How To Win At The Fish Table ? 8 Tips To Win In Online ...

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what are fish games gambling - win

What are some good mangas that completely revolve around casinos/gambling besides gamble fish and liar game?

submitted by Joseph_Haydn to manga [link] [comments]

I heard you guys like reading patch notes... So how about a fake one?

General / QoL

Gameplay

Gacha / Shop

In Consideration

Items

Coop

Battlepass / 12 Episode Anime

Quests

Elemental Reactions

  • Vaporize's Steam deals aoe damage
  • Overloads damage (electro->pyro) now deals x1.5 (pyro) damage
  • Overloads damage (pyro->electro) now deals x2 (pyro) damage.
  • Overload's knockback decreased significantly
  • Superconduct's damage (electro->cryo) now deals 2x (cryo) damage
  • Superconduct's damage (cryo->electro) now deals 1.5x (cryo) damage
  • Superconduct's negative armor debuff is moved to Melt
  • Melt gains the negative armor debuff due to the sudden temperature change, making surfaces brittle.
  • Melt damage consequently reduced. (pyro->hydro) at x1.4% , (hydro->pyro) at x1.8%
  • Geo New Reaction : Smoldering Rock or something (pyro->geo)(reverse not applicable) deals x0.3 (pyro damage) on top of crystallize
  • Geo New Reaction : Mud or something (hydro->geo)(geo->hydro) deals x0.1 (geo damage) on top of crystallize, slows enemy movement
  • Geo New Reaction : Snow or something (hydro->geo)(reverse not applicable) deals x0.2 (cryo damage) on top of crystallize, slows enemy attack speed
  • Geo New Reaction : Seeds or something (dendro->geo) deals x0.1 (dendro damage) on top of crystallize, restores 3% of your hp. Or entangle. Prevents enemy movement (can still attacc and cast spells)

Enemies

  • Enemies inside domains and abyss have their return-to-spawn-point-then-regenerate-to-full-health disabled.
  • Enemy AI a bit smarter. Those with mobility skills (whopper, smol geovishap, cycin mages) won't follow you to drown in the water. The game will not check if you are wet , but if you are in a swimming state.
  • Enemies attack cycle improve. Fixed bug when enemies stop attacking. Baedou Problems.
  • Hydro Abyss Mage's and Hydro Fatui Gunner's Hydro Barrier now takes the same damage rate/ratio from opposing elements (cryo,electro) for consistency.
  • Hydro barrier new opposing element : Geo. It makes it harder to maintain the water shield due to the mud soaking up the water and adding weight.
  • Boss Childe's Spirit Whale Attack generates water in the sides of the arena, pushing you towards the center. You must have enough stamina to keep dashing to the sides before he does this, or you will have to perfectly dodge the spirit whale attack.
  • Hydro SamaChurl now heals at a rate of +300/HoT per AR Milestone instead of percentage. This is for when you are hunting a LawaChurl Bounty that is near dead and healed to full health in 3 seconds. Having a fixed amount of healing ensures that it is big enough for the intended smaller enemies and portionally good enough for large enemies. The other option is to use different healing ratios for small and large enemies.
  • Queen of Pain , I mean Cycin Mages have a stagger window when they are about to cast their almost-undispellable shield
  • Zed , I mean Shadow Fatui Agent makes use of his shadows to dodge your attack sometimes.
  • Smol Geo Vishap now drops less geo shields
  • Smol Geo Vishap now uses his rolling attack near you, not 150m away from you.
  • Smol Geo Vishap now burrows a bit less frequently
  • Ruin Hunter doesn't stay in the air up and raining artillery forever , in consideration of bowless comps
  • Fatui Cryo and Hydro Gunner Turn Rate Reduced by 10% when on Spray Mode.
  • Primo GeoVishap now has a tired/exhausted animation, instead of standing still and looking at you and what life could have been for 10 seconds.
  • Primo GeoVishap spin attack now has a 0.2 dodge window (previously none) and Spin Radius Decreased by 100m.

Characters

  • Dvalin's Cutscene when you dispel his barrier is removed and much smoother. He just falls in place and no clipping.
  • Character's "Main Stat" is now visible in attributes. Previously you can only know it when ascending or when using google, or if you really have a big brain.
  • All characters passive talents are now combat related.
  • All characters now have their own cooking/exploration/crafting/smithing talents. It is possible not to have OR have multiple talents in each category. We get it , everyone can taste what a good gravy is, but not everyone can make a good gravy.

Ayaka

  • Alternate sprint binded to a different hotkey.
  • Yes I came from the future.

Albedo

  • Elevator can be activated to go up and down by using the F key.
  • C2 stack counter / indicator via particles (think of razor geo sigils)
  • C4 plunged attack covers albedo's sword in geo energy (like noelle, but smol)
  • C6 crystallize shield has a different shape (leaf)

Amber

  • Increased ultimate radius by a tiny bit.
  • Allow targeting of ulimate by holding the ultimate button.
  • If baron bunny is present in the ultimate radius, it will absorb all pyro damage and deal it as bonus damage when it blows up.
  • If baron bunny was "charged" with pyro rain and hit with a C2 charged shot, it will trigger a micheal bay explosion animation.

Barbara

  • Restored Barbara's Energetic Voice Lines
  • New Lines sold seperately as Dark Barbara™ , comes with a Dark Dress
  • C6 Revive indicator is now visible as a buff.
  • C4 now generates flying energy particles instead of instantly regaining energy. Mind you that this is a fucking nerf to this piece of shit healer that freezes you. It's just that there's no flying particles when you use this hero.

Beidou

  • Casting the elemental skill applies a strong taunt and re-initializes enemies attack loop.
  • Bullet Time effect added when triggering a perfect counter, when playing in single player mode.
  • The ultimate's chain lightning deals tiny spark damage if it didn't jump.
  • C2 chain lightning has a different color.
  • C4 buff is triggered when you do a perfect counter (Taking damage to activate a skill promotes bad gameplay)
  • C4 perfect counter grants the maximum damage bonus
  • C4 shield has a different color.
  • C6 has aura on the ground (inspired by Dota 2's Necrophos , but purple)

Bennet

  • C6 Ultimate pyro infusion just adds pyro damage to your attacks, and won't convert them fully into pyro.
  • C6 Ultimate restores up to 100% hp.

Childe

  • Improved manly posture when in aiming mode
  • C4 Riptide slash and flash uses different coloparticles/animation
  • C6 has an indicator when it works and when it is available

Chongyun

  • Cryo Field's Cryo infusion just adds cryo damage to your attacks, and won't convert them fully into cryo.

Diluc

  • What seriously? You really want more?
  • Fuck this guy in particular
  • Elemental Sword Duration Indicator added
  • C6 his flames has some bluish tint

Diona

  • Fixed shield duration bug and increased by additional 1.1 seconds per claw.
  • Shield ratio based off max hp increased by 10%
  • C2 reduces skill cooldown by -2 seonds (press) and -4 (hold). The coop shield is added by default out of the box. Anything coop should not be locked behind a paywall because it will hurt the game and fanbase.
  • C4 has been reworked to grant normal and aimed uncharged shots 25% chance to deal charged attack shots.
  • C6 radius is increased and uses a different color.

Fischl

  • Ultimate now deals tiny bit of damage per 0.2 seconds tick when making contact with enemies (aside from getting hit by lightning once)
  • Ultimate can fly/pass through thorn walls. I'm looking at you Dendro Samachurl.
  • Shadow Raven Let Night F---!!!
  • C4 Ultimate hp restored now scales off damage dealt by the ult.

Ganyu

  • holding the elemental skill allows you to aim and won't make you backdash
  • C4 Freezing Field changes color intensity per damage increase
  • C6 free frost charged arrow now works with normal unaimed attacks.
  • C6 uses a different particle color. Sometime it turns into a bazooka.

Jean

  • Reduced Increased swaying of boobs by a tiny amount while holding the skill. You can kinda feel them slapping against your face. You can almost describe their softness and warmth in a minimum of 10 pages apart from you going sommelier describing how deep her sweat tastes like.
  • Jean's Charged Attack Launch Height is too damn high that you cant even hit the enemy, so - Reworked Jean's Charged Attack : Holding the attack button launches the enemy in the air. If you keep holding it down you will perform 3 slashes in the air. If you let go early you will stay on the ground.
  • Base Attack Increased by +5
  • Jean can now pick up the slimes dropped by enemies and use it against them for a bighead move
  • Ultimate radius is increased
  • Ultimate Wall Mechanic Reversed. Enemies are now trapped inside. When you use your skill (usually to regain energy) you can air-wall slam them. Block Projectiles from outside.
  • If any of you actually played jean support, a normal person would use ult to heal, cast skill to regain energy, then switch back to other characters. It doesn't make fucking sense to push them outside your wind arena because you want to fight inside the swirl/healing zone.
  • Ultimate swirls every 0.2 seconds , depending on what elements are inside. Field Changes Color Each Time Like a Disco Ball
  • Ultimate now slowly succs enemies to the center(without lifting them up)
  • Ultimate Damage is consequently reduced.
  • C1 Uses a different colored windblast
  • C2 Buff Indicator
  • C4 uses a different color wind field
  • C6 Ultimate is now an aura and moves with you. To break away from "buffed area" convention.
  • C6 Ultimate will get you to keep the windsaber for the ult's duration
  • C6 Shield Buff Indicator via Particle and Status Icon

Kaeya

  • Base attack incresed by 5
  • Elemental Skill (Hold) Sprays Ice , think of Igni but Ice in Witcher 3 or DND's Burning Hands
  • C2 Icicles light up when you defeat an enemy indicating that it really works
  • C4 Barrier is of different shape
  • C6 uses a different icicle particle for bling purposes

Keqing

  • Aiming mode feels a lot smoother. You can aim while moving and cursor immediately shows and the kungfu pose is only done when throwing the stilleto.
  • When in single player mode, casting your ultimate produces a bullet time effect.
  • C4 Buff Indicator
  • C6 Description is confusing as fuck.
  • C6 Buff indicator
  • C6 Makes your sword light up like a lightsaber.

