like to visit you. Your wife, and I believe the other is your mother." As they both entered the room, the illusion crumbled, the veil of delusion torn asunder. No longer ensnared within the clutches of a covert facility, their words flowed with lucidity, tethered to the realm of normalcy and comprehension. Realization dawned upon me—I had consumed a gummy, and the imminent blood work would unveil any potential lacing of additional substances. Paranoia lingered, and I questioned, "Who's that guy who keeps walking by? He's a Chinese spy, isn't he?" Their assurances tempered my fears, dismissing the mysterious figure as a mere visitor or custodian.
+15:15: As the tendrils of reality tightened their grip, I grappled to maintain coherence amidst the sporadic fluctuations of my thoughts. My speech teetered on the edge of autopilot, an involuntary stream of consciousness dictated by the enthralling influence of the drug. Yet, when I summoned my inner strength, channeling the essence of my true self, I declared to my wife and mother, "Look, he's coming back!" Gratitude enveloped my being, for I discovered that I resided a mere three doors away from the sanctuary of the psych ward, a potential refuge should I remain trapped within that altered state indefinitely.
+15:30: A gradual reintegration into the realm of lucidity and reality commenced, as I found myself immersed in profound conversations with my wife and mother. Eagerly, I recounted the awe-inspiring encounter with the resplendent white light, a transcendent phenomenon that reignited the dwindling embers of my belief in a divine presence. In truth, my faith had faltered in the face of relentless violence and the weight of atrocities that plagued our world. However, the veil was lifted, and a newfound certainty enveloped my being—I knew, without a shred of doubt, that the path to basking in the iridescent glow of the white light lies in the simplicity of kindness and goodness bestowed upon one another. Yet, it must be acknowledged that my journey had also acquainted me with the vast expanse of hell, an abyss of comparable magnitude to heaven, reserved for those truly consumed by malevolence.
+16:00: The tethers of reality grew stronger as I treaded the path of sobering clarity. Though almost fully reclaimed by mundane existence, I expressed to the doctors a lingering discomfort in my chest, despite the dwindling influence of intoxication. Eager to investigate further, they conducted several tests, including a blood test that hinted at a potential clot in my chest. However, the subsequent CT scan yielded negative results, offering solace in the assurance of a healthy heart. Nevertheless, one of the doctors advised me to consider reducing my caffeine intake due to a specific heart condition that might have been triggered by the gummy. Yet, resolute in my conviction, I declined to curtail my coffee consumption, guided by my own research that affirms its cardiovascular benefits and the absence of any previous chest discomfort. At this juncture, a dose of Xanax, its potency eluding my memory, was administered, a gentle salve to assuage lingering restlessness, as my heart continued to beat with a mild elevation, hovering in the low 100s.
+18:00: Satiated by a delightful repast at Wendy's (oh, the unparalleled bliss of their chocolate milkshake, surpassing all other fast-food establishments!), and armed with the comprehensive test results, the time for departure arrived. Discharged from the hospital's embrace, my wife assumed the role of the gentle chauffeur, guiding me homeward, a sanctuary awaiting our return.
CONCLUSION As the gentle assurance of the ENT resonated within my wife's heart, the veil of intoxication gradually receded, bringing me back to the comforting embrace of reality. Approximately six hours had elapsed, most of which were spent serenely reclined upon the bed, relaying the chronicles of my journey to my beloved wife and mother, now lucid and aware. Today, an overwhelming love and gratitude for the gift of life courses through my veins. This morning, I uttered the words "I love you" to my wife with an unprecedented frequency, to which she responded joyously, exclaiming, "This is wonderful! I adore it when you express your love so abundantly!" I strive to hold onto this profound sentiment, hoping it transcends the realms of mere afterglow, enabling me to shower affection upon my wife and all sentient beings. It feels as though I have been granted a second chance, a brush with the periphery of a potential near-death experience. What was that? Was it the influence of THC, exacerbating my existing anxiety and eliciting a common reaction when individuals consume gummies within the confines of hospitals, as the staff shared? Or does it bear the characteristics of an entirely distinct encounter? It is worth mentioning that a genetic test revealed the presence of a gene associated with an augmented susceptibility to psychosis through heightened utilization of cannabis products.
Did I venture into the realm of a psychotic break, or was it solely the product of the psychedelic substance? Did the ENT refer to the Chinese balloon as a "spike/spice balloon" due to suspicions of it being laced with a synthetic substance? The debate persists, hinging on whether I traversed the domains of hallucination, a glimpse into the beyond, or a profound ego dissolution. Yet, at the core of my being, I remain steadfast in my belief that a comforting white light awaits us, a realm attainable through the embodiment of kindness and benevolence towards our fellow beings. My faith in a divine presence has been irrevocably reaffirmed.
REFLECTION MONTHS LATER For those who serendipitously stumble upon this account... An enduring afterglow manifested, suffusing my being with an overwhelming love for the world. Never before had I experienced such an intense surge of affection towards my wife, as every gaze upon her triggered an inexorable impulse to exclaim, "I LOVE YOU!" A profound sense of love emanated from the depths of my chest with each proclamation. Yet, as the days waned, the enchantment gradually faded. Curiously, I observed a peculiar reaction to encounters with malevolence, particularly in the realm of online video games. Instances of unkindness and aggression left me bewildered, incapable of comprehending the absurdity of such behavior. The very notion of harboring anger over trivial matters in a world teeming with opportunities for mirth and laughter struck me as preposterous. Indeed, I found myself convulsed with laughter, consumed by the sheer ludicrousness of anger directed towards a mere game. During this four-day afterglow, I sensed a profound connection to a genuine near-death experience, wherein the veil lifted, revealing the true nature of our earthly existence. This realm, I perceived, is meant to be a realm of joy and laughter, where anger and hostility are incongruous intrusions, blemishing our shared journey. Is there anyone else who has experienced a similar four-day afterglow subsequent to ingesting a gummy?

This week in AI - partnered with aibrews.com feel free to follow their newsletter

News & Insights

1. Researchers from Snap present SnapFusion, a new approach that, for the first time, unlocks running text-to-image diffusion models on mobile devices in less than 2 seconds [Paper].
2. StabilityAI adds a new feature Uncrop to their generative AI tool, Clipdrop. It creates AI-generated backgrounds to automatically expand any image using Stable Diffusion XL as a foundation model. It’s free to try in the Clipdrop web app, with no need to log in [Details].
3. Google has updated Bard with a new technique, implicit code execution. This lets Bard run code in the background when it sees math-related prompts, making word problems and math calculations about 30% more accurate. Bard can now also directly export any table it creates to Google Sheets [Details].
4. Microsoft develops Orca - a 13-billion parameter model outperforming smaller open-source models and at times equaling or outperforming ChatGPT, though it lags behind GPT-4 [Paper].
5. Google presents and open-sources Visual Captions, a system that uses spoken words to add real-time images to video chats [Details].
6. AlphaDev, Google DeepMind’s AI, discovers small sorting algorithms from scratch that outperformed human benchmarks. These algorithms have been added to the LLVM standard C++ sort library. This is the first time an algorithm designed by AI has been added to this library. AlphaDev also discovered a new hashing algorithm, now released in the open-source. [Details Paper].
7. Adobe opens its Firefly generative AI model to enterprise customers, allowing them to customize the model with their own branded assets [Details].
8. Apple announced a number of AI features without mentioning ‘AI’ [Details].
9. HuggingChat, the open-source alternative to ChatGPT by HuggingFace added a web search feature [Link].
10. Tafi, the owner of Daz 3D announces launch of a text-to-3D character engine, that will allow users to create high-quality custom 3D characters using simple text prompts. Tafi is using a massive 3D dataset derived from its proprietary Genesis character platform [Details].
11. Runway’s much-awaited Gen-2 for text-to-video is available now with free trial [Details].
12. Europe wants platforms to label AI-generated content to fight disinformation [Details].
13. Google presents SQuId, a 600M parameter regression model that uses the SQuId dataset and cross-locale learning to evaluate speech synthesis quality in multiple languages and describe how natural it sounds [Details].
14. Together released the v1 versions of the RedPajama-INCITE family of models, allowing commercial use. RedPajama-INCITE-7B-Instruct is the highest scoring open model on HELM benchmarks, outperforming Falcon-7B. RedPajama, is a project to create leading open-source models, and it reproduced LLaMA training dataset of over 1.2 trillion tokens in April [Details].
15. Wordpress launches Jetpack AI Assistant for generating blog posts, detailed pages, structured lists and comprehensive tables from within the Wordpress editor [Details].
16. Google Research presents StyleDrop: a method for generation of images from text prompts in any style described by a single reference image. StyleDrop is powered by Muse, a text-to-image generative vision transformer [Details Paper].
17. Why AI Will Save the World by Marc Andreessen [Link].

—-------
Welcome to the artificial weekly megathread. This is where you can discuss Artificial Intelligence - talk about new models, recent news, ask questions, make predictions, and chat other related topics.
Click here for discussion starters for this thread or for a separate post.
Self-promo is allowed in these weekly discussions. If you want to make a separate post, please read and go by the rules or you will be banned.
Subreddit revamp & going forward

I feel like itr2 should have more of like an abandoned style with a lot of the guns and architecture having scavenged looks to them, for example when you start things are scrappy and unreliable but as you progress You can use actual guns that you find, buy or perhaps even craft or having rare or story related guns that have special abilities that require artefacts to function, like a night vision or thermal scoped mosin that needs a night eye to use the scope with it having that weird fragment effect on parts of it
Or more simply and probably much easier to implement have some niche or weird guns like a lemat or some other weird guns that aren’t all that good but really rare or just things you can’t buy like the hunter shotguns
On a side note I think the abandoned art style with the player or buildings using what little they can in the radius to try and gain an edge would be sick art direction with devices being fashioned out of scrap and using artifacts for power and such
On yet another side note I made this post so I can see if people think this is a good idea or if I’m being too ambitious and the idea sucks also I know Darius might see and that makes a small chance they devs could see it too

WTS: Not shipping any cheap items solo. Deals for multiple. Shipping from NYC. DM for pics or with any questions!
Items (most here)
Outlier:

