Firehouse subs crew member job description
PeopleWhoWorkAt
2019.01.03 12:01 Beautiful_Dirt PeopleWhoWorkAt
Want to know trade secrets? What's in the special sauce? Or what it's like to work in an industry? Ask the People Who Work At that place! #PWWA
2023.05.30 00:01 Nice_Breakfast1872 Law and Indigenous identity fraud
I'm an Indigenous law student (had to make a throwaway because just that info with my post history could be enough to doxx me). I know I am Indigenous, my whole family is on reserve, 3/4 of my grandparents went to residential school, its not some distant heritage thing. The further I go in academia I'm seriously, seriously disturbed by how many 'pretendians' are around me, not only taking the spaces and awards for Indigenous people but becoming elevated and touted as leading voices and executives of Indigenous agencies and organizations.
Some of the hardest hitting was one of my undergrad professors who I did research for was later found out to be a pretendian. Now in law school, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond was exposed to be a pretendian when I was at the Indigenous Bar Association conference. My own school's Indigenous students society has a fair few questionable members. I will probably always have a bit of a sour taste in my mouth seeing someone who is 1/16th and has no lived experience as an Indigenous person get accolades and opportunities over me, but I'm really just trying to discuss the more blatant fraud.
The Amira and Nadya Gill story that broke REALLY pissed me off, this article summarizes most of it but I'll also TLDR:
and I know they've got buddies too! Karlie Nordstrom is a friend of Nadya's, got her law degree at UofT, claims to be Metis, but was sending letters threatening the Inuit women who uncovered this (now corroborated, dare I say proven) story of fraud with defamation! But don't worry, she's on the board of directors for Aboriginal Legal Services Toronto AND got a job on Bay st filling Aird & Berlis' Indigenous quota I'm sure š
Idk writing this makes me want to cry. The Gill twins is a more blatant nefarious cases of Indigenous identity fraud but because most schools and jobs only rely on self-identification, there's loads more with very vague and distant claims who skirt by with no further questions asked and collect every award, opportunity and cheque earmarked for Indigenous people and idk what can even be done.
As an Indigenous student, or when I'm a junior lawyer, I don't want to be the one going guns blazing and be identity policing especially when there are so many cases of family trauma, 60s scoop and everything else making it a sensitive subject to so many. Thats why I rely on the institutions to do their due diligence in ensuring that those they prop up as their Indigenous students or Indigenous lawyers actually are Indigenous. They should have the grounds to verify Indigenous identity claims if Indigenous identity is a prerequisite.
I guess I really have a couple questions for the sub; there's a difference between those with weak/suspicious claims and fully fraudulent like it was for the Gill twins. Like how could they have been found out sooner when they got past a lot of check points by being registered Inuit NTI members? Pessimistically, I think had they said they just had an Inuit great great great grandparent, they'd be given a lot of the same opportunities and awards and never be found out. Also more specifically in the legal field, what can be done about law students and lawyers who do this? Is it just an integrity question? Will law societies actually disbar?
submitted by Nice_Breakfast1872 to LawCanada [link] [comments]
Some of the hardest hitting was one of my undergrad professors who I did research for was later found out to be a pretendian. Now in law school, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond was exposed to be a pretendian when I was at the Indigenous Bar Association conference. My own school's Indigenous students society has a fair few questionable members. I will probably always have a bit of a sour taste in my mouth seeing someone who is 1/16th and has no lived experience as an Indigenous person get accolades and opportunities over me, but I'm really just trying to discuss the more blatant fraud.
The Amira and Nadya Gill story that broke REALLY pissed me off, this article summarizes most of it but I'll also TLDR:
- Amira and Nadya Gill claim to be Inuit and members of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI)
- they did different news features on Kanata Trade Co. their "Indigenous business to watch"
- Nadya was a law student at Queens and went to the Native Summer Law Program, which is basically a month of summer school at USask before 1L that Indigenous law students across Canada can connect, as well as studying property for credit and have a lighter 1L load
- Amira was in engineering and Nadya got with her JD and LLM in 2022 with tons of awards for Indigenous students and Indigenous businesses along the way
- Some actually Inuit folks raised some questions online and NTI did an investigation of their enrolment
- They say their mother Karima Manji had adopted them from an Inuk woman
- NTI found they had applied citing an actual Inuk woman being their biological mother, except this was a disabled Inuk women they had taken advantage of and used to lie
- This Inuk woman Kitty Noah has 7 real children who had never heard of these Gill girls before and now are trying to get the RCMP to investigate them for fraud but to my knowledge have gotten no word back
- its alleged Karima Manji, the twins mom, dated Kitty Noah's late husband decades ago and is how she knew the family and knew of Kitty Noah's traumatic brain injuries and care plan
- Karima Manji was also charged with defrauding March of Dimes, a charity that works with people with disabilities for $800,000 back in 2015, just a nice little side story
- NTI removed them from their registration list obviously and they are pretty definitively not Indigenous and just liars
and I know they've got buddies too! Karlie Nordstrom is a friend of Nadya's, got her law degree at UofT, claims to be Metis, but was sending letters threatening the Inuit women who uncovered this (now corroborated, dare I say proven) story of fraud with defamation! But don't worry, she's on the board of directors for Aboriginal Legal Services Toronto AND got a job on Bay st filling Aird & Berlis' Indigenous quota I'm sure š
Idk writing this makes me want to cry. The Gill twins is a more blatant nefarious cases of Indigenous identity fraud but because most schools and jobs only rely on self-identification, there's loads more with very vague and distant claims who skirt by with no further questions asked and collect every award, opportunity and cheque earmarked for Indigenous people and idk what can even be done.
As an Indigenous student, or when I'm a junior lawyer, I don't want to be the one going guns blazing and be identity policing especially when there are so many cases of family trauma, 60s scoop and everything else making it a sensitive subject to so many. Thats why I rely on the institutions to do their due diligence in ensuring that those they prop up as their Indigenous students or Indigenous lawyers actually are Indigenous. They should have the grounds to verify Indigenous identity claims if Indigenous identity is a prerequisite.
I guess I really have a couple questions for the sub; there's a difference between those with weak/suspicious claims and fully fraudulent like it was for the Gill twins. Like how could they have been found out sooner when they got past a lot of check points by being registered Inuit NTI members? Pessimistically, I think had they said they just had an Inuit great great great grandparent, they'd be given a lot of the same opportunities and awards and never be found out. Also more specifically in the legal field, what can be done about law students and lawyers who do this? Is it just an integrity question? Will law societies actually disbar?
2023.05.29 23:42 Banono-boat it isnāt getting betterā¦ actually seems like itās getting worse
My mom died just before my 25th birthday last summer, from cancer. I had to handle nearly everything associated with her direct care, like making sure she had food or items she needed, and I was one of two people who visited her in a hospice facility every day for the three weeks she was there before passing. None of my family members stepped up to the plate after her death either, so I handled all of the paperwork and estate stuff on my own. I knew she was dying, which didnāt make it any easier really, but I wasnāt so traumatized I couldnāt function since her death was expected. I just had to get on with my life. I feel like a failure now though because nothingās gotten any better. I had started a new job close to her passing and was hopeful it would be an overall life improvement but itās been nine months and I want to quit. I canāt handle being around my family because they have all gotten on with their lives and make comments about how well Iāve handled everything when the reality is Iāve had to beg for support and didnāt get any, leaving me on my own. Out of the blue recently Iāve started remembering how she looked during hospice and itās so jarring and makes me so sad. My friends are starting to get serious about their careers, get engaged, etc, and participating in their milestone celebrations destroys me. There were so many things I took for granted, like getting married or walking at a graduation, that I just assumed my mom would be around for. I still want those things so bad but itās not possible and itās making me feel so hopeless and depressed. I had a single mom but her and my dad were amicable and without her around I find my dad and stepmom, as well as my momās sisters, kind of insufferable. Feeling adrift and family-less is also hurting my relationship, my partner isnāt exactly nurturing like a parent nor does he have a strong family bond which didnāt bother me prior to my momās passing but now has me questioning if I can even see a future with him. I go to therapy, I try to get 8 hours of sleep a night, i exercise daily and try to journal. Basically I try to do the ārightā things and take care of myself, but I only feel like everythingās getting worse. Do other people feel like this?? Am I ever going to get satisfaction out of my life again? Iām really scared of feeling this way forever. The worst part is that this is exactly what youād talk to your mom about. I miss her so much. Iāve been struggling to open up to anyone besides my therapist and it feels like the number of people willing to hear me is narrowing. Sometimes I feel like a total alien in social situations and like I never meet the social expectations, which wasnāt something I ever struggled with prior to my loss. Maybe Iām not the only person experiencing this. Iām sure other young people on this sub would agree that the world at large kind of feels like the worst itās ever been, and coupled with my grief those feelings are devastating :(
submitted by Banono-boat to GriefSupport [link] [comments]
2023.05.29 23:28 Sweetlo123 Phones and communication work both ways!
Iām so sick of older family members making sassy comments about me not calling or visiting them. Iām sorry, Iām working two jobs, 60 hours a week total, to survive in todayās world. You, someone who is retired with millions of dollars because you were able to buy a house for 78K in 1979, canāt pick up a phone to check on ME? Why does the older generation feel like itās our duty to keep the communication going between the two of us? Iāve shared my frustrations, and even good days and times to call, but still the sassy comments continue. I know itās silly, but I am fed up! Itās exhausting! Thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate this sub.
submitted by Sweetlo123 to rant [link] [comments]
2023.05.29 23:12 20242 Need to protect myself while rapidly leaving a bad situation
Be smarter than me: when you see the red flags run, do not walk.
I have been a term with one department in the PS for five-and-a-half years. There was a break in service between my terms.
In both of my terms I had really positive experiences, and kept in contact with my colleagues. I had great performance reviews and each time there was a mad-dash to keep me (I donāt have my French, I know, I know).
The same group that hired me the first time, hired me back in 2020. A few months ago we found out that our group was being collapsed and that people would be sorted elsewhereā¦ except for the terms. Two directors jumped-in on my behalf and found me a position elsewhere in the department, as Iām only months away from my roll-over date.
The a/team lead gave me a hard sell. Busy group, really wanted me, my experience would fill a major gap in the group. Theyāre ramping up for lots of work. Indeterminate, English Essential, At Level. It looked like a perfect fit.
The situation in front of me now is a result of me not listening to the advice given here.
The paperwork came in, I was offered only a five month term at my substantive level, bringing me two months shy of my roll-over date. Red flag.
The directors again intervened on my behalf. The a/manager assured them that this was just to pull me over ASAP, the indeterminate paperwork would come later. HR told me they had been told the same thing. The reference paperwork had even been completed for an indeterminate position at my acting level (I had been acting for 18 months).
I took the job.
Itās a small team, and when I got here there were three other new hires on the team and they said they hadnāt been given work to do. All the works goes to the existing staff members. Red flag.
The groupās team leader had been on extended leave. Came back to see that there had been a shift in work and new staff hired. They were not happy.
Last week the team lead had 1:1s with the new team members. They made it clear that the world would continue to go to the established team members. In my case I was told that my acting was scheduled to end next month and they would not be renewing it. They wouldnāt have hired me in the first place, and if they did, they wouldnāt have brought me over at my acting.
Also, that indeterminate position? Never heard of it. No records of it. They donāt even have a box to put me in. My term wonāt be renewed either.
So, this is clearly not a good situation and considering that I only have until September I need to get out of dodge fast. How on earth do I do that in my position? I am behind the 8 ball and I feel bad going back to the two directors that helped me earlier.
I am less than six months away from my rollover date and feel like Iām radioactive. Iām a parent and one of my kids has complex medical needs so being unemployed or without health coverage isnāt an option.
I feel hopeless and stupid for having trusted people and not listened to the advice on this sub.
submitted by 20242 to CanadaPublicServants [link] [comments]
I have been a term with one department in the PS for five-and-a-half years. There was a break in service between my terms.
In both of my terms I had really positive experiences, and kept in contact with my colleagues. I had great performance reviews and each time there was a mad-dash to keep me (I donāt have my French, I know, I know).
The same group that hired me the first time, hired me back in 2020. A few months ago we found out that our group was being collapsed and that people would be sorted elsewhereā¦ except for the terms. Two directors jumped-in on my behalf and found me a position elsewhere in the department, as Iām only months away from my roll-over date.
The a/team lead gave me a hard sell. Busy group, really wanted me, my experience would fill a major gap in the group. Theyāre ramping up for lots of work. Indeterminate, English Essential, At Level. It looked like a perfect fit.
The situation in front of me now is a result of me not listening to the advice given here.
The paperwork came in, I was offered only a five month term at my substantive level, bringing me two months shy of my roll-over date. Red flag.
The directors again intervened on my behalf. The a/manager assured them that this was just to pull me over ASAP, the indeterminate paperwork would come later. HR told me they had been told the same thing. The reference paperwork had even been completed for an indeterminate position at my acting level (I had been acting for 18 months).
I took the job.
Itās a small team, and when I got here there were three other new hires on the team and they said they hadnāt been given work to do. All the works goes to the existing staff members. Red flag.
The groupās team leader had been on extended leave. Came back to see that there had been a shift in work and new staff hired. They were not happy.
Last week the team lead had 1:1s with the new team members. They made it clear that the world would continue to go to the established team members. In my case I was told that my acting was scheduled to end next month and they would not be renewing it. They wouldnāt have hired me in the first place, and if they did, they wouldnāt have brought me over at my acting.
Also, that indeterminate position? Never heard of it. No records of it. They donāt even have a box to put me in. My term wonāt be renewed either.
So, this is clearly not a good situation and considering that I only have until September I need to get out of dodge fast. How on earth do I do that in my position? I am behind the 8 ball and I feel bad going back to the two directors that helped me earlier.
I am less than six months away from my rollover date and feel like Iām radioactive. Iām a parent and one of my kids has complex medical needs so being unemployed or without health coverage isnāt an option.
I feel hopeless and stupid for having trusted people and not listened to the advice on this sub.
2023.05.29 23:04 Chemical_Sky7458 Iām so sad
The Celtics are gonna win and if they do this sub is wiped of the face of the map. This means Iām forced to get a job and become a functioning member of society. What a cruel world.
submitted by Chemical_Sky7458 to nbacirclejerk [link] [comments]
2023.05.29 22:16 sonofalando What advice do you have for my wife given her current career trajectory?
Hey all, been a seattle resident all 36 years of my life and am at an interesting crossroads with my wife. Long story short is that sheās been at JBLM(military base) working as a shift lead and a crew member for the last 10 years. Promoted about 4 years ago to leadership. She manages people with developmental disabilities who handle the cleaning of the dining facilities.
Sheās thinking about a career pivot and Iām doing my best to help, but Iām a bit lost on what career options to recommend. Sheās a great communicator, but a little shy. She doesnāt have a college degree and itās a bit late in life right now with our financial momentum where itās at.
Iād say she likes to work with her hands, but she also wants to get away from strictly physical grunt labor. Whatās a good college certificate program she could go to that pays a reasonable wage once completed? Sheās currently earning 22.80 an hour. If she pivots to another supervisor role around seattle Iād think it would probably have to be hospitality again of some sort, but maybe Iām wrong. Sheās Union and weāve found most lateral jobs in the area arenāt offering commensurate salaries to justify a switch. Any advice from some formerly Reddit professionals is appreciated.
Her past experience before this was some office work with Microsoft office suite, and food samples at Costco.
I have thought about us registering our own cleaning business.
Please also note she only works 34 or sometimes less hours a week but is classified as full time.
submitted by sonofalando to careeradvice [link] [comments]
Sheās thinking about a career pivot and Iām doing my best to help, but Iām a bit lost on what career options to recommend. Sheās a great communicator, but a little shy. She doesnāt have a college degree and itās a bit late in life right now with our financial momentum where itās at.
Iād say she likes to work with her hands, but she also wants to get away from strictly physical grunt labor. Whatās a good college certificate program she could go to that pays a reasonable wage once completed? Sheās currently earning 22.80 an hour. If she pivots to another supervisor role around seattle Iād think it would probably have to be hospitality again of some sort, but maybe Iām wrong. Sheās Union and weāve found most lateral jobs in the area arenāt offering commensurate salaries to justify a switch. Any advice from some formerly Reddit professionals is appreciated.
Her past experience before this was some office work with Microsoft office suite, and food samples at Costco.
I have thought about us registering our own cleaning business.
Please also note she only works 34 or sometimes less hours a week but is classified as full time.
2023.05.29 22:13 sonofalando Curious about in demand work without college degree, or suggestions for in demand work that can be obtained with a certificate ?
Hey all, been a seattle resident all 36 years of my life and am at an interesting crossroads with my wife. Long story short is that sheās been at JBLM(military base) working as a shift lead and a crew member for the last 10 years. Promoted about 4 years ago to leadership. She manages people with developmental disabilities who handle the cleaning of the dining facilities.
Sheās thinking about a career pivot and Iām doing my best to help, but Iām a bit lost on what career options to recommend. Sheās a great communicator, but a little shy. She doesnāt have a college degree and itās a bit late in life right now with our financial momentum where itās at.
Iād say she likes to work with her hands, but she also wants to get away from strictly physical grunt labor. Whatās a good college certificate program she could go to that pays a reasonable wage once completed? Sheās currently earning 22.80 an hour. If she pivots to another supervisor role around seattle Iād think it would probably have to be hospitality again of some sort, but maybe Iām wrong. Sheās Union and weāve found most lateral jobs in the area arenāt offering commensurate salaries to justify a switch. Any advice from some formerly Reddit professionals is appreciated.
Her past experience before this was some office work with Microsoft office suite, and food samples at Costco.
I have thought about us registering our own cleaning business.
Please also note she only works 34 or sometimes less hours a week but is classified as full time.
submitted by sonofalando to Seattle [link] [comments]
Sheās thinking about a career pivot and Iām doing my best to help, but Iām a bit lost on what career options to recommend. Sheās a great communicator, but a little shy. She doesnāt have a college degree and itās a bit late in life right now with our financial momentum where itās at.
Iād say she likes to work with her hands, but she also wants to get away from strictly physical grunt labor. Whatās a good college certificate program she could go to that pays a reasonable wage once completed? Sheās currently earning 22.80 an hour. If she pivots to another supervisor role around seattle Iād think it would probably have to be hospitality again of some sort, but maybe Iām wrong. Sheās Union and weāve found most lateral jobs in the area arenāt offering commensurate salaries to justify a switch. Any advice from some formerly Reddit professionals is appreciated.
Her past experience before this was some office work with Microsoft office suite, and food samples at Costco.
I have thought about us registering our own cleaning business.
Please also note she only works 34 or sometimes less hours a week but is classified as full time.
2023.05.29 22:07 w_domburg First race: Buffalo Half-Marathon
Race Information
- Name: Buffalo Half-Marathon
- Date: May 28th, 2023
- Distance: 13.1 miles
- Location: Buffalo, NY
- Bib: 5203
- Website: https://buffalomarathon.org/
- Strava: https://strava.app.link/YDzpQlPBcAb
- Time: 2:14:00
Goals
| Goal | Description | Completed? |
|---|---|---|
| A | Finish | Yes |
| B | Sub 2:15 | Yes |
| C | Sub 2:00 | No |
Splits
| Mile | Time |
|---|---|
| 1 | 8:55 |
| 2 | 8:29 |
| 3 | 8:41 |
| 4 | 8:51 |
| 5 | 8:56 |
| 6 | 8:29 |
| 7 | 8:49 |
| 8 | 9:00 |
| 9 | 9:06 |
| 10 | 9:04 |
| 11 | 15:47 |
| 12 | 12:26 |
| 13 | 13:33 |
| 14 | 10:02 |
Training
My real starting point was my annual check-up shortly after my 45th birthday, learning my weight hit a new apex (308 pounds) and I was officially diabetic and hypertensive. Six months later and 60 pounds lighter I decided to try and run 5k. No formal plan; I just got on the treadmill twice a week and alternated running to failure then walking to recover. A month later I could run the entire distance, and another month I got it under 30 minutes.Over the summer I switched largely to cycling, with only an occasional 5k run to mix it up. Once snow became an issue I switched to running again. October I managed a 10k for the first time. November I starting running a 10k twice a week. January alternating 12.5k and 7.5k. March 15k and 5k.
I had to take a couple weeks off due to IT band pain in my right knee. And then a few weeks ago some discomfort and stiffness in my left Achilles heel, but that thankfully cleared up well before race day.
By the time race day had rolled around I was down about 100#, was regularly running sub-8:00/mi on shorter runs and around 9:00/mi on long ones.