Klee

  • Imroved Torch/Bonfire/Campfire and the likes Lockon (if there's any to begin with)
  • Throwing Jumpty Dumpty provides 0.1s iframe during her spin
  • Ult is now no longer greedy. Pyro satellites remain when you switch characters, making our lovable klee open up for support options. Child support.
  • C4 is now manually triggered, Pressing q again will make her explode, bigger damage based off remaining duration. less duration left, less damage.
  • C6 klee uses different bombs

Lisa

  • A lingerie shop is opened in Mondstadt to change her pantsu, socks and garter belt style and colors. Black Leather Tight Suit™ Sold Seperately.
  • Option to wear glasses as a Librarian added.
  • Climbing voice volume is re-mastered in asmr microphone, in all languages.
  • Requires "i am of legal age" consent in the user center
  • Elemental skill (press) aoe slightly increased.
  • Base attack increased by 15.

Mona

  • Alternate dash is now binded to alt key.
  • Hydro Puppet now deals half damage upon cast and half damage upon explosion.
  • C6 normal attacks use a different attack animation.

MC (Anemo)

  • Palm vortex can be casted in midair to break your fall (but not propel you up)

MC (Geo)

  • When you overlap geo boulders (aimed mode) it will trigger the geo explosion of the older rock, then replace it with a new one

Ningguang

  • Holding the skill button surrounds her in mini jade screens , unable to perform any action until it is released or ends. Useful for cinematic stuff. Imagine tanking childe's whale attack. Or someone wants to recreate triple rashomon scene.
  • C6 has a chance to use different attack animation.
  • C6 star jade now resembles a primo gem.

Noelle

  • Elemental Sword Duration Indicator added
  • C1 heals have a special effect and voice line when conditions are met.
  • C2 upgrade uses a different charged attack animation.
  • C4 uses a different barrier color
  • C6 upgrade uses different ult (possibly red with the same hue as her skirt) color.

Qiqi

  • C2 reworked as -15% attack debuff
  • C4 reworked as -20% elemental resistance debuff
  • C6 cooldown/availability indicator.
  • C6 has a different bling/color

Razor

  • Transformation Duration Indicator added
  • C1 increased damage now really works
  • C1 now has a buff indicator that it really works
  • C2 now has a special crit indicator
  • C4 armor shred now has a (claw mark) armor shred indicator that it really works
  • C4 (hold) has increased damage so it doesn't feel left out. It also has electro explosions similar to when you mine an electric ore as a special effect to indicate that you are C4 and have a big PP.
  • C6 covers your sword with electricity (like diluc) when it is charged and ready
  • Yes I play razor a lot.

Sucrose

  • Fixed crafting bug not producing any bonus when using large quantities (say 100+)
  • Improved lock on when blowing off dandelion flowers. Idk how she keeps missing them even at point blank range, Hell , at any given range.
  • C1 if you overlap the wind nukes the second one will be a 0.1s delay then it will go off with a slightly bigger radius
  • C2 ult has a different color
  • C4 has an indicator that it works
  • C6 buff indicator

Venti

  • Wind current generated by skill (hold) allows him to fall slower without gliding, and allows him to shoot wind lasers. Ehe
  • C2 Charged Shot produces a bullet time effect when shot at point blank or if all 3 arrows hit a single enemy. Sometimes he draws the holy lyre and it transforms into a primitive shotgun.
  • C4 buff indicator.
  • C6 uses different vacuum color

Xiangling

  • Ultimate deals additional damage when cast at point blank because you get stab and bonk while she is twirling her spear.
  • C2 last attack leaves a flaming trail special effect (inspired by kyo or iori from king of fighters)
  • C6 upon cast, Xianling automatically does a speed-up full normal attack combo and then releases the pyronado normally (while covered in flames or some shit). If you are in single player mode and there are no other enemies within 150 radius the ult will cause the screen to black out, like in legend of legaia.
  • C6 during the ultimate if it contacts with gouba's flames it produces micheal bay effects while raining carpet bombs and shit.
  • Yes flat is justice.

Xingqiu

  • Floating Swords Duration added
  • Fixed crafting bug not producing any bonus when using large quantities (say 100+)
  • C4 Allows you to hold the elemental skill for double backflips (inspired by law from tekken) cooldown is 1 month.
  • C4 Elem Skill leaves a faint rainbow (when ulted)
  • C6 Swords emit faint rainbow color. Rainbow power motherf-

Xinyan

  • Hitting large enemies counts as 2 enemies.
  • C1 buff indicator
  • C2's level 3 shield has some bluish flames
  • C6 charged attack uses a diffent attack animation or has an indicator that it works

Xiao

  • Transformation Duration Indicator added
  • C2 now leaves a trail of anemo energy that deals tiny bit of damage , trail lasts for 1 second and deals at 0.2s intervals.
  • C6 plunge attack counts large enemies as 2.
  • C6 plunge-attack-no-cooldown-empowered-dashes uses a different particle color and produces a bullet time effect when used for the 3rd time onwards. useful for cinematic purposes
  • C6 during the bullet time you can sneak in a normal attack once per dash
  • Bullet time is always disabled in multiplayer

Zhongli

  • Increased pillar aoe by a tiny bit
  • Generates energy particles per pulse, maximum of 1 enemy per pillar
  • Base attack increased by 5
  • Travelers can redeem promo code "WHOSYOURDADDY" for additional +5 damage, regardless if they have the hero or not.
  • Attack ratios increased by 3% per attack category.
  • C1 has a slightly bigger dong eherm statue
  • C4 Chaos Meteor errrr I mean Order Meteor has a different rock color
  • C6 shield uses a different color , come on you get the drift already.
  • C6 Meteor is affected by the element of the barrier you are wearing. The element is dealt as secondary damage, primary damage is still geo. (flaming space rock?)

Why different coloparticles/animation when you have C1-C6 upgrade?

It makes whales feels special, and it gives F2P players something to aspire for. It makes you want to spend with all the bling. Particle recolor is easy peasy and can be deployed within minutes. Attack animations on the other hand are time consuming. It almost always put smile in people's faces when a whale shows up in a ferrari. "Dude check this out a C6 GeoDaddy joined my domain run. Look at the size of his statue. Oh my what a BIG meteor."

Why are you doing this?

It's just for my amusement. I'm still adding random thoughts now that 1.3 has launched. I don't care if nothing gets implemented. I would nut hard in my shorts with QoL and alleged bug/bugfixes mentioned in this post more than anything.

Afterword

Leave your thoughts below. Sorry and not sorry for the broken engrish , feel free to copy and paste whatever, use it wherever idc as long as it doesn't annoy or harm someone. Translate it in your language etc. No credits needed etc. Let your mind flow

After-Afterword

  • Thanks for the awards and all kinds of reception
  • You guys are awesome and insane that's a shit load of awards thank you.
submitted by lordpuza to Genshin_Impact [link] [comments]

[OC] The Secular Lebron James, The Case for The King over His Airness: An analysis of film, accolades, advanced metrics, rules, era, ect ect. (basically everything except longetvity) PART 1: Introduction, Counter-Arguments, and Defense