• Strongshank - Medium (but fits like the small specs in this size chart) - Dark Olive - experiential version with the suede tag steamed off, hardly noticeable, otherwise excellent/like new shape - $180
• 3x FU GTs - 2x black, 1x dark navy - Small - hemmed to 25.5”, have normal neck openings - $40 each, $10 off for each purchased
• Rawcut Dreamweight Turtleneck - Small - Black shaved down the neck a bit to a mock neck but in great condition 'cuz I never wear it 'cuz it's too small - $30
• UFT Cut 2 - Dark Navy - hemmed to 26” but in great condition - $50
• Mackenzie Merino Billboard - Extra Small (they fit oversized), great condition - $40

Non-Outlier:

• Veilance - LT Spere Jacket - Small - Black - last year's version with coat hanger on inside; fits like an oversized small - catch and release but in great condition - $150 (retail $400)
• UniformLA - Studio Half-Zip - Black - like new - $80 (retail $210)
• UniformLA - Souvenir Fleece Crew - Extra Small (but fits oversized) - good condition - free with bigger purchase
• Asket - Black Zip Cardigan - Medium regular sizing - great condition - $50 (retail $230)
• Asket - Dark Green Crewneck Merino Sweater - Medium regular - great condition - free with bigger purchase
• Hoka One One - Black Bondi 7s - Size 9 - in decent used condition - $25 with any purchase
• Hoka One One - Black Challenger 5s (w/ gor-tex) - Size 9 - hardly worn but left in sun for a bit so one shoe is faded black (hard to tell unless in directly light) - $30 with any purchase
• Yellow Label Co. - Polar Fleece Half-Zip - Blue - $30 (retail $220)

With Lightfall continuing the trend from Witchqueen of adding new deepsight weapons for its destination, I want to know what people would think of older DLC Destinations weapons (Dreaming City, Luna, and Europa) being reprised with origin traits, new rolls, and Deepsight patterns. Such an undertaking would potentially include the following weapons:
They are listed below as: name (damage type, rpm, frame type, weapon type)
From the Dreaming City: - Tiger Sprite (Kinetic 450 Precision Auto Rifle) - Vouchesafe (Void 200 Lightweight Scout Rifle) - Retold Tale (Void 65 Precision Shotgun) - Waking Vigil (Arc 140 Adaptive Handcannon) - Sleepless (Arc High Impact Rocket Launcher) - Twilight Oath (Solar 140 Rapid Fire Sniper Rifle) - Abide the Return (Solar Adaptive Sword) - Vestian Dynasty (Arc 260 Precision Sidearm)
From Luna: - One Small Step (Kinetic 140 Rapid Fire Shotgun) - Loud Lullaby (Kinetic 120 Aggressive Handcannon) - Every Waking Moment (Void 600 Precision Submachine Gun) - Tranquility (Kinetic 90 Adaptive Sniper Rifle) - Premonition (Void 340 High Impact Pulse Rifle) - Arc Logic (Arc 600 Adaptive Auto Rifle) - A Fine Memorial (Arc 450 Adaptive Machine Gun) - Night Terror (Arc Adaptive Sword) - Dream Breaker (Solar 660 Adaptive Fusion Rifle) - Love and Death (Solar 150 Rapid Fire Heavy Grenade Launcher) - Apostate (Arc 140 Rapid Fire Sniper) - Heretic (Arc Aggressive Rocker Launcher) - Blasphemer (Kinetic 65 Pinpoint Slug Shotgun)
From Europa: - Biting Winds (Kinetic 684 Precsion Bow) - High Albedo (Kinetic 491 Adaptive Side Arm) - Hailing Confusion (Kinetic 390 Adaptive Pulse Rifle) - Bonechiller (Void 65 Pinpoint Slug Shotgun) - Coriolis Force (Void 660 Aggressive Fusion Rifle) - Subzero Salvo (Arc Precision Rocket Launcher) - Artic Haze (Solar 720 Rapid Fire Auto Rifle) - Thermal Erosion (Solar 900 Rapid Fire Machine Gun)
Does every single one of these weapons need to have a pattern? Not necessarily, it wouldn't even need be all at once. Even just selecting the best among these would be massive strides in the direction of diversifying the pool of craftable weapons. To go a step further, some of the additional kinectic weapons could be reprised with Stasis or Strand damage for even more diversity. These weapons already have well known ways to acquire them, like the Ascendant Challenges, Blind Well, Altars of Sorrow, Empire Hunts, Nightmare Hunts, quests from Variks, Petra, and the Cryptolith, etc... These activities could be tuned to potentially drop Deepsight versions of these weapons with higher difficulty completions (Blind Well, Nightmare and Empire Hunts) offering a higher chance for Deepsight weapons.
What do you guys think? Should older DLC Destinations weapons recieve Deepsight patterns? If so which ones?

IndianSkincareAddicts will be joining the blackout on June 12-14, 2023, in solidarity with 3500+ subreddits.
We are protesting the hostile treatment of third-party app developers, API changes, and lack of inclusivity for** blind **and other visually impaired users/communities who will end up kicked off this platform.
Please comment and tell us how long you think we should blackout.

Background

New sitewide policies come into effect on July 1, 2023. At face value, you may not think you as an average user are affected. We assure you you are. Greatly.
For a brief overview, explainlikeimfive does a great job of simplifying what API is and why this change is so troubling. You can also refer to this infographic for a visual snapshot of the situation.
The issues here are multifaceted and complex, and their impact is hard-hitting. We’ve tried to break these down to help you understand why the ISCA mod team is gravely concerned.

Lack of accessibility features for blind and the visually impaired community

While most of us reading this post have the luxury of choice to continue participating on this platform come July 1, visually impaired members and communities like blind do not. There have always been basic accessibility issues on Reddit browsers. Third-party apps are currently their only method of accessing Reddit, which is otherwise nearly unusable.
Different members of the mod team at blind have pointed out unfriendly, noninclusive features on Reddit app and website over the years. These are yet to be addressed. A few challenges the community faces with the native Reddit interface are highlighted in brief, from this modcoord post, “Reddit to the Visually Impaired: "You no longer have a voice on this site."

On Android, the official Reddit mobile app is reasonably usable with the Android screen reader, but the experience on iOS is a completely different story. There are missing elements, broken navigation, nonsensical labels, and more problems that plague those who just want to interact with the site. If you decide to become a moderator the problems are compounded even more.
Third-party apps, like Dystopia for Reddit and Apollo, have addressed this niche left so underserved for so many years because Reddit won't. It took literal years of tickets and complaints to get New Reddit to be accessible, and now the door has been shut in our collective faces. As things currently stand, this change doesn't just take away our clients; it takes away our voice.

4 days after blind’s mod post announcing API changes will shut their subreddit out, Reddit issued a statement that they have “connected with select developers of non-commercial apps that address accessibility needs and offered them exemptions from our large-scale pricing terms.” Both blind moderators and the developers of the screen reader apps mentioned by name, verified they have not been contacted by Reddit in any way.
"Non commercial app" doesn't seem to apply to any of the commonly used third-party screen reader apps, which run ads to mitigate costs. Until this is clearly defined by Reddit, the ISCA mod team remains unconvinced Reddit is giving due importance to visually impaired users.
TLDR - Basic accessibility issues on Reddit’s app/website have not been addressed. Restricting third-party apps without first implementing alternatives effectively deplatforms blind and visually impaired users in 20 days.

API Pricing and Hostile Treatment of Third-Party Apps

On May 31, 2023, Reddit announced they were raising the price to make calls to their API from being free to a level that will kill every third party app on Reddit, from Apollo to Reddit is Fun to Narwhal to BaconReader.
Even if you're not a mobile user and don't use any of those apps, this is a step toward killing other ways of customizing Reddit, such as Reddit Enhancement Suite or the use of the old.reddit.com desktop interface. Experiments on mobile browser have been conducted recently, so it’s entirely possible.
The pricing third-party apps are being charged is atrocious. Apollo app was given a figure of $12,000 for 50 million API calls. It would cost 1.7 million dollars per month or 20 million dollars per year. For context, the developer disclosed he pays Imgur, which is similar to Reddit in user base and media $166 for the same 50 million API calls.
The developer of Narwhal is also looking at a $1-2 million dollar per month price tag, and Reddit is Fun would be charged in the same ballpark as well.
While companies are allowed to charge for API access to their server, the expectation is for good faith practices and fair market value. Reddit’s pricing is 20 times over that.
As for good faith practices, app developers - who have been around for 10 years and whose superior app experience helped grow Reddit's user base - were only given 30 days notice. Third-party apps are no longer allowed to run ads, and 30 days is not enough time to change their subscription model to offset costs, communicate with their users and ensure a smooth transition.
Yesterday, Apollo, Reddit is Fun and Sync announced they’re shutting down on June 30, in response to API changes.
We STRONGLY RECOMMEND you see for yourself how Reddit’s recent decisions and actions have made it impossible for Apollo to continue.
The Apollo dev sheds light on how the “situation with Reddit deteriorated beyond recovery” and shares call transcripts and recordings which expose character assassination attempts made by Reddit.
Reddit is Fun’s developer shared that his experience with Reddit echoes the Apollo dev’s in terms of unwillingness to negotiate reasonable terms.
TLDR - Third-party apps are no longer allowed to run ads to offset costs, and have no choice but to shut down in the face of exorbitant and predatory pricing. Which seems to be the intention.

Moderation Tools/Bots and NSFW API Access

In addition to outrageous pricing, changes to Reddit API policy include restricted access. This affects third-party apps, bots and moderation tools.
Most of you are familiar with the alphabetical order bot, haiku bot, Shakespeare bot, Wikipedia bot and Remindme! Bot, which was temporarily down last month due to sudden premature revocation of Pushshift access before the communicated timeline.
Most bots you see on Reddit are not developed by Reddit, but by independent users in the community who maintain and fund them themselves. The astronomically high pricing model in addition to the loss of data access means some of these bots and tools cannot perform their functions the way they’re intended to, and are no longer viable to maintain. Some bots will go down permanently.
Pushshift’s large data access capabilities also drove the “Search the Sub” tab linked in the sidebar. We enjoyed advanced features like filtering by user. That is now defunct. We are left with only Reddit's shoddy native search engine.
The irritation you’re feeling with the loss of proper search function mirrors the frustration and impotence of many moderators, who are left with rudimentary tools in native Reddit.
Standard moderation practices to verify account authenticity and cross-check for illegal/predatory activity are hampered, and it looks like it will take months at the minimum before adequate replacements are provided.
Consequence: Communities become more vulnerable. To everything.
NSFW subs bear the brunt of this, as third-party tools are integral to performing safety checks to ensure illegal, abuse-glorifying, nonconsensual intimate content is not allowed. Third-party safety bots refer to user post history and perform cross subreddit safety checks, to ensure an individual who constantly posts explicit sexual content isn’t also trying to interact in a safe space meant for teenagers.
TLDR - Some of your favorite functions have already started going offline. Third-party moderation tools being priced out puts tremendous strain on moderation and poses safety risks to the community.
Recent events in this subreddit have shown members firsthand what limited moderation and free-for-all looks like. Reminder that lasted for a single week, and the mod team remained active to remove the worst offending content.
That free for all week is what all subs will look like without proper moderation resources.
We will all be in spam-laden, scorched earth. Many subs will remain shut down indefinitely, unless a reasonable compromise is achieved.