Pre-race
I had fully intended to spend the final week before the race in a graceful taper, keeping myself limber with low impact cardio (mostly cycling) and stretching, while giving my body the sleep and food and hydration necessary to be in peak readiness.Instead I had a family member taken to the hospital a week prior and passing away early Thursday morning. Needless to say my focus was elsewhere and sleep was a rare commodity.
One saving grace, and my new motivation for running is that I had signed up as a "Heart to Heart" participant, raising money for the cardiac programs at the very hospital she had been in the care of.
Race
Absolute beautiful day. Clear skies, sunny, still slightly on the cool side as we gathered in the starting coral. I'll confess to some moments of doubt at looking how fit other people lining up at the 9:30/mi flag looked, but I stood my ground.The first mile I worked forward through the ranks a bit, and by the second had caught up with the 9:05/mi pacers.
I stayed with that cluster until mile 6, when we hit a long, straight downward slope and I took the opportunity to give myself a bit of a buffer and extended my stride for a couple miles.
This may have been my first mistake. I settled back into my target pace for a few more miles after that, but as we hit the 10 mile marker I was feeling shagged enough that I took the caffeinated gel on offer. I never had one before, but we were close enough to the end it felt worth the risk.
It wasn't. Within minutes my stomach was cramping and I had to clench to avoid having an embarrassing accident. I dropped to a walk waiting for it to settle since that part of the course had no porta-potties. The gait I assumed made my legs protest, so I spent a couple miles mostly power walking with tentative spurts at a light run.
On the last stretch was chatting with a fellow running and said I had been hoping I could still manage a 2:15 finish and he said, "Well we better step it up then. If you can do it, I can, and vice versa."
So we did. And at the very end I even managed a passable sprint across the finish line.
Post-race
Immediately after I felt pretty good. The gastrointestinal distress had passed. After hydrating more my muscles were no longer threatening to cramp (at least not until I made my way back to my car and tried sitting down, but that passed quickly).Stopped for doughnuts on the way home because I felt I deserved them. Then laid down for a couple hours, because I felt I deserved that, too. Had some nausea later in the afternoon, so passed on lunch, but was feeling pretty much back to normal by early evening.
Aftermath
I won't deny some disappointment in myself for not managing to go sub-two, especially after maintaining pace the first 10 miles.On the other hand, this was my first actual race, my first time running more then 10 miles, and according to Strava a huge 15k PR (1:21:57 from 1:28:20).
I also raised over $1000 in memory of the family member I lost.
Made with a new race report generator created by herumph.
2023.05.29 21:34 Vio_ Community resources guide help and information
Hey everyone,
I'd love to set up a community resource guide for our sub.
Please post here if you have any local organizations, agencies, support groups, etc that can help our members.
They can be health care, financial, healthcare, lgbt, political, voting, gender issues, civil rights, community building, educational, volunteering, job development and resources, food assistance, energy/transportation assistance, activism, etc.
I'd like to focus more on permanent/regular groups more than one offs, but we can still add those as well.
If you know of any, please tag their name, their community location (or if it's state, regional, or federal level), and what they provide.
Thanks everyone.
You guys make this Sub more than anything else what it is and thank you for your help.
submitted by Vio_ to kansas [link] [comments]
I'd love to set up a community resource guide for our sub.
Please post here if you have any local organizations, agencies, support groups, etc that can help our members.
They can be health care, financial, healthcare, lgbt, political, voting, gender issues, civil rights, community building, educational, volunteering, job development and resources, food assistance, energy/transportation assistance, activism, etc.
I'd like to focus more on permanent/regular groups more than one offs, but we can still add those as well.
If you know of any, please tag their name, their community location (or if it's state, regional, or federal level), and what they provide.
Thanks everyone.
You guys make this Sub more than anything else what it is and thank you for your help.
2023.05.29 21:29 AlienNationSSB #Alien-Nation Chapter 168: Now or Never
Alien-Nation Chapter 168: Now or Never
All Chapters First Chapter of Alien-Nation Previous ChapterChapter summary: Elias wanders the grounds inspecting everything he can, has a fatheson moment with Larry then sends Vaughn to go try and spring people from jail.
I gave it a pass after measuring against a rod. Certainly it was far from the highest of technologies at our disposal, but certainly it would be either lethal, injurious, or at the very least, extremely loud. The gathered mishmashed array of weaponry pointing outward was impressive enough, but the real piece de resistance was the sheer number of railguns we'd had returned to us, frequently carried by a two man team. I signed off on it for final inspection, noting the plug in place over the end, and went to the railgun positioned further down the trench near the intersection.
This was one I recognized. This shared at least something in common to the cannon, insofar as it was far from the latest model at our disposal. I spotted some of my own extremely crude handiwork, a far more rough set of welds performed along the plate's protective, unsanded metal edges. Mister Singer, if he were ever presented with it, may have recognized the shoddy, unstable hand that welded together some of the protective casing. The service flap told me the model without needing to even open it, the household door frame hinges pulled from Verns' stock of spare parts bin, before we implemented something even so basic as refined latches with catch points.
That had to make this a Mk. II. Sentimentality had no place on the front lines. I sucked in a breath at the sight of another old muzzle-loader being carried into the workshop for upgrades, already laid out on the timber worktable and ready for use and sucked in a breath.
I just hoped the earliest design of managing power flow wouldn't give out from the faster firing. Complex but beautifully arrayed piping had given way to simpler, more streamlined designs as we incorporated a greater number of readily available alien parts. Some of which we were supplied an initial batch of in the bag with the blueprints, and then we were told how to work free those same parts from various broken pieces of technology we'd reclaimed off the Shil'vati, or even the freely given away omni-pads. With every iteration we demonstrated a degree of adaptation to using the parts we had available, and each generation marked a leap forward in our own understanding of Shil'vati technology, courtesy of G-Man and his father's handiwork.
The final barrels of the extremely limited run of the second batch we'd paid handsomely for were marked 'present,' too. They had gone the least far afield, with one already slagging itself during the attack on the data center. I frowned at the spreadsheet, as if my impression of it might cause their fate to improve.
The latest blueprints could maintain a decent rate of fire without burning out its power management system located in the welded together case. Or, rather, the barrel gave out first. For the first time, perhaps as a result of being coupled with the magazines and a relatively rapid-fire exchange meant the neosteel barrels we received had finally become the weak point in the design.
It was only after we'd returned to Camp Death that I'd noticed the difference.
The new batch we'd paid dearly for seemed somewhat altered from the first batch we'd been building all the others out of, made from an alloyed material that shone somewhat dimmer under the sun as George and I worked in the shed elbow-to-elbow, though the contrast was not immediately obvious until one held the two against each other. It was slightly thicker, too, all of which to me indicated a change in supply in some manner, but our supplier had hardly announced themselves to Sam.
This was a troubling puzzle to me. I still couldn't be sure it was the new microbatch of barrels alloys being far from equal to the originals we'd finally finished building out? Or was it the expanded magazines and power couplings' ability to fire faster creating an overall volume of fire that overheated the barrel from overuse? Or was the power management design faulty, generating more heat per shot? Were we misusing them?
I measured the barrel of the Mk. II, just to be sure the shelf life of the barrel hadn't come due. So far, inspections of the original batch of barrels had mercifully indicated they'd all been brought back here were in comparatively great shape, with this one being no exception. That lent me some comfort that these new barrels were just not up to the task of heavy, sustained fire. I couldn't know that for certain, and an unreliable weapon was cause for anxiety.
Indeed, there was almost no wear on this version at all, disproving the worst case scenario that these were only good for a certain number of rounds before they'd be worn down to uselessness. Certainly, they'd eventually give out, but it seemed we were still far off from that point.
"Sir?" Asked the gunner, staring at me.
I stared at him, then down at the spreadsheet. "This thing fires three rounds a minute. Do you think that rate of fire is sufficient?"
I could tell he wasn't sure whether a 'no' would have him replaced with someone professing to be more accurate.
"Get it upgraded." I took the white gel pen and scribbled on it- make ready for an upgrade as soon as the final repaired railgun clears the shed. Assigned to casemate #4, Operator... "Call sign?"
"Brut," he answered.
"Brut...with the Umlaut?" He gave a thumbs up and I added them. Costing nothing but a drop of gel ink for a little personalization if it made for a happy gunner was a good investment. "Use it well. Get it upgraded if there's time, keep an eye on the work shed. Once the repairs stop, you can take this to the front of the line, BrĆ¼t."
There was no point dismantling all our old ones and creating a backlog while some still needed repairs. I wrote on the hatch Upgrade from Mk. II to Mk. IV. That would give it a magazine and more than triple its firing rate. Anything more than that, I quietly held my doubts for the feasibility of upgrading in a timely manner. The Mark V's took too much time and effort to build their complex power management systems for not enough gain, stuffed too tightly into the protective case to be completed quickly. The Mark VI's tended to overheat their crude fire control circuitry, the consequence of an overcorrection back to simplicity; they could maintain a high fire rate, but were too delicate. The VII's were the ones with the new barrel. Promising, but those barrel faults...I still worried it might have been the power management system.
We'd started considering adding water tanks to help maintain them, but it brought the weight higher than that of a Mk. I, and successfully swapping a boiling hot tank off a delicate, electronically-loaded railgun in combat seemed like a very questionable use of the time. We'd just have to ask the crews manning the railguns to be a bit judicious in our fire, and hope that the flaw was limited to the new little batch of barrels.
How many rounds, exactly, and exactly how fast was yet to be determined; we hadn't conducted the amount of testing a proper military might carry out, but while we had no shortage to man, we also did not have so many as to test dozens until their point of failure, weighing and comparing all their possible conditions.
All this uncertainty kept bouncing around my head. How many troops did we have here? How many rounds for every type of rifle, including the more exotic variants? How reliant on them were we to deal damage, and was it all stored somewhat safely? On the less direct side of things, how many tons of food did we have stored, and was it distributed well? How many thousands of gallons of water could we draw? How many pounds of soap to wash utensils, cups, wounds, and shower with? How many pounds of food over how many men, to last how many days? If it rained, some of these might be alleviated, and yet might kick off a whole host of other issues. There was no way of knowing, no way of taking a perfect stock. But I could estimate.
We had a lot of people. And a lot of guns. And a lot of defenses, and literally countless tons of high explosives, triggered by various means and methods. And we were mad as hell. While exactly how mad was less concrete a figure, I knew this many men away from home could end poorly.
Ultimately, whether it was the fault of the new barrel or the design had finally reached the limitations of its potential rate of fire without causing other issues, I couldn't say for certain. So I had to do my best.
I gave the railgun a clean bill of health to operate if needed, 'priority upgrade,' and noted the rate of fire for the defensive position at 'three a minute.' This one being one of our oldest models, I left it to the operator with my blessings, and made a mental note to add the next railgun we had to be stationed nearby, just so that we weren't under strength from that angle.
I craned my neck from the trench to behold even more insurgents trickling into the old clearing. The arrivals always came in ones-and-twos, their body language telling me the story of the journey it had taken to get here. They'd had to have abandoned their vehicles to the traffic-snarled roads almost certainly some miles away unless they knew the path George and I would occasionally take;.
Those who brought their own heavy weapons lay them down at their feet before collapsing. Water and food was distributed, though I couldn't speak to the quality, and a trash run would have to be made, tossing the empty tins into ammunition containers.
Of all the newcomers who had yet to be organized into place, I counted two mortars, several more volunteers grouping up to retrieve ammo after taking down descriptions of the vehicles from their exhausted owners and sprinting back out into the night to fetch whatever had been left behind.
The resourcefulness lifted my spirits. No one entertained the notion that these men were taking their leave to flee a certain doom. All present felt some degree of faith, understood who they were, why they were here, and what we were setting out to accomplish. Cells worked to find one another in the darkness, congealing themselves into a more coherent, practiced fighting force by virtue of familiarity with one another. Discipline was sharp and needed little enforcement past an initial reminder. No flashlights switched on inside the premises or campfires were lit despite the encroaching edges of the cold front. Insurgents were guided to whatever defensive positions, pillboxes, trenches, battlements, or bunkers still sat empty, depending somewhat on their expected role after detailing their skills to sentries or those otherwise familiar with the camp carefully explaining sight lines and our overall defensive strategy.
Whispered word overheard from those arrivals seemed to indicate a mixture of panic and outrage was fast spreading through the state's populace, carrying them on frightened wings as they took flight in the night, from here to the southernmost beaches and bays. It seemed word had gotten out successfully, then. That knocked down one more obstacle to our success, or at least set the pieces in place. Soon, all that would remain would be the ugly business of following through, and hoping, no praying that I hadn't massively miscalculated in my hubris.
I took the ramp out of the trench so they could pour some loose gravel into it, helping ensure that if those threatening looking storm clouds opened and if the drains clogged, we still would have some footing, and retired to the command cabin, eyeing how empty it felt with all the finished products being set into defensive arrangements; only the workshop still retained all its rather explosive concoctions.
The manpower situation was such that those familiar in reliably manufacturing complex bombs were spending their time setting up defenses in the fields beyond and settling in our new arrivals.
And then I had the couple hostages, weakened by months of captivity, restrained and kept under guard, but still sitting right on top of the half-done armaments.
I told myself that we had taken precautions- the most reactive sets separated by a thin membranous bag of water to prevent chain reactions from taking root and a few emergency containment systems, but they relied on someone present. I'd need all hands on deck- and what if a direct lance of energy landed from some heavy weapon hit the shed, perhaps to try and make a point? No mere bag of water would make a difference then.
Then again, if they brought that king of weaponry to bear, then the outcome would be certain. The Shil'vati would still lose their hostages, and have tacitly admitted I'd forced their hand, and that they'd declared we were enough of a threat to sacrifice noblewomen just to put a stop to.
I hunched over a smaller map in the command cabin, pinning down the garrisons and jails Verns might be held in. Perhaps I'd been premature in my assessment in lacking a future need of a good map when I'd jumped atop the table for my little motivational speech. I'd gotten caught up in the moment; I hadn't foreseen the need for an offensive element.
I was sorely missing my Lieutenants. Vendetta wasn't here, which was one of the greater anxieties weighing on my shoulders.
The one word I'd whispered in his ear all that time ago to bring him around to believing I did, in fact, have a plan: Victory. He should be here already.
He'd sprinted off across the field in glee back when I told him of this plan's possibility, that "Plan C" might come about due to a few cells going dark and my suspicion that it wasn't moles. The null hypothesis, that there were in fact moles, had put him in direct danger by sending him to double-check.
I cursed my blindness. My eagerness to take a night off, to get him out of the way so he wouldn't clash with the others, so I could be a 'normal boy' for a night and attend a party- one I wouldn't be kicked out of, To find social acceptance.
All part of a 'coming of age,' even after I'd already spilt blood, led a war campaign effort, kissed, earned more money than most would see in a lifetime, and mentally cut ties with my family. By almost any account, I already was a man, yet I'd gotten obsessive in imitating the modern trappings of defining such things. I should have seen the cells reporting members' absences and even going dark as a whole for what it was. I could have called off Town Hall, started assembling even more people here.
Then again, if I had, then perhaps...the shil'vati might not have started grabbing everyone. I hated to think of Verns as 'sacrificial.' They likely didn't have much on him, just a neighbor's report. Then again, we'd had that meeting right after the bar fight at Lucky's, right? How thoroughly had George cleared out his house, if they went back to rummage around and investigate? How well could George cover his tracks? We'd left that ammo crate in the hallway, for starters- clumsy of us, yet we were in a panic. Like children. I tensed as I remembered so vividly the sudden sharp report of the gun, watched Patrick's empty eyes stare up. But not children.
There was nothing I could do for Vendetta. We'd sent the Bat Signal out. Either he'd be here, or he'd miss it.
I weighed the value of sending George away once he got here. The order would certainly annoy him after he'd just arrived, something of an arduous task given how far backed up the traffic had become. I also knew it meant I'd have one fewer lieutenant here, where I desperately needed him. I could hardly ask him to burn down the childhood home, and it would certainly reek of hiding evidence.
"Sir," A sentry stood in the door frame, and I stretched from where my muscles had tensed up, pulling my shoulders back and yawning silently beneath my mask, lumbering toward him.
I didn't realize how tall I'd gotten until I realized he was staring up at me and had taken a half-step backwards- not to make way so I could lead from the door, either, but almost defensively.
"Yes, what is it?" I asked, stopping in place.
"We've received a message for you, sir. Radio is reporting that a 'Hex' has checked in from her position. She and Binary report 'Green as Grass,' sir."
I wasn't used to being called 'sir,' and it caught me off guard. I realized he was standing there, waiting for a response from me of some sort, too.
What should I say for him to send back to Hex? I momentarily remembered the sensation of the kiss, the warm, slightly wet softness, the tenderness, and felt a bit of a blush under my mask. While every instinct screamed at me to not air even a hint of my romances or inner turmoil about a kiss over the unencrypted connection, there was a level of 'not talking about it' that I was unfamiliar with and hadn't planned for. Could my message back be coded into something subtle? Nothing came to mind.
"G-good," I finally stuttered a little awkwardly. "That's very good."
"What does it mean, sir?"
I pushed the distractions out of my head. This was no time to be thinking about girls- and my mind stubbornly disobeyed, wandering right back to Natalie. At first to the hug she'd offered me, when I was scared. Frightened of the mind-wiper device. That tenderness she'd offered- I pushed the memory from my mind, too. This wasn't the time to fantasize, either. I had to live in the world that was before me, here in the present. People were relying on me. I could figure out all that other stuff- girls, hope, my future- sometime later.
"It means the operation can proceed as planned."
If the Twins stopped reporting or got caught with the hostages, then we'd have a lot less leverage stopping Azraea from blowing us all sky high. A couple noblewomen- who I wasn't terribly familiar with and seemed to be somewhat less important, provided they were truthful to me of their station. This unfortunate pair had relied on connections to already-stationed family members to arrive, rather than on their raw political power to muscle their way to Earth's then-closely guarded secret coordinates, and were present only for evidence of said hostages' presence.
"Sir, beg your pardon," I could sense something bubbling under his words, against his better judgment, but some sense of desperation demanded he ask me this anyways. "But what is the operation? I've been manning the airwaves with Radio, helping spread word, but everyone I make contact with seems to want to know."
"I don't see the wisdom in broadcasting the finer details of our plan, I'm sure you understand."
I sensed the inner conflict by the way he froze up. He wanted to object, probably, to swear he wouldn't leak more than the minimum. The problem was, anyone listening for long might take a morsel here, a morsel there, and bring it all together and undo us.
"You have all you're meant to have at this point, frustrating though that must be to try and inform others of the going-ons. Our objective is right before us. When the time comes and the enemy appears, blast them." I didn't want to say there isn't much else to plan. At least, not for them to consider.
"And you, sir?"
"I'll be right here, alongside you," I promised. That seemed to ease some of his pressing curiosity, at least. "We'll be here together, to watch the birth of a miracle." That, or we'd die together. Those words didn't quite have the same catchy ring, though.
I looked over my shoulder back at the map. What more good could be wrought over pondering what jail he might be in, without more details?
"Another matter. Hex said G-Man should arrive in a few minutes."
"Thank you. Anything else to report?"
"No sir, the shortwave beckons." They gave a hand-on-heart and stepped out, leaving the doorframe empty.
I told myself I may as well follow. There was no good to come of disappearing into a tent, secluded for long periods, not when anxiety might run through the gathered troops. I had to make myself seen at least periodically. Besides, it was easier to get a more complete picture from out here than in there.
Radio looked like a one-man-band by the way he was surrounded by boxy electronics of varying sizes, their glows dimmed slightly by thin pieces of fabric taped over the tiny glowing screens, and the trap stretched over his head. Wires snaked their way along the ground, a trooper trying to lay the cable into a thin channel of dirt with a spade to reduce the tripping hazard.
Pierce crouched next to him with a laptop plugged into something wired together, the final outlet of which looked vaguely like an international travel inverter, her fingers flying across the trackpad.
"Radio, how are we?"
"We've made lots of contact, I think. So much traffic on the airwaves it's actually hard to find a clear channel to broadcast on."
"Do they have our encryption keys?" I asked, the question almost automatic.
"No, having one kind of defeats the purpose of being heard and getting the signal out. Besides, encrypting's probably easy for the Shil'vati to crack. Less easy for human intelligence agencies, but impossible for the people who we want to hear us."
I already knew most of this, but humoured him. Little entertained radio quite like his namesake.
"What's our chance of discovery, then? Rough time to them figuring out it's us here, and finding the signal's origin."
"At least with a somewhat uncountable number of HAM signals being thrown across the airwaves, we are a really big needle in a gigantic haystack. Besides, how many times have we actually been where we're broadcasting from?"
That was a point I hadn't considered.
The Shil'vati would likely regard our signal as just a relay point, rather than the source, let alone the destination.
Would they strike it just to silence the orders, once they figured out how many of them were originating from the same point?