Fun title, right?
DISCLAIMER:
There have been many Lebron vs Jordan threads. I imagine there will continue to be. I realize this bothers people, but frankly it shouldn't. Comparing and arguing about the greats is a large aspect of the narrative surrounding the nba. Sport is a form of storytelling, and a new generation's hero chasing a ghost of the past is one of the better storylines we have.
That being said, if you are worred about "tired arguments/cliches" I dont think you have to worry. The vast majority of what I'm going to be discussing here --hasnt'-- been covered and is going to be fairly in-depth and comprehensive. There will be no "1-9", "6-0", or ect. I am unconcerned with what the popular narratives or points around these two players are. Nor am I going to hide my biases or bother acting like I don't have a preference here. The title implies exactly what I think.
I am simply going to make arguments, and, being aware that there are a wide variety of criteria differing from mine, I am going to specifically make a variety of arguments that may appeal to those criteria. While I personally don't care too much about things like peak, cross era comp, team success, or resume, many people here do..
I've left out longetvity because I haven't seen people dispute Lebron's superiority there (though if you disagree you are welcome to discuss why in the comments). The aim here is to persuade, but I will try to do this by using wide variety of avenues as opposed to forcing my own narrow criteria onto you.
I am going to primarily argue that
A. Lebron peaked higher than Micheal Jordan
B. Lebron on average was better at basketball than Micheal Jordan when they played
C. Lebron has a better resume
With all that said, as this is going to be rather long. So long I'm going to be breaking this into parts. I'm going to provide an outline here and bold the various sections so that you can skip to whatever interests you, in case you don't want to read all of it. For now we're just going to do 1., an the first part of 2. (I was originally intending to do everything at once but, er, i need more time lol):
1. COUNTER ARGUMENTS - Will tackle arguments made for jordan that seem to have signficant traction which I find dubious. A. Stats B. Resume
2. Granular film/play breakdown - The idea is to make my conclusion here make sense 'on paper'. This will also work to supplant the holistic evidence that I think strongly supports lebron's superiority.
A. Defense B. Creation C. Scoring
3. Holistic Evidence/impact - Having laid out "why lebron being better than jordan makes sense", I'm going to try and show that what I've outlined "on paper" is well supported by the results
4. RESUME - I'm going to make the case that Lebron's resume is better, that Jordan's advantages here aren't being applied consistently in other comparisons and supplant this with...
5. ERA COMPARISON - Establish that the 2000's-2010's have a talent advantage over the 90's similar to that enjoyed by the 90's over the 60's(since the era is a fair explanation for many on the valuation of certain accoaldes shifting)
6. Rules - Some people claim that the rules favor Lebron relative to Jordan. By using what I consider a fair analog for Jordan in Curry(and yes I am going to back this up) as well as how jordan performed against the great defenses of his time, I'm going to dispute the idea that jordan would get --better--as a playoff performer with illegal defnese being removed.
7. Intangibles - Will argue Lebron has a better influence on winning off the court and is more resilient against elite oppostion as well as opposing defensive adjustments in the playoffs
8. Team success - Just going to present a case for lebron being more successful from a team perspective. Will refer back to era comparison
9. Conclusion - you can figure this out I think.
Now that I've mapped out what this will look like, lets get started...
1. COUNTER ARGUMENTS
A. _STATS_
There are two sorts of stastical arguments that are typically made in support of Jordan. The first is one that's prevelant in sports media from Max Kellerman to Zach Lowe to supposedly 'smarter' analysts like Nate Silver. "The Secular Micheal Jordan" by u/John_Krolik outlines it fairly well:
PER: Okay, #1 in all-time regular season PER is...Michael Jordan. I'll keep an eye on that name.
Win Shares per 48: Like I said, I slightly prefer average to cumulative, so I'll look at this instead of overall Win Shares next. #1 in that category is...Michael Jordan. Stat geeks must love this guy.
Box Plus-Minus: Limited, but interesting, let's see if it matches up with what I've seen so far. #1 in that is...Michael Jordan. I think I have a clubhouse leader here.
Here are the numbers for lebron and jordan u/John_Krolik is referencing:
PER: Lebron- 27.5 Jordan- 27.9
WS/48: Lebron-.244 Jordan- .25
BPM: Lebron- 8.9 Jordan- 9.2
The point of the essay is that Jordan has a strong argument as the greatest player ever without narrative crafting like "jordan was a killah!" and a heavy emphasis on rings "6-0". This section is specifcally arguing, that "you would think jordan was the greatest player ever if you only looked at bball-reference" and therefore Jordan has a strong --stastitical argument-- as the GOAT.
The only issue here is that such a stastical argument is contingent on ignoring that two very different samples are very different. See, generally, as players play longer, averages go down. Lebron entered the league three years earlier than Jordan did, stayed in the league two years longer(soon to be three), and didn't miss as much time with injury/baseball.
Here's how many minuites each played:
Lebron- 48637 Jordan- 41011
To make matters worse with this sample, the years dragging down Lebron's average, his first three years in the league are years where he was vastly better than Jordan. Jordan's weakest years as a basketball player relative to Lebron are not included in this sample, and these three years easily represent the largest gap between the two. Here's what each did from the ages of 19-21...
Age 19
Lebron joins a 17 win team and instantly elevates them to 35 wins. Is clearly the best player on a near .500 team in the NBA.
Jordan joins a team that goes 29-8 and made the ncaa championship, he's a very good role player as they win 32 games and win the ncaa championship off a very clutch MJ shot. This is the NCAA.
Age 20
Lebron improves and makes all-nba as one of the best players in the league. The cavs record improves by 8 wins despite losing their second best player(boozer) as they start playing >.500 basketball.
Jordan improves and becomes the best player on his team. Despite this, largely due to worthy leaving, UNC regreses from 32-2 to 28-6 and gets knocked out in the elite 8.
Age 21
Lebron firmly establishes himself as one of the best players in the league finishing 2nd in MVP voting and carrying the cavs to nearly 50 wins. In the playoffs he leads his team past the wizards and takes the pistons, 2 time eastern conference champs and (almost) 2x defending champs, to 7. The pistons proceed to take 2 games off the eventual champs.
Jordan finishes 1st in college player of the year voting, leads his team to an improved 28-2 RS record and gets knocked out in the last 16.
Summary
To put it simply, Lebron was able to play at a comparable level in the nba as Jordan was able to in the ncaa despite
A Playing much better competition
B. Playing twice as many games
C. Playing three times as many minuites
Lebron was far, far better at basketball during these three years that drag down Lebron in the all-in-one's u/John_Krolik is citing. That Lebron is essentially tying Jordan in these all in one's despite playing far longer and being graded on a much steeper curve speaks to, at least if you value these kind of metrics, Lebron being better at basketball. This becomes even clearer in the postseason.
​
Alright, I hope this guy wasn't basketball's Mike Trout, or I'm in trouble.
Playoff PER: Okay, he's #1 in that. Can't imagine people hating on someone with a top-3 playoff PER.
Playoff WS/48: #1 again.
Box Plus-Minus: Believe it or not, he's #1.
​
Here are the numbers u/John_Krollik is referencing.
PER: Lebron- 28.4 Jordan- 28.6
WS/48: Lebron- .245 Jordan- .255
BPM: Lebron- 10.6 Jordan- 11.1
Here's how many minuites they played:
Lebron- 10811 Jordan- 7474
So again, Lebron is basically tying Jordan despite playing around 30% more.
Of course Lebron isn't even the worst victim of this disinegnuous framing. Kareem, has three of the top 4 ws/48's so why is he lower than Jordan and Lebron here?
Well, it might have something to do with him playing 57446 minuites. Not to mention Kareem was good enough to be one of the best players in the league in college while Jordan was...definitely not.
Wilt has the best two seasons of PER and is only .2 off MJ's ws/48 while playing 6000 more minuites.
This isn't to say this proves wilt was nearly as good as anyone ever(I dont even have Wilt's peak as top 5), but if you are lending weight to these kinds of stats(more on why you really shouldn't later), considering the sample size and what's being sampled is like context 101. Jordan is not #1 in these stats because he played the best, he's #1 in these stats because he played less and his worst years as a basketball player relative to the others here aren't even included in the sample.
With that out of the way, lets get to the second, somewhat more respectable argument often made: Listing Jordan's slash-line, listing Lebron's, and coming to the conclusion, "jordan's better". My issue with this is really two-fold:
  1. People don't track what's happening at a team level or how these box stats are correlating with what really is the point of havng good players, how much they're lifting their team. This is especially relevant here, because Lebron's 'impact' has largely been better relative to his box stats than Jordan. Or, to put it another way, Lebron's 'box stats' translate better to improvment in team performance than Jordan's do. I'll be elaborating on this in 'holistics' but Lebron has been able to achieve similar or better results than jordan at his best in a wide variety of settings and contexts with the granular signals of his game radically changing.
  2. Basiclaly everything in a slashline outside of scoring(kinda) is pretty awful at tracking what they're supposed to show a player's attributes in. For now lets focus on point 2.
To start lets look at assists.
https://youtu.be/RmOHrDxpoxg?t=220
This is an extremely valuable play where lebron creates a very good look off a combination of nigh unrivalled inteior gravity(hence why two defenders try to prevent him from picking up speed) and his talent as a skip passer. No assist.
https://youtu.be/S2lKIW9TNjk?t=77
This play isn't completely worthless, its not the easiest pass in the world and he does draw defensive attention with two players looking at him, but kyrie is clearly doing way more of the work here and ends up having to score over the defenders lebron is distracting anyway. Assist. If you were to watch the mavs game from the beginning there are 5 plays from lebron more valuable than the assist i just linked that dont end up being recorded as assists.
Alright another example, courtesy of u/BlockedbyBAM who stattracked bird's game 1 in the 97 ecf.
(Blocked has actually supplied alot of the argumentation/film-tracking/clips/statistical-da, ect, ect, so if you like this post, thank her, if you hate it blame her. To quote her "I am merely her puppet" ;D)
https://youtu.be/Nm2efjx9Xus?t=2260
Like the lebron play its not entirely worthless, bird running to the other side to draw defender away is worth something, but ulimately, the pass is a play legendary passer kevin durant could have made and ultimate the scorer is doing the --vast-- majority of the work.
https://youtu.be/JCks-bQbn1A?t=25
Lets compare that to off-ball wizard Stephen Curry. Here he ends up drawing not one, not two, but three defenders away from green leaving him wide open.. He techinally distracts gasol too, but whose counting. BTW, if you're wondering why only one man is being thrown at 40% shooter larry bird, remember
A. Bird did that on incredibly low volme and as importantly
B. Bird shot 34% against defenses that actually bothered to cover his three pointers.
Anyway the point is this play is --faaar-- more valuabe than the play i linked above, but both count the same.
According to Ben Taylor, a man who is incredibly high on the peaks of both Jordan and Bird (has pieak bird as>peak magic, gives Jordan 5 seasons better than anyone else's, i'm just saying this so I don't have to hear nonsense about elgee being some sort of 'biased source'. If you were to look at what he used to post in realgm, you'd find he was a massive jordan ---and--- larry bird stan.), Curry created 17 shots while only getting awarded 4 assists. Conjecture I guess, but I imagine if we replaced the 'assist' slot in the slashline with --shots created-- for his raptors series, the discussion wouldn't be "why can't curry perform like KD in the final?" and more was this the greatest offensive series we've ever seen?.
Incindentally, team assists has a 0.04% correlation with offense rating and the man who created more open shots than lebron james averaged less assists per game than legendary passer Kevin Durant. Assists offer some value, if you correlate assist totals with an induvidual's tendencies as a creator, but really they're only useful here because its a bit much to film track every game ever played. When we can rely on oppurtunies created(when a player creates a free throw, a open look, via rebounding gravity, scoring ravity, above replacement passing, ect, ect), we will rely on oppurtunies created, because the point of passing is to create for others, not to boost your assist count.
What about rebounds?
Per u/blockedbyBAM, of Bird's 13 rebounds that game, 2 of those rebounds were contested. His one offensive rebound wasn't really contested wth his bigmen doing most of the work. It turns out playing with two bigs can wonders for you in recording certain stats(namely blocks and rebounds).
What about blocks?
I'm really going to get into this into A. DEFENSE but to demonsrate why this means very little without some sort of tracking of player tendencies/impact, (ex: duncan is a big man who posts atg defnesive impact, if duncan's block rate doubles in the playoffs, that probably means something) Bill Walton contested far more shots in the paint. Kareem Abdul Jabbar has more blocks. Kareem is actually third in blocks. Alas, Kareem is nowhere near the third best paint protector of all time, if he was, this post might be named The Secular Kareem.
Steals tho
Iverson led the league in steals, defenses stayed the same or got worse with him. Curry led the league in steals while committing very few defensive errors in 16. While metrics consistently rate curry as a positive(before and with draymond green), there's nothing that suggests he's as valuable as inferior steal-getter kyle lowry. Steals just aren't --that--valuable defensively. They provide offensive value, but thats already baked into other stats. Context also matters, if you're playing on a team with a bunch of switchable defenders/poa dudes who can on a scheme with prioritizes hyper aggressive lunging, your steals are probably less valuable than those acquired alongside, say, the 99 twin towers. IOW, if the team is scheming around getting you steals, credit should probably be shared more. More on that in DEFENSE.