The direct impact on IndianSkincareAddicts

Is still unknown. We are assessing the exact extent as news unfolds, but there is no doubt modding will go from a labor of love to a heavy emphasis on labor.
Depending on our availability, we spend up to multiple hours per day on the sub, and that demand on our time will go up significantly if we don't have the usual automated tools we rely on to keep this community safe and running smoothly.
The official Reddit app severely limits the number and nature of mod functions that can be performed. Previously, whichever mod had spare time was able to sort out and clear pending tasks in short spurts. Now, it may be whoever has the solid chunk of time required to get on a desktop between their full-time job and other IRL responsibilities.
Moderator response time will unfortunately slow down. We will rely heavily on user reports to alert us to rulebreaking comments, bad/reckless advice, hateful/rude/inappropriate behaviors as well as any spam you may encounter. Modmail remains open for any concerns/requests for help you have.
Our focus remains as it always has, on the welfare and betterment of this community. While at the moment we are not visibly commenting as much as you're used to, we are actively tracking news and planning for all eventualities.
Including migrating to a different forum, if it comes to that. We would love to hear suggestions on how we can go forward. But be warned people have allegedly gotten perma banned / shadowbanned by admins for mentions of certain reddit alternatives.

Open Letter and Communication Concerns with Reddit

The broader moderator community has crafted this open letter which we support.
One notable point is communication concerns with Reddit management, who historically have not provided moderators - who are unpaid volunteers- with sufficient support. AskHistorians has mapped out a timeline of key events, which we are reproducing below:

Admins have promised minimal disruption; however, over the years they’ve made a number of promises to support moderators that they did not, or could not follow up on, and at times even reneged on:
In 2015, in response to widespread protests on the sub, the admins promised they would build tools and improve communication with mods.
In 2019, the admins promised that chat would always be an opt-in feature. However, a year later an unmoderated chat feature was made a default feature on most subs
In 2020, in response to moderators protesting racism on Reddit, admin promised to support mods in combating hate
In 2021, again, in response to protests, Reddit’s admin promised a feature to report malicious interference by subreddits promoting Covid denial.
Reddit’s admin has certainly made progress. In 2020 they updated the content policy to ban hate and in 2021 they banned and quarantined communities promoting covid denial. But while the company has updated their policies, they have not sufficiently invested in moderation support.
Reddit admins have had 8 years to build a stronger infrastructure to support moderators but have not.

Reddit's policy changes hits too many moderation resources for the free labor-giving moderator community to have faith that suitable alternatives will be provided in time to replace the ones stripped away, or a reasonable level of functionality restored.

Sitewide Subreddit Blackouts

We hope the above explanation gives insight into why moderators across Reddit find the new changes alarming. As we all saw from free-for-all week, the efforts of moderators are directly related to the quality of subreddits. Whether or not you personally use a third-party app for your browsing, your experience on this platform is guaranteed to be negatively affected.
A significant deviation from the current course is needed to keep all subreddits, including this one, functioning.
Talks between management, developers and moderators are ongoing, updates from admin are expected in the coming days, and an AMA with the CEO will happen later today.
But since Reddit Admin and the CEO have stooped down to mud-slinging and outright lying and focusing on strawman arguments to obfuscate the issue, we don’t have much hope talks alone will be effective.
We have no choice but to join forces in collective, impactful action.

IndianSkincareAddicts will join the protest and go dark on June 12, 2023

We understand this poses an inconvenience, and for that, we apologize. We feel this short term disruption is crucial for long term health of the community.
From June 12-14, the sub will be private. You will not be able to view the sub or post/comment for at least 48 hours. We will assess any developments and statements made during that time, and take a call on whether our community's needs have been adequately met.
Should things reach the 14th with no sign of Reddit choosing to fix what they've broken and the trust they’ve eroded, further action may be required.

The mod team is in internal agreement to stand in solidarity with blind and other subs for longer than 48 hours if the situation calls for it.

Community opinion matters. Please comment and tell us explicitly. How long should our blackout last?

What can you do?

1. Complain. Message the mods of reddit.com, who are the admins of the site: message reddit: submit a support request: comment in relevant threads on reddit, such as this one, leave a negative review on their official iOS or Android app- and sign your username in support to this post.
2. Stay off Reddit entirely on June 12th through the 13th- Fewer users online means less opportunities to monetize. Go outside, use another platform, do something else fun. Tell your friends to do the same.
3. Be cool. Don’t be rude. As upsetting this may be, threats, profanity and vandalism will be worse than useless in getting people on our side. Please make every effort to be as restrained, polite, reasonable and law-abiding as possible. This includes not harassing moderators of subreddits who have chosen not to take part.

​
- The IndianSkincareAddicts Mod Team

Greetings, members of writing!
By now you have probably heard a lot about The Open Letter about API Pricing. Some of your favorite subreddits may have signed up to protest. I know there has been discussion on this sub while the mods have been in discussions--both internally and with other subreddits--and we wanted to address our plans for June 12th. First though, we know plenty of people are confused about what API even is, how this pricing will impact them, and why it is worth talking about. There have been a number of posts about this very subject, all explaining better than we could. Subreddits like explainlikeimfive have highlighted in an easy way to understand what API is and why this is change is a problem. AskHistorians have explained in detail why so many Mods are upset and, frankly, disillusioned, in the wake of the Admin announcement.
To a lot of people, the API changes are not a big deal.
If you use the Official Apps and have no issue navigating it, that’s great. You may not have known that third party apps existed, or why people prefer them. If you’re wondering why people can’t just use the official app, we can acknowledge that for many users it is simply a personal preference. They’re used to it (some have been using them for years before there was ever an Official App) or they might simply prefer it because of the designs and features. If you’re interested in a visual representation of why so many prefer third party apps, please check this bestof comment out for a side-by-side comparison.
For mods, the mod tool support of these third parties largely makes our jobs much easier, which keeps the communities we all love safer. On a third party app, we can accomplish in two clicks what would take the Official App five. This efficiency means we can address more problems in the community in a more timely manner. Some of you may have even noticed a slight change in the modding of this sub over the past few days. This largely comes from a number of our mods needing to step back, either directly because of these upcoming issues or for personal reasons. This is also why there has been a delay in responses to this issue. We are currently dealing with those internal issues, but still wanted to take a stand on this larger problem.
If you’re thinking to yourself, “If these apps are making a profit, Reddit deserves a cut!” we do agree. What we take issue with is that their API is being valued at 10-20x over what other similar services do, to the point where almost every app has released some kind of statement that indicates these changes will kill their apps. We could link to more statements like that, but you get the idea.
Before you ask “why can’t they just run ads to offset those costs”, Reddit has already decided this will not be an option for third party apps. One thing to be aware of as well is that even if a third party app manages to survive July 1st through a subscription based model alone, those apps will not have all the same content as the Official App. Namely, despite paying for the privilege of having a choice, NSFW content will be unavailable and invisible to those users.
If you’re thinking, "Well, I'm fine. I only use the mobile website via my chosen mobile browser (chrome, mozilla, etc.)," you should be aware that Reddit has already been testing functions that eliminate mobile web browsing, and there is no guarantee that your preferred method of using Reddit won’t be next.
Limiting user choice, charging exorbitant and predatory fees, and refusing to communicate, are all significant problems that the writing team takes issue with. However, the one we find most egregious is what this change will do to members of Reddit’s blind community.
How are blind Redditors impacted by this decision?
In short, Reddit’s Official Apps leave a lot to be desired at best, and are barely functional at worst. The app on iOS has incorrectly labeled controls, doesn’t always work with swipe, and not all functions can be accessed. For blind moderators, it can be difficult-to-impossible to find the moderation functions necessary to moderate, and the customizing layouts to better suit their needs or make the app easier to navigate are similarly difficult. Third party apps have addressed many of these types of issues because Reddit won’t, giving these underserved communities a voice that Reddit seems to have no problem taking away.
You might ask yourself how blind users navigated Reddit before there were apps, and the answer is that it didn’t always used to be this way, but it has certainly always had accessibility issues. In fact, discussions about accessibility have been going on for months, if not years. Just a few months ago, Reddit received a free consultation to make their mobile layout more accessible. Reddit did not follow up, privately or publicly, until the protest’s momentum started to build. Even after numerous, far more recent interactions with the Admin, there seems to be little progress or commitment concerning these issues. This type of interaction is exactly why we, the writing mod team, feel that Reddit is not making accessibility a priority.
Subreddits like blind are vital for the visually impaired in various stages of blindness, providing not just a source of communal support, but insights, strategies, and resources to navigate their new and changing lives. In the wake of Reddit's changes, subreddits like blind will be forced to go dark, leaving an already overlooked group without the invaluable support they both need and deserve.
These changes will also significantly impact volunteer run support subreddits such as transcribersofreddit and descriptionplease, which serve to allow visually impaired Redditors to read text images, and receive descriptions of visual content such as videos and images. These volunteers are indispensable to the blind community, because Reddit is the only social media website with no support for alternative text. As visually impaired Redditors are forced to use an app that is not designed with accessibility in mind, these communities will shrink, wither, and may cease to exist. (See this video for more details on this subject).
For many of us, third party apps are a choice or a preference, but they are an absolute necessity for the visually impaired. The writing team is of the opinion that pricing these apps out of existence before their own app is WCAG compliant is nothing short of passive discrimination.
The mod team of writing, and many others, feel that July 1st is an unrealistic timeline to make all the changes necessary to make their app accessible. At this point, the only reasonable course of action is for Reddit to publish a public list of key results that they are committed to addressing and guarantee that third party functionality will be left unchanged until they do.
Disabled individuals are often expected to pay a premium for the same basic things everyone else uses and enjoys for free. Visually impaired Redditors deserve equal access, and even if third party apps survive, they will not receive it. Those users will not have access to all of the content and features that the rest of Reddit will. Remember, NSFW content will be unavailable to regular users on third party apps (and yes, disabled people like porn too!)
So what does all this mean for writing?
As stated above, many of our current mod team have needed to step back in the wake of these issues. Many of us, myself included, however don't. For us, this is not just about our personal preferences; it is about standing in opposition to ableism and making sure others have a voice.
We have had many comments and modmails asking about the position of writing modteam. We wanted to discuss these matters internally first, to make sure the remaining mods were on the same page before we made any sort of announcement. Now that we have:
The mod team of Writing is in agreement that we should join the blackout on June 12th.
We are prepared to remain blacked out for a minimum of 48 hours. This means that the sub will be turned private and no one will be able to access any writing content until the blackout is over. In standing up for the voices of others, however, we don’t want to strip away the voices of our community. So now we want to hear from you. If you support us in this decision, please share and upvote this post, and comment with your thoughts and support.
Particularly, we would like to hear from our users: How long should writing's blackout last? From our talks with mods from many other subreddits (including those of BestofRedditorUpdates, who very, very graciously allowed me to use most of their wording/research for this post) we are aware that many subs are intending to prolong their blackouts past the original 48-hour mark. Pending further developments, we are currently planning to reassess the situation after this 48-hour mark to make further decisions, taking into account what new statements have been released, how the protest is evolving, and what our users want. As it stands, some subs are intending to blackout however long it takes to effect change, others are intending to come back to be able to be a platform for their users to continue voicing their feelings on the blackout. If you have an opinion either way, please let us hear it. You are a part of this sub as much as any of the mods (and we will likely be turning to some of you to become mods in the not to distant future depending on the state of things after these protests are completed). Thank you for all that you do and letting us take this stand in however that may be.
- the Writing Mod team