I comforted myself by staring upstream of the creek that wandered to the south of Camp Death, following its course with my eyes to where it flowed under the concrete tunnels under the highway, under the train tracks, to where it ultimately ran back to where Radio and I had visited Saint Michael's. Then I turned my head back across the field, toward where the foundation of Mojo and Mister Pasta's had been, where Vaughn had called in the kill team on the Fed's sting operation,
We'd certainly set up plenty of remote broadcast towers before, to entice them into launching strikes on collaborationists. That Saint Michael's was still standing after we'd broadcast all kinds of propaganda from there meant they'd almost certainly learned to be a bit more cautious about lashing out blindly.
In the darkness I saw a familiar figure materialize, and with a bit of relief, I ran up to greet Larry. I wanted to give the old mechanic a hug, but knew that expressions of intimacy while standing near the middle of the camp's defensive perimeter in front of everyone was more than a bit inappropriate, and settled for a nod of acknowledgment.
"I cleaned up the mess at Jules place," he said, going back to referring to his friend by their code name, glancing at Pierce.
I felt a moment of shame. We'd panicked and grabbed everything. Perhaps we were like children after all, leaving our toys out and in the hall. "Thank you."
"Saw Patrick."
"Patrick saw," I said back. "Patrick- called."
Whatever Larry was about to say, that brought him up short. "Oh. Oh." The words seemed to leave him pained. He'd known Patrick, too, and I felt the weight of guilt. It seemed he moved on faster than I could, because he changed the topic quickly.
"What's up?" He gestured at the radio setup.
Pierce seemed to be quite engrossed in her work, trying to connect the laptop to a radio via a USB cable, fumbling with the port in the dark. The laptop's screen was showing a shaky handheld video of a mass arrest- and I thought I could hear my own voice echoing the words I'd spoken just a short while ago.
"Just uploading the speech. I've spliced it up to some footage that one of the newcomers brought. We'll also be exporting raw versions of both- just the audio, the video, make sure people have the record and can decide for themselves."
Sometimes the truth was the best propaganda.
"How are you getting video out? I thought the internet was down."
Radio held a hand up, and then put it down, as if I'd been a teacher asking a question and he'd been chasing extra credit. The next few sentences were practically a foreign language to me, uttering a series of numbers in rapid succession, followed by what sounded like a name. That may've been a model, an edition of a model, a make, a special form of broadcasting- all of it may well have been bounced off the ionosphere for how far it went over my head. I wasn't used to being so completely out of my depth, but everyone seems to have specialized in some skill or another. I'd preferred getting involved in all aspects of the revolution, but at a certain point delegation was a necessity, and I was watching not just the task's needs, but also the capabilities of my lieutenants grow well past my ability to offer useful insight and guidance.
"I...see." I didn't, but I wasn't sure what else to say. I wanted to express curiosity, but I felt like this new capability was something we'd discuss later, if there was a later. "And people can receive high definition video over shortwave? It just takes a long time?"
It seemed to me to be an apparently somewhat technical process to perform over shortwave, and only when finally pressed for details, Radio at last admitted something I did understand: "I am not sure most people know how to collect the signal, or have the right equipment to, but I'm sure someone will, Maybe that person will redistribute the videos."
There. Actionable, useful information.
"Then continue," I said. "At least unless anything more pressing jumps up to do."
"Let's hope it's good for more than the history books," Pierce commented mildly.
"The world has to know, and I am certain the shil'vati have no interest in putting such footage out there. That's reason enough for us, isn't it?" I watched Radio nod and then scurry about the camp, tracing one of the wires toward the antenna array nearest the highway. I turned to Larry, breaking off from the amusing spectacle. "Do you remember my promise?" My question was genuine, but he seemed to waver slightly, now that the possibility of actually delivering on it was here and present. Perhaps the aura of our inner circle's invincibility had been shattered with the loss of his neighbors, and it would be best to set his mind to something productive. "If you want it to come true, see to it that the mortar teams are trained. Get the cannons in position, and make sure we're good for more than just one wave."
Larry snapped a salute, fingers on brow, and I clumsily approximated one in return, though I had never done a salute before in my life. I could sense the slight smile from behind his mask, and with a quick check over his shoulder that no one was watching, he reached out, straightened my palm out slightly, then brought the edge of my palm higher until it was a bit more level. "That's better," he judged, then leaving me alone once I dropped the hand a few seconds later.
George showed up a few minutes earlier than Hex had predicted, out of breath and escorted by a sentry. "Ditched the truck," he wheezed. "The huge bags of claymores and equipment were really heavy. Had to haul it under the interstate." His shoes shone with creekwater; He'd almost certainly taken the path Larry had forbade us from trying, and I couldn't imagine doing it in the pitch black darkness at any speed.
I motioned to the sentry. "Help him get that bag into the workshop." He was the best bomb maker, but he also had helped build this place. I wanted to pick his brain, but I would give him time to rest, first.
"Hey, Radio. Radio!" I heard the shortwave radio he'd set at the top squawk to life with a familiar grumble on the other end, distorted somewhat by the tinny speaker. I scooped it up. Someone with a vocoder- Radio gave those out sparingly.
"'E' here," I answered for him, but didn't want to announce myself. Not right away.
A moment's pause.
"What are your orders?"
"Vendetta?" I wanted to confirm.
"I'm here with over fifty people waiting at Warehouse Base for something to do," I knew the transmission would likely be monitored, but the time for subtlety was over. "You're on speakerphone, by the way."
The line was likely tapped, or at least would be intercepted, its contents determining priority for being passed upward or presented to someone with authority, possibly even Azraea herself.
Whatever orders I gave, they'd have to be in code, or at least sound like something unimportant, low-priority so that we might give him as much opportunity to get the drop on the enemy as he could be afforded.
"Don't bother trying to come here yet," I quickly supplied. "By now, if you're not on your way here, you have your own party to go to." I took a moment to survey the grounds. "We've practically got a full house. See about getting a house party of your own, though you'll have to pull the guests out of their own company. Or something to flank."
"Any idea where to start?"
The map fresh in my mind, I found the answer sprang to me.
"There's a rest stop along Route One. If you've got any party poppers, you can get them to open up to you like a can opener. You know, it's all about introducing yourself well."
I heard him laugh mirthlessly, the sound coming through like a cheese grater run over the asphalt.
"That one's a big bite, maybe more than we can chew without choking. Why don't we start with something smaller?"
I wanted to protest, to direct him to the biggest ones first. Then again, how much did they have on Verns? How likely was he to be somewhere heavily defended?
"What do you have in mind?"
"Well, right across the river from where the naughty girls all get sent. Why don't we start there? Every party needs a few ladies, right?" I could hear a roar of assent from the background.
I wasn't quite sure what he meant by that- was he going to try and attack the Shil'vati base? Surely not those women? He wasn't that insane. Then it clicked- the Women's Correctional Facility in Wilmington, just upstream of the Christina River from where he was broadcasting from at the old Warehouse Base. Easy to get to, certainly, and right near the interstate with pedestrian bridges and neighborhoods to scatter in after the strike made it an excellent candidate. Almost certain to succeed.
The strike wouldn't yield us Verns, though forcing the Shil'vati to admit that they couldn't both take and hold their prisoners at the same time might force them to at least pause rounding up ever more people.
If I gave it my blessing, I would be sacrificing any chance of rescuing Verns for...for what? The tradeoff strained my soul to even consider.
"If you feel that's best, you know your crowd. That said, they got Jules- we want him back." He'd helped build Camp Death. He knew its ins and outs, though my real reasons were somewhat sentimental. "Keep an eye out for Morningstar and a few other cells. I've little doubt they can party with the best of them." They were one of my heaviest hitters, routinely bragging they could go clay pigeon hunting with an unguided RPG, yet I was pretty sure I'd never rallied them to Camp Death- if they were to rally, Warehouse Base was where they'd be.
There was a moment of silence, until Vaughn reported back- "Yeah, they're here. They were going to move up to you once they got everyone together. Should we leave instructions for where to find us, or to find you?"
"Do it- supplies are overall good here. Lots of...uh, balloons, confetti..." I felt like I was stretching the analogy too far, so I gave up trying to equate weaponry to party paraphranelia. "...you know, the works. Take Morningstar and use 'em as you see best fit. What've you got for your party? Any good party supplies?" We certainly could make a trash run and see if we could also deliver them some RPGs at the same time.
"Got some Bump-n-Grinds, and you know those are always good for an up-close-and-personal encounter."
I laughed. "From what I read about bumping and grinding? The closer, the better." Their accuracy left a fair bit to be desired. Still, it would be a good, even vital carry just in case those dreaded Security Forces Technicals made an appearance, and would probably be 'good enough' against a stationary target like a wall, especially in the hands of a capable squadron like Talonstar.
"What time are you thinking?"
"I'd say as soon as we're all ready. You really overestimated how many people know where Camp Death is. A fair number showed up here, and are still trickling in."
"Enough to throw several parties at once?" I asked, suddenly hopeful.
"Well, I suppose, maybe, but I'd be wary of partygoers without someone in charge to, uh..." the metaphor seemed to be breaking down, but I got what he was going for.
"Yeah, I see."
"Are you thinking if there are too many noise complaints at once, it'll keep the party going longer?"
"That's part of it, but I'm hoping we might find a particular person we're missing, lost him when we were playing unexpected host. Someone of G-Man's, you'd know him as Jules. A divide and conquer might maximize our odds of finding him."
"Plus, maximize the number of partygoers we pick up as we move. I like it. A few small house parties for every big house. Any special orders?"
"None. K.I.S.S. principle applies. Good, bad, I want it all out on the streets. 'KISS' 'em until they can't see straight." Keep It Simple, Stupid.
"You're certain?" I could hear the hesitancy in his voice. "This is going to be the greatest thing we've ever done, and I want to be by your side for it 'til the end. I don't want any last-minute cancellations, and I sure as hell don't wanna miss it. How long should I party?"
We'd be letting absolute chaos loose. Fire. Looting. The worst of humanity, turned loose, with Vaughn potentially at its head if he decided to recruit for some reason. Could I still claim to be the good guy if I turned those kinds of people free to wreak havoc on the state I claimed whose denizens I was protecting?
Blackstone's Ratio holds that it is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer. It would still hold me no less accountable for whatever followed from this mass prison break, though.
I looked over to the recently arrived George, and hung my head.
So be it.
"Confirmed, Vendetta. I'll next talk to you when you're here in person- call it when you start either getting tired or if the hosts hire a doorman, a bouncer, or something you can't handle. Bring any good partygoers and favors you find, guide them here, O Pied Piper. Over and out." The signal went quiet again, and I turned off our radio, standing and yawning. The hour was late, and it would be my last opportunity for some shuteye.
I pulled aside a few sentries to my first order. I felt it was a strange one, and likely futile: I asked everyone to 'try and get some rest.'
The sentries were going to be exhausted, and I needed them to start working in shifts if we were to maintain our vigil and perimeter. Doubtless, more would be coming, and giving them at least some rest might be a difference-maker. G-Man helped lead the newcomers to the subterranean bunkers and tunnels, trying to make sure everyone had a place to stay the night and resources got split, even if it was throwing tarps and blankets on hard-packed dirt. I eyed the tunnels, knowing which one of them would spit me out near the stream, itself running so low I might as well refer to it as a ravine. Digging that had been cramped, paranoia-inducing, but we'd dug out so much of the hill and filled it with enough weapons to wage a full-scale war. What had begun as almost make-work and a place to store things when we'd started out
I couldn't sleep well on the cot that night, tossing and turning- I even tried resting with the mask off, held in my hands, but the risk to my identity if anyone barged in caused me enough stress. Eventually, I stood and donned it, making my rounds around the camp, trying to calm myself. Instead, I felt eyes following me, and I had to force myself to stand tall. For the thousandth time, I thought of this as my Valley Forge.
The sentry at the door to the command cabin gave me a hand-on-heart, and I returned it.
As I patrolled, I could hear whispered prayers, muttered plans of action, and mercifully, snores. At least some were getting some sleep. I could see orange lights reflecting off the clouds, near where I knew Wilmington lay.
I almost jumped a foot in the air when I felt the tap on my shoulder, only to find G-Man's mask staring into mine. How strange that such a haunting visage was a comfort to me.
"Hey. Can't sleep?"
"I can't," I confessed. "G-Man, I'm sorry what happened with your father. Hell of a birthday." I hadn't even had a chance to give him the present I'd bought him- a couple new filters, and vintage craftsman toolkit, "from before they sold out," Verns had told me. The memory of his voice already felt distant somehow- no. I'll see him again.
"Wasn't your fault. Even if Town Hall wasn't your big idea to get them to retaliate, you know? Then they'd still have done something. But, uh, thanks for saying that. And thanks for trying to get dad out. I'll remember that." George said quietly, then the conversation ended when he turned away and went to the edge of the embankment. Just like that.
I could never quite get a read on him.
I went inside, and tried to force myself to get at least some shut-eye.
Thanks to Inmutabilis-Ratio for helping with the site, it was very helpful in importing the text.
All Chapters First Chapter of Alien-Nation Previous Chapter
Alien-Nation Discord Buy A Coffee for the Author
2023.05.29 19:40 PritchettRobert506 [HIRING] 25 Jobs in NV Hiring Now!
2023.05.29 19:31 lilgreenie Buffalo Half Marathon - PR race after a long, slow ailment-ridden year
Race Information
- Name: Buffalo Half Marathon
- Date: May 28, 2023
- Distance: 13.1 miles
- Location: Buffalo NY
- Time: <1:47
Goals
| Goal | Description | Completed? |
|---|---|---|
| A | Sub 1:50 | Yes |
| B | Sub 1:48:43 (PR) | Yes |
| C | Finish with my arms triumphantly in the air | No |
| D | Get to ring the PR bell | Yes |
2022
I've had a rough few years body-wise. In 2021, I decided I was going to have a "rebuild year," and spent lots of time getting to the bottom of various aches and pains. My main goal was to come out stronger so that I could hit some PRs in 2022. I was planning to train for the 2022 Buffalo Half, but on literally the very first training run, I twisted my ankle and broke my foot just one block from home. This was just one stop of my tour of ailments including shingles, a bruised ribcage, and Covid (among other things). Once I got all that out of the way, I decided to train for an August 15K race. Training was going well until mid July, when I gave myself heat exhaustion during a long run. That effectively put a pin in that plan because I felt AWFUL and knew that I didn't want to gamble with having to race on a hot, humid day. I spent 2022 feeling like everything was one step forward, two steps back. The fact that I'd ever run a half marathon averaging an 8:20 pace was absolutely unbelievable to me because I was struggling to bring my average paces much lower than 9:30. I honestly figured I'd never see those numbers again.Training
Sometime over the winter I decided that I wanted to start increasing my mileage again for funsies, and what better way to do that than by training for a half marathon? I was feeling pretty good and my body had been cooperating, so I decided to shoot the moon and set my training plan (using a program devised by my physical therapist) for a 1:50 finish time. Overall it went pretty well, and I was surprised that I was able to hit my prescribed paces for the most part. I did have a period in late April where I had a Very Bad Attitude about training because I was tired and it seemed that it rained every freaking day for two weeks. I remember lacing up my sneakers one day and legitimately wanting to cry because I just didn't want to run for an hour and a half in the rain. I pulled back a little at that point and eased up on my paces and soon enough my attitude dissipated. Training resumed according to plan.Pre-race
I had a lot of anxiety early in the week, but I used some tips from people on this sub to calm my nerves. I added up my mileage for this training cycle to remind myself that I prepared well and wrote it on the back of my bib. I made plans with friends for Sunday night after the race so that I'd have something to look forward to post-race. I chose a time when the temperature would be close to the 50F temps predicted at the start of the race to figure out what to wear. I really tried to focus on hydration and nutrition in the week leading up to the race to quell my usual post-race GI issues. I felt ready!The day of the race, I got up at 4am, ate my bagel and peanut butter, and drank my coffee while doing some lessons on Duolingo, as per my usual. Stretched and did yoga while petting the cat, also as per usual. Got dressed, woke up my husband and rolled downtown. Did a very small warmup, then met a friend right near the 1:50 pacer. I had a little bit of anxiety but my overall feeling was LFG baby.
Race
I was planning to keep with the 1:50 pace group for about 4-5 miles, then pull away if I was able. However, the pacers ended up going out on the faster end (I think to allow for the ability to slow down a bit as temperatures rose throughout the race). I was ahead of my hopeful 8:15-8:20 pace by 5-15 seconds. I knew this would definitely help me go sub 1:50, and could end up in a PR if I didn't burn out. But I knew I was cruisin' for a bruisin'.I did my best to enjoy the course, and I truly did love it! I love Buffalo so much, and it was wonderful to run the streets and see all of the spectators. I missed BEING a spectator (I always park myself at Mile 14, which I hear is a tough spot mentally for the full marathoners and is fairly devoid of a cheering squad) but got genuinely teared up seeing so many people out! The turn before heading out to the waterfront was so loud that I actually had to wipe away tears. Then there was a small but noticeable uphill so the tears were back. Just kidding, although I will say that, although Buffalo is a flat city, those small molehills along the course sometimes felt like mountains to me!
I was doing a pretty job cruising along until mile 11. The Wall came at mile 12, and the rest of the course from there on out was just me repeating in my head "Don't walk, don't walk, don't walk!" I was so tired! Remember how I wrote my training mileage on the back of my race bib? Every time I felt like I couldn't continue, I patted my bib and reminded myself of that number. 323. 323. 323. You prepared for this. You can do this. I turned the corner and.... is that the finish line? All the way up there? Why doesn't it look like it's getting any closer? Oh good god. Some friends called my name and cheered me on. I smiled (or maybe grimaced?) and continued on. I had grand plans to come into the shoot strong, fast, with a big smile on my face! The girl ahead of me was raising her arms in that "make some noise!" kind of way and I was like "That's a good idea, I should do that!" Nope, no energy for that. I locked my eyes on the finish line. The clock was in the 1:46s. Could I do it? Could I possibly go sub-1:47? So many people called my name (which was on my bib), which was amazing! But my focus was on that finish line. Don't walk. Don't walk. 323. I crossed the finish line but wasn't entirely sure of my official time. My watch said 1:47 on the nose, and my gun time was roughly 1:47:30. What would my chip time be?
But no matter, I PRed! I rang the PR bell, signed the PR column, and had my picture taken. I snagged a stranger behind me who had also PRed and we took a celebratory photo together. Good thing because, as I told myself, this would be my last half marathon. I need to remember it.
Post-race
I enjoyed the post race party with my husband and some friends for a bit before we went back out to cheer at the finish line. I love spectating so much. Everyone coming into that shoot has a story, and I like being there to help that story reach its victorious conclusion! I clapped and yelled with such enthusiasm that I left with sore hands and a hoarse voice. In the late afternoon we enjoyed drinks and dinner with friends at a new brewery. At night chip times were finally posted. I went sub 1:47! Not by a ton, but I exceeded by goals! All in all it was a fantastic experience, and I can admit that as much as I was looking forward to only spectating next year, I'm having such an afterglow moment that I'm like "...but what if next time I just ran it slower?"Made with a new race report generator created by herumph.