I hope I have demonstrated to you that while slashlines are useful in small doses with heavy applicaion of context, they are not a patcualrly strong rack to hang your hat on. Ultimately impact, or more specfically, your affect on winning, should be the primary driver of your analysis. Granular data is useful, but don't forget the forest for the trees. And when you are examning the trees, keep in mind that there are better magnifying glasses than ppg/apg/rebounds.
Finally, lets bring it all full circle with those all-in one's I was talking about. Guess what they're largely or (in the case of per) entirely based on? These not so useful slashlines and their derivatives. Go figure.
B. ACCOLADES
I'm going to get into a case for lebron's resume being more impressve in ACCOLADES, but there's something I take serious issue with: patial credit accolades. What that's you say? Scoring titles, dpoy', assist titles, leading the league in steals, ect, ect. When a player happens to be the best(or at least the most prolific) at one aspect of the game, and this is tacked on their resume as if players who acheived similar holistic recognition(as in they were as good overall) are not as good becuase they happen to be more versatile. Lebron won a scoring title in 2008 at the age of 23. Same age as Jordan's first. Did he get worse as a scorer? No, what happened was that his --passing-- skyrocketed in 2009, and thus, as any player who isn't a low iq idiot would do, he turned his scoring volume down a bit and started --creating--. Jordan's first scoring title, where he averaged 37 ppg, would have won over every other season he'd ever played. Did Jordan get worse? No, again, holistically he improved, as can be tracked with holistic accolades. Defensive stuff is a bit more understandable, defense is comically under appreciated, but there's issues here too(i will get into that after this section) when we're talking about guards as opposed to bigs. With that said, if you want to use jordan's dpoy, keep in mind, that Lebron won more dpoy votes from 09-13 than did at any point in his career. If jordan was a better defender in 88 than Lebron was in 09 or 13, Lebron was a better defender for his 5-year prime. As for all-nba? I'll get into this next, but one is a guard and the other is a forward. None the less, this is all still partial credit. Someone who was one vote shy of a unanimous mvp is not suddenly worse at basketball because you tag a dpoy and a scoring title to one of thier seasons.
Lebron's holisitic resume is superior imo, and thats really what matters. There are --ways-- you can argue jordan's actually more decorated but...lets just say for now its hard to apply that line of reasoning consistently...(will get into this in accolades).
Before we enter--film--, i will make one last point. This is all --regular season-- shit. This isn't to say its worthless, but if you're a team that's good enough to make the title, the regular season means very little relative to postseason play. And as I'm going to argue soon, the stretch of tme in which jordan turns an mvp defecit(3-4) to an advantage (5-4), during his second three-peat, Lebron is playing far better postseason basketball.
For now, here's a reminder of what they did in their most decorated 5 year stretches. I'll cheat and give jordan an extra year so we can count all his mvp's:
Jordan, 3 MVP'S, 3 FMVP'S, 5 ALL STAR, 5 ALL-NBA
Lebron, 4 MVP'S, 2 FMVP'S, 5 ALL-STAR, 5 ALL-NBA
Pretty close, but as a tiebreaker, lebron winning 4 mvp's in 5 years, and coming closer to a unanimous mvp than Jordan, isn't a bad shout.
2. GRANULAR FILM/PLAY BREAKDOWN
A. Defense
First, lets agree on something. The most valuable aspect of defense by a country mile is....protecting the paint. In case you disagree, lets look at the results.
What is the greatest defense in history? The 60's celtics Who was their most valable defender? A paint protector.
How about the next best defenses?
The 60's Lakers? Wilt. The Knicks? Ewing. The Spurs? Duncan and Robinson, I mean they're literally called --THE TWIN TOWERS--. The pistons? Ben Wallace. The 08 Celtics? Kevin Garnett. The Raptors? Gasol. The Bucks? Giannis and Brook
What about the best 5 yr defense of the 2010's? The Golden State Warriors? Draymond green, a paint protector.
The only team to win a championship without an elite paint protector in the last 10 years is the Miami Heat whose best defeder was....one of the best paint protecting wings in history, known as Lebron James. Okay I lied, there was another team that won a championship without an elite paint protecting big, the 2016 cavs whose best defender was....Lebron James.
"The Bulls didn't have true big-men" you say. You know who they did have? The --BEST-- Pant Protecting Wing in history, Scottie Pippen. As well as Horace Grant.
People argued Marcus Smart and Ben Simmons were deserving dpoy's. Their Dpipm doesn't touch that of AD, Giannis and Rudy Gobert.
The Lakers had Dwight, Lebron, and AD, the Clippes had Kawhi, Paul George and Patrick Beverly. Guess which team got blown to hell by playoff offenses and guess which team didn't.
If Tom Brady is the Micheal Jordan of football, paint protection is the Micheal Jordan of defense. It always has been, and barring the introduction of a 4 point line, always will be, The most pivotal part of keeping the ball from entering the hoop. Ben Taylor, the man who thinks Jordan has the 5 best seasons ever, got alot of flack for darng to call out Jordan's defensive risk takng. I too will give Ben flack... for making it seem like his aggressive steal chasing(and we will get to that) is why he wasn't a deserving DPOY.
No, what makes MJ "definitely not a dpoy defender" is that he offers little paint resistance compared to say a lebron or a pippen(let alone players like hakeem, eaton, kg, duncan, ect). But jordan averaged as many blocks! you say. Yes, but this is why you don't use 'blocks' when comparing a shooting guard to a wing.
We talk about gravity on offense, but what about defensive gravity? As I said before, Ben touches on the concept when he notes that Walton affected more possessions than Kareem despite Kareem getting alot more blocks, but this reaches a whole new level with players like Larry Bird or 6'6 shooting guard MJ, players who spent their defensve primes playng with one or multiple comparable-better rim deterrents.
This is what most jordan blocks look like:https://youtu.be/fFPi95UEpog?t=55Jordan gets the block, but is he even the key to this possession? The difficult part of this, holding ewing still, isn't being done by Jordan. Jordan is making this play off his teamamte's, gravity defensively. If you rewatch the section where ben is fawning over Jordan's rim protection...
https://youtu.be/p5aNUS762wM?t=1212
...you might notice that aside for --two-- clips, all these plays have jordan making plays on a defender whose preoccupied worrying about a larger guy at the rim.
Lets compare this to the following non-blocks:https://youtu.be/T-c1NradPN4?t=147Lebron's presence here blows up a potential dunk/layup, a shot even more dangerous than a curry three. Lebron isn't awarded a block here, but this play is more valuable than the majority of plays you'll see in a jordan defensive highlight reel.https://youtu.be/T-c1NradPN4?t=17Lebron here basically prevents a open layup/dunk. These kinds of plays are both extremely valuable and require a combination of strength and size Jordan doesn't have.https://youtu.be/T-c1NradPN4?t=176Here, Lebron isn't rewarded a block and even looks a bit silly, but his presence is what draws draymond's attention and allows for delly to get the block.https://youtu.be/3oAAcEQ8t84?t=1529Lebron ends up getting a block later on the possessions, but the key of this possession is here, where Lebron's presence makes dwight opt for a post up, preventing what is the most dangerous play in basketball, an all time interior threat coming in at the rim.Per blockedbybam, Lebron blocked, diverted, or deterred a dwight inside atempt 18 times over the ECF..https://youtu.be/MyWFllfRqaU?t=256.Grant gets the block, and pippen is made to look silly, but it's pippen who sets the play up for grant. Much like a shooter will feed of a slasher's interior gravity, grant makes this play off pippen's defense.https://youtu.be/C7uxePXXfU8?t=63While the possession doesn't end up going chicago's way, what Pippen is doing here, essentially pre-emptively nuetralizing the threat of an Ewing drive is about as valuabe as a play you will get defensively. It doesn't show up in the scoresheet.
Over this series, Pippen interefeed/prevented ewing rim attempts 22 times.
None of the linked plays show up in the stat-sheet, but they are all signficantly more valuable than the average play you would see in a jordan's defense highlight videos. Equally importantly, these are all plays that Jordan, the 6'6 shooting guard has no hope of replicating. When ben calls Jordan "one of the best shotblocking guards ever", whats important to remember here is that "guard" is a very signifcant qualifier. Jordan's 'paint' play does not approach that of elite wings, let alone legitmate atg paint protectors(gobert's shotblocking threat often deters multiple rim attempts in the same possession.) Jordan's "high activity" is not a bunch of game changing possessions, its a bunch of decent-good plays which on the aggregate, under a scheme and along personell perfectly catered to amplify his strengths and paper over his weaknesses, end up making up for a high volume mistakes.
​
So this begs the question, if Wings like Lebron and Pippen are signifcantly better at what is, by a country mile, the most valuable defensive skill, where exactly is Jordan making up value? Its not like Lebron is some one trick pony.
We've seen lebron, in down years atheletically, very effectively contain the likes of curry and derrick rose over a series. We've seen Jordan's teammate, Pippen do it to John starks, Dumar and Magic johnson. Both have had playoffs against elite offenses where the opposing team shoots 20 points better against their teammates as they do against them. Both have less defensive breakdowns than jordan does (from 88-93 83% of players in the nba commited less mistakes defensively than Jordan) and both have demonstrated the ability to perform under a wide variety of defensive schemes. Both are excellent POA defenders who can make it a nightmare to try and utilize passing lanes. If Jordan is blowing rotations and committing so many mistakes, where exactly is he making up value?
And yes, those breakdowns ;jordan haters' keep citing, ...do....matter.
https://i.imgur.com/PekfKnR.png
https://i.imgur.com/Snem7Qg.png
Kawhi didn't gamble as much as Jordan did and the spurs didn't need to have a bunch of switchable POA guys aggressively press opposing offenses. Incidentally, Kawhi's steals clearly improve the defense while Jordan's steals offer a marginal add in value. Why am I bringing up Kawhi? Because Lebron averages nearly as many steals as he does without high-risk defense. Somtimes, less is more.
But this is all talk, just because I tell you lebron is a better defender than Micheal Jordan on paper doesn't mean he's a better defender in practice. Indeed, if Lebron is truly a superior defender, it should be reflected in the results. So lets take a look:
The 08 cavs are the 11th ranked defense in the league. Lebron enters his prime(largely because of a massive defnsive upgrde) and they're the 3rd best defense in the league. The 09 cavs with lebron are the #1 defense in the league. Without him they're 18th. His dpipm that year, +3.3, is twice as close to dwight howard's as it is to 'elite defensive guards' like ben simmons and marcus smart. Lebron's playoff drapm is higher than kawhi despite a vastly longer playoff career(averages go down as you play more), and in 15 and 16, well past his atheletic peak, he's leading elite playoff defenses with--kevin love(well for one of those playoffs anyway), tristan thompson and matthew delledova. In what corresponds to Jordan's wizards years Lebron has a two year stint where defenses improve with him but not significantly. Then in 2020 in his 17th season of professional basketball, he's the second most valuable defender on the best playoff defense in the league.
In 86, The bulls are the worst defense in he leagueJordan wins dpoy in 88 on the 3rd best defense in the league. Next season oakley leaves and they're 11th. Next season they're 19th. Then in 91, wth Jordan getting worse at basically everything defensively(slower, less atheltic, less rim protection, more breakdowns) they become the 4th best defense in the league which curiosly coincides with...checks notes....Pippen and Rodman(but mostly Pippen) entering their prime. Jordan leaves in 93 and their defense is...basically unaffected. Per playoff drapm, Pippen is comparable to Kawhi in how much he improves his teams despite drapm only counting years past his peak.
Looking at induvidual data Ben's bpm, which he admits is the worst of his stats at accounting for defense ranks Jordan's three year playoff peak first, pipm which does a somewhat better job ranks him second, and then, when ben, specifcally citing that these stats struggle with defensive value, went ahead and calculated apm for the playoffs, he came in 9th.
It would seem Jordan, like basically every guard in history, had a limited affect on his team's defensive profiency. Lebron's defense on the other hand, seems to have a clear impact whereever he goes.
We need to stop using jordan's defensive accolades as evidence he was better than what he contributed. Jordan won dpoy because he led the league in steals and came second in blocks. I've already outlined jordan's relative lack of value in the paint, and his steals were
A. the result of a defensive scheme+pesonell that squeezed every ounce of value jordan had to offer and
B. came at a considerable cost (remember, Jordan commited more defnesive errors than 87 percent of the league)
Even if we disregard reputation as a factor, making the all-nba team as a guard does not mean you were better than a forward or center who didn't get recognized as all-nba. Even if Jordan was the greatest defensive shooting guard in nba history, being the biggest fish in a tiny pond does not change that the bigger fish are bigger.
Jordan could have been absolutely perfect in his role, and he wouldn't have come close to being a dpoy-calibre defender. Off course jordan was far from perfect. The idea that he shares parity as a defender with all time wings is absurd. Simply put, Lebron James is a signifcantly better defender than Micheal Jordan.
------------------
And that brings Part 1 to a close!!!!
Next up, in part 2***--creation, scoring, holistics--***
Thanks for reading!
submitted by FreetheDevil to nbadiscussion [link] [comments]