Ahhh, I'm trying to respond to your mother'd day posts, but those thoughts are yet too much for me to finish anytime soon. Instead I will send this, which was supposed to come after the mothers thoughts to reduce the weight. Well, maybe I'm just not capable of serious talk, but I want to use our time now to reflect our past happily and maybe expect a better future.
Setting aside the mother's day, I want to share my secrets of your secrets coz I think it's unfair that I know your facts more than you do mine. That's because you express yourself too much, though.
😈 Are you ready? Or you've already guessing what they are.... I think at this point we should be able to laugh at those mutual-stalking days.
...You called me once "sweet girl" long long long ago, didn't you??? I can carry the rest of my life with this truth only ❤️. Thank you. Wish you could've stopped there. Gradually your view on me changed. Sometime in the past you called me "chick," right?😒 That's OK. You must've felt frustrated and overall it was beautiful. These will be our secrets that no one will know.
When someone labelled my role as your mommy, implying my aging or lack of sex appeal (like you did), I wasn't hurt yet. I was numb or confused by those implication. It was too unrealistic for me to imagine being close to you. I liked you a lot for so long from afar w/o desiring to go on a date. I was proud of that. I was like that since my teens. Very recently, however, as a typical mid-aged woman, I guess I started to use it as my defense mechanism. That's a real bummer.
Was I ever your sweet girl? Recently I realized that you had already decided to call me "mama" long ago. ...Again OK. That's the bare fact that I am a mother. I hope you see me as a good one.
I don't feel sad, but proud of it. Remember my role model is Mary in the movie or the song Bohemian Rhapsody.

Mama, life had just begun, But now I've gone and thrown it all away Mama, oooh, Didn't mean to make you cry, If I'm not back again this time tomorrow, Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters

Now it's almost consensus that these "Mama" verses are directed to not his actual mother but Mary, who was once his lover and became his lifetime best friend. I imagine she's very proud of herself since she made him honest enough to positively come out his sexual identity. I want to be proud of myself the same way, yes, to some extent, but the difference is that I made you pessimistic. I blamed your negativity before, but it was me that pushed you there, right? If so, I am really sorry about my action and ignorance.
You refused to be called as a misogynist, but I think you are. Don't feel so attacked since I confess I am a sexist to my bone. I was raised and brainwashed that way. At the age of 20, I felt guilty a lot to get rid of it. It was a confusion like from the earth-centered theory to the sun-centered. Still at present I take efforts every moment so that I will not behave wrongly. Mentally it's still easier to live as a sexist, but I know it's wrong & it's bad for me, my daughter & other women.
I think you have to do the same. The difference is that I may be considered as a victim and you as a predator or sinner. So your case is more challenging and there's no prize for you. You have to do that just because it's the right thing to do. However, I don't know how & you don't want to talk about it with me.
... I can prepare a pacifier and a diaper. No, thank you? Are you sure? Don't forget I breastfed my daughter. Still no? OK. Well, joking aside, I will tell you my secret. A big one. I breastfed her till her age of 9 yr 11 mons. Surprise? Haha. I never told this anyone. I wonder if I would be arrested in the US as a child sexual abuser. Mines are very small, BTW.
Back to your topic. I don't know how to help you overcome your love and hate to your mom, which I believe is the root of your misogyny. Maybe I shouldn't have brought up this topic. My principle is that shut your mouth up if you can't present the solution. Just pointing out the problem is sometimes more painful to others.
When I think about your trauma, which I believe is bigger than mine, I wish I could give you a big hug. When you get wounded, I would put a bandaid on it. I want to say to you that everything will be OK when you feel fear or anxiety. I will always smile to you so that you feel hopeful about your future. I will just co-sleep with you as your "mama." Like Mary did. Hope my offer will be a relief and release for you. I dream of seeing your comfortable smile when you sleep. What do you think?
...Well, if everything goes quite alright...
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
^{...Let's go incest (lol}.)
S.

With Lightfall continuing the trend from Witchqueen of adding new deepsight weapons for its destination, I think older DLC Destinations should have their weapons reprised with origin traits, new rolls, and Deepsight patterns. Which may or may not include the following weapons:
Dreaming City: - Tiger Sprite (Kinetic 450 Precision Auto Rifle) - Vouchesafe (Void 200 Lightweight Scout Rifle) - Retold Tale (Void 65 Precision Shotgun) - Waking Vigil (Arc 140 Adaptive Handcannon) - Sleepless (Arc High Impact Rocket Launcher) - Twilight Oath (Solar 140 Rapid Fire Sniper Rifle) - Abide the Return (Solar Adaptive Sword) - Vestian Dynasty (Arc 260 Precision Sidearm)
Luna: - One Small Step (Kinetic 140 Rapid Fire Shotgun) - Loud Lullaby (Kinetic 120 Aggressive Handcannon) - Every Waking Moment (Void 600 Precision Submachine Gun) - Tranquility (Kinetic 90 Adaptive Sniper Rifle) - Premonition (Void 340 High Impact Pulse Rifle) - Arc Logic (Arc 600 Adaptive Auto Rifle) - A Fine Memorial (Arc 450 Adaptive Machine Gun) - Night Terror (Arc Adaptive Sword) - Dream Breaker (Solar 660 Adaptive Fusion Rifle) - Love and Death (Solar 150 Rapid Fire Heavy Grenade Launcher) - Apostate (Arc 140 Rapid Fire Sniper) - Heretic (Arc Aggressive Rocker Launcher) - Blasphemer (Kinetic 65 Pinpoint Slug Shotgun)
Europa: - Biting Winds (Kinetic 684 Precsion Bow) - High Albedo (Kinetic 491 Adaptive Side Arm) - Hailing Confusion (Kinetic 390 Adaptive Pulse Rifle) - Bonechiller (Void 65 Pinpoint Slug Shotgun) - Coriolis Force (Void 660 Aggressive Fusion Rifle) - Subzero Salvo (Arc Precision Rocket Launcher) - Artic Haze (Solar 720 Rapid Fire Auto Rifle) - Thermal Erosion (Solar 900 Rapid Fire Machine Gun)
Does every single one of these weapons need to have a pattern? Not necessarily, even just selecting the best among these would be massive strides in the right direction. Even some of the additional kinectic weapons could be reprised with Stasis or Strand damage. But what is better is that these weapons already have well known ways to acquire them like the Ascendant Challenges, Corsair Down, Blind Well, Altars of Sorrow, Empire Hunts, Nightmare Hunts, quests from Variks, Petra, and the Cryptolith, etc... These activities could be tuned to potentially drop Deepsight versions of these weapons with higher difficulty completions (Blind Well, Nightmare and Empire Hunts) offering a higher chance for Deepsight weapons.
What do you guys think?

With the news that development of Adventure Mode for the Steam release is progressing along, I figure some people may want to download the original version to give it a try ahead of the graphics update. As someone with hundreds of hours in adventure mode (there are literally dozens of us!) I thought I would share some of the biggest tips and tricks I've learned. I'll probably be making this into a video once the official release is out and I can get footage with graphics, but until then I'm posting the script I have now here. The rest of this post contains spoilers for every phase of adventure mode, so turn back now if you want to discover all of this for yourself!
Beginner

1. Always have food

-Large stacks of vegetables can be found in containers in human towns. Meat can be gathered from butchered animals. Meat from sentient creatures can’t be eaten.

2. Always have wateale 

-Adventurers need to drink 3-4 times a day. Water skin only holds 3 water, so it is useless. Bags hold 40 and Backpacks hold 100 which is too heavy for most adventurers. Quivers hold 20, which is the perfect amount. Fill quivers with water at rivers or wells.

3. Equip armor 

-Armor and weapons can be found in the barracks of each town. Try to get iron or steel if possible. Make sure to cover the head, neck, torso, legs, hands, and feet.

4. Get a mount 

-Mounts increase overworld speed which increases the amount of ground that can be covered in one day. This reduces how frequently you need to stop for supplies.

5. Get some pets 

-Companions can be tricky to recruit in the beginning, but pets are a great way to increase survivability. Unlike companions, you can also recruit a very high number of pets immediately. Everything labeled “stray” found within a town can become a pet, from ducks to dogs, and rarely even bears and elephants. Just don’t get too attached, most pets die very fast, or permanently run away after combat. Especially the small ones.

6. Make sure your character can read and swim 

-Most skills can be acquired organically by actions which your adventurer does, but certain skills like reading are never unlocked. Because you need to read slabs or books to learn magic, putting a point in reading at character creation is mandatory. A few points in swimming are also recommended. Even a single tile full of water is enough to drown an adventurer with no swimming skill.