2023.05.29 19:30 IndieRex The Wild Beyond the Witchlight: Reimagined - Part XVII: Yon (Motherhorn)
 | Welcome to Part 17 of The Wild Beyond the Witchlight: Reimagined, an expansion and alternative take on the The Wild Beyond the Witchlight campaign. Previous entries: submitted by IndieRex to wildbeyondwitchlight [link] [comments]
Foreword: This post contains spoilers for The Wild Beyond the Witchlight IntroductionThis trip through the mountains is certainly quite a hike! Luckily Motherhorn is just over the distance, and from there - Arctis Tor, the Winter Palace. Hopefully you've packed your costume jewelry and memorized your lines, because today we'll be taking a tour through Endelyn's amphitheater of horrors.The Path to MotherhornArt by tzlynartWhen the players exit the Brigganock mine they will be back outside in the Shimmerstorm Mountains - now not far from Motherhorn. This is a good time to read the description from the book, though hold the staircase and balloon pieces for now until the party actually reaches it later. This will position Motherhorn as the way in to the palace. Looming in the distance is an ominous gray citadel hewn out of the mountaintop. The path leading to it is winding and precipitous. Wind swirls around its towers, and ravens cluster and caw in its granite nooks. A crooked finger of lightning strikes a metal rod protruding from the topmost spire, and the sound of applause drifts over the citadelās battlements.Awakened Giant Goats While Motherhorn is just over the ridge it's about an hour's trek still. On this path is the perfect time for some furry friends to make their appearance. You can play out this event as written in the book though I have an alternative description to set-up the scene below. As you make your way up the cold, snowy mountain trail, you suddenly sense that you are being watched. You turn to see three giant goats standing a few yards away, their silvery-gray fur ruffled by the mountain wind. Their wizened faces are fixed on you, their golden, hourglass-shaped pupils observing you closely.Lightning Rods The path to the amphitheater is also a good time for the party to pass by some of the lightning rods of Yon. In the distance you see a towering structure glimmer in the dark as it's struck by a bolt of lightning and then seemingly absorbs its energies. The tower stands 30 feet high and is topped with a 10-foot-diameter crescent moon made of gleaming copper. You wonder what kind of electricity this rod must harness in order to function given the storms that rage through these mountains.If a player chooses to climb one of the rods I feel as if it's more fun to ask for a check. Some options include: - DC 14 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (your choice) to climb - DC 14 Wisdom saving throw as a thunder cracks overhead to not lose balance If your players have a Lightning-Catching Bottle they can use the rod to fill the bottle in the same manner that they could charge their weapons. MotherhornWhen the players arrive read the following and the balloon description from the book. If the party defeated Charm in The Fields of Spring then the balloon will not be here and you can skip that portion.The mountain path ends at a spiral staircase that climbs sixty feet to a balcony made of weathered gray stone. You have reached Motherhorn.As described, if Gleam is with the characters, she will warn them of Endelyn. As mentioned last time as well, I highly recommend taking the party through the play though of course this depends on your table! In this section I will only call out changes (otherwise run the book as is). Unlike the book, if Bavlorna or Skabatha fled they did not escape here. One general change I would recommend is to replace about half of the darklings in Motherhorn to use the greater darkling stat block from Part XI. A Tragedy in the Making https://preview.redd.it/v20r2a3wzs2b1.png?width=1023&format=png&auto=webp&s=343d56c5cd6127a508f69dbae9b97946d277af14 I'm going to cover the play at the outset as having this info will help inform how you run Motherhorn (and also might mean a bit of a railroad at the beginning for your players if you move them right into the play). As mentioned before, the play is a ton of fun so definitely would suggest pushing your players this way if you think they'd be open to it. As per the book the party will be expected to put on a play if they want to have an audience with Endelyn in area M18. No invitations or fliers should be needed here. Unlike the book though, Endelyn doesn't have their Lost Things, but does have a way to get them to Arctis Tor, The Winter Palace, which is where their Lost Things are. Also like the book, if the characters decline to perform a play for her, Endelyn demands that they leave at once, ordering her darklings to attack characters who refuse to do so. Preparing for the Play The party should meet with Stagefright as written to get prepared for the play, but after the initial introduction we will be adjusting things significantly. In terms of how to run the play though there are a lot of options. I've laid out my own suggestion below (with inspiration from the outline by u/DearEdison) , but some others to consider are:
No Love Lost, The Tragic Love Affair of Iggwilv and Graz'zt For my take on the play, the characters will be running a script called No Love Lost, The Tragic Love Affair of Iggwilv and Graz'zt, which is intended to better tie into the overall story. You may remember Graz'zt from Nib's Cave in Part XIII, and of course Iggwilv needs no introduction. After the intro with Stagefright it's time to assign players their roles - either through rolling or choice, but there should be no doubles. As I had 5 players there are 6 roles (one for each of them and one for Charmay) - feel free to adjust depending on your number of players. Charmay also doesn't need to participate though.
Performing the Play Once time is up, Stagefright will return to bring the players to the stage and inquire if their troupe has a name, while Endelyn, the darklings, and the goblins watch. I had the play take place on the Grand Opera House map (Romeo Juliet version) by Czepuku, but anything will work. Charmay will open the play with a monologue to set the scene, and then it will operate as follows: Many bards consider it the greatest love story the multiverse has ever known, for it reveals the unsettling foundations of desire. It speaks to the dark origins of love and our desire to possess that which is beyond possession. As we relate to you the tale of Iggwilv and Grazāzt, let your mind wander. Reflect on the love that possesses you and ponder what your future holds.
Even the great Mordekainen is befuddled by Tasha M2. Amphitheater Rather than roll on the tragedies table I would select #7. This directly ties into the notes we left at Loomlurch where Tasha has tricked Endelyn into believing Bavlorna is plotting against her. M7. Oracular Library In the black book you need to remove the portion of text below as no such treachery has taken place in the reimagining and it's also a bit too on the nose on revealing Zybilna's identity. M11. Stage Workshop Two immediate changes to make in the workshop are that there is no unicorn horn here as usual, and Golmo is also not here (he is instead imprisoned in Arctis Tor for your reference). We will also be changing almost everything that Skylla shares with the characters (though the description itself of her and her background is all still accurate). In particular we're removing all of the mentions of Iggwilv (a bit too early for the big reveal!), and of course the piece about the cauldron is not true in the reimagining. She will boastfully share the following information:
M13. Worker Cells If the party freed Harry from the Green Keep he is here to rescue his sister Kizz, who traveled to Yon before the barrier came up. M16. Darkling Balloon Dock This room will be empty and no balloon present if the players killed Charm, Trinket, and Bauble in the Fields of Spring. You may choose to have different darklings here though if you want to offer their wares still. If they are here, the darklings will know all of the knowledge from the Wayward Pool article (Part XI). If the party is still on friendly terms with Charm then the darklings will still offer their wares for sales (see the Traveling Wagons in Vale Crossing for details - Part X). If the party knew of Charm's plot to kill Lamorna and did nothing to stop it you may potentially want to have Charm be in possession of Lamorna's horn, with a plan to give it to Endelyn (who would like it as a present for Queen Mab). M17. Prison When speaking with Glister, make the following changes:
When the party is granted an audience with Endelyn (such as after performing a play), we will make some adjustments to the exchange.
The hag cackles gleefully as she begins to chant, gusts of wind raging fiercely around her. The scent of brimstone and burning herbs fills the air, mixing with the sound of thunder that rolls overhead. Her eyes fix themselves on you as a strike of lightning illuminates her grotesque form and the puppets move.Fates The following are general ones that will apply given upcoming events so feel free to use them! More details to come in the articles on the Winter Palace.
M20. Paper Birds and Hidden Belfry The Letters We will be changing the letters here to the following: Dearest Skab,As a result of Tasha's machinations - Endelyn is still of the belief that Bavlorna is plotting against her, not realizing Tasha has played the same trick on every sister. Lord Kelek,Endelyn has tired of Skylla but can't kill her or otherwise get rid of her like her other actors given Skylla's strength and not wanting to anger the Winter Court in any way. While I removed Alagarthas I think it's fine to keep the title or perhaps even change it to something relevant to a player of yours (as I did above)? Bottled Lightning I would up the damage here to 4d6. Hidden Belfry Instead of traveling to the Palace of Heart's Desire, these cranes will take the players to the entrance of Arctis Tor which we will cover in our next article. You may want to avoid allowing players to use this without an invitation from Endelyn (either freely given or forced) as it likely means they're skipping (fun) content and won't have a good way to make their way through Arctis Tor. M21. Ornithopter Pad As a reminder, the other sisters (and thus their flying mounts) are not here. M22. Endelynās Room Also a reminder, no Lost Things are here (they are at the Winter Palace). The title of the play here should match what you use in area M20. https://preview.redd.it/a6y4lpya2t2b1.png?width=1700&format=png&auto=webp&s=8575bc8074b37a25a44010d7f19cb153c199c00b ResourcesI have highlighted some of the resources I used for this portion of the campaign below.Art
Whatās Next? After taking a bow from Motherhorn our adventurers will be flying off to Arctis Tor, the Winter Palace and seat of Queen Mab. A grand castle of scheming eladrin nobles, the elusive Zybilna, and of course the party's Lost Things awaits. As always, please donāt hesitate to reach out with any comments, questions, or suggestions andā¦ see you in the Feywild! |
2023.05.29 19:05 DTG_Bot [D2] Daily Reset Thread [2023-05-29]
Daily Modifiers
Vanguard
- Brawler: Melee abilities deal more damage and recharge much faster.
- Arc Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Arc damage.
- Stasis Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Stasis damage.
- Strand Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Strand damage.
- Void Threat: 25% increase to incoming Void damage.
- Power Level Disabled: Combatant difficulty is set at a fixed level.
Dares of Eternity
- Durandal's Edge: When you're holding a Sword, damage from nearby combatants is reduced.
Salvage
- Void Threat: 25% increase to incoming Void damage.
- Arc Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Arc damage.
- Stasis Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Stasis damage.
- Strand Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Strand damage.
Deep Dives
- Deep Dive Rules: Successfully complete as many randomly chosen timed encounters as you can before being caught by the foes hunting you! Reach the sea floor to turn the tables, turning the hunters into the hunted! Power Level: Player Power levels are fixed. Each depth activates a new modifier for the remainder of the activity and increases all combatant Power levels over player Power levels. Asha's Gifts: Choose one of two random gifts from Asha at each depth to enhance yourself for the remainder of the activity before taking on the Darkness. Wrathful Predator: Final blows on these unique combatants will reward your fireteam additional time on the objective timer. Rewards: Victory at each depth increases the rewards and challenges of the next. Opt in with your entire fireteam to trigger Pressure Trial versions of activities for even greater rewards!
- Join In Progress Disabled: Your fireteam cannot be joined while in an activity. Return to orbit to add fireteam members.
- Attrition: Health and shield regeneration are significantly impaired, but defeating combatants may create wells of Light that restore health. Activates immediately.
Seasonal
Legend/Master Lost Sector
Exotic armor drop (if solo): UnknownLost Sector information is currently unavailable. Check the comments!
Neomuna
Terminal Overload: Zephyr Concourse
- Weapon: Circular Logic (Machine Gun)
Misc
- The Wellspring: Defend Weapon: Tarnation (Grenade Launcher)
- Altars of Sorrow Weapon: Blasphemer (Shotgun)
Guns & Materials
Banshee's Featured Weapons
| Name | Type | Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scathelocke | Kinetic Auto Rifle | Arrowhead Brake // Chambered Compensator | Appended Mag // Extended Mag | Tunnel Vision | Multikill Clip |
| Nezarec's Whisper | Energy Glaive | Ballistic Tuning // Supercooled Accelerator | Extended Mag // Swap Mag | Genesis | Adrenaline Junkie |
| Combined Action | Energy Hand Cannon | Chambered Compensator // Fluted Barrel | Tactical Mag // Extended Mag | No Distractions | Air Assault |
| Taipan-4fr | Heavy Linear Fusion Rifle | Fluted Barrel // Polygonal Rifling | Accelerated Coils // Projection Fuse | Triple Tap | Snapshot Sights |
| Tears of Contrition | Kinetic Scout Rifle | Arrowhead Brake // Hammer-Forged Rifling | Appended Mag // Extended Mag | No Distractions | Focused Fury |
Note: Fixed perks on weapons are not displayed
Master Rahool's Material Exchange
- Purchase Glimmer (10000 for 10 Legendary Shards)
- Purchase Glimmer (10000 for 10 Dark Fragment)
- Purchase Glimmer (10000 for 10 Phantasmal Fragment)
- Purchase Glimmer (10000 for 25 Herealways Piece)
- Enhancement Prism (1 for 10 Enhancement Core & 10000 Glimmer)
- Ascendant Shard (1 for 10 Enhancement Prism & 50000 Glimmer)
Bounties
Commander Zavala, Vanguard| Name | Description | Requirement | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| One Shot, One Kill | Defeat combatants with precision damage. Bonus progress is granted in Vanguard playlists. | 25 [Headshot] Precision | XP+ |
| Vanguardian | Defeat combatants while in Vanguard playlists. | 50 Targets | XP+ |
| Perfect Energy | Defeat combatants with Special ammo. Fusion Rifle final blows in Vanguard playlists grant additional progress. | 20 [Fusion Rifle] Fusion Rifle | XP+ |
| Show Them the Light | Defeat combatants with your Super in Vanguard playlists. | 5 Super | XP+ |
| Name | Description | Requirement | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| By the Code | Defeat opponents. | 10 Opponents defeated | XP+ |
| Closed Circuit | Defeat opponents with Arc damage from any source. | 5 [Arc] Arc | XP+ |
| Into the Light | Defeat opponents using your Super. | 1 Super | XP+ |
| Cardio Day | In Momentum, capture zones. | 5 Zones | XP+ |
| Name | Description | Requirement | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Punch Card | Defeat opponents in Trials of Osiris. | 25 Opponents defeated | XP+ |
| Trials Triplet | As a fireteam, defeat opponents using Pulse Rifle final blows in Trials of Osiris. | 20 [Pulse Rifle] Pulse Rifle | XP+ |
| Light up the House | As a fireteam, defeat opponents using Grenade Launcher final blows in Trials of Osiris. | 15 [Grenade Launcher] Grenade Launcher | XP+ |
| Trial of Lead | As a fireteam, defeat opponents using Kinetic weapon final blows in Trials of Osiris. | 20 Kinetic weapon | XP+ |
| Name | Description | Requirement | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fistful of Motes | As a fireteam, bank Motes in Gambit matches. | 100 Motes banked | XP+ |
| Face-to-Face | Summon Primevals in Gambit by filling up your team's bank. | 2 Primevals summoned | XP+ |
| Final Ploy | Defeat combatants with finisher final blows. | 5 Finisher | XP+ |
| Evanescent Emptiness | Defeat targets in Gambit by making them volatile with Void. Defeating Guardians grants more progress. | 30 [Void] Void volatility | XP+ |
| Name | Description | Requirement | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fusion Rifle Calibration | Calibrate Fusion Rifles against any target. Opposing Guardians and rapidly defeated targets grant the most efficient progress. | 100 [Fusion Rifle] Fusion Rifle | XP+ & Enhancement Core & Gunsmith Rank Progress |
| Linear Fusion Rifle Calibration | Calibrate Linear Fusion Rifles against any target. Earn bonus progress with precision and against opposing Guardians. | 100 [Linear Fusion Rifle] Linear Fusion Rifle | XP+ & Enhancement Core & Gunsmith Rank Progress |
| Glaive Calibration | Calibrate Glaives against any target. Rapidly defeating targets and defeating Guardians grants additional progress. | 100 [Glaive] Glaive | XP+ & Enhancement Core & Gunsmith Rank Progress |
| Arc Calibration | Calibrate Arc weapons against any target. Earn bonus progress using Power weapons and against opposing Guardians. | 100 [Arc] Arc weapon | XP+ & Enhancement Core & Gunsmith Rank Progress |
| Name | Description | Requirement | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Snipers of Myth | In Neomuna, defeat combatants with precision final blows. Vex combatants grant additional progress. | 60 [Headshot] Precision | XP+ & 50 Neomuna Rank |
| Cryogenic Hardening | In Neomuna, defeat combatants affected by Stasis. Vex combatants grant additional progress. | 60 [Stasis] Stasis | XP+ & 50 Neomuna Rank |
| Flawless Dance | In a single life, defeat combatants in Neomuna using Sidearms, Submachine Guns, Shotguns, or Swords. | 20 Targets | XP+ & 50 Neomuna Rank |
| Hacker's Paradise | Complete waves in Terminal Overload. | 10 Waves cleared | 1 Terminal Overload Key & 50 Neomuna Rank & XP+ |
| Name | Description | Requirement | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rig Shift | Complete jobs in Salvage. | 2 Salvage objectives | XP+ |
| Deep Trouble: Fallen | Defeat Fallen. Fallen defeated in Salvage and Deep Dive award bonus progress. | 100 Fallen | XP+ |
| Precise Aquanaut | Defeat targets with precision final blows. Defeated Guardians or combatants defeated in Salvage or Deep Dive award bonus progress. | 100 [Headshot] Precision | XP+ |
| Tropical Storm | Defeat targets with Solar or Stasis damage. Super abilities award bonus progress, as well as defeating Guardians or defeating combatants in Salvage or Deep Dive. | 100 Progress | XP+ |
2023.05.29 19:05 DTG_Bot [D2] Daily Reset Thread [2023-05-29]
Daily Modifiers
Vanguard
- Brawler: Melee abilities deal more damage and recharge much faster.
- Arc Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Arc damage.
- Stasis Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Stasis damage.
- Strand Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Strand damage.
- Void Threat: 25% increase to incoming Void damage.
- Power Level Disabled: Combatant difficulty is set at a fixed level.
Dares of Eternity
- Durandal's Edge: When you're holding a Sword, damage from nearby combatants is reduced.
Salvage
- Void Threat: 25% increase to incoming Void damage.
- Arc Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Arc damage.
- Stasis Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Stasis damage.
- Strand Surge: 25% bonus to outgoing Strand damage.
Deep Dives
- Deep Dive Rules: Successfully complete as many randomly chosen timed encounters as you can before being caught by the foes hunting you! Reach the sea floor to turn the tables, turning the hunters into the hunted! Power Level: Player Power levels are fixed. Each depth activates a new modifier for the remainder of the activity and increases all combatant Power levels over player Power levels. Asha's Gifts: Choose one of two random gifts from Asha at each depth to enhance yourself for the remainder of the activity before taking on the Darkness. Wrathful Predator: Final blows on these unique combatants will reward your fireteam additional time on the objective timer. Rewards: Victory at each depth increases the rewards and challenges of the next. Opt in with your entire fireteam to trigger Pressure Trial versions of activities for even greater rewards!
- Join In Progress Disabled: Your fireteam cannot be joined while in an activity. Return to orbit to add fireteam members.
- Attrition: Health and shield regeneration are significantly impaired, but defeating combatants may create wells of Light that restore health. Activates immediately.
Seasonal
Legend/Master Lost Sector
Exotic armor drop (if solo): UnknownLost Sector information is currently unavailable. Check the comments!