What do you want to see in future GoT content?

I’m talking additions and tweaks for a sequel, DLC, or just future patches.
Here’s what I’d love:
· A training mode: I’ve played the game through twice and I still suck at parrying. I would love a mode where I can practice with a wooden sword and a slow opponent. Maybe there could be a dojo you can travel to where a sensei simulates combat situations. You could unlock gear for completing challenges, or you could even unlock your sensei’s armor by mastering all challenges.
· Player map markers: It’s a big map and there a lot of locations that I love returning to. It would be great if you could add your own markers to easily find them again.
· More to buy: I currently have over 15,000 supplies and nothing to spend them on. In a sequel, it would be cool if you could use this currency to buy housing, horses, transport – or even ronin to accompany you, like guns for hire. Or maybe there’s a deluxe armor that costs, like, 25,000 supplies.
· Sell anything: If I’ve fully upgraded all my blades and bows, I have zero use for wax wood or steel. Let me sell them for something useful, like ammo.
· More charm slots: NG+ was great, but I kept expecting to be able to unlock an additional charm slot. I'd love to add the bloody charm to my current armor builds.
· More legend increases: Again, loved NG+, but it might have been nice if they added one more “your legend increases” tier. It would have made returning to all those fox dens worth it.
· More agency: I’d like to see more consequences for my game style. For example, if I played the whole story honorably, I think I should receive a different ending. Similarly, there are so many side missions where choices would have made the game feel weightier.
* I was reading about samurai and apparently spears were a fairly common weapon, in addition to the sword. Would be pretty awesome if you carried around a single spear that you could use as a Hail Mary in difficult battles. For balance, maybe it breaks easily and you have to constantly craft or buy new ones.
Some common suggestions coming up in the comments:
* Being able to pass time by sleeping or meditating
* More variety in side missions
* The ability to mix and match armour
* A feature where you can replay duels and missions
* More mini-games, like fishing and gambling
* Survival mechanics, particularly in the freezing cold areas of the map
* More freedom to use stances however you like
submitted by johnacrob to ghostoftsushima [link] [comments]

Once More Unto the Breach: The Unified Field Hypothesis of PSTH + Stripe (or possibly, the paranoiac ramblings of an undermedicated madman), Part 2

Mis compas, mis amigos y amigas, fellow autists and retards of WSB,
I return to you now with the second installation of my Big Crazy Idea about why Bill Ackman's SPAC, Pershing Square Tontine Holdings, and what is shaping up to be the most important company for the economic development of the internet, Stripe, could be teaming up to take steps in order to wrest back control of the financial system from the veritable freak show of private equity and investment banking, which I will collectively refer to as Big Capital. The previous post can be found here and serves as an introductory foray into institutional financial crime. If you thought that one was long, strap the fuck in, because we're going deep into the muck with our third eyes wide open.