7. Make a young world for less necromancers and more Megabeasts, and an old world for vice-versa 

-World parameters matter. Evil is slightly stronger on average, which means the older a world is, the more likely it is to be infested with Necromancer towers and Goblin Pits. Savagery is just the number of animal people to play as, and beasts is the number of beasts to fight. You want both of these as high as possible, the difficulty is actually easier with more beasts, as you won’t have to travel as far for missions.

8. Don’t be afraid to run if you can’t win 

-Although this is technically a turn based RPG, running away isn’t a button you press, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an option. If you are heavily outnumbered or facing a very strong enemy, don’t be afraid to sprint away and reengage when it is more advantageous to do so. This is better than dying and losing your progress.

9. Don’t swim until you’ve really trained 

-While it may be tempting to take a quick dip in the river, death can be moments away in any body of water. Even at competent and above levels of swimming, your character can only go about 10-20 squares before getting tired, and swimming while tired has a chance to keep your character in the same tile, further increasing their fatigue. This can mean your character drowning even just one square from the shore if you are extremely unlucky.

10. Aim for the neck/head for instant kills 

-Aiming in combat can be extremely beneficial. Lots of minor enemies such as kobolds and bandits can be killed with one solid hit to the neck or head. Using this tactic can make encounters against large groups of enemies much easier.
Intermediate

11. Fast travel to long rest 

-If you are damaged in battle and bleeding out, even if you are faint with mortal wounds, fast traveling via the world map will instantly heal your wounds. This may be considered a bug, but since adventurers cannot currently be healed at hospitals via adventure mode, this is the only way to actually heal. Furthermore, since you can’t fast travel during combat, and because fast traveling doesn’t remove major injuries such as missing limbs, I’d say it’s a pretty balanced feature.

12. Jog whenever possible 

-Whenever not mounted and not in combat, you should set your speed to jog. This will increase your endurance stat naturally over time, increasing your combat prowess while you move around. Just be sure to reset your speed whenever your character drops to the ground from exhaustion to give them a chance to rest. Keep extra water on hand while doing this, as your character will need to drink more. And make sure not to jog into combat, this will increase your character’s chance of becoming exhausted during combat, which severely lowers stats.

13. Create a character that just wants to perform 

-A focused character will always be more proficient in combat, receiving a boost to stats such as accuracy and damage. Fully customizing needs in character creation can make a character that is very easy to keep focused. You can completely remove needs in character creation if you wish, but this will also remove the chance to receive the focused buff. If anything, just be sure to avoid needs that are currently impossible in adventure mode such as “Make romance.”

14. Create a world with legendary metals for better loot 

-The more metals you choose at world generation, the better the loot will be everywhere. This setting can make gearing up in the early game either extremely trivial, or extremely challenging. World age can also affect possible loot, as extremely young worlds will not have created enough armor to make most encounters have meaningful loot.

15. Tell stories of your notable kills 

-Information in dwarf fortress is passed via a rumor system. No matter how many dragons you may slay, when you enter a new town, no one will care because they don’t know who you are. Every time you reach a new town, you should tell the largest group of people you can the stories of every notable encounter you’ve had. Early on you should tell stories of killing bandits, while later on you should focus on just semi-Megabeasts and Megabeasts.

16. Recruit other party members 

-While animal companions are good choices for meat shields early game, you should recruit as many fighters at barracks to adventure with you as possible. The amount of companions you can have at any one time is limited by your current reputation level, which is why it is important to tell everyone you can of your notable kills. Animal companions take up companion slots even though they go over the max cap, so try to transition from lots of animals early on to a small party of adventuring companions in the midgame, and a large number of companions in the endgame. Just be sure to let your companions win some easy battles on their own to level up their skills, otherwise they will die just as easily as animals in fights against Megabeasts. Don’t be surprised if some of your companions get terrified in combat and run away just like animals. If you can, be sure to find them, as they will take up a companion slot if you don’t part ways with them or watch them die. If they die and you don’t see it, they may permanently take up a slot this way. This is a bug and will hopefully be fixed eventually, but be wary of it for now.

17. Become a hearthperson 

-Starting a new character and trying to find quests can be very challenging. Lots of random characters will have various rumors, but won’t know enough details to send you on a proper quest. Lords and ladies however can make you into a hearthperson, and can then give you proper quests. They will only do this if you have enough reputation level though, which is why telling stories is important. Usually it takes a story of a bandit leader kill or higher to get a lord or lady to recruit you. You can bypass this stage and get to quests right away by choosing to start as a hearthperson. Just beware that quests are randomized, and sometimes your first quest will be to kill a megabeast. When this happens, I recommend traveling to another town and becoming hearthperson there.

18. Train your skills early 

-Training skills via active combat can be very deadly. If possible, try to fight large, easy enemies to train all related combat skills as early as possible. If you find a horse for example, you can attack its legs to immobilize it, then spam nonlethal strikes to train your weapon skill. A couple horses with no legs is a brutal but safe way to train up weapons all the way to legendary.

19. Set combat preferences to facilitate training 

-Skills like observation and stats like endurance are very important for late game combat. These skills in particular can be trained incredibly fast with combat preferences. If you set melee combat preferences to close quarters, this will prefer to grapple the enemy over and over again. This means you can move into the enemy repeatedly to quickly train without navigating menus. Doing this without changing preferences can mean your character automatically makes a headshot and kills the enemy before you get the chance to properly level up stats. Just be sure to move away from your legless horses if you get tired, as the lowered stats means that even low risk combat can result in injury.

20. Sneak up to enemies for stealth kills 

-If you want to dispatch of large camps quickly and efficiently, chaining stealth kills can be an easy way to do this. Just press S to toggle sneaking, then try to approach enemies without walking into their cone of vision. Doing this at night can be especially effective, as enemies have greatly reduced perception.
Advanced

21. Get a slashing, piercing, and blunt weapon 

-Some enemies in dwarf fortress are much easier to kill than others. Kobolds and crundles will crumple against most weapons, while things like bronze collosi are much harder to deal with. A good rule of thumb is to keep a slashing, piercing, and blunt weapon on hands at all times. Use slashing against basic targets and undead for quick decapitations, piercing against large organic creatures like giant cheetahs or rocs so that they give into pain (essentially stunlocking them), and blunt against inorganic enemies to crush them (collosi, armored titans, iron men, etc). When in doubt, keep a whip on hand to one shot most enemies. A legendary lasher with a named masterwork whip can easily one shot most things in the game with a heavy attack to the head. This should be considered a bug that will probably be fixed later, but is very fun if you want to RP as a legendary vampire killer. Regardless of weapon choice, weapon skill is equally important. A novice hammer dwarf with a steel war hammer is just as useless against a bronze colossus as a legendary axedwarf with an artifact copper battle axe.

22. Remove your backpack when starting combat 

-Fighting while overencumbered is a death sentence. While fighting above default speed does not reduce the number of frames it takes to swing your weapon, fighting below default speed will add a delay after each swing before you can act again, giving enemies free strikes against you. This is also why fighting prone is ill-advised. However, this mechanic should not dissuade you from overencumbering yourself. Most mounts negate a large (if not all) amount of encumberance. In addition, your character can move anything they can grab, even if it is the entire corpse of a megabeast which weighs multiple tons, it will just take them more frames to haul these items. So long as you store all of your loot in the same backpack, you are always safe from ambushes no matter your encumbrance, as you can remove and drop your backpack as soon as combat starts, which usually takes less frames than it takes for any enemy to move. After combat, your backpack should be where you left it, and you can easily retrieve your haul.

23. Aim for the legs first, then the hands, then the neck 

Aiming for the neck can make weaker enemies trivial, but more proficient enemies will not allow this tactic, and very large enemies will have necks too large to decapitate. An advanced tactic that works against most strong enemies is to aim for the legs first to knock your enemy prone (or wings against flying enemies). Once your enemy is on the ground, their speed is halved, essentially giving you twice as many turns to attack. It is at this point you should aim for their arms, as these hold weapons for humanoids and usually have claws for beasts. Once the legs are taken out and the usage of weapons is disabled, you are much more likely to land a headshot, and in a much safer position to repeatedly spam this attack.

24. Bleed out megabeasts, cut off hydra heads, pummel collosi 

Certain enemies such as Megabeasts are much harder to kill. These should be considered boss fights, and thus have certain kill parameters. Bronze collosi in particular usually need to have every single body part destroyed in order to be killed. Hydras in turn need to have the brain of each head destroyed to die, and will almost always live if one head is alive. Hill titans can vary from nigh unkillable (humanoids made of steel) to killable via literally any damaging attack (blobs made of water), so reading their description is extremely important in dealing with them.

25. Never get hit (level dodge and block) 

-Because major injuries are unhealable, these accumulate over time. This means that the best way to play adventure mode is to never get hit. This may seem like a tall task, but almost all damage is avoidable via dodge and block. If you have a high observation stat, you will be able to dodge or block attacks. While this may automatically succeed against weaker enemies, it has a chance to fail against stronger enemies if not properly leveled, so be sure to train these skills early on. Fighting when focused and not exhausted should ensure that these avoidance abilities work properly. Just don’t try to block an attack you wouldn’t block in real life.

26. Don’t let enemies get a surround 

-Fighting against multiple enemies can be a likely death scenario. If enemies completely surround you, then your character has a greatly reduced chance of automatically dodging or blocking attacks. In addition, moving through an occupied tile in dwarf fortress will roll a die, and the losers will be forced prone, as only one creature can stand in a tile at once. Make sure to set speed to scramble in combat if this happens, get to an unoccupied square, and stand up as quickly as possible. Dodging into an open space in this scenario is a much better option than moving manually if at all possible. This entire scenario can be avoided if you slowly dodge in the same direction as enemies approach you in combat, ensuring that you only fight one at a time, and force the others to tire themselves as they run after you. Striking the legs of as many targets as possible is effective here, as it drastically increases the time it takes for each enemy to reach you.

27. Throw stones to level archery 

-Archery can be very cumbersome to use, as most bolts are too heavy to use without causing constant encumbrance, and training it is very slow and painful, as arrows usually split into stacks of one when fired. However, there is a way to level archery extremely quickly. By throwing something at the same tile you are on, you level your archery skill. You can then pick up the thrown object and throw it again. This is much faster than using arrows. One of the best objects to do this with is coins. As it turns out, coins are actually the best ranged weapon. Coins can be used in combat to great affect. Because dwarf fortress uses the archery stat when throwing items, it calculates the damage of thrown items as if shot from a bow with the same archery proficiency. While this does not do nearly as much damage as bolts themselves, it effectively gives adventurers a way to reliably use ranged weapons without worrying about retrieving ammo, as money can usually be found in multiple stacks of 100 at bandit camps.