Neomuna
Terminal Overload: Zephyr Concourse
- Weapon: Circular Logic (Machine Gun)
Misc
- The Wellspring: Defend Weapon: Tarnation (Grenade Launcher)
- Altars of Sorrow Weapon: Blasphemer (Shotgun)
Guns & Materials
Banshee's Featured Weapons
| Name | Type | Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | Column 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scathelocke | Kinetic Auto Rifle | Arrowhead Brake // Chambered Compensator | Appended Mag // Extended Mag | Tunnel Vision | Multikill Clip |
| Nezarec's Whisper | Energy Glaive | Ballistic Tuning // Supercooled Accelerator | Extended Mag // Swap Mag | Genesis | Adrenaline Junkie |
| Combined Action | Energy Hand Cannon | Chambered Compensator // Fluted Barrel | Tactical Mag // Extended Mag | No Distractions | Air Assault |
| Taipan-4fr | Heavy Linear Fusion Rifle | Fluted Barrel // Polygonal Rifling | Accelerated Coils // Projection Fuse | Triple Tap | Snapshot Sights |
| Tears of Contrition | Kinetic Scout Rifle | Arrowhead Brake // Hammer-Forged Rifling | Appended Mag // Extended Mag | No Distractions | Focused Fury |
Note: Fixed perks on weapons are not displayed
Master Rahool's Material Exchange
- Purchase Glimmer (10000 for 10 Legendary Shards)
- Purchase Glimmer (10000 for 10 Dark Fragment)
- Purchase Glimmer (10000 for 10 Phantasmal Fragment)
- Purchase Glimmer (10000 for 25 Herealways Piece)
- Enhancement Prism (1 for 10 Enhancement Core & 10000 Glimmer)
- Ascendant Shard (1 for 10 Enhancement Prism & 50000 Glimmer)
Bounties
Commander Zavala, Vanguard| Name | Description | Requirement | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| One Shot, One Kill | Defeat combatants with precision damage. Bonus progress is granted in Vanguard playlists. | 25 [Headshot] Precision | XP+ |
| Vanguardian | Defeat combatants while in Vanguard playlists. | 50 Targets | XP+ |
| Perfect Energy | Defeat combatants with Special ammo. Fusion Rifle final blows in Vanguard playlists grant additional progress. | 20 [Fusion Rifle] Fusion Rifle | XP+ |
| Show Them the Light | Defeat combatants with your Super in Vanguard playlists. | 5 Super | XP+ |
| Name | Description | Requirement | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| By the Code | Defeat opponents. | 10 Opponents defeated | XP+ |
| Closed Circuit | Defeat opponents with Arc damage from any source. | 5 [Arc] Arc | XP+ |
| Into the Light | Defeat opponents using your Super. | 1 Super | XP+ |
| Cardio Day | In Momentum, capture zones. | 5 Zones | XP+ |
| Name | Description | Requirement | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Punch Card | Defeat opponents in Trials of Osiris. | 25 Opponents defeated | XP+ |
| Trials Triplet | As a fireteam, defeat opponents using Pulse Rifle final blows in Trials of Osiris. | 20 [Pulse Rifle] Pulse Rifle | XP+ |
| Light up the House | As a fireteam, defeat opponents using Grenade Launcher final blows in Trials of Osiris. | 15 [Grenade Launcher] Grenade Launcher | XP+ |
| Trial of Lead | As a fireteam, defeat opponents using Kinetic weapon final blows in Trials of Osiris. | 20 Kinetic weapon | XP+ |
| Name | Description | Requirement | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fistful of Motes | As a fireteam, bank Motes in Gambit matches. | 100 Motes banked | XP+ |
| Face-to-Face | Summon Primevals in Gambit by filling up your team's bank. | 2 Primevals summoned | XP+ |
| Final Ploy | Defeat combatants with finisher final blows. | 5 Finisher | XP+ |
| Evanescent Emptiness | Defeat targets in Gambit by making them volatile with Void. Defeating Guardians grants more progress. | 30 [Void] Void volatility | XP+ |
| Name | Description | Requirement | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fusion Rifle Calibration | Calibrate Fusion Rifles against any target. Opposing Guardians and rapidly defeated targets grant the most efficient progress. | 100 [Fusion Rifle] Fusion Rifle | XP+ & Enhancement Core & Gunsmith Rank Progress |
| Linear Fusion Rifle Calibration | Calibrate Linear Fusion Rifles against any target. Earn bonus progress with precision and against opposing Guardians. | 100 [Linear Fusion Rifle] Linear Fusion Rifle | XP+ & Enhancement Core & Gunsmith Rank Progress |
| Glaive Calibration | Calibrate Glaives against any target. Rapidly defeating targets and defeating Guardians grants additional progress. | 100 [Glaive] Glaive | XP+ & Enhancement Core & Gunsmith Rank Progress |
| Arc Calibration | Calibrate Arc weapons against any target. Earn bonus progress using Power weapons and against opposing Guardians. | 100 [Arc] Arc weapon | XP+ & Enhancement Core & Gunsmith Rank Progress |
| Name | Description | Requirement | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Snipers of Myth | In Neomuna, defeat combatants with precision final blows. Vex combatants grant additional progress. | 60 [Headshot] Precision | XP+ & 50 Neomuna Rank |
| Cryogenic Hardening | In Neomuna, defeat combatants affected by Stasis. Vex combatants grant additional progress. | 60 [Stasis] Stasis | XP+ & 50 Neomuna Rank |
| Flawless Dance | In a single life, defeat combatants in Neomuna using Sidearms, Submachine Guns, Shotguns, or Swords. | 20 Targets | XP+ & 50 Neomuna Rank |
| Hacker's Paradise | Complete waves in Terminal Overload. | 10 Waves cleared | 1 Terminal Overload Key & 50 Neomuna Rank & XP+ |
| Name | Description | Requirement | Reward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rig Shift | Complete jobs in Salvage. | 2 Salvage objectives | XP+ |
| Deep Trouble: Fallen | Defeat Fallen. Fallen defeated in Salvage and Deep Dive award bonus progress. | 100 Fallen | XP+ |
| Precise Aquanaut | Defeat targets with precision final blows. Defeated Guardians or combatants defeated in Salvage or Deep Dive award bonus progress. | 100 [Headshot] Precision | XP+ |
| Tropical Storm | Defeat targets with Solar or Stasis damage. Super abilities award bonus progress, as well as defeating Guardians or defeating combatants in Salvage or Deep Dive. | 100 Progress | XP+ |
2023.05.29 17:32 immacamel Defending the Draft: 2023 Green Bay Packers
A new era is under way in Green Bay, and there's a lot to cover about this offseason. First, let's set the stage.
Key Signings:
KR Keisean Nixon- the return dynamo who renewed my will to live after watching Amari Rodgers play football. Signed again on a 1 year deal worth up to $4m. And he figures to have a larger role on defense this season. This was one of the biggest wishes for packer fans this offseason, as it finally shows a dedication to building the ST unit.
S Rudy Ford- he had himself a nice 2022 and got re-signed for his efforts. It's a one year deal, and he will compete for the starting safety spot as of now.
CB Corey Ballentine- a reserve CB who I will always have a soft spot for due to his tragic draft night story. Ballentine has been re-signed and will compete for snaps in an unsettled secondary.
S Dallin Leavitt- a Rich Bisaccia re-signing. Leavitt was a quiet killer last season as a special teams ace, and he returns in that role this season.
OT Yosh Nijman- a developmental prospect that has blossomed into an serviceable swing tackle, I thought Nijman would get more on the open market than his RFA tender price. He will be back with the Pack in a LT2 and RT2 role for 2023.
Key Departures:
DT Dean Lowry- Lowry gave the Pack his best and we appreciate him, but his ceiling was evident and achieved. Devonte Wyatt was drafted as a high upside replacement. Lowry signed with the Vikings on a 2 year deal.
WR Allen Lazard- Aaron Rodgers's latest security blanket, Lazard is rejoining Rodgers on a 4y, 44m deal with the New York Jets. A quiet, consistent performer for the Packers throughout his tenure, Lazard will continue to be a sure-handed possession receiver in New York, transforming the slot position previously occupied by Elijah Moore into more of a big slot. He will also continue to mug people in the run game.
TE Robert Tonyan- Bobby Tonyan heads south to Chicago to be TE2 behind Cole Kmet. Packer fans love Tonyan for bringing pride back to the position in GB, and I honestly feel bad for him. He likely missed on his chance for a big pay day after tearing his ACL in 2021 and having a down year coming back. Now he's pushing 30, but he still provides excellent hands for the position and a great work ethic. Godspeed, buddy.
DL Jarran Reed- the big man returns to Seattle this season on a 2 year deal. Reed was just about what we expected in Green Bay- not great, not bad. He was a placeholder in a spot that Wyatt hopefully can take over.
Free Agents yet to be signed:
WR Randall Cobb, S Adrian Amos, TE Marcedes Lewis, K Mason Crosby
All members of the old guard. Cobb recently had surgery, and is a contender to rejoin Rodgers in NY. Amos had a down year, but could still have some left in the tank. I'm guessing he has an offer from GB and is weighing his options. Lewis also could be weighing his options between retirement, the Jets, or sailing into the sunset where it all began for him in Jacksonville. Mason Crosbys wife seemed to confirm on social media recently that the Packers have little interest in re-signing their all time leading scorer. Crosby made some clutch kicks for us over the years, and if this is the end, the Silver Fox will never have to buy a beer in Titletown again.
2022 season review: Record: 8-9 Oh man. 2022 was the year it all came crashing down. Green Bay tried to keep its veteran core together for a few years, appeasing Rodgers and navigating the salary cap reasonably well. But they never achieved that brass ring. Minus Davante Adams and working with a broken thumb, Rodgers struggled the most he has since his inaugural season as a starter. It's now time to address Rodgers in this post; I could write an entire entry solely on Rodgers and this past season, but I'll leave it at this: Aaron is my favorite football player of all time. He led the Packers to their greatest stretch of sustained excellence since Vince Lombardi roamed the sidelines, often with depleted rosters around him. In my opinion, hes the most talented QB to play the game. It seems a majority of Packer fans were ready to move on from the man and soured on him this offseason. Personally, I think he will be an MVP contender in NY next year and still love him. But it was time. The Jordan Love era needs to happen, if only for the front office itself needing to justify their faith in the Love pick. Rodgers and the Packers were operating on different timelines the past few years, stuck somewhere between going all in and resetting. The front office has put all their chips in on Jordan Love.
The defense was expected to be a top 5 unit, but regressed heavily. Joe Barry was under scrutiny all year long, seemingly incapable of putting his plethora of first rounders in positions to succeed. A late season push did just enough to save his job (apparently).
Favorite win: Dallas Most frustrating loss: Detroit, week 18
Rodgers's exit also raises an interesting thought: will we see the True Matt LaFleur Offense this season? Offensive deficiencies have been blamed on Lafleur himself or Rodgers's hesitancy at transitioning from a traditional west coast offense to a Shanahan-esque, motion based attack. The answer will be uncovered this year, with Jordan Love having 3 years of experience in the scheme and a first round pedigree. As a Love truther in the pre draft season who hated the pick for the Packers, I am fascinated. This pick will make or break Gute's and Lafleur's tenure.
Aside from the quarterback situation, there are lingering questions concerning LaFleur's ability to lead the team in general. The Packers have consistently laid an egg in one game every season of his tenure and have come up short in the playoffs, with some head scratching decisions rearing their head in crunch time of big games (the end of the Bucs NFC championship the most glaring). I also have questions on his staff hirings/retentions. LaFleur hired 2 dogshit ST coordinators before making the obvious choice of Basaccia. He also chose to retain Joe Barry, noted football terrorist, as defensive coordinator. I've read rumblings that Gute has more say over the staff than the head coach, which is unconfirmed but concerning. I don't mean to dump on LaFleur in this piece, only to emphasize how big of a year this is for him. I think his scheme is sound and the guys play hard for him. With Rodgers gone, I think we see less RPOs and inside zone handoffs to AJ Dillon out of shotgun. The offense will have more identity. But if there are 2 more years without the playoffs in Green Bay, the Cheeseheads will advocate for a new coach.
2023 Draft:
Positions of need: S, TE, WR, DT
Round 1, Pick 13: Lukas Van Ness, Edge, Iowa With the world expecting Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Gute stuck true to his type and drafted athletic freak LVN out of Iowa. Van Ness profiles as a Rashan Gary clone, with a high RAS score and unrefined repertoire of pass rush moves. If he works out like Gary, this is a massive hit. In the pre draft process, the only guy who could have realistically been there for GB that I had above Van Ness was Peter Skoronski. He wasn't there, and there was no doubt in my mind Gute was going for LVN afterwards. He'll rotate with Gary and Preston Smith this year, and will kick inside on certain packages. He makes Smith expendable in the future.
Round 2, Pick 42: Luke Musgrave, TE, Oregon State Musgrave has the size and athleticism to be a game changer at tight end. His tape was short but encouraging. His biggest questions are durability and how he will develop, given his late breakout and immediate injury afterwards. My comparison to his playstyle was Travis Kelce, and if he can approach even 70% of Kelce's production in a season, this is a great pick. The biggest hole on the roster was TE, and I have a feeling Gute got the top one on his board.
Round 2, Pick 50: Jayden Reed, WR, Michigan State The process of this pick was nerve wracking. I was one of many fans pounding the table for Brian Branch, the S out of Alabama. When Gute traded down instead, I was telling friends I hoped he took Jayden Reed, and that's what happened. Reed is smaller receiver who plays bigger than his size on contested catches. He carried the Michigan State offense last year after Kenneth Walker jumped to the NFL. My comparison for him is Tyler Lockett. In Green Bay, Reed will take over the slot role, and I expect him to see around 60% of offensive snaps.
Round 3, Pick 78: Tucker Kraft, TE, South Dakota State Another tight end added to a barren room. The former Jackrabbit is similar to Musgrave in a lot of ways- big, athletic, and a willing albeit unrefined blocker. Kraft's addition along with Musgraves could push the Packers into more 22 personal this season, something LaFleur wants to run but hasnt had the personnel for, and I would not be surprised to see him outsnap Musgrave if he develops quickly. I'm really hoping this is the pick that breaks Green Bays 3rd round curse (seriously look it up its so bad).
Round 4, Pick 116: Colby Wooden, Edge, Auburn A former 4 star recruit at Auburn, Wooden collected 17 sacks as a 3 year starter in the SEC and showed inside/outside versatility. He shows an ability to rush with speed and power, but is inconsistent in his pad level and technique. He anchors well in the run game and showed great gap discipline. I don't see him getting many snaps this year, but if he does I think he takes Kingsley Engabare's role on run downs.
Round 5, Pick 149: Sean Clifford, QB, Penn State A perplexing pick until I saw this man somehow has a 9 RAS. Clifford is an experienced college starter who plays with a clear understanding of his role and a passion for the game. My issues with him were accuracy, arm strength, pocket presence, and decision making. You know, playing quarterback. I did not give Clifford a draftable grade and would have preferred Jaren Hall or Max Duggan. But this is really nit picking over a 5th round pick who was drafted to be a career backup. If the staff sees something in him, I'll give it a chance.
Round 5, Pick 159: Dontayvion Wicks, WR, Virginia A 6'1, 206 lb vertical threat, Wicks was inconsistent in his career at Virginia. If he replicated his 2021 production last year, he might have found himself as a day 2 pick. Alas, a new offense and drops led to his availability at this spot. Wicks has a good release package and the ability to stack DBs and get vertical. His tendencies as a body catcher led to drops last year, and he doesn't provide much after the catch. With his profile, he'll be a WR4/5, but could be a special teams ace very early in his career.
Round 6, Pick 179: Karl Brooks, DL, Bowling Green A bit of a tweener, Brooks is a high motor, high effort pass rusher. He flashes great technique and seems to rush with a plan. He can get washed out in the run game, and will need to commit one way or another to defensive end or defensive tackle. He graded very high from PFF, so that's something. To get on the field, he'll have to show more consistency and ability when anchoring down in the run game.
Round 6, Pick 207: Anders Carlson, K, Auburn Apparently, Mason Crosby's replacement. Anders is the brother of Las Vegas kicker Daniel Carlson, who's pretty damn good. There is a connection with Basaccia there, who's known Anders since high school. I wasn't encouraged by his stats at Auburn, but I'm not going to pretend to be an expert in scouting kickers. If Basaccia says he's that dude, then that dude he is.
Round 7, Pick 232: Carrington Valentine, CB, Kentucky Valentine is a WR convert with a long, slender frame. He is at his best in press man, where he has a variety of ways to get hands on the receiver and reroute him. Unfortunately for Vallentine, Joe Barry hates press man and will kill my family if I suggest it again. Valentine's frame can lead him to get bullied by bigger WRs at times, but he is physical at the catch point. He also brings experience as a productive kick returner, something that could be helpful in the future or even this season if the staff wants to keep Nixon fresh for defensive snaps.
Round 7, Pick 235: Lew Nichols, RB, Central Michigan A big back with some intriguing traits, Nichols enjoyed a very productive 2021 before injuries hampered his 2022. Nichols has good vision, contact balance, and power as a north-south runner. He was productive catching out of the backfield, but wasn't asked to run many routes beyond that. His biggest hurdles in the NFL are going to be elusiveness and speed. He lacks both, but should be a decent backup. For the Packers, they used their RB3 less than maybe any team in the league last year. This will be the Jones&Dillon show again in 2023.
Round 7, Pick 242: Anthony Johnson Jr, S, Iowa State Johnson Jr is a converted cornerback who plays with rare physicality for someone of that description. He did his best work in the box or in the slot at Iowa State, and that may be where the Pack will try to get him some snaps this year. He can be over aggressive in his pursuits at times and take bad angles, but that is coachable. Given the state of the safety room, the 7th round rookie may find himself starting some games this season.
Round 7, Pick 256: Grant DuBose, WR, Charlotte DuBose comes from UNC Charlotte, where there apparently is a football team, and he was 2nd team all C-USA last season. DuBose has excellent size at 6'2, and I love his agility on in-breaking routes crossing the face of safeties. He has experience both outside and in the slot, and is an interesting addition to the WR battle at the bottom of the roster, which is going to be highly competitive. It may come down to how good he can be on special teams. Coaches and teammates rave about his work ethic and love of football, and he worked at Walmart while keeping himself in shape during the Covid year. I'm optimistic he can carve out a role for himself and make the team.
Overall, Gutekunst drafted for need at times in this draft, but still stuck to picking guys that fit his type: big, athletic, and versatile. My biggest shock was not taking a safety until the 7th round, but I think it just never lined up with his board. There was an obvious effort to surround Love with talented pass catchers, which is a breath of fresh air from this team. I was surprised that they didn't take a single offensive linemen, given this is almost certainly Bakh's last year in the green and gold and question marks surrounding some of our young guys, but we drafted 3 linemen last year and the staff may have high hopes for Zach Tom to be the next left tackle. The franchise has earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to scouting and developing OL.
All told, 2023 is the most excited I've been for a Packer season in a few years. There are so many unknown variables surrounding the team, from Jordan Loves development to LaFleur's offense to Joe Barry's pending glue eating scandal. Media pundits have them ranked somewhere between 20 & 26 in the league hierarchy heading into the year. Personally, I'm a little higher on the Pack, and they will shoot up these rankings if Jordan Love delivers. There's a lot on Love's shoulders. This is the season we've been waiting for with baited breath for 3 years, the post-Rodgers era, and now it's here, for better or worse.
submitted by immacamel to NFL_Draft [link] [comments]
Key Signings:
KR Keisean Nixon- the return dynamo who renewed my will to live after watching Amari Rodgers play football. Signed again on a 1 year deal worth up to $4m. And he figures to have a larger role on defense this season. This was one of the biggest wishes for packer fans this offseason, as it finally shows a dedication to building the ST unit.
S Rudy Ford- he had himself a nice 2022 and got re-signed for his efforts. It's a one year deal, and he will compete for the starting safety spot as of now.
CB Corey Ballentine- a reserve CB who I will always have a soft spot for due to his tragic draft night story. Ballentine has been re-signed and will compete for snaps in an unsettled secondary.
S Dallin Leavitt- a Rich Bisaccia re-signing. Leavitt was a quiet killer last season as a special teams ace, and he returns in that role this season.
OT Yosh Nijman- a developmental prospect that has blossomed into an serviceable swing tackle, I thought Nijman would get more on the open market than his RFA tender price. He will be back with the Pack in a LT2 and RT2 role for 2023.
Key Departures:
DT Dean Lowry- Lowry gave the Pack his best and we appreciate him, but his ceiling was evident and achieved. Devonte Wyatt was drafted as a high upside replacement. Lowry signed with the Vikings on a 2 year deal.
WR Allen Lazard- Aaron Rodgers's latest security blanket, Lazard is rejoining Rodgers on a 4y, 44m deal with the New York Jets. A quiet, consistent performer for the Packers throughout his tenure, Lazard will continue to be a sure-handed possession receiver in New York, transforming the slot position previously occupied by Elijah Moore into more of a big slot. He will also continue to mug people in the run game.
TE Robert Tonyan- Bobby Tonyan heads south to Chicago to be TE2 behind Cole Kmet. Packer fans love Tonyan for bringing pride back to the position in GB, and I honestly feel bad for him. He likely missed on his chance for a big pay day after tearing his ACL in 2021 and having a down year coming back. Now he's pushing 30, but he still provides excellent hands for the position and a great work ethic. Godspeed, buddy.
DL Jarran Reed- the big man returns to Seattle this season on a 2 year deal. Reed was just about what we expected in Green Bay- not great, not bad. He was a placeholder in a spot that Wyatt hopefully can take over.
Free Agents yet to be signed:
WR Randall Cobb, S Adrian Amos, TE Marcedes Lewis, K Mason Crosby
All members of the old guard. Cobb recently had surgery, and is a contender to rejoin Rodgers in NY. Amos had a down year, but could still have some left in the tank. I'm guessing he has an offer from GB and is weighing his options. Lewis also could be weighing his options between retirement, the Jets, or sailing into the sunset where it all began for him in Jacksonville. Mason Crosbys wife seemed to confirm on social media recently that the Packers have little interest in re-signing their all time leading scorer. Crosby made some clutch kicks for us over the years, and if this is the end, the Silver Fox will never have to buy a beer in Titletown again.
2022 season review: Record: 8-9 Oh man. 2022 was the year it all came crashing down. Green Bay tried to keep its veteran core together for a few years, appeasing Rodgers and navigating the salary cap reasonably well. But they never achieved that brass ring. Minus Davante Adams and working with a broken thumb, Rodgers struggled the most he has since his inaugural season as a starter. It's now time to address Rodgers in this post; I could write an entire entry solely on Rodgers and this past season, but I'll leave it at this: Aaron is my favorite football player of all time. He led the Packers to their greatest stretch of sustained excellence since Vince Lombardi roamed the sidelines, often with depleted rosters around him. In my opinion, hes the most talented QB to play the game. It seems a majority of Packer fans were ready to move on from the man and soured on him this offseason. Personally, I think he will be an MVP contender in NY next year and still love him. But it was time. The Jordan Love era needs to happen, if only for the front office itself needing to justify their faith in the Love pick. Rodgers and the Packers were operating on different timelines the past few years, stuck somewhere between going all in and resetting. The front office has put all their chips in on Jordan Love.
The defense was expected to be a top 5 unit, but regressed heavily. Joe Barry was under scrutiny all year long, seemingly incapable of putting his plethora of first rounders in positions to succeed. A late season push did just enough to save his job (apparently).
Favorite win: Dallas Most frustrating loss: Detroit, week 18
Rodgers's exit also raises an interesting thought: will we see the True Matt LaFleur Offense this season? Offensive deficiencies have been blamed on Lafleur himself or Rodgers's hesitancy at transitioning from a traditional west coast offense to a Shanahan-esque, motion based attack. The answer will be uncovered this year, with Jordan Love having 3 years of experience in the scheme and a first round pedigree. As a Love truther in the pre draft season who hated the pick for the Packers, I am fascinated. This pick will make or break Gute's and Lafleur's tenure.