Big Capital, Big Crime, and Rivers of Blood

This section will attempt to provide some historical context on the history of Big Capital with a particular focus on the inextricable links between intelligence agencies (mainly the Central Intelligence Agency and its predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services) and Wall Street, starting around the time of World War II. It will lean heavily on the work of Michael S. Judge, whose podcast Death is Just Around the Corner has become an integral part of my understanding of the nature of American imperialism, which has been largely scrubbed from the history books. It will also draw from excellent books including but not limited to Vincent Bevins' The Jakarta Method and Stephen Kinzer's The Brothers and Poisoner in Chief. In the interest of accessibility, I will be supplying Wikipedia articles for further reading, but with the caveat that Wikipedia itself cowtows to the American imperial project and should not be taken as an authoritative account of history.
I think the best place to start this story is with Allen Dulles, the longest serving director of the CIA, and his brother John Foster Dulles, who was Dwight Eisenhower's Secretary of State. Before joining the federal government, the Dulles brothers worked for United Fruit Company, which is now known as Chiquita Brands International (yes, the 🍌 company), where John served as legal counsel and Allen was on the board of directors. The United Fruit Company was a key driver of the CIA-led 1954 Guatemalan coup that ousted the democratically elected Jacobo Arbenz and replaced him with the dictator Carlos Castillo Armas, which will be a recurring theme in this missive. Put a pin in this for now, because we have to backtrack a little further first.
It is critical to understand that the CIA and the agencies that came before it are deeply rooted in the boy's club of Wall Street from the years between World War I and World War II, and that pipeline catapulted people like Prescott Bush (father of George H.W. Bush and grandfather of George W. Bush) to the highest levels of the American government. Most of these roaches skittered out of investment banks like Brown Brothers Harriman or law firms like Sullivan & Cromwell, both institutions that still stand to this day.
Prescott Bush and the Dulles brothers were up to some real sketchy shit before, during, and after WWII, having business ties to German industrialists that helped finance Hitler's rise to power and helping Nazis launder money and transport looted art and valuables through European banks. Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg even went so far to say that "The Dulles brothers were traitors." Prescott and the Dulles brothers were probably not literally card-carrying Nazis, but the model of fusing big business and central government, which the CIA was based on and adheres to up to this very day, is explicitly fascist when going off of the dictionary definition of the word (read: not using it as a proxy for "person I disagree with politically" as it's so often used today). Did you know that the CIA has an active venture capital operation called In-Q-Tel and that Palantir's only early investor besides Peter Thiel was one and the same? Now you do.
In the last days and immediate aftermath of WWII, the intelligence agencies spearheaded an effort by the US government called Operation Paperclip, which was designed to save Nazi and Japanese scientists from the gallows and put them to work developing weapons programs in the US. Wernher von Braun, chief architect of the Saturn V 🚀 that sent Apollo to the 🌑? Operation Paperclip. Shiro Ishii, a man who was loading grenades full of plague bacteria and sewing babies together and shit in Manchukuo (Japanese-occupied China)? Operation Paperclip.
At this point in the story, WWII is over and the USSR has become the Big Bad Mans of the time period from 1945 to 1991 that we collectively refer to as the Cold War. Unfortunately, the Cold War was not actually very cold, and instead took the shape of a seemingly endless series of proxy wars and regime change operations led by Western intelligence agencies attempting, with various degrees of success, to overthrow democratically elected leftists and appoint authoritarian leaders with the backing of weapons and money from the CIA. This is not an exhaustive list, but includes examples like the 1953 Iranian coup that overthrew Mohammad Mosaddegh and replaced him with Shah Pahlavi, the aforementioned 1954 Guatemalan coup, the mass killings in Indonesia that ultimately resulted in the removal of Sukarno and a 31 year military junta under Suharto, the 1973 Chilean coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power, and both the Korean and Vietnam Wars, in which the greatest military in the world was epically pwned by a bunch of starving jungle fighters using slingshots and AK-47s.
The underlying reason for a lot of this carnage, besides the stated goal of beating back the spectre of communism or whatever the fuck? Resources. Iran had oil, Chile had nationalized the copper mines that Big Capital needed to fuel the electronics boom, and both the Golden Triangle and Golden Crescent were fertile ground for growing opium, which was used to make the heroin the CIA trafficked all over the world and sold to buy weapons that they then gave to the dictators they propped up, sometimes using the bodies of dead soldiers as mules.
Does any of this sound familiar and related to the current day? How about the overthrow of Evo Morales in Bolivia, which was applauded by Elon Musk, who wants cheap access to their copper mines so he can make batteries for his shitty cars? How about the Forever War in the Middle East, which has effectively turned Afghanistan into a narco-state? How about the endless revolving door between the Pentagon, defense contractors, and the rest of the federal government, as exemplified most recently by the nomination of Raytheon board member General Lloyd Austin to be Joe Biden's Secretary of Defense? That's right, you blue-pilled goldfish, the Democrats are not your friends either.

The Stripe and PSTH Angles

Alright, enough psychic assault for the moment. Let's talk about Stripe for a bit. As stated previously, Stripe is building the infrastructure that the internet economy runs on. The Collison brothers, those cheeky little leprechauns, seem like they're wired pretty differently than most of the money grubbing bug people that inhabit Silicon Valley. Take this clip of co-founder and CEO Patrick Collison talking about the nature of motivation (listen through to ~27:20 at least). Or this one of co-founder and president John Collison talking about the need to support small businesses who have been reamed by the pandemic and build Stripe bigger and better as a service to the small fish in the ocean (listen through to the end on this one).
Bill Ackman is a signatory on the Giving Pledge, and as discussed in the previous post, is also not your typical Wall Street swamp monster. He remarried last year and has a kid that's a little over a year old by this point. He deeply understands that the finance game is rigged against the little guys, that Big Capital has wrapped its disgusting slimy tentacles all over the world, and is choking more life out of it every single day. Could it be that he wants to do whatever he can to stop the world his kid will grow up in from devolving further into some kind of Mad Max scenario?
The order of operations for how PSTH is structured is flipped on its head from the way previous SPACs have been run by institutions like Goldman Sachs (remember, we hate them) with regard to sponsor compensation. Pershing Square isn't taking a thing until the investors in the SPAC see a 20% return, whereas most SPACs include clauses allowing the sponsors to snatch cheap warrants with their grubby little hands because they are run by unapologetic money pigs.

An Aside About CЯyptocurrency

I, like most of you, am way too stupid to understand how the fuck cЯypto actually works on a fundamental level, but I think it's pretty clear that the reason it has value at all is as a hedge against total economic societal collapse like we've been seeing most recently in places like Venezuela, which underwent inflation to the tune of nearly 54 million percent between 2016 and 2019. Hey, what the fuck is that Juan Guaido guy up to? Oh, he's a CIA sock puppet.
It is interesting to note that Stripe used to support cЯypto but eliminated that functionality, at least directly, back in 2018. Patrick Collison used to talk about cЯypto frequently and would say things like this (take note of the date) but has been largely silent on the issue for years. I think it's possible that he and his brother have come around to thinking that while cЯypto is a heady big brain idea, it's too inaccessible for dummies like you and me, who just want to buy a cup of coffee without paying $20 in transaction fees. They could be trying to build a vanguard that would make such a thing unnecessary for a functioning society, a system that continues to run on dollars, euros, yen, and yuan.
That, and the original idea for cЯypto came from another part of the bowels of the Deep State, the NSA. You know, that thing Edward Snowden revealed as spying on everyone all the time with the support of the tech giants, but we're mostly all cool with because hey, cat videos and free porn!
I do have some suspicions about Snowden, being a former CIA contractor and all, and his insistence that privacy-minded folks use Tor, which is and always has been a project of the Department of Defense and intelligence agencies. If you, like me, used cЯypto to buy drugs on the dark net back in the heady days of 2015 when they were basically crime bucks, you're also probably on a watchlist somewhere at Langley.