28. Use archery against webs/fire 

-While archery is a niche weapon type for most scenarios, it is mandatory against certain titans and most dragons, as well as giant cave spiders. Titans, like spiders can possess the ability to web your adventurer. This stunlocks your character, making any shot a guaranteed hit. Against large enough titans, getting hit with a single shot of web is enough for instant death, as they will squish your head while webbed. Other titans may possess deadly dust or poisonous gas. While some of these effects are benign, breathing others can and will kill your character, and to my knowledge not even fast travel stops this. Fighting fire breathing dragons is an instant kill scenario as well, as they can melt your armor into molten liquid metal, stunlocking your character until they die from the heat. You can attempt to repeatedly jump until you reach a river, but you are certainly dead at this point. The use of archery (or rather, throwing coins) is mandatory at this point. While a few shots may not do anything at first, repeated shots will accumulate damage, and eventually kill or disable the enemy. Just be very careful getting into melee range to finish enemies off after this occurs, as one unlucky web or fire shot can and will still kill you. Avoid looting titans with dust or gas effects until after you leave and return to the area with fast travel to be sure that the gas dissipates.

29. Know the game progression (Kobolds, Bandits, Hearthperson, Semi-Megabeasts, Towers, Megabeasts, Dark Fortresses, Caverns) 

Knowing what you’re doing at any given point can be the difference between life and death. If you’re playing adventure mode without savescumming (which is the only way to play it in the old versions), then you will be making new characters a lot. Knowing the basic progression of where you should go on new characters will make the ultimate goal of raiding the vault and fighting the angel that much easier. Your basic path should be gearing up in towns, training basic combat skills against animals, fighting kobold and bandit camps to level reputation, telling stories to become a hearthperson, doing quests as a hearthperson to further reputation level and combat skills, fighting semimega and Megabeasts to become a legendary hero, raiding towers to find the secrets, raiding dark fortresses to find the vault and slay the angel, and finally using the secrets to delve into the caverns without having to eat or sleep and fighting forgotten beasts there until your character dies. The surface and visiting towns should be considered the early game, raiding sites should be considered the midgame, killing the angel in the vault should be considered the endgame, and roaming the caverns should be considered the postgame. Of course, adventure mode has lots more to offer than just combat, and if you want to learn its ins and outs for yourself, the only way to do that is to jump in and play it.

Galatians   Chapter Five (https://esv.literalword.com/?q=Galatians+5)
 
-1. The Anointed frees [שחרר, SheeHRayR] us unto freedom [חרות, HayROoTh], therefore stand, and do not submit [תכנעו, TheeKhahN`Oo] again [שוב, ShOoB] to yoke [לעל, Le'oL] the slavery.  

“The expression for freedom [επ ελευθερια - ep eleutheria] (in slightly different Greek form) appears in the certificates of sacral manumission which were given to slaves who purchased their freedom. The slave would deposit the money in the temple of his god for the priest to transfer to his master “for freedom.” He then became the slave of his god, free from his human master.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB vol. X pp. 545-546)  
“Among the Jews, the Messiah’s reign was to be a reign of liberty, and hence the Targum [ancient Jewish commentary] on Lamen. [Lamentations] ii. 22. says, “Liberty shall be publicly proclaimed to the people of the house of Israel, על יד משיחא âl yad Mashicha, by the hand of the Messiah, such as was granted to them by Moses and Aaron, at the time of the Passover.” (Clarke, 1831, vol. II p. 393)  

...
-5. And we, in spirit upon foundation [of] belief, waiting [מיחלים, MeYahHahLeeYM] to hope [for] fruit, the our righteousness [δικαιοσυνης - dikaiosunes, justification, righteousness].  

“The language is so compact that Paul’s meaning has to be inferred from 3:14; 5:22-23; and Rom. [Romans] 8:23-26.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB vol. X pp. 548-549)  
“The full measure of human righteousness is still a thing of the eschatological future (cf. [compare with] Rom 5:19).” (Joseph A. Fitzmyer, 1990, TNJBC p. 789)
“That they could not have the Holy Spirit, without faith, was a doctrine also of the Jews; hence it is said, Mechilta, fol. [folio] 52. ‘That faith was of great consequence, with which the Israelites believed in Him, who, with one word, created the universe; and because the Israelites believed in God, the Holy Spirit dwelt in them; so that being filled with God, they sung praises to him.’” (Clarke, 1831, vol. II pp. 393-394)  

-6. That yes, in Anointed YayShOo'ah ["Savior", Jesus] there is no thought [חשיבות, HahSheeYBOoTh], not to circumcision [למילה, LahMeeYLaH] and not to foreskin [לערלה, Lah`ahRLaH], rather to belief, the laborer in way [of] love.  

“No passage in Paul’s letters is of greater importance for integral understanding of his religion and the relation of his faith to his ethics. The mutuality of faith, hope, and love – a theme repeated with many variations – runs through everything he has written and forms the substance of his theology. … Paul’s religion is distorted whenever his ethics and his ‘good works’ are made to appear as an incidental by-product of his faith rather than as one of its essential ingredients.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB vol. X pp. 550-551)  
“This humble, holy, operative, obedient LOVE, is the grand touchstone of all human creeds, and confessions of faith. Faith, without this, has neither soul nor operation: in the language of the apostle James, it is dead, and can perform no function of the spiritual life, no more than a dead man can perform the duties of animal or civil life.” (Clarke, 1831, vol. II p. 394)  

...
-12. Would that [מי יתן, MeeY YeeThayN] and be cut [ויכרתו, VeYeeKahRThOo] the misleaders [המתעים, HahMahTh`eeYM] [of] you!  

“‘I wish that those who are upsetting you would even emasculate themselves!’ This is what Paul said and meant. … for a similar outburst see Phil. [Philippians] 3:2-3, where the advocates of circumcision are ‘dogs,’ and by a play on words – περιτομη [peritome’], κατατομην [katatmen] - ‘circumcision’ becomes ‘mutilation.’ Paul may have been thinking of the mad spectacle of the Cybele-Attis cult, whose priests in frenzied devotion used to emasculate themselves as a sacrifice to their deity. … The shock of Paul’s statement to the Judaizers can be measured in the light of the prohibition in Deut. [Deuteronomy] 23:1. To a devout Jew his blunt language would be as sacrilegious as a Christian would find the wish of a disbeliever in sacraments that all advocates of baptism would drown themselves. Never happy after making such denunciations (II Cor. [Corinthians]1:23-2:11; Phil. 3:18-19), Paul quickly changes his tone…” (Stamm, 1953, TIB vol. X pp. 554-555)  

-13. My brethren, to freedom you have been called,
only that not be, the freedom, means [אמצעי, ’ehMTsah`eeY] in hands of the flesh,
rather that minister, [each] man [את, ’ehTh (indicator of direct object; no English equivalent)] his neighbor in love.  

“To be freed from the ceremonial law, is the Gospel liberty; to pretend freedom from the moral law, is antinomianism.” (Clarke, 1831, vol. II p. 395)  

-14. See, all the Instruction included [כלולה, KLOoLaH] in saying [במאמר, BeMah’ahMahR] one – “and love to your neighbor like you.”  

“The quotation is from Lev. [Leviticus] 19:18; cf. Rom. 13:8-10 [and Matt. [Matthew] 7:11 (Joseph A. Fitzmyer, 1990, TNJBC p. 789)]. The tense of the verb ‘fulfilled’ is perfect; thus Paul says that the whole law is fulfilled, in the sense of ‘has been fulfilled’ whenever one man loves another as himself…. Paul the Christian loved his neighbor not because a commandment disobeyed would bring punishment, or fulfilled would merit reward, but because it was his new nature to do to.  
But who was Paul’s neighbor? He was, first of all, ‘the one who was near,’ the fellow member of the society of Christ who needed help to bear life’s burdens (6:2). Then, with continuously lengthening radius, Paul drew a series of concentric circles to embrace all men (6:10; I Thess. [Thessalonians] 5:15; I Cor. 9:22). Even his enemies were included, for Christ received sinners, and personal vengeance was no fruit of the Spirit (6:1; Rom. 12:20; 15:1-3). … He bore the burden of his neighbor’s sins, and although he sometimes had to threaten them, he was never without hope for their repentance (I Cor. 4; II Cor. 12:19-13:10; II Thess. 3:14-15). He could hurl anathemas, and his friends did not always find him easy to get on with … but the love of Christ would never permit him to contract the circle of his neighbors (Rom. 9:1-3; 10:1; II Cor. 7:5-16; 1:23-2:11). (Stamm, 1953, TIB vol. X p. 557)  

...  

…………………………………………  
Fruit of the Spirit and usurpations of [ומעללי, OoMah`ahLahLaY] the flesh
[verses 16 to end of chapter]  

-16. Say I to you, walk in way the spirit and do not fill [את, ’ehTh] desires [תאוות, Thah`ahVOTh] [of] the flesh,
-17. for the flesh desires [מתאוה, MeeTh’ahVeH] to what that is in opposition [שבנגוד, ShehBeNeeGOoD] to spirit, and the spirit is opposed [מתנגדת, MeeThNeGehDehTh] to the flesh. [The] two [of] them oppose to this to this, and to that [ולכן, OoLeKhayN] you are not able to do [את, ’ehTh] what that is in your want.  

“This is Paul’s way of stating the Jewish doctrine of the ‘two impulses’ which are at war within the heart of man. The rabbis declared that God created Adam with two inclinations, one good, the other evil, and required him to choose which to obey. He was free to follow his good impulse, but he chose the evil, and so did all his descendants. Consequently every man became the Adam of his own soul. Some maintained that the evil impulse awakened at the age of nine, others at twelve. Study with practice of the Torah was the sovereign remedy to wear it away …” (Stamm, 1953, TIB vol. X pp. 561)  

…
-19. Deeds of the flesh are revealed [גלויים, GLOoYeeYM], and these are they:
adultery [נאוף, Nee’OoPh] and fornication, impurity [טמאה, TooM’aH], licentiousness [זמה, ZeeMaH], 20. slavery of idols, magic [כשוף KeeShOoPh in my Hebrew New Testamentⁱ ; the Greek here is “φαρμακεια pharmakeia - the use of drugs of any kind, whether wholesome or poisonous...” (Stamm, 1953, TIB vol. X p. 562] hatred, contention [מדון, MahDON], stinginess [צרות עין, TsahROoTh 'ahYeeN, “squint eyed”, Ζηλος Zelos jealousy], anger [כעס, Kah'ahÇ], strife [מריבה, MeReeYBaH], divisions [מחלקות, MahHLahQOTh], factions [כתות, KeeThOTh], 21. envy, drunkenness, profligacy [הוללות,HOLeLOoTh], and as similar.  
Say I to what that I already said: doers of deeds like these will not inherit [את, ’ehTh] kingdom of the Gods.  