Aside from the quarterback situation, there are lingering questions concerning LaFleur's ability to lead the team in general. The Packers have consistently laid an egg in one game every season of his tenure and have come up short in the playoffs, with some head scratching decisions rearing their head in crunch time of big games (the end of the Bucs NFC championship the most glaring). I also have questions on his staff hirings/retentions. LaFleur hired 2 dogshit ST coordinators before making the obvious choice of Basaccia. He also chose to retain Joe Barry, noted football terrorist, as defensive coordinator. I've read rumblings that Gute has more say over the staff than the head coach, which is unconfirmed but concerning. I don't mean to dump on LaFleur in this piece, only to emphasize how big of a year this is for him. I think his scheme is sound and the guys play hard for him. With Rodgers gone, I think we see less RPOs and inside zone handoffs to AJ Dillon out of shotgun. The offense will have more identity. But if there are 2 more years without the playoffs in Green Bay, the Cheeseheads will advocate for a new coach.
2023 Draft:
Positions of need: S, TE, WR, DT
Round 1, Pick 13: Lukas Van Ness, Edge, Iowa With the world expecting Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Gute stuck true to his type and drafted athletic freak LVN out of Iowa. Van Ness profiles as a Rashan Gary clone, with a high RAS score and unrefined repertoire of pass rush moves. If he works out like Gary, this is a massive hit. In the pre draft process, the only guy who could have realistically been there for GB that I had above Van Ness was Peter Skoronski. He wasn't there, and there was no doubt in my mind Gute was going for LVN afterwards. He'll rotate with Gary and Preston Smith this year, and will kick inside on certain packages. He makes Smith expendable in the future.
Round 2, Pick 42: Luke Musgrave, TE, Oregon State Musgrave has the size and athleticism to be a game changer at tight end. His tape was short but encouraging. His biggest questions are durability and how he will develop, given his late breakout and immediate injury afterwards. My comparison to his playstyle was Travis Kelce, and if he can approach even 70% of Kelce's production in a season, this is a great pick. The biggest hole on the roster was TE, and I have a feeling Gute got the top one on his board.
Round 2, Pick 50: Jayden Reed, WR, Michigan State The process of this pick was nerve wracking. I was one of many fans pounding the table for Brian Branch, the S out of Alabama. When Gute traded down instead, I was telling friends I hoped he took Jayden Reed, and that's what happened. Reed is smaller receiver who plays bigger than his size on contested catches. He carried the Michigan State offense last year after Kenneth Walker jumped to the NFL. My comparison for him is Tyler Lockett. In Green Bay, Reed will take over the slot role, and I expect him to see around 60% of offensive snaps.
Round 3, Pick 78: Tucker Kraft, TE, South Dakota State Another tight end added to a barren room. The former Jackrabbit is similar to Musgrave in a lot of ways- big, athletic, and a willing albeit unrefined blocker. Kraft's addition along with Musgraves could push the Packers into more 22 personal this season, something LaFleur wants to run but hasnt had the personnel for, and I would not be surprised to see him outsnap Musgrave if he develops quickly. I'm really hoping this is the pick that breaks Green Bays 3rd round curse (seriously look it up its so bad).
Round 4, Pick 116: Colby Wooden, Edge, Auburn A former 4 star recruit at Auburn, Wooden collected 17 sacks as a 3 year starter in the SEC and showed inside/outside versatility. He shows an ability to rush with speed and power, but is inconsistent in his pad level and technique. He anchors well in the run game and showed great gap discipline. I don't see him getting many snaps this year, but if he does I think he takes Kingsley Engabare's role on run downs.
Round 5, Pick 149: Sean Clifford, QB, Penn State A perplexing pick until I saw this man somehow has a 9 RAS. Clifford is an experienced college starter who plays with a clear understanding of his role and a passion for the game. My issues with him were accuracy, arm strength, pocket presence, and decision making. You know, playing quarterback. I did not give Clifford a draftable grade and would have preferred Jaren Hall or Max Duggan. But this is really nit picking over a 5th round pick who was drafted to be a career backup. If the staff sees something in him, I'll give it a chance.
Round 5, Pick 159: Dontayvion Wicks, WR, Virginia A 6'1, 206 lb vertical threat, Wicks was inconsistent in his career at Virginia. If he replicated his 2021 production last year, he might have found himself as a day 2 pick. Alas, a new offense and drops led to his availability at this spot. Wicks has a good release package and the ability to stack DBs and get vertical. His tendencies as a body catcher led to drops last year, and he doesn't provide much after the catch. With his profile, he'll be a WR4/5, but could be a special teams ace very early in his career.
Round 6, Pick 179: Karl Brooks, DL, Bowling Green A bit of a tweener, Brooks is a high motor, high effort pass rusher. He flashes great technique and seems to rush with a plan. He can get washed out in the run game, and will need to commit one way or another to defensive end or defensive tackle. He graded very high from PFF, so that's something. To get on the field, he'll have to show more consistency and ability when anchoring down in the run game.
Round 6, Pick 207: Anders Carlson, K, Auburn Apparently, Mason Crosby's replacement. Anders is the brother of Las Vegas kicker Daniel Carlson, who's pretty damn good. There is a connection with Basaccia there, who's known Anders since high school. I wasn't encouraged by his stats at Auburn, but I'm not going to pretend to be an expert in scouting kickers. If Basaccia says he's that dude, then that dude he is.
Round 7, Pick 232: Carrington Valentine, CB, Kentucky Valentine is a WR convert with a long, slender frame. He is at his best in press man, where he has a variety of ways to get hands on the receiver and reroute him. Unfortunately for Vallentine, Joe Barry hates press man and will kill my family if I suggest it again. Valentine's frame can lead him to get bullied by bigger WRs at times, but he is physical at the catch point. He also brings experience as a productive kick returner, something that could be helpful in the future or even this season if the staff wants to keep Nixon fresh for defensive snaps.
Round 7, Pick 235: Lew Nichols, RB, Central Michigan A big back with some intriguing traits, Nichols enjoyed a very productive 2021 before injuries hampered his 2022. Nichols has good vision, contact balance, and power as a north-south runner. He was productive catching out of the backfield, but wasn't asked to run many routes beyond that. His biggest hurdles in the NFL are going to be elusiveness and speed. He lacks both, but should be a decent backup. For the Packers, they used their RB3 less than maybe any team in the league last year. This will be the Jones&Dillon show again in 2023.
Round 7, Pick 242: Anthony Johnson Jr, S, Iowa State Johnson Jr is a converted cornerback who plays with rare physicality for someone of that description. He did his best work in the box or in the slot at Iowa State, and that may be where the Pack will try to get him some snaps this year. He can be over aggressive in his pursuits at times and take bad angles, but that is coachable. Given the state of the safety room, the 7th round rookie may find himself starting some games this season.
Round 7, Pick 256: Grant DuBose, WR, Charlotte DuBose comes from UNC Charlotte, where there apparently is a football team, and he was 2nd team all C-USA last season. DuBose has excellent size at 6'2, and I love his agility on in-breaking routes crossing the face of safeties. He has experience both outside and in the slot, and is an interesting addition to the WR battle at the bottom of the roster, which is going to be highly competitive. It may come down to how good he can be on special teams. Coaches and teammates rave about his work ethic and love of football, and he worked at Walmart while keeping himself in shape during the Covid year. I'm optimistic he can carve out a role for himself and make the team.
Overall, Gutekunst drafted for need at times in this draft, but still stuck to picking guys that fit his type: big, athletic, and versatile. My biggest shock was not taking a safety until the 7th round, but I think it just never lined up with his board. There was an obvious effort to surround Love with talented pass catchers, which is a breath of fresh air from this team. I was surprised that they didn't take a single offensive linemen, given this is almost certainly Bakh's last year in the green and gold and question marks surrounding some of our young guys, but we drafted 3 linemen last year and the staff may have high hopes for Zach Tom to be the next left tackle. The franchise has earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to scouting and developing OL.
All told, 2023 is the most excited I've been for a Packer season in a few years. There are so many unknown variables surrounding the team, from Jordan Loves development to LaFleur's offense to Joe Barry's pending glue eating scandal. Media pundits have them ranked somewhere between 20 & 26 in the league hierarchy heading into the year. Personally, I'm a little higher on the Pack, and they will shoot up these rankings if Jordan Love delivers. There's a lot on Love's shoulders. This is the season we've been waiting for with baited breath for 3 years, the post-Rodgers era, and now it's here, for better or worse.
2023.05.29 16:56 bimbo_wannabe_ [I Accidentally Joined The Mafia In South Brooklyn] Chapter 6: On The Organizational Habits of Unrested Spirits and The Taste of Demon's Blood, Part 1.
![[I Accidentally Joined The Mafia In South Brooklyn] Chapter 6: On The Organizational Habits of Unrested Spirits and The Taste of Demon's Blood, Part 1.](https://preview.redd.it/8u7ykhosst2b1.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=5b744f64a6da09632ac427471bc1cbaa47eb9911 "[I Accidentally Joined The Mafia In South Brooklyn] Chapter 6: On The Organizational Habits of Unrested Spirits and The Taste of Demon's Blood, Part 1.") | Previous Part: https://www.reddit.com/redditserials/comments/13trg6g/i_accidentally_joined_the_mafia_in_south_brooklyn/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button submitted by bimbo_wannabe_ to redditserials [link] [comments] Becca invited me to her apartment when we made it back, sent me through the alley behind the building to keep the prying eyes at the minimum. That was fine with me as I was a lot more noticeable than I liked to be, at the moment. I had already lit a cigarette by the time she opened the back door of the stairwell to let me in. It was the last in the pack, and I'd only opened it this morning. The temperature on my phone screen had finally hit zero. "You're gonna have to give me a second, B, I don't wanna smoke around you in your condition but I really need one." She gave me another watery grin. "Little too much blood in the nicotine system, huh?" "Exactly, my young friend, exactly that." She propped the door open and sat herself down on the ground. I could tell the high heels were starting to hurt her because she kicked them off and set them neatly to the side, though I knew the concrete had to be freezing her feet off. She tucked her skirt between her legs and sat with her back against the wall, her elbow propped on her bent knee, the other leg stretched out straight before her. It was exactly how what was left of Antoni had been sitting beside me less than two hours ago. I was getting a little tired of all the patterns appearing in my life these days. I flipped to my news app, as was my habit. There was an article at the top of page about the preparations the SDNY were making to get ready for the coming storm, but frankly I didn't really give a fuck so I just kept scrolling. "Your old neighborhood is in the news, B." "You ain't had enough bad news?" Beccs asked with a rueful laugh. "Eh, I like to stay abreast of current events. I mean, you got me pegged, B. I'm a nosy fuck. But, uh, fifteen years on the inside, you learn that it pays to pay attention to the shit other people don't notice, cause you never know when the information you pick up is going to end up being the information you need." She gave me a look that said she had to yield to my point. "So what's the news from Koreatown?". "Somebody shot a wedding up, apparently. Says seven were killed, including the bride and groom and the bride's father, as they was leaving the reception. You know, most of these names are Rhees. Ain't nobody you know, is it? Kinda feel like you've had enough death for the day, kid." There was another look on her face, one I couldn't quite read even with all my people-watching prowess. "Lemme take a wild stab at it. Two of those names are Rhee Seong-Min and Rhee Bong-Cha." "Yeah," I nodded. "You do know 'em. I'm sorry, B." She gave a low, almost rumbling, chuckle. It gave me a little shiver, not from the cold, and not one of enjoyment, either. She flashed a sign, one I'd seen her flash before, but it wasn't from any gang I knew personally, and lacking any official affiliation of my own, I'd dealt with my fair share of different gang members in the Upstate Correctional Facility. Double E's, one backwards, one forwards, three quick shakes of each hand. "God bless old K-town. But you ain't got to worry about it. I'll not shed a tear over any of them. They's family, but they ain't exactly family, you know. I might tell you about it one day." The last sentence had a note of finality to it, so I didn't ask any further questions in that regard, but I was still as curious as always. "If all your family has Korean names, how the hell did you end up as Rebecca and your Dad as Sam?" "My Dad's name is Park Kyung-Sam. Just Sam was easier to tell people and he, uh, he wanted me to have the same benefit of blending in in American society, and he liked the name Rebecca. So, Rhee Rebecca Hyo-Jin. My Mom's name was Rhee Chung-Cha, but everybody just called her ChaCha, like from Grease." "So your Mom was the Rhee?" She made an affirmative noise and nodded. "She didn't exactly wanna give up her family name, andā¦ my Dad didn't exactly give a fuck cause he was in love with her crazy ass. You know, that's where I get this from. Except my Moms, if she was still around she'd make me look like I grew up to be a calm, quiet girl." I'd hate to see what was worse than Beccs. "You done?" Becca asked. I nodded, tossed my cigarette into the sand-filled bucket we kept here for just that purpose. I followed B inside and we climbed the stairs to the third floor. I leaned against the wall as she pulled a ring of keys from her coat pocket and waited while she unlocked the knob and the three deadbolts on her door. "Pretty serious about your home security, B?" She shot me a look but didn't say anything as she opened the door. A steady beeping greeted us, and Becca stopped just inside and punched in a code on a security panel. As I stepped around her and entered the apartment, I understood why. Do you know that part in Coming To America where Akeem comes home to his dilapidated Queens apartment and realizes Semmi has filled it with expensive furniture? Well, it was exactly like that. Becca locked the door back behind her, threw her stilettos onto the shoe rack, and hung her coat on the brass tree beside it. I did the same, removed my boots to place them on the rack as well. "Jesus Christ, B, this place looks amazing." There was a gray suede sectional in the center of the living room, a 152 inch Panasonic plasma bolted to the wall. The coffee table, the wool Oriental rug beneath it, and the end tables looked antique, as well as the green velvet chaise set near one window. There were three ornately-carved bookcases set against the far wall between the two windows facing the street, one filled with DVDs, and on the other two almost all the books were old and leather bound. The kitchen was open to the room, separated by a butcher block bar from the living room, all matching stainless steel appliances and black marble countertops. All along the walls were family pictures dotted between massive paintings held in golden Baroque style frames. They wereā¦ stunning was the only word I could think to describe them. Most of them were portraits done in a slightly impressionist style, impasto if my memory served me, seemingly random strokes of thick paint that somehow managed to form the perfect images of faces and a few nudes. "Jesus Christ, these paintings must have cost a fortune alone." Becca stepped beside me, her arms crossed over her chest as she surveyed the painting I was looking at. It was done in mostly black and red, the image of a sleeping nude man, one arm tucked behind his head, his other draped across his stomach, his hips and legs covered with a sheet. If I touched it, I could have felt the wrinkles in the bunched fabric. There was something oddly familiar about it. "They didn't cost shit," she answered. That made me look away from the painting and back to Beccs. "What the hell? Did you rob a gallery?" "No, you mook, I painted them. They didn't cost anything but the price of the canvas and the paint, which, you know, I stole most of that from school." "You painted them," I repeated, looking back. As I looked closer at the canvas, I realized why it was familiar. The sleeping man was our dear friend Antoni Zabrowska. I had mistaken his tattoos for shadows, though I had to admit I had never seen him look quite so relaxed. As I glanced around the room, I realized I recognized many of the paintings. I was able to pick out her father's face, Rossi's, and I realized the model for the two female nudes was none other than Nia Bianchi. There was one of a woman in white with bloody skeletal wings that bore a strong resemblance to Becca and I imagined that was the infamous ChaCha. "That's what I go to Columbia for. Visual Arts." "You're a goddamn genius, B." She scoffed. "No, I'm fucking serious, kid. My sister collects art, and she refuses to go for the big names. Shit like this, she pays 10 to 20 grand for a painting half this size, more if it's one of the artists she likes." Now she snorted. "What? Your sister got a money tree?" "No, my older sister Aurie's a writer. She wrote her first book when she was ten. She's published 20 so far, but she's got 30 or 40 more in backlog that she's still tweaking. She's kind of a perfectionist when it comes to writing, but I guess it pays off. Her books sell like fucking hotcakes everytime she puts one out, two of her series got picked up by Netflix, and Lion's Gate turned her seventh book into a movie. She even got to be involved in the productions. "She's got a penthouse on the Upper East Side that she bought about six years ago. That's where I lived when I got out of the Upstate. Aurora, she's a fucking Saint, you know. I mean, I had a shitty PO that was up my ass every five minutes but Aurie never said a word about it. She justā¦ always told me she was glad I was home, which, you know, was nice to hear considering that according to my grandparents I died 19 years ago. She was the one that helped me get this place down here, paid in full for a two year lease." Becca raised an eyebrow at me. "No offense, Tony, I can tell you're crazy about her, but she couldn't have picked a better place for you than this hell hole?" I laughed as softly as I could, to save the muscles in my stomach. "I picked this place myself, B. Cheapest apartment I could find in any of the boroughs, and it even had three bedrooms. I was thinking about having space for a library and a home gym." Becca snorted. "Yeah, it's cheap cause the fucking place is about 90 years old. Nobody's been able to get a hold of the slumlord who owns it for repairs in 8 months, but I bet you the motherfucker still collects the rent checks we deposit in his fucking bank account every month." "Yeah, I figured that out just about as soon as I moved in, but beggars can't be choosers. Besides, Antoni always used to help me out whenever something broke." Becca gave a small smile. "They did that for everybody. I used to call them the apartment elves, cause instead of making shoes they were skittering around fixing fucking toilets and sinks, and rewiring burned up outlets and bringing in new refrigerators and stoves when shit broke in everybody else's places. And they bought it all with their own money. Everybody tried to pay them, but they never took a dime for any of it. Ironically enough, Pops used to talk about Antoni all the time because of all the money he'd spend over there every week. Said he had a good heart, just no good sense when it came to what was his responsibility and wasn't. You know, I had my own opinions about Antoni's heart, but I kept them to myself." "I really wish I had paid more attention when Antoni was working on the boiler, though. Instead of just passing him tools and running my mouth." "Yeah, you're good at that," she replied with a smirk. "And fuck you, too, Miss Rebecca. You might be the strong type, but you're not exactly silent yourself." She laughed. "Make yourself comfortable. I'll be right back." I nodded and obeyed as she exited into what I saw was the bathroom as she opened the door and closed it behind her. The sectional was goddamned heaven, and she'd said make myself comfortable so I kicked out the recliner and leaned back. I closed my eyes for a moment and sighed, and when I opened them I nearly jumped out of my skin. I barely managed to stop myself from letting out a yell as I jerked back up to sitting. Antoni's corpse was standing by the picture wall, looking intently at a photo of a child Becca wearing a ruffled, cream colored dress with a ribbon in her long black hair. It was the picture of her first Communion. "Goddamn, you can't give somebody a warning before you do that?" He neither answered me nor turned to look at me because he was using the stumps of his wrists to adjust several of the frames back straight again. "Fucking neat freak," I laughed. "She wasn't lying." He finally turned toward me. You ever seen a corpse try to look annoyed when he's missing about a quarter of his face? I mean, what am I saying, you probably haven't, but suffice to say, it's pretty fucking funny. He raised his left wrist, and if he had hands, he'dve been shooting the bird. Almost hysterical laughter burst out of me as Becca exited the bathroom. "Least the pipes ain't frozen yet," she muttered. She gave me a strange look. "Who are you talking to out here? And what's so funny?" I glanced back to Antoni, but he was gone again. "Don't mind me, B, I'm pretty sure I got a concussion. I'm pretty much seeing pink elephants at this point." Or, you know, the mutilated corpse of my best friend, but it's probably best I leave it at elephants. "Yeah," she answered, and crossed the room to hand me something. "Speaking of." It was a mouth guard. "What is this for?" She didn't answer me, but headed to the kitchen and opened a cabinet, withdrawing a cut crystal scotch glass and then opening the refrigerator and withdrawingā¦ two bags of blood. Nia's blood, to be exact. She unscrewed the cap at the bottom of one, punctured the seal with a fresh insulin needle, and to my supreme discomfort squeezed some into the glass. The mouth guard suddenly made sense. It was so I wouldn't break my teeth or bite my tongue off when the convulsions started and my jaw locked down from consuming demon blood. "Oh no, B, I don't want that." "Yeah. That's why I didn't tell you why I wanted you over here, cause I knew you was gonna be a pussy about it." I tried one more last-ditch effort. "You need that more than me, B." "I can just take my next dose early, but you, you can't go down and see Ma looking like that. She's gonna ask too many questions." That one stopped me. "I've had enough of interrogations for one day, B." "There ain't no interrogation when it comes to Ma. She just puts it in your head that you ain't got no choice but to tell her the truth, and you do. She's made state witnesses get up on the stand and confess their own crimes, pleading the fifth be damned." She screwed the cap back onto the bag and carried them and the glass over to the coffee table and set them down. She walked over and opened a closet door, pulling out an IV pole with a little box attached to it, and grabbed a small cardboard box from off a shelf and what looked like a tackle box. She set it on the coffee table after she pulled the pole over to the sectional and plugged it into the wall, opened the cardboard box and removed a cassette from inside and inserted it into the box on the pole. "What's that?" "It's a