Conclusion

If you've reached this point without your eyes rolling back in your head and starting to drool, I sincerely applaud you 👏👏👏. I hope that you've learned something new and are now thinking about what bigger brains than you and I have, like those of Bill Ackman and the Collisons, could be trying to put out there in the world, if a PSTH + Stripe union is truly in the cards.
I do find it quite interesting to look at the list of Restricted Businesses at Stripe. It includes a lot of things that Ackman has historically and more recently placed in his sights as the targets of his wrath, like multi-level marketing schemes and pseudopharmaceuticals (Herbalife) and pornography (Pornhub versus the credit card companies). There's also things you can extrapolate outward from if you want to get real wacky and use looser definitions, like "gambling" and "get rich quick schemes" (i.e. Robinhood).
Thank you for reading my brain ejaculation, and always remember: Big Brother is watching you.
TLDR: Reining in the types of financial crime that have created this fucked up world we're all stuck in is imperative to building a future that is better and more equitable for people all around the world, not just in the United States. A merger of Stripe with PSTH could represent a gigantic leap forward for driving a sword into the heart of the beast of Big Capital. You could get in now instead of the alternative that the traditional IPO process provides, where the big institutions get the first crack at everything and leave table scraps for the rest of us to fight over. PSTH 🚀📈🚀📈🚀📈🚀📈

positions or ban

since I now have little piggies oinking away at me about positions, here you go. Roth IRA and Tastyworks. As stated in the first post, I intend to liquidate a large chunk of my mutual fund holdings in the IRA when the year end dividend goes out in a couple weeks and put that money into more PSTH shares.
submitted by 420redditpornacct69 to wallstreetbets [link] [comments]

D100 Rumors, Plots, or Pieces of Gossip The Party Overhears at a Noble Ball

Title says it all basically
  1. Duke _______ Has pulled out all of his business contracts from the port
  2. The head of House ________ was assassinated
  3. They are on the brink of war with a country
  4. Duchess ______ has been having a dalliance with another woman
  5. A Baron's son has gone missing
  6. ________ has a secret double life, but no one knows what he does (Derrath)
  7. ________ is looking for a new heir after their unfortunate accident (Derrath)
  8. ________ is still dealing with their little monster problem. When will they get it under control? (Derrath)
  9. The ball's most eligible bachelobachelorette is looking for his next partner tonight, but no one knows what they're into. (Derrath)
  10. The baroness and the baron are cheating on each other and everyone knows but them. (Derrath)
  11. ________ made some bad deals and has trouble with some thugs. (BeetleWarlock)
  12. Lord ________ has apparently recently renovated, expanding his cellar by a lot. (BeetleWarlock)
  13. Green lights have been flashing through the baron’s son’s window. The baron is of course denying this. (BeetleWarlock)
  14. The heir of Lord and Lady ________ isn't their true born child but was adopted. (phelinephile)
  15. A faction of nobles are plotting to convince the King/Queen to change succession rules because the current heir apparent wants to open up the kingdom's borders to more foreign commerce and cultural exchange. They are planning to frame the heir apparent for a murder. (phelinephile)
  16. Lord ________ has a hobby of testing his allies with poetry contests, but it's actually code. (funkduder)
  17. Lord ______ holds late night parties in his basement theater where an illusionist creates shockingly explicit pornography for the audience. (NotAPoetButACriminal)
  18. Baron ——- has a bit of a gambling problem. (ofcbrooks)
  19. Baroness ———- has had several of her heirloom jewelry suddenly gone missing. (ofcbrooks)
  20. The King’s men are still looking for his bastard son and the reward has gotten quite large. (LotusTurtles)
  21. No word has been heard from the city of ______, perhaps the King finally had enough. (LotusTurtles)
  22. Lord ______’s secret is out and the church is said to be charging heresy. (LotusTurtles)
  23. The country’s gold supply is just debt to every other nation (LotusTurtles)
  24. It seems the larger cities are preparing for the worst regarding _____’s rebellion (LotusTurtles)
  25. After the King’s personal guard betrayed him, he’s been paranoid and weary of even leaving the castle. (LotusTurtles)
  26. The merchants guild seemed to have hired a large amount of cutthroats and mercenaries, they must be looking to protect something quite valuable. (LotusTurtles)
  27. The last last lord who betrayed the church went missing, let’s hope Lord _______ is wiser. (LotusTurtles)
  28. The lord’s son is quite taken with one of the kitchen maidens— he won’t even entertain the idea of other suitors. (dnddingus)
  29. One of the lady’s tastes in the bedroom— well let’s just say that they are rather unorthodox and peculiar. (dnddingus)
  30. I heard that he has has lost his entire family fortune at the race track. (dnddingus)
  31. The family was on the brink of destitution, but suddenly came into a windfall out of nowhere. Sounds suspicious if you ask me. (dnddingus)
  32. I heard she is redecorating her home for the third time this year! (dnddingus)
  33. Did you hear? Her head housekeeper was caught replacing the family jewels with glass replicas one by one. It’s so hard to find good help these days. (dnddingus)
  34. The new stallion today they spent ungodly amounts of money to purchase hasn’t been performing very well in practice races. (dnddingus)
  35. I heard that the daughters of the lord and lady sneak out to the forest at night to dance in the woods with the locals coven. So unsavory. (dnddingus)
  36. I heard that his prize hunting dog has gone missing and he is inconsolable. The dog’s better off living in the woods than with him as a master if you ask me... (dnddingus)
  37. The Duke's second son has begot a bastard on the local soap-maker's daughter. (hunter_of_necros)
  38. The vintage being served is actually a counterfeit wine being served in good bottle. I guess Lord ____ is not as wealthy as one would believe. (hunter_of_necros)
  39. Earl ____ has been seen in the company of the local priest, going to confession more often since his wife passed. (hunter_of_necros)
  40. The bard that is playing tonight has been having an affair with the Lady ___, its probably the only reason why she got the job. (hunter_of_necros)
  41. If you pay the right servant, they can get you into a back room card game that all the richest nobles play in. (hunter_of_necros)
  42. Marquis _____ was seen leaving the privy not moment after Lady ____ (hunter_of_necros)
  43. A large platoon of King's Guard have been spotted outside the ball, who are they waiting for? (hunter_of_necros)
  44. The head of the _____ household was found in bed with a member of their own family. (hunter_of_necros)
  45. The oldest son of Lord ___ was crippled during a hunting accident. Some say it was not an accident. (hunter_of_necros)
  46. Lady ____ is the sole reason why silk is simply unobtainable in the city these days. Look at her dress, its must be a ton of silk alone. (hunter_of_necros)
  47. The Bishop was found in a compromising position with a lady of the night during one of his alms missions. (hunter_of_necros)
  48. There is a schism within the Church of ____, one of their high ranking clergy nailed a large stack of proclamations to the church door. (hunter_of_necros)
  49. Duke ____'s hair is completely false, he gets it enchanted by the temple each week. (hunter_of_necros)
  50. King ____ will be attending the next noble ball, he is looking for a new wife after the tragic loss of Queen ____ last year. (hunter_of_necros)
  51. Queen ____ has been imprisoned for infidelity against the king, the validity of his heirs is now being questioned. (hunter_of_necros)
  52. Duchess ____ has allegedly been seen performing rituals deep in the woods at the full moon. (hunter_of_necros)
  53. Lord ____ recently donated the vast majority of his wealth to the poor, an rather odd change of heart for the old miser. (hunter_of_necros)
  54. The servants of ______ swear that the master of the house is the same as he used to be, the lady of the house disagrees. (hunter_of_necros)
  55. The centerpiece of the feast was especially hunted for its magical properties, rumours say it is directly linked to the gods. (hunter_of_necros)
  56. The Lord ____ just intentionally tripped his rival ____ on the ballroom floor to embarrass him, they should just dual instead of these pathetic displays. (hunter_of_necros)
  57. The witch ____ is here, watching each of her children infiltrate the nobility. Be on your guard. (hunter_of_necros)
  58. The hors d'oeuvres have been spiked with truth potion. (hunter_of_necros)
  59. The entertainment are actually convicts who will be killed at the end of the night if they don't perform well. (hunter_of_necros)
  60. Lord and Lady ____ have been inviting young couples back to their manor house after each ball (hunter_of_necros)
  61. The hosts of the ball have cheaped out on food; the “high quality” meat being served was purchased for cheap in bulk. (MightyMrFish)
  62. There are ‘genuine’ adventures at the ball! An actual, ‘for reals’, adventuring group! (MightyMrFish)
  63. A minor noble recently divorced his wife and married her sister. (TheMightyFishBus)
  64. The party did a cool thing they did, a cool thing they did and a wildly awesome thing they didn't do. (TheMightyFishBus)
  65. The party did a stupid thing they did, a stupid thing they did and an absurdly stupid thing they didn't do. (TheMightyFishBus)
  66. A local noble has allegedly been giving money to a woman who lives just outside of town...and to make a stranger situation, the woman in question is almost never seen outside her home. (ColossalKnight)
  67. I hear House ______ has recently discovered a new adamantine vein in their mine, That is the fourth lucky break they have had in a short period of time
  68. Baron ____ has had to decline attending ANOTHER ball, I fear he may have taken ill
  69. The former viscount ______ is set to be executed next week. Bloody fool is still claiming he's innocent
  70. Guests are saying one of the nobles is actually a succubus/incubus in disguise. 20% Chance for it to be true (Skips_PassportForger)
  71. They’re denying it, but I heard the mayor’s son had to be dragged to the local medic the other night after they found him passed out in an opium den (grannysmithpears)
  72. A nasty communicable disease is spreading through the poorest areas of the city, though the baron is denying its existence. (MyEvilTwin47)
  73. The baron is himself displaying symptoms of the communicable disease. (MyEvilTwin47)
  74. The Merchants Guild are unhappy with how the baron is ruling the city and trying to bribe officials and hire mercenaries for a coup. (MyEvilTwin47)
  75. An infamous assassin whom nobody knows what they look like are at the ball, with a contract to kill______ (MyEvilTwin47)
  76. The daughter of Duke ___ is set to wed the son of Baron ___! The couple seems happy enough with the arrangement but the Duke is not happy at all. A pairing between houses of such disparate rank is unheard of. Some say there must be a sort of leverage involved. (IVIagnumIVIike)
  77. Did you hear? One of Lord ____’s housecleaners claims to just be some simple lady, but after saving the family from feared bandits? Skill like that doesn’t appear out of nowhere. (inkyfeathers)
  78. Baron ____ has been seen visiting the local orphanage more and more often. Many are beginning to think he has some bastard kids in there. (inkyfeathers)
  79. After that assasination attempt on the prince, King ____ has put the city of ____ on lockdown to find the perpetrator. I’ve heard that prince also wants to find the assassin, but I don’t believe he wants them dead. (inkyfeathers)
  80. You remember Lord ____’s middle son, yes? The thin, sickly looking one? Well, word has been going around that he just won the biggest archery competition of the summer! I won’t believe he won by skill until I see it for myself. (inkyfeathers)
  81. The House of ______ has been buying an inordinate amount of weapons, preserved food and holy water. No one knows why. (inkyfeathers)
  82. There has been talk that Lord ____ and Lady ___’s child might not be their real child, but a changeling. Doesn’t help that mercenaries and scholars have been seen exiting their homes. (inkyfeathers)
  83. The respectable noble family of ____ has not allowed one of their daughters out of the house in months. Some say they can hear screaming in one of the spires of their home. (inkyfeathers)
  84. The _____ family has been looking for their missing child for months. Most speculate they ran away with a secret lover. (inkyfeathers)
  85. That son of _____ is such a smart boy! He truly is a lover of knowledge. But I could have sworn I saw him close by the rumored area where a mysterious cult may be. (inkyfeathers)
  86. Lady ___ has been looking quite excited these past few months. Perhaps she’s pregnant? (inkyfeathers)
  87. My father in _____ has just informed me that important buildings and sectors of the city have been set on fire. With tensions rising, I fear this is a call for war. (inkyfeathers)
  88. The Lord’s son was suddenly kicked from prestigious magic school. The family refuses to talk about it. (inkyfeathers)
  89. __________ has a country house by the river. They disappear there from time to time, but no one knows why. (JonSaucy)
  90. __________ is rumored to have taken a special interest in a child who lives in old town. A courier was sent there last week bearing a package. (JonSaucy)
  91. __________ arrived late one evening to court. Anyone’s whose anyone had never heard of them before. But the Queens vizier seem to know them. How did they become such a staple of our circles? (JonSaucy)
  92. Isn’t it strange that Baron _________ disappeared so suddenly; only to be replaced by an estranged and remote daughter from some tryst long ago? (JonSaucy)
  93. You know how servants whisper; just last week I overheard our governess gossiping about the Queen. How does a barren woman have so many children??? (JonSaucy)
  94. The new scullery boy has been found sneaking into the lord's study late at night. He's no doubt a thief, but the lord always sees the best in people, and either doesn't believe it, or is willing to turn a blind eye. Potential Twist: The lord is having an affair with the scullery boy, and is more than happy to let folks think it's merely a case of petty thievery. (nlitherl)
  95. Baron/ Baroness _______ is suddenly desperate to raise or borrow gold. No one knows why. (kkngs)
  96. Servants walked in on the eldest daughter of Lord ____ while she was alone in a side room talking with the son of a rich merchant. Her family is furious and her betrothal to Baron _____’s son might be at risk. (kkngs)
  97. I hear Baron ________ has recently discovered his son is a draconic sorcerer. That means someone in his lineage has lain with a dragon! How scandalous.
  98. The house of Marquis ________ is on the brink of war with House _________
  99. Baron _______'s merchant fleet was sunk by an off-season storm! He's ruined
  100. They say the youngest daughter of Lord _______ has run off with a bard. (kkngs)
submitted by Lysdexic12345 to d100 [link] [comments]