“Πορνεια [Porneia] ... fornication ... means ‘prostitution’, but includes sexual vice and unfaithfulness to the marriage vow. The task of the church in creating a conscience on this matter was made doubly difficult by the practice of prostitution in the name of religion. Long before Paul, the prophets had denounced the fertility cults and made prostitution a synonym for idolatry.  
Φαρμακεια [pharmakeia] ... Since witches and sorcerers used drugs, the word came to designate witchcraft, enchantment, sorcery, and magic. The law of Moses prescribed the death penalty for it, and the prophets denounced the Egyptians, Babylonians and Canaanites for practicing it; but this did not prevent the Jews from producing some famous practitioners (Acts 13:6-12; 19:1-20). Next to state-worship, magic was the most dangerous competitor of true religion... claiming to specialize in the impossible, it prostituted faith to superstition, and divorced religion from ethics. ... In Paul’s spiritual arithmetic, faith plus miracles minus love amounted exactly to zero....  
Ερις [Eris] is ... strife ... The spirit of Eris is perfectly described in the words of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland – ‘ambition, distraction, uglification, and derision.’  
The fact that he expected the near return of Christ to end this present age must not be permitted to obscure the equally important fact that he regarded his own life and witness for Christ as an essential element in hastening that event.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB vol. X pp. 561-565)  

-22. In opposition to [לעמת, Le`ooMahTh] this, fruit of spirit:
he is love, happiness, peace, patience, [ארך רוח, ’oRehKh Roo-ahH, “length [of] spirit”] generosity, good heart, faithfulness, 23. modesty [עננה, `ahNahNaH], restraint [רסון, ReeÇOoN] [of] self– upon such [מדות, MeeDOTh] as these there is no instruction further [חלה, HahLaH, sic ["so in cite"] for חלאה, HahL’aH!].  

“Since love is a personal relation it is not a matter of law, and cannot be commanded; and since it is God’s own love growing as his ‘fruit’ in the hearts of men, no one can claim it as a merit for self-salvation. ...  
... in every age ... men have found it hard to see how God could have anything in common with humanity, and Christians have been tempted to make a distinction in kind between God’s love and man’s love. Paul’s authority has been claimed for this dualistic view. Αγαπη [agape’] is set against ερος [eros]. God’s love is said to be αγαπη reaching down to save man by his grace, and ερος man’s self-love aspiring upward to save himself. Paul’s αγαπη is associated with justification by faith, the Greek ερος with salvation by works.... Jerusalem and the Christian faith are made to oppose Athens and human reason, and the conclusion is drawn from the history of Christianity that ερος, man’s self love, has always been a source of corruption of αγαπη, love inspired by God’s grace.  
This interpretation of Christian love is intended as a defense of the doctrine of justification by faith and as a means of securing scriptural support for a dualistic philosophy which aims to protect the transcendence of God against humanism. But to draw such sweeping conclusions from a word study of two Greek nouns, without adequate consideration of other related Greek words and ideas, is to oversimplify. The LXX [The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible] is full of evidence that this distinction between αγαπη and ερος cannot be maintained on the basis of lexicography. The Greek O.T. [Old Testament] uses both the noun αγαπη and the verb αγαπαω [agapao] to express not only God’s love for men, but man’s love for God and for his fellow man. Although there is no certain evidence that the noun αγαπη was used by nonbiblical writers prior to Christianity, the argument from silence may be invalidated by future discoveries, and it would be precarious to conclude that αγαπη was a specifically Christian word.  
One-sided emphasis on God’s love as ‘unmotivated’ by anything in his creatures tempts men to regard him in the light of an egotistical philanthropist who expects gratitude and praise but neither needs nor desires the mutuality that is inherent in the very nature of love... Without a faith that dares humbly to believe that God needs man’s love ... the Christian’s conception of his high calling to be a kingdom builder is liable to reduce itself to blind obedience to commands given arbitrarily for man’s good while awaiting God’s eschatological fiat. Such a misconception is bound to give aid and comfort to the inclination of human nature – ‘the flesh’ – to divorce religion from ethics.  
Grave moral consequences result from such a view of Christian love. It is associated with a doctrine of predestination that makes God’s choice of the objects of his salvation utterly arbitrary.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB vol. X pp. 565-566)  
“The peace which was the fruit of the Spirit ... could be trusted to keep men's hearts and minds (Phil. 4:7), so that they need have not anxiety about anything. This explains the sublime recklessness of the Christian peacemakers. Being colaborers with God (Rom. 8:28), they were aggressors for peace. They aimed to live at peace with all men (Rom. 12:18), but fear of making enemies did not turn them from their task of producing soundness, wholeness, and harmony in a world of chaos. Their reasonable service was to ... substitute the righteousness and peace and joy of his [God's] kingdom (Rom. 14:17) for the low aims of 'the flesh,' thereby creating the conditions for peace. Their ideal was to live so that quarrels could never get started.  
Christian peace was therefore neither the calm of inactivity nor the mere passive enjoyment of freedom from strife. It was not the imperturbability of the Epicurean, or the apathy of the Stoic, or the contemplation of the mystic. The man who possessed it was not exempt from storm and shipwreck, but by faith he knew that he would arrive in port (Acts 27:21-25), and that all was well for him and his fellow men of faith ... And so, where all else was panic, he played the man.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB vol. X pp. 567)  
“... just as God’s patience was not to be presumed upon, so the Christian’s patience was not a spiritless good nature that would put up with things which it could not escape, or would not prevent. It was patience with a purpose, as in Paul’s pleas to Philemon, which contrasts so sharply with the Stoic motive for self control... Those who bore this fruit ‘turned the world upside down’ (Acts 17:6), and the enemy did not know how to deal with such unheard of patience and persistence.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB vol. X pp. 568)  
“Negatively defined, gentleness is everything that the ‘insolent, haughty, boastful’ men of Rom. 1:30 are not. It is the opposite of υβρις [hubris], the worst of sins in the eyes of the Greeks – deliberate, arrogant defiance of the gods by overstepping the limits set for human beings. In the O.T. such men are called ‘sons of Belial,’ the turbulent, highhanded wicked, who rage against God, kill, rob and enslave the righteous ‘meek’ and take possession of the earth for themselves. The psalms are full of moans and complaints against this rich and powerful majority, who used religion as a means of gain and kept their consciences in flexible subservience to the exigencies of power.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB vol. X pp. 569)  
“’Εγκρατεια [Egkrateia] is temperance (KJV [King James Version]), self-control (RSV [Revised Standard Version]) ....  
The Stoics had helped to prepare the soil out of which this fruit of the Spirit was to grow. They insisted that the sovereign reason could and should control the passions. They believed in a law of nature to which they must conform, and they endeavored to maintain their inner freedom under all circumstances. But their motive was very different from Paul’s, the one being devoted to the glory of the God of grace, the other to the preservation of the sovereign self-will. When the Stoic collided with things beyond his control, his inner independence turned into apathy, practicing the motto ‘When we can’t do what we want, we want to do what we can.’ He took orders from his commander in chief, an impersonal God who had the power of life or death; but he did it in such a way as to make it clear to God and men that he, the Stoic, was after all the captain of his soul. He controlled his anger because he found it a nuisance to be under the power of any passion and in his sight meekness was contemptible weakness...  
Paul exalted humility: ‘It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me’ (2:20). ... His self-discipline was the result of his spiritual experiences, rather than an undertaking to induce them; and his self-control was sane compared with the ascetic excesses of later Christian groups such as the ‘Encratites,’ who forbade marriage and followed fantastic dietary rules.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB vol. X pp. 569-570)  
“Unrepentant sinners have no appetite for the fruit of the Spirit, and when its production and distribution require changes in the political and economic status quo, men ... pass laws against it ... Especially in time of war these traits of Christian character have been forbidden fruit, though given for the healing of the nations. Occasionally the world, exhausted with fighting, and sick of its cynical Epicureanism, has professed a desire for the fruits of the Spirit, but on its own terms without the cross required to produce them.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB X p. 570)  

... 26. Do not, please [נא, Nah’] be panters of [שואפי, ShO’ahPhaY] honor vain [שוא, ShahVe’], the provokers [המתגרים, HahMeeThGahReeYM] and enviers [ומקנאים, OoMQahN’eeYM] a man in his neighbor.  

“The right stood in terror of the iconoclasm of the left, and the radicals labeled all other men reactionaries ... Both sides professed to love liberty and defend it, but neither was willing to grant it to the other.” (Stamm, 1953, TIB vol. X p. 572)   END NOTE  
ⁱ ספר הבריתות, תורה נביאים כתובים והברית החדשה [ÇehPheR HahBReeYThOTh, ThORaH, NeBeeY’eeYM, KeThOoBeeYM, VeHahBReeYTh HehHahDahShaH, The Book of the Covenants: Instruction, Prophets, Writings; and The New Covenant] The Bible Society in Israel, Jerusalem, Israel, 1991.  