blood warmer for rapid transfusions, so I don't go into hypothermia or hemolysis. Little bastard cost 137 thousand, but at least you can buy them online. You put a fresh cassette in every time, the blood runs through it, by the time it gets to my arm it's body temp." She opened the tackle box and removed two fresh lines, attaching one to the bottom of the warmer and one to the top, hanging the bags of blood but not connecting the first of them yet. The top had a drip chamber with a filter, and the bottom held the flow regulator and the hypodermic needle with the cannula inside. "You know, it's not fucking fair, B, you shouldn't have dealt with half the shit in your life that you have." She snorted and her lips pursed with anger as she sat down beside me. "You sound like Rossi with that shit. That's why he wouldn't let me die, said it wasn't fair. I was ready to go into hospice, fuck it, I was ready to see my Mom again. But I'll tell you the same thing I told his stupid old ass. Life ain't fair. Cause if it was I'd have my mother and my baby's father and Jimmy's ass would be the one laying in the morgue. You think it's fair you almost lost a finger because of what he ordered?" I laughed. "No, I actually think that's pretty fair. That's karma, B. I was usually the one doing the beating. How do you think I ended up in prison?" She looked hard at me for a moment. "I mean, you never told me. You were pretty open about having gone to prison, but you never said why." "Well, I learned to be open about it. Some people get real upset when they find out they're dealing with someone who's been through the system, so I didn't really wanna go through that again. So now I just tell people up front, let them decide for themselves if they wanna deal with me or not. That way they can't throw it back in my face, say I lied to them." Becca let out a bitter chuckle. "So what's your story?" "Well, we still ain't finished your story, yet, but we'll take a detour. The whole thing started my Senior year of high school. First game of the year, I blew my knee out, big as a bitch, tore everything there was to tear, shit was basically hanging on by the skin alone. Orthopedics said I had two choices, keep playing football or, retain the ability to walk on that leg, soā¦ there went all my big dreams of college ball and making it onto the Giants." "Linebacker?" I nodded. "Middle linebacker. I was good at it. 6'7, 265 pounds but light on my feet, all muscle. Back then I was running 7 percent body fat, and wasn't even trying. Shit justā¦ all came natural to me. It all blew up in my face. Shitloads of surgery and physical therapy, and then one day the pain pills stopped but the pain didn't. Everyday, every night, I was still hurting." She nodded. "I know about bone pain. I could always tell when I needed to up the dose when my bones started hurting. When I started out all it took was an insulin needle. Now I take so much, I'm not even sure I qualify as human. But I guess I won't be much longer. That's always been the plan. Just keep me alive till 30 and Ma's gonna make me like her. That's the preferred age for the Entrance, something to do with the Trinity." I nodded. "I started asking around school if anyone knew where to get some Percs but pain management keeps that shit so tight I could only get a few at a time. Not only was they expensive, it wasn't enough. I got hooked up with this kid named Alessandro, he told me if I really wanted to control the pain, he could get me something better and cheaper. He took me to meet his uncle, Colombian guy named Marco. First shot is free and it wasā¦ it was beautiful. Everybody always gets sick the first time, but I didn't. And then after that, all my free money from my after school job started going to horse, and uh, I got my last six months off school. I already had all the credits I needed from AP classes, started working full time. They didn't piss test. But, my tolerance was rising faster than my income was." I took a deep breath. "I'd been buying enough that Marco was offering me fronts but I never took it. So next time I went, I asked him for my usual and I asked how much it would be for two O's on the front, cause I knew a lot of other users and I was thinking of starting to sell myself. So, he told me he'd give me a pound, and we could settle up at the end of the month." "Jesus Christ, if you were selling a pound a month you must have been making bank." I shook my head. "I wasn't in it for the money. I was in it to keep myself supplied. If I kept my prices right, I could use for free, and I had enough left over to pay my portion of the rent and help pay for the groceries. I got good at it, I'd take a shot, and nod out for a few minutes, then get up and start walking the streets." Becca snorted. "You wasn't standing on a street corner?" "Fuck no. Too visible. I did all my business by phone. I had a burner and gave everyone the number, and when they needed some they'd give me a call and I'd meet them or they'd meet me. I had ethics. I used to have people offering me fucking blowjobs for a bag, but I always said no, shit felt wrong. All they had to do was pay me by the end of the month but, sometimesā¦" She gave a grin. "But sometimes, 'Bitch, where's my money?'" "Yeah, sometimes people would try to skip out, so I had to apply a little pressure to persuade them to pay. I never killed nobody, it's hard as hell to get money out of a dead man. But, black a few eyes and break a few bones and suddenly they had money they didn't before. Being my size, there wasn't many of them that could fight back. But, I fucked up the wrong lowlife. "There was this prick, he'd been dodging me for weeks. He owed me like two grand, I'd given him that much because I knew he had money, so when I finally caught up to him, I was pretty mad and, the bitch, he told me he wasn't going to pay me. Thought he was better than me, thought he could fuck me and get away with it. So I beat the mortal hell out of him, took his wallet. He had five grand in there but I figured, 3K surcharge for wasting my time." I shook my head. "But I should have done some better research on who I was going after. Turned out the little prick had a socialite for a mother and his Daddy was a hedge fund manager andā¦ I'd hurt him pretty bad. First three months, not only was I dealing with DTs, I was waiting to see if they were going to add Murder to my charges. He was in a coma for that long, and when he woke up, he had to learn to walk again, how to feed himself. I beat him so bad I gave him brain damage." "Goddamn, Tony." "Apparently his parents knew their son's habits and knew exactly who I was, cause they went straight to the police, and two days later SWAT showed up, turned the house upside down. I smashed my phone into pieces, flushed it so they couldn't get my contacts, but I didn't think about the fact I still had the wallet with his driver's license in it. My grandparents disowned me, right then and there. I had just reupped so they caught me with 14 ounces, all it takes is 8 for Class A felony possession. I spent 13 months in Rikers, but my sister got me a good lawyer, he knew the judge and the prosecutor personally, golfed with them, so he got me a plea deal. I was looking at life in prison, but he argued that I was a good student that had made a bad mistake because of a chronic pain issue, and they were both first offenses, so if I pled guilty, agreed to go through a substance abuse program and anger management, then they'd give me the minimum sentence. "15 years, Class A Felony Drug Possession, 3 years, Class B felony First Degree Assault, intentionally causing grievous bodily harm while in the commission of another felony. But, at my sentencing, the judge said I was a big guy, with a big anger problem. I hadn't killed anyone, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Said I was a danger to society, so when I got to the UCF, they put me in dark red." "Supermax?" I nodded. "23 hours a day in a box by myself, no visitors, barely saw the guards. But, I stayed quiet, made no problems. Prison was overcrowded so I ended up with a cellmate, and I was glad to see him. It could have been Hannibal Lecter and I would have gave him a hug. He might have been a murderer but he was actually a decent guy. Him and his crew had knocked over some jewelry stores in Manhattan, last job went bad. He'd killed three cops, so he wasn't never getting out. Neither was his wife. Life in Bedford Hills." "That's where they was gonna send me if Ma hadn't got the jury to give me a Not Guilty verdict." I knew Becca had a tendency to get in trouble because beside the cheerleading pictures in the bodega, there was also a mugshot. "What did you do?" She gave a bitter chuckle again. "Unlike you, I killed someone. 2021, this fucking crackhead tried to rob the store. He shot the customer that was in there, old guy named Mickey, killed him. He used to live in your apartment. Tried to shoot me, too, but the gun jammed and I had the aluminum baseball bat under the counter. I just started swinging. He went down, but I jumped the counter, and hit him again. Blood lust is a real thing. Once I saw he was bleeding, I wanted to see more. I beat his brains out, literally, he was dead long before the cops ever got there. Bat looked like a toothpick when I was done. "They arrested me, and the DA himself showed up at my arraignment. Said self defense didn't apply, sent me straight up to Murder 2, requested I be denied bail because I had a passport and plenty of money so I was a flight risk. But we all knew the truth. He was still pissed that he hadn't been able to send Rossi away for longer, and I was the next best thing. Ma had to pull a lot of strings to make sure I still got my transfusions when I was in lockup. I was in Rikers for four months, had my eighteenth birthday sitting in the Singer Unit." "Goddamned patterns," I muttered, then raised my voice again. "You, me, and Antoni all got that in common, except he wasn't like us. He was already in prison. That's what the rose meant, turned eighteen in prison. Life sentence, triple murder." "He told you that?" She looked betrayed, so I was quick to answer. "No, the tattoos told me that. Google is my best friend, B. That's what the skull and crossbones, and the coffins on his arm meant." She swallowed, and nodded again. "But, I moved down," I continued. "Went to orange when they moved me to Gen Pop, and I had friends waiting for me. Marco was very appreciative of me keeping quiet about my source at trial, so outside Abuela Bogota's was where I hung out the most. But I had friends all over. My sister was smart. She always put way more in my account than I could spend, so whenever I heard that somebody needed something, I'd go to the canteen and buy it myself and pass it to 'em. Nobody had to owe me shit. All I wanted was to be left alone, so I had people watching my back from all sides. I ended up in blue, got moved to the dormitory, started working in the kitchen, ended up running it, cause I was a 'model prisoner.'" "You ever fool around with any of your cellmates?" Becca asked with a grin. "Cause I did." I gave an uncomfortable laugh. "I mean, yeah. 15 years is a long time to be alone. I don't consider myself bisexual even, but if somebody offers, you knowā¦" I shrugged. "I think the word you're looking for is heteroflexible. That's how Antoni referred to himself. He had a thing for you, you know." That stopped me dead. "You're fucking with me, B." "Nope. He asked me once if I'd mind if he ever got the chance to hook up with you, and I told him no, as long as he didn't mind I still hooked up with my old girlfriends from high school. But he never asked you, said he loved you too much, was afraid of ruining your friendship." "Jesus Christ," I shook my head, finally decided I needed time to process that, and moved on. "But, my last year there, Covid hit, and, I volunteered to work in the infirmary, but pretty soon the infirmary was filled, they started keeping people in the hallway, and finally they just ended up leaving them in their beds, I was all over the place. People dropping like flies. Everytime someone coughed or sneezed, everbody'd get nervous. I been smoking since I was 16, so I cough my lungs out every morning. "People was looking at me like I was Death Incarnate. But I never caught it, not even once. And I was all around the sick, I was taking the bodies out to the truck outside the gate. Could've run but I didn't. Only had a few years left. It worked in my favor. They cut the last three years off my sentence, put me on supervised release and now, here I am, 36 years old, and just starting my adult life." "Rossi got let out of lockup right before lockdown, poor bastard. Me, him, and my Dad all quarantined at Ma's, but of course, you know, me and Dad was essential workers so at least I got to get out of the house everyday. I graduated early, at 16, been working seven days a week since." I glanced at the glass on the table. "So let's get back to your story." She shook her head, lips pursed again. "Uh-uh, you're not wasting anymore time. Take the blood, but first," she reached out, quicker than I could even register, and used her thumbs to set my broken nose back straight. I let out a yell, momentarily unable to see as my eyes filled with tears. "Jesus wept, Becca, fucking hell, goddamn." "Sorry. It would've hurt more if you'd known it was coming. Besides, you're a good looking guy, Tony, you don't wanna ruin your face." "Thanks, B," I muttered as I pressed the toilet paper back to my freshly bleeding nose, tears streaming down my cheeks. "Need a haircut though." "Nah, you oughta keep it. It's very The Dark Knight Joker, just black, not blonde and green." I laughed quietly. "Not sure that's the best association, B. A little too psychotic and violent." She raised an eyebrow at me. "Alright, alright. It's probably an accurate association, just a little less arson and murder." I sighed and looked at the scotch glass. "So how do I do this, B?" "Think about it like a tequila shot. Take the shot and then slip the guard in quick. Then sit back, try to relax." I nodded and grabbed the glass before I lost my nerve. I raised it in her direction. "Saluti." "Geonbae." She responded. |
2023.05.29 15:49 GronlandicReddit A Proposed Approach to Functional Stim Requests
TL;DR - You donāt get one. This happens enough that responsible members should read it. Having said that, Iāll try to edit it down.
Posts from a random asking for suggestions for a functional stimulant RC to help them for some short- or long-term purpose appear every day, usually more than once. Iāve been around in one form or another for over a decade and would suggest on this Memorial Day that we follow a general protocol in our comments, if any, detailed below and followed by a bit about my own experience.
But letās be honest, the advice sought is for names of specific and relevant RC substances. If theyāre asking, our utility (to them) is likely limited to producing those names. Our informed warnings should be given but will likely go unheeded, so once a full warning is out there, the duty has been fulfilled. It is unlikely that piling on will deter the OP from what they clearly intend to do.
I think all warnings should follow an escalating situational pattern: (1) do not attempt, for [insert stated reason]; (2) have a thorough and researched written plan for experiment through full cessation; (3) all remedial procedures should start with the least drastic and safest measure; (4) never introduce more than one new element at a time so that one can isolate the successful solution, and (5) further experimentation should cease once a workable solution has been found.
Also remember that pinned comment at the top of the sub - WE ARE NOT DOCTORS. I assume most people on here are aware this is not a forum for medical advice. And yes, there are many on the forum who are just looking for a good time. So especially when someoneās request is not for a party RC, letās assume people ask about what they actually want.
I propose these be treated as sincere, regardless of whether an āundiagnosedā condition exists. There is no utility in accusing an OP of lying about what theyāre after and insisting they secretly just want to tweak. Nor is there much in posing such a lie. If people ask for something, itās probably because thatās what theyāre after.
Would you assume a post asking for RCs like Benadryl is secretly someone who wants to experience a k-hole?
We should discourage anyway. Warn of the harms. But such posts shouldnāt be unnecessarily redundant. State the dangers and move on. Maybe a few personal anecdotes are worth inclusion, but there shouldnāt be 20 comments, 17 of which simply say ādonāt do it.ā
FWIW, I do have some kind of issue - atypical depression, maybe, or something nobody at all even knows about - and my quality of life before finding a workable stimulant treatment was absolute shit. Finding something that worked for me absolutely turned my life around. I used to be a self-destructive dipsomaniac, couldnāt keep a job, no personal relationships, paralyzed by anxiety, it was awful. Somehow the right treatment with a stimulant used with great caution and care (keeping a journal is a good idea) allowed me to live a life I never dreamed possible, one of success, happiness, improvement in every area of life.
Having a complete plan with an exit strategy was very important. I did not want to live my whole life taking medications, and had to be cautious to taper safely and only once I had developed and maintained the life skills necessary to keep my newly-developed good habits going after cessation. Some stims can be tools of good use in the right hands. Most are not, and many* people not ready to use them as such, and thus it usually wonāt end well.
But these posts arenāt going away. I suggest that our community respond to them, if at all, in a polite and helpful way.
submitted by GronlandicReddit to researchchemicals [link] [comments]
Posts from a random asking for suggestions for a functional stimulant RC to help them for some short- or long-term purpose appear every day, usually more than once. Iāve been around in one form or another for over a decade and would suggest on this Memorial Day that we follow a general protocol in our comments, if any, detailed below and followed by a bit about my own experience.
- Give OPs the benefit of the doubt.
- Keep warning comments to a reasonable minimum.
But letās be honest, the advice sought is for names of specific and relevant RC substances. If theyāre asking, our utility (to them) is likely limited to producing those names. Our informed warnings should be given but will likely go unheeded, so once a full warning is out there, the duty has been fulfilled. It is unlikely that piling on will deter the OP from what they clearly intend to do.
I think all warnings should follow an escalating situational pattern: (1) do not attempt, for [insert stated reason]; (2) have a thorough and researched written plan for experiment through full cessation; (3) all remedial procedures should start with the least drastic and safest measure; (4) never introduce more than one new element at a time so that one can isolate the successful solution, and (5) further experimentation should cease once a workable solution has been found.
- Take requests at face value.
Also remember that pinned comment at the top of the sub - WE ARE NOT DOCTORS. I assume most people on here are aware this is not a forum for medical advice. And yes, there are many on the forum who are just looking for a good time. So especially when someoneās request is not for a party RC, letās assume people ask about what they actually want.
I propose these be treated as sincere, regardless of whether an āundiagnosedā condition exists. There is no utility in accusing an OP of lying about what theyāre after and insisting they secretly just want to tweak. Nor is there much in posing such a lie. If people ask for something, itās probably because thatās what theyāre after.
Would you assume a post asking for RCs like Benadryl is secretly someone who wants to experience a k-hole?
- If commenting responsively, comment responsibly.
- Coffee is likely not a helpful response. I have yet to meet anyone who seeks to or has taken a stimulant chemical who has never had coffee; I assume it has been tried and found ineffective, but feel free to suggest it anyway.
- Wakefulness Agents: All the -finil suggestions are 100% worth making, because they are a class the existence of which many posters might be unaware. They are worth trying before dopamine and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, and we shouldnāt discount the possibility they could work for the OPās needs. But I wouldnāt be surprised if these, too, arenāt going to meet many peopleās criteria.
- OrdeSequence: When suggesting what the post actually seeks, I suggest offering in ascending order of effects / potency / negative effects / comedown / recovery, whatever seems the best combination. Iād personally suggest IPPH before moving on to anything else, but someone might know of something gentler that should come first.
- Novel vs. VERY Novel: Brand-new substances are not a good idea for any of us, but while all RCs should be considered ānovel,ā some of them have been around long enough that we can have SOME reasonable certainty they shouldnāt produce any immediate and extremely dangerous conditions - and this is important - AS A GENERAL PROPOSITION. No one knows what effect any substance might have on a specific individual, but it would be reckless to suggest a substance introduced within the last 6 months or year when there are enough out there that are considered staples to try first.
We should discourage anyway. Warn of the harms. But such posts shouldnāt be unnecessarily redundant. State the dangers and move on. Maybe a few personal anecdotes are worth inclusion, but there shouldnāt be 20 comments, 17 of which simply say ādonāt do it.ā
FWIW, I do have some kind of issue - atypical depression, maybe, or something nobody at all even knows about - and my quality of life before finding a workable stimulant treatment was absolute shit. Finding something that worked for me absolutely turned my life around. I used to be a self-destructive dipsomaniac, couldnāt keep a job, no personal relationships, paralyzed by anxiety, it was awful. Somehow the right treatment with a stimulant used with great caution and care (keeping a journal is a good idea) allowed me to live a life I never dreamed possible, one of success, happiness, improvement in every area of life.
Having a complete plan with an exit strategy was very important. I did not want to live my whole life taking medications, and had to be cautious to taper safely and only once I had developed and maintained the life skills necessary to keep my newly-developed good habits going after cessation. Some stims can be tools of good use in the right hands. Most are not, and many* people not ready to use them as such, and thus it usually wonāt end well.
But these posts arenāt going away. I suggest that our community respond to them, if at all, in a polite and helpful way.
- Edited to remove presumption that RC-naĆÆve users are usually not predisposed to responsible RC stimulant use.
2023.05.29 15:38 19rt98 Need help and advice
Hello all, I know there are some really lovely and smart people on this sub and Iām really hoping for some advice on what I can do.
At the beginning of May, I just completed my first year of law school. I was unable to work during the semester per school rules for first year law students, and was living purely off of loans. That money has now run out completely. I applied for over 40 jobs on Indeed, trying to find some sort of legal job and was unable to get one the entire month. I have finally secured a Nanny position, but wonāt be starting it until June 5th, 5 days after my rent is due, and wonāt be paid until the end of that week anyways.
I am in jeopardy of being evicted. My bank account is severely overdrawn (like into the hundreds) from payments that have automatically come out while I was not working. I have tried doordashing, but ran out of money to put towards gas and never made enough for it to be worth it.
I have checked every rental assistance program in my area and all are out of funding to put toward rental assistance. The only one still accepting applications only takes them for the upcoming month on the 5th-15th, so I have missed my window.
I have also looked into payday loans to try and make this months rent, but I have been denied every time because I donāt have any income or a very good credit score. I donāt have any family members or friends that are able to help me financially right now, because everyone I know is also living paycheck to paycheck, and my rent is around $1100, plus I would have to have several hundred more to cover my overdraft to even be able to pay my rent.