  An Amateur's Journey Through the Bible

Sir David
Sir David suppresses a sigh. He couldn't say he hadn't been expecting a conversation like this. He gestures to a nearby bench and sits down, leaving Ariane room to scoot in next to him.
"Well firstly, I'd say you're my wife now. My surname does sound nice on you. A bit faster than I wanted to move perhaps, but let's call it a battlefield promotion."
Ariane offers him a half hearted smile. "Except I fled that battlefield like a little girl with her tail tucked between her legs. If I am your wife then my place is next to you. I can fight. You know I can fight David."
"Darling, in the end I'm the trained combatant in the family, and getting you out of the line of fire was my absolute first priority. This isn't to doubt your abilities, I think you're perfectly capable of defending yourself, but you don't have an Undaunted brand for thermal protection against a race known for fighting with fire, or any other covert protection. Nor are you an adept. You're immensely physically strong, far stronger than me even at your reduced size... but you're not a killer my dear... and I am."
Sir David sighs for real this time, but doesn't move his gaze from Ari's eyes. He had to meet her head on with this sort of thing. Take wife by the horns if you will.
"I don't want you to be a killer. It's my profession, I have no shame in it, for I end the lives of wicked people so good folk can sleep soundly at night. I did so on Earth, I do so now. I put myself at risk to protect the people I care about. My children. My grandchildren. My wife... and now my wives."
Sir David gently takes Ariane's hand, their fingers interlacing naturally.
"So if given a choice to ensure you're as safe as you can be, even if it means putting me at more risk... I'll always take the option that means you are as safe as possible. Even if that costs me my life. That's my promise. My oath. My duty was to Queen and country, and now to the Undaunted... but I took those oaths for Mary, my children... and now you."
Ariane nods softly, clearly still a bit upset.
"I ah... I understand, I think. I suppose I'm a bit upset with myself more than I'm upset with you. I was just... so scared. Even as I was incredibly, violently angry I was terrified... and the relief I felt when I ran was... shameful to a degree. Leaving you to die maybe. It hurt me a lot, like a razor was tearing at my guts. I just thought about what I'd do if you died or got hurt because I wasn't there and I-"
Tears start to well up in Ariane's eyes just a touch and David wraps an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in a bit closer.
"There, there. I didn't die. Nor was I going to. Not to trash like that. Nor is fear a shameful thing. Fear is a natural response. I get scared. Captain Bridger gets scared. Even Cannidor get scared at times. Usually of me or Captain Bridger in my experience. Anyone who says they feel no fear is a liar, a fool, or psychotic. Or quite possibly all three. Soldiers train to overcome their fear to accomplish significant things... but you my dear aren't a soldier."
David caresses Ariane's back, stroking down her spine and drawing a sigh from her as she relaxes a bit, tension bleeding out of her body.
"You need to master your fear just enough to flee smartly, summon help, barricade yourself, or as a last measure, fight. Which you did today. Just like you did on the Talasar Spire when you saved all those children. You're quite the heroine from just doing those things you know? You don't need to do more. Nor, if my preferences at all matter, would I wish you to. You're a beautiful soul to me Ari. I adore how fresh and bright you are about the things in the world you love. I want you to focus on that. Focus on being a joy to this galaxy... and to me. Instead of worrying about the profession of arms that is not your own."
Ariane sniffles a bit, then plants a kiss on David's cheek. "You know, you play the hard, tough, man, with that almost piratical swagger of yours... but you're just an old softy aren't you?"
"Guilty as charged my dear."
"I uhm. I think I'd still like to learn how to shoot. Or something. Just be better able to defend myself... and our children."
"Heh. Well I think we can take care of that... though I'll note that wasn't at all subtle Ari."
Ariane leans over again and kisses David hard on the mouth this time, her tongue briefly tangling with his and leaving him breathless.
"No. That wasn't subtle. I fully intend to reward my knight for gallantly protecting me, and you'll see just how unsubtle I can be David Forsythe."
"I'll look forward to it then. To close the loop on our previous conversation though. You know that if you had been even a talented markswoman with a pistol I'd have still sent you running at the earliest circumstance right?"
Ariane nods, nearly knocking one of her horns against David's head.
"I understand."
David gives her another gentle kiss on the cheek.
"Capital. Like I said, even if you're capable, your best defense is avoiding a fight entirely. You should only fight if you absolutely must. That's why I fought in the court yard. Not because I could win, but because we didn't have a clear or safe avenue of escape. As soon as we had such an avenue I got you out, and were I alone I'd have fought a fighting retreat to follow you in hopes of moving to a more defensible location. Or getting help from the wardens of the Inner Shrine."
"Which is exactly the type of behavior I have to beat into new recruits." Comes the now familiar smoky voice of Miri'Tok, as the click of her heels on stone announce her return to the room.
"I'm terribly sorry about the wait, police procedure is tedious, even for clear cases of self defense. David I'm told you have a bounty hunting license, so you'll be receiving some credits for their heads. Not extremely bad girls, save the boss, but bad enough to be worth some money. The local police are paying out a bonus for the living ones. That blue haired girl apparently won't shut up; she's rolling on her old boss so enthusiastically they had to bring a synth in to transcribe it all. It's going to be a busy couple of days for the capital district police force."
David nods. "Take half for yourself would you? I hardly need the credits and you did the lion's share of the dangerous work, I just had a little target practice."
Miri'Tok laughs. "Ah the sheer gall on your husband Ariane, a little bit of target practice he calls it. Some of the cleanest shooting I've seen in years with gangsters with rap sheets that combined stretch from here to orbit and it was just a bit of target practice! Hah!"
Ariane and David join in the laughter this time, the room returning to a hospitable warmth as Miri'Tok seats herself on a bench near the couple.
"I must compliment you as well Ariane." Miri'Tok says, orienting herself more squarely to the Agela.
"Me? What did I do?"
"You kept your head in a dangerous situation and didn't go to pieces like a great many women would have. This is a great deal of credit to your name. Even Apuk civilians, socialized to violence from birth, can go to pieces when real violence is forced upon them."
David nods.
"More or less what I was saying dear, you did a splendid job getting us help. If things had gone a bit more poorly, it's help we would have direly needed too."
Ariane's smile returns to her face like dawn for David, warming the room up even further as she snuggles a bit closer to him.
"Well if you're both telling me that, who am I to argue?"
Miri'Tok chuckles, and rises. "I'm afraid I must actually return to my duties, I've lingered longer than I intended. I'll take you down the hall and leave you with the Wardens in their ward room. Nar'Jan and the girls have been preparing an impromptu victory party for you both. Just a little toast, then one of the girls will give you the full tour of the war shrine. You're both welcome in the Inner Shrine whenever you please, so please come back while you're on Serbow and they'll gladly receive you."
Miri'Tok turns to leave, only to be stopped by Ariane tugging on her sleeve. When the Apuk warrior turns, Ariane holds up her communicator.
"Before you go let's exchange contact information. I really enjoyed our time with you, and I know David did as well. Perhaps we can meet again soon? Without another fight preferably."
"Oh!" Miri'Tok gets that same dusky tone that David associates with a blush in Apuk.
"I uh. I'd like that. Perhaps dinner or something? I know some great places to eat in the city."
"Sounds wonderful, I'll send you David's contact information later once I have a minute."
"I ah. Thank you. I'll look forward to it."
Miri'Tok offers a bow from the waist and quickly hurries away, the echo of her heels fading down the corridor.
David raises an eyebrow and looks over at Ariane.
"You know, when you said you were going to show me how unsubtle you could be, I was expecting something a bit more... intimate shall we say."
"So let the knowledge that things can get even more forward make you wonder at what tonight holds when we get back to the Tear."
David chuckles, caught entirely off guard with the sexual aggression from the normally demure Ariane.
"You're showing me all sorts of sides of yourself today Ari. Still, that really was a bit too forward wasn't it?"
Ariane cocks her head, giving David a slightly confused look.
"What? She's an excellent candidate for a third wife. Better to preempt her asking a bit so we can take the time to discuss it, and it doesn't hurt to put the welcome mat out when to my eye she's so accomplished and so obviously interested. Plus she'd be a good recruit for the Undaunted from her decorations. She's a very skilled warrior even if she's not a battle princess. Though she might be a princess. You never know. She's not wearing a crown, but apparently a lot of the battle princesses in service to the Imperial military skip the crowns outside of formal occasions, instead only going by their ranks."
Another eyebrow raised, a common thing when Ariane was in the mood to surprise David it seems. "Where did you learn all that? I haven't the foggiest about how to read Apuk decorations."
Ariane shrugs. "When I finished that book about your unit back on Earth, Eastern Approaches, I read a book or two on contemporary Apuk martial culture. I thought it might come in handy."
"So what does your reading tell you about Miri'Tok?"
"Well as she said she's an Apuk Imperial Marine. She started as an enlisted woman, and has done a century of service at least. She's done at least a dozen combat deployments, and numerous space deployments. The difference being specifically going to a conflict zone, and floating around on an Apuk Imperial Navy vessel looking for trouble.”
Sir David doffs an imaginary cap. “An activity I heartily approve of.”
Ariane rolls her eyes with a smile before continuing.
“She has five wound medals, an even dozen valor medals in varying grades and has been named as a member of an Imperial martial order. Knights for lack of a better word. Not all that dissimilar from you really if you'd had another forty years with the Royal Marines and SAS. Then there's a variety of competence awards that aren't as important. Suffice to say, Miri'Tok is very good at what she does."
"Hmmm. Yes I could see that in the fight, and you think she's interested in me?"
Ariane rises, and saunters the step or two to David slowly, placing her hands on his shoulders and leaning down to kiss him deeply.
"Darling, from her axiom she's single. From what she tells us about how her family treats men and views sorcerers, you're literally one in a billion... and she got to fight alongside you. I've heard Ghorza Bridger crowing about getting to fight side by side with the Captain at a bar on the promenade after the Talasar Spire with the same enthusiasm most girls save for a once in a lifetime present or getting pregnant. I also could tell that her shield sisters were green with envy. Well. Greener than normal anyway. If Miri'Tok wasn't interested, I'd be worried she'd hit her head in the fight. Plus her body always seemed to be facing you, except when she was speaking directly to me."
Ariane stands back up and tucks some of her hair back into place, with an exaggerated attempt at a glamorous, flirtatious pose..
"Well, with such a gifted potential candidate it wouldn't exactly be a hardship to share. I'll just have to take solace in the fact that I'll always have a bigger rack than her."
David's eyes naturally drift downwards from her face, considering the rack in question, only for a slightly embarrassed Ariane to stick a finger up to direct his attention back upwards before covering her reddened face with her hands.
"My horns David. I meant my horns. I have bigger horns than she does."
It takes every fiber of discipline he's ever possessed for David to suppress the cheeky grin that desperately wanted to plaster itself across his face, and to tame the school boy giggle fit he so dearly wanted to have. He stiffens his upper lip like a proper British gentleman and manages to dryly respond.
"Well my dear, let's not talk about other women. You have a fantastic rack and I look forward to appreciating it later tonight."
Ariane shoots him a look, clearly over acting her slight embarrassment into mock outrage, playing along with her husband easily.
"Now you're doing it on purpose!"
"Yes, but you're cute when you're flustered."
"You're impossible David Forsythe!"
"That I am Mrs. Forsythe."
Ariane chuckles, and leans over, planting another gentle kiss on his lips.
"And I wouldn't have it any other way."
First Last