I am really starting to panic and have no idea what to do. I canāt be evicted. I go to law school in a different city than where my family lives, and an eviction would ruin my chance of getting another apartment for school and would prevent me from the job I have lined up. Iāve experienced the worst mental health I have had in a long time and Iām so desperate I donāt know what to do. My rent is due on June 1st and I have literally no money.
What can I do?
submitted by 19rt98 to Assistance [link] [comments]
At the beginning of May, I just completed my first year of law school. I was unable to work during the semester per school rules for first year law students, and was living purely off of loans. That money has now run out completely. I applied for over 40 jobs on Indeed, trying to find some sort of legal job and was unable to get one the entire month. I have finally secured a Nanny position, but wonāt be starting it until June 5th, 5 days after my rent is due, and wonāt be paid until the end of that week anyways.
I am in jeopardy of being evicted. My bank account is severely overdrawn (like into the hundreds) from payments that have automatically come out while I was not working. I have tried doordashing, but ran out of money to put towards gas and never made enough for it to be worth it.
I have checked every rental assistance program in my area and all are out of funding to put toward rental assistance. The only one still accepting applications only takes them for the upcoming month on the 5th-15th, so I have missed my window.
I have also looked into payday loans to try and make this months rent, but I have been denied every time because I donāt have any income or a very good credit score. I donāt have any family members or friends that are able to help me financially right now, because everyone I know is also living paycheck to paycheck, and my rent is around $1100, plus I would have to have several hundred more to cover my overdraft to even be able to pay my rent.
I am really starting to panic and have no idea what to do. I canāt be evicted. I go to law school in a different city than where my family lives, and an eviction would ruin my chance of getting another apartment for school and would prevent me from the job I have lined up. Iāve experienced the worst mental health I have had in a long time and Iām so desperate I donāt know what to do. My rent is due on June 1st and I have literally no money.
What can I do?
2023.05.29 15:10 PostalClerkGuy Rant about a dipshit clerk I had to work with this holiday morning
So, I volunteered for the 5am Amazon throw this morning, not at my main PO, but an adjoining PO I usually work at on Sunday mornings. I'm a PSE going into my 4th week, and let me make this clear, I hate to be the "noob who thinks he knows everything", but I can tell you, this one lady on shift with me this morning, I can confidently say that as a 4th-week PSE, I already know more than she does, and she pissed me off royally.
First of all: She complained about the work all fucking morning. Now, when I say this, I am a person with NO shortage of complaints and rants about the world, society, politics, and places of employment, so coming from ME, this means something. Yet in spite of this, and in spite of the PO horror stories I've read on this sub, I've come into this job with nothing but a positive, can-do attitude. I hustle, I don't screw around, I ask good questions (my trainer has commented on this), I've been following the directives of my highers-up even if they seem a little ding-dongy. The supe said something about "We're not touching the packages for [neighboring town] yet because we're short-staffed" and she got indignant and said "We're doing [neighboring town] now???" (this PO is a HUB, we do ALL the neighboring towns - again, I'm a new PSE and know this, she apparently doesn't). The supe just kind of rolled his eyes at her, acted like he was talking to a very slow child, and said "Yeeeeessss..." And she just generally, didn't know what she was doing a lot of the time. Getting confused about the supe's directions, asking him to explain himself a few times over, asking questions that I should be asking as a noob, except she's supposedly a regular, and I actually knew what the fuck I was doing, and she didn't.
But anyway, here's the kicker: We were dealing with some HEAVY Amazon packages today, though not a very large quantity, the hampers were getting full pretty quickly, and I was swapping out the hampers when they got full. At one point, she told me, "Let's just keep jamming the packages in there, we don't have that many hampers" (she actually used that word, jamming). Now, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm a guy who likes to consider the person who's going to receive the package. I guess I'm just a nice guy like that. We're dealing with heavy stuff, TVs, printers, huge bags of kitty litter. I don't want to stack shit high on a hamper, and have some heavy appliance that someone paid good money for, go tumbling off and break, and I told her this.
She shrugged her shoulders and said, "If it breaks, we just blame Amazon."
Excuse me????
As a customer, I once received a package from Curious Elixirs, where 2 of the 4 bottles were broken, and I was PISSED. And those are just drinks! (I actually don't remember if it was USPS, UPS, or FedEx that delivered it, but it doesn't matter, shit's basically the same everywhere). Imagine ordering a TV and having it come fucking cracked in half because some disgruntled DB postal employee doesn't give a fuck?
I told her no, I'm not doing it that way. She said, "They won't break". Side note: I hate when people do this, when they can't decide which argument they want to make. Will they NOT break, or do we blame Amazon WHEN they break? Make up your mind! It's like being on trial for murder, and telling the judge, "I didn't shoot the guy, and besides, it was in self-defense!" Which is it? You can't have it both ways.
(Also, we had enough hampers. There wasn't THAT much shit).
I complained to the supe and asked who was right. He said basically, "It's a compromise, you do what you feel is right". OK, so that's what I did.
She kept piling shit up in a hamper, at a certain point I made a show of taking some packages OUT of the hamper (angrily enough to make a point, not angrily enough to break them) and swapping out the hamper. The hamper I replaced it with was a little damp on the bottom. She whined to the supe that "This hamper is wet!" I don't know about anyone else, I'd rather receive a damp package than a broken one (also, it's 70 fucking degrees and sunny today).
Later she laid a HUGE, FLAT BOX (I'm guessing probably a TV) that was almost the full size of the opening of a hamper, across the whole top of the hamper, so that I had to stuff spurs around it. I took that shit off and placed it next to the hamper too.
Fuck me for wanting to be conscientious, follow the Golden Rule, and exercise care with other people's shit, right?
People like this bitch are the REASON people (not employees, the general public) have a negative opinion of the Postal Service. I'm not going to play Jenga with people's packages that they paid good money for and then blame Amazon when shit breaks, that's just not how I was brought up. I had a mind to go off on her for being a fucking idiot, but I'm still in my first 90 so they'd probably shitcan me if I did. Also felt like asking to never be put on a shift with her again, but a) I'm broke and need all the fucking hours I can get, b) again, I'm new and would be seen as a bitcher, and c) it's not my main PO, I don't even see her on the usual Sunday crew at this PO, this holiday is the first time I've seen her, so hopefully I'll hardly be working with her.
I would like to end this post though by saying, again, despite some of the horror stories I've read in this sub, my experience at the USPS so far has been mostly OK. Yeah, the pay sucks, and it's a grind, but pretty much all the folks at my main PO, including my postmaster, are pretty cool. Maybe I just lucked out. So far it really is just this C-U-Next-Tuesday I met today.
submitted by PostalClerkGuy to USPS [link] [comments]
First of all: She complained about the work all fucking morning. Now, when I say this, I am a person with NO shortage of complaints and rants about the world, society, politics, and places of employment, so coming from ME, this means something. Yet in spite of this, and in spite of the PO horror stories I've read on this sub, I've come into this job with nothing but a positive, can-do attitude. I hustle, I don't screw around, I ask good questions (my trainer has commented on this), I've been following the directives of my highers-up even if they seem a little ding-dongy. The supe said something about "We're not touching the packages for [neighboring town] yet because we're short-staffed" and she got indignant and said "We're doing [neighboring town] now???" (this PO is a HUB, we do ALL the neighboring towns - again, I'm a new PSE and know this, she apparently doesn't). The supe just kind of rolled his eyes at her, acted like he was talking to a very slow child, and said "Yeeeeessss..." And she just generally, didn't know what she was doing a lot of the time. Getting confused about the supe's directions, asking him to explain himself a few times over, asking questions that I should be asking as a noob, except she's supposedly a regular, and I actually knew what the fuck I was doing, and she didn't.
But anyway, here's the kicker: We were dealing with some HEAVY Amazon packages today, though not a very large quantity, the hampers were getting full pretty quickly, and I was swapping out the hampers when they got full. At one point, she told me, "Let's just keep jamming the packages in there, we don't have that many hampers" (she actually used that word, jamming). Now, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm a guy who likes to consider the person who's going to receive the package. I guess I'm just a nice guy like that. We're dealing with heavy stuff, TVs, printers, huge bags of kitty litter. I don't want to stack shit high on a hamper, and have some heavy appliance that someone paid good money for, go tumbling off and break, and I told her this.
She shrugged her shoulders and said, "If it breaks, we just blame Amazon."
Excuse me????
As a customer, I once received a package from Curious Elixirs, where 2 of the 4 bottles were broken, and I was PISSED. And those are just drinks! (I actually don't remember if it was USPS, UPS, or FedEx that delivered it, but it doesn't matter, shit's basically the same everywhere). Imagine ordering a TV and having it come fucking cracked in half because some disgruntled DB postal employee doesn't give a fuck?
I told her no, I'm not doing it that way. She said, "They won't break". Side note: I hate when people do this, when they can't decide which argument they want to make. Will they NOT break, or do we blame Amazon WHEN they break? Make up your mind! It's like being on trial for murder, and telling the judge, "I didn't shoot the guy, and besides, it was in self-defense!" Which is it? You can't have it both ways.
(Also, we had enough hampers. There wasn't THAT much shit).
I complained to the supe and asked who was right. He said basically, "It's a compromise, you do what you feel is right". OK, so that's what I did.
She kept piling shit up in a hamper, at a certain point I made a show of taking some packages OUT of the hamper (angrily enough to make a point, not angrily enough to break them) and swapping out the hamper. The hamper I replaced it with was a little damp on the bottom. She whined to the supe that "This hamper is wet!" I don't know about anyone else, I'd rather receive a damp package than a broken one (also, it's 70 fucking degrees and sunny today).
Later she laid a HUGE, FLAT BOX (I'm guessing probably a TV) that was almost the full size of the opening of a hamper, across the whole top of the hamper, so that I had to stuff spurs around it. I took that shit off and placed it next to the hamper too.
Fuck me for wanting to be conscientious, follow the Golden Rule, and exercise care with other people's shit, right?
People like this bitch are the REASON people (not employees, the general public) have a negative opinion of the Postal Service. I'm not going to play Jenga with people's packages that they paid good money for and then blame Amazon when shit breaks, that's just not how I was brought up. I had a mind to go off on her for being a fucking idiot, but I'm still in my first 90 so they'd probably shitcan me if I did. Also felt like asking to never be put on a shift with her again, but a) I'm broke and need all the fucking hours I can get, b) again, I'm new and would be seen as a bitcher, and c) it's not my main PO, I don't even see her on the usual Sunday crew at this PO, this holiday is the first time I've seen her, so hopefully I'll hardly be working with her.
I would like to end this post though by saying, again, despite some of the horror stories I've read in this sub, my experience at the USPS so far has been mostly OK. Yeah, the pay sucks, and it's a grind, but pretty much all the folks at my main PO, including my postmaster, are pretty cool. Maybe I just lucked out. So far it really is just this C-U-Next-Tuesday I met today.
2023.05.29 15:01 AutoModerator Weekly Who's Hiring Post for May 29, 2023
Welcome to the weekly sales "Who's hiring" post where you may post job openings you want to share with our sub. Post here are exempt from our Rule 3, "recruiting users" but all other rules apply such as posting referral or affiliate links.
Posts that do not include all the information required from the below format may be removed at the mods' discretion.
For the job seekers, simply make a comment on the position listing or DM that user. Comments to the main post stating you are for hire will be removed.
If you don't see anything on this week's posting, you may also check our who's hiring posts from past several weeks.
That's it, good luck and good hunting,
sales
submitted by AutoModerator to sales [link] [comments]
- Do not request users to DM you for more information. Interested users will contact you if DM is what they want to use. If you don't want to share the job information publicly, don't post.
- Users should proceed at their own risk before providing personal information to strangers on the internet with the understanding that some postings may be scams.
- MLM jobs are prohibited and should be reported to the sales mods when found.
- Postings must use the template below. Links to an external job postings or company pages are allowed but should not contain referral attribution codes.
- Obvious SPAM, scams, etc. should be reported.
- To report a post, click on "..." at the bottom of the comment and select "Report".
Posts that do not include all the information required from the below format may be removed at the mods' discretion.
Location:
Industry:
Job Title/Role:
Base/Commission/OTE:
Job duties/description:
Any external job posting link or application instructions:
For the job seekers, simply make a comment on the position listing or DM that user. Comments to the main post stating you are for hire will be removed.
If you don't see anything on this week's posting, you may also check our who's hiring posts from past several weeks.
That's it, good luck and good hunting,
sales
2023.05.29 14:28 theblurredmesses Is this an actual sign of trust or just a case of oversharing/over-dumping at work? How do I interpret this?
(Warning: Very Long Read)
Abstract
This is in an Australian luxury retail setting and this is the longest I've been in a workplace since arriving to this country (6 months). I am in a team of 8 sales associates, predominantly males (6M & 2F including me). Over the course of working here part time, I have accumulated an amount of personal struggles, difficulties and insecurities of especially my male co-workers. I am cautious and torn on how to properly emotionally understand this, because I do not want to be lead on to a decision to personally, emotionally invest in these men and end up regretting it because I misread the stance between me and them. Therefore, I am here to gather viewpoints and advice on this: Are these actual signs of trust in me or just cases of oversharing or over dumping emotionally at work? How do I interpret this?
I shall use the two main male-coworkers that I am most close to & torn about. I am a 23F.
Person A
I'm enjoying my colleagues, I feel myself dangerously coming close to caring, but I'm more afraid that I'm interpreting something more of a work relationship when it isn't. That I'm making the wrong emotional investment within my own consciousness and end up hurt and regretting. If by any chance anyone reads until this end, thank you. Feel free to tell me if you feel that it's all in my head and distance is the best. That I'm overthinking it and just put it to rest, or that I'm just a convenient emotional punching bag because I dont say much, because at this point, I'm exhausted at looking at these 2 ways of understanding it and being unable to pick one.
submitted by theblurredmesses to intj [link] [comments]
Abstract
This is in an Australian luxury retail setting and this is the longest I've been in a workplace since arriving to this country (6 months). I am in a team of 8 sales associates, predominantly males (6M & 2F including me). Over the course of working here part time, I have accumulated an amount of personal struggles, difficulties and insecurities of especially my male co-workers. I am cautious and torn on how to properly emotionally understand this, because I do not want to be lead on to a decision to personally, emotionally invest in these men and end up regretting it because I misread the stance between me and them. Therefore, I am here to gather viewpoints and advice on this: Are these actual signs of trust in me or just cases of oversharing or over dumping emotionally at work? How do I interpret this?
I shall use the two main male-coworkers that I am most close to & torn about. I am a 23F.
Person A
- Is the unofficial leader of the team, Caucasian Australian aged 27 this year. I view him as an senior colleague/almost big brother type.
- He tells me he regrets much of his life decisions up until now. Partying, drinking and wasting three years of his life in the UK bartending & using up all the money on concerts and clubs. His insecurity is in his looks and the fact he did not attend university or is not booksmart.
- Is in a 3-year relationship with a Lebanese woman (who is a flight attendant) whom he wants to marry but her parents do not allow him because he is not financially stable and does not own a house. He currently lives with his mother and is miserable about it as he is trying to gather funds to make this goal a reality.
- He gave a shy outburst admitting to me one time that he was missing his girlfriend (as she was on a flight) and to just call him a simp. My words were simply: 'She is your girlfriend, of course you'll miss her. And I think she'll appreciate it very much if you tell her that too.'
- He was comfortable enough to tell me the full unedited argument he had with her and being very emotionally honest with me from his perspective about it when I did the normal superficial 'what's wrong' when he came to work looking angry (which I did not expect). They did made up in the end and I was happy for the both of them.
- He had been planning to get a real estate licence (as a first serious job besides fashion) but has been procrastinating about it. I gently asked what's stopping him and he looked at me dead and sad in the eye 'fear of failure'. I was too stunned to reply immediately, and when I wanted to, it was already too late.
- Person A no longer likes the job very much, and on multiple occasions hinted at badly wanting to leave and is just staying for job security. Of course, I urged him to find other opportunities and leave once a security net has been established.
- I believe he is slipping into a minor depression: the casual remarks of death, life ending and the fire in his eyes are no longer the same the time I met him. I am probably too intimately aware on this because of my own history with Bipolar Type II.
- I am the only person he prevents me from touching or seeing his weed. I don't know whether to feel offended that this implies that he would think that I'm a prude, when I never treated him differently regardless.
- I'm not going to lie, work problems started to crop up from him and I tried my very best to accomodate to his personal struggles. But that one day he finally crossed a line with me. It was also the first time I realized I was truly emotionally compromised when I realized my hesitation to immediately hit him with my disappointment, when in other circumstances with others I would. But funnily enough, the moment I decided I just had to, he apologised to me right at that moment. He explained very rawly (not defensive) to me that he was just fed up with the job and the monotony and his brain just checked out for today and he was sorry for letting me down. It was overall just rather sad, because it was nothing I did not know already. But what left a lingering impression in my mind, he shut up immediately once our other two coworkers reached within earshot of us. This was the moment I wondered whether he trusted me more than average.
- He left mistakes for the other team members to clean up the next day, and it turns out not everyone knew Person A was drying up, which leads to Person B.
- Malaysian Chinese Australian, aged 24 years old, graduated Material Engineering.
- He's another literal can of worms.
- Personally, I was very excited to meet another Malaysian Chinese person in Australia, because it was simply not common. I was desperate for any sense of familiarity in terms of cultures and values.
- We hit it off well in terms of chemistry on the first day, a little too well that I did not realize my actions were inappropriate for a man that has a girlfriend already, but he did not stop me either. We were talking about cooking Chinese dishes living alone in Sydney on the way walking together to the train station after work. Everything was normal until the weird feeling arose. Our ideal height difference and body proximity. It was sexual tension. I think he felt it too at the same time, because he in panic also quickly excused himself wanting to go to the grocery mart around the corner and at least that cue I understand, so I ran to the direction of the station. Since then, I vowed to be more careful and I never stick around with him after work again.
- I am thankful that despite that first interaction, it did not impact our work relationship at all. Out of all the team members, I work best with him and till this day, I treasure this dynamic. We are both hardworking, conscientious, productive and don't arse around. I hate the shit he does, and he hates the shit I do. We get a lot done together as we complement each other's weaknesses well.
- I know that he has strict and traditional parents like I do. That he hates it and he knows that he will never be able to pursue his true passion of modelling if he wants to remain in the family. That I know he still remembers the pain of his mother telling him that his first gf was sub-par and he could do better (after being so excited to tell her).
- He struggles with wanting to be alone, but not wanting to be lonely. Jumping from friend group to friend group, but never truly belonging in one. The same applied to hobbies.
- Though, I like that I could talk to him a bit about literature, anime and films.
- He has a younger sister he does not understand but has a very close bond to his male cousins. Has had 4 previous romantic relationships
- I like that I know his Mandarin name and that he puts mine in front of my English name on his phone, which is weird because he calls me by my English name when he is with me. He was also born in the same state as my paternal family and moved to Australia after primary school.
- He wants a place to call his own, and is burdened by the cruelty of the housing prices. A bit lost after graduation with not much going on, which is sucking the life out of him. (In his words, 'I'm going to be completely transparent with you...I don't do much else, unfortunately').
- I guessed correctly that he has not started searching for work, and reassured him I won't be an additional pressure to it.
- Our cantonese and mandarin now bleed together during shifts. He is the only one that can get specific cultural references with me.
- He showed me concern when I was ill on a shift and I unfortunately violently interpreted it as him thinking I was not doing my job. Another thing I like, we sort shit out amicably too and move on.
- I guessed his MBTI correctly on my first try, and him my astrology sign on his first try.
- I find it strangely comforting that he whines comfortably to me about our job stress to me only as we do it together, and doesn't put up the bro front of me unlike to others. The knowing side eye we sometimes throw at each other when our other coworkers say/do something ludicrous.
- His grandfather has Parkinson, and sometimes he loses sleep as he needs to help him to the toilet. It was a crazily intimate fact that I did not anticipate when I noticed him being fatigued. This was when I questioned the stance between us. He did not share that with the bros, because Person A came in walking & asked how is he, to which he replied with full confidence after telling me the above... 'Awesome man, bro.' And a slap on the back. I was stunned at the complete difference.
- Me and Person B has the agreed pact of fixing Person A mistakes quietly so management doesn't widen the magnifying glass.
I'm enjoying my colleagues, I feel myself dangerously coming close to caring, but I'm more afraid that I'm interpreting something more of a work relationship when it isn't. That I'm making the wrong emotional investment within my own consciousness and end up hurt and regretting. If by any chance anyone reads until this end, thank you. Feel free to tell me if you feel that it's all in my head and distance is the best. That I'm overthinking it and just put it to rest, or that I'm just a convenient emotional punching bag because I dont say much, because at this point, I'm exhausted at looking at these 2 ways of understanding it and being unable to pick one.