Xeno's ノート- 10 Drift Nations Peppered Across The Globe In 2045

A batch of information regarding Drift Nations in the Time of the Red, to be used as hook or locations in your games if you feel so inclined. The second part is already being worked on.

10 Drift Nations Peppered Across The Globe In 2045

The Centino Flotilla (Nomad Family) Area of operations: Northern and Southern Pacific Numbers and leadership: 40,000+ members, ~8,000 vessels (of various size), led by Allegria Chung
The Centino Flotilla is one of the few good things finding their roots in the Fourth Corporate War, some would say. After only months of bitter fighting between Arasaka and Militech, everyone had but forgotten the two corporations, OTEC and CINO, responsible for kicking-off the conflict. Equally, no one was surprised to hear that the two companies ended up bleeding each other to death during the Sea War, mostly in the Pacific.
As with many others, the destruction of Arasaka's headquarters in Night City by a nuclear detonation came as a wake up call. But the situation was already past the return point for both corporations and, as the commercial entities teetered over the edge, their maritime forces came to an uneasy stand-off in the Pacific. It took all the diplomatic skills of one of CINO's captain, Grant Chung, to reach over the divide and bring the two parties together. Bound by years of mutual bloodletting and tragedies, they decided to merge forces and survive together against all odds.
After pooling their last resources together, the two parties spent the next year building their flotilla and roaming the Pacific Ocean. Determined to never be a tool of corporate greed ever again, they brought their skills to help rebuilding many of the Pacific Island nations, as well as other Drift Nations such as AquaDelphi or the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Now led by Grant's daughter, Allegria, the flotilla is a force to be reckoned with, its vessels flying the teal wave emblem being seen all over the Pacific. Specialized in reconstruction of seashore communities and shepherding Ghost Fleets toward places where they could be recycled, they are one of the new binding links of the Pacific ocean nations.
AquaDelphi (Fallen Coporate Dream) Location: South-West of Hawaii Estimated population and leadership: 30,000+, organized in guilds with a Central Council of 5
AquaDelphi's project came out during the corporate golden years, sprouting off OTEC's board of director's collective hubris. Not unlike Night City, AquaDelphi was designed to serve as the new standard by which future cities would be built. And no one ever blamed the OTEC heads for lack of ambition.
Mobilizing all the resources from their conglomerate, the maritime corporation set their view on a territory close to Hawaii. Buying the ownership from the fallen US federal government was a piece of cake at the time and construction began quickly. Centered around the company headquarters, the city was to hold the largest library humankind ever put together, a massive seaport complete with dry docks, and utopian housing for the corporate families among other pharaoh-like projects. The whole place was powered by harnessing geothermal energy and run by the in-house AI, Pythia.
Unfortunately, as Fate is wont to, AquaDelphi was still under construction when the Fourth Corporate War came knocking. The green spaces of the housing district and the ancient white stones of the library were the first to go when the bombings started, then it was the turn of OTEC headquarters. As long as the monstrous steel towers stood upright, most of the population tried to keep the dream alive despite Pythia's more and more frequent erratic outbursts; but it was only delaying the inevitable exodus toward Hawaii.
Nowadays, AquaDelphi is slowly being rebuilt, thanks mostly to her massive sea port becoming one of the major places for ship breaking. Refugees gradually return to a place the Kress administration would not touch with a ten foot pole and dream of renaissance, but many are wary of the corporate nightmares lying in wait, among which Pythia...
New R'lyeh (Reckoners Cthuluny) Location: South Pacific Estimated Population and Leadership: 6,000+ under the leadership of the Dunwich Congregation
A decade ago, nobody had heard of the Dunwich Congregation. Only specialist were aware of this reckoner cult, led by austere people in outmoded black suits. Anyone would have told you that their idea of a cosmic entity with far too many tentacles and consonants in its name was never going to appeal to the masses. But the community endured, centered around their faith in Lovecraft's writings.
The news then dropped one day, six years ago: the congregation had purchased a rotten weather outpost in the empty corner of Southern Pacific. Reports of a growing shanty town came back, brought by passing ships and still no one expected them to survive once again. But they did, sending more missionaries across the world, armed with the Cthulu Mythologies; and their numbers grow steadily if slowly. Their declared goal in establishing New R'lyeh is to find old R'lyeh, a sunken city supposedly holding either a sleeping Cthulu or a way to connect with them. No one will speak openly about life in New R'lyeh but rumors of cultural segregation, weird rites and human sacrifices are legion. Whatever the truth, they are there to stay and never relent.
Their deep sea explorations and general presence are not to the taste of the European Space Agency (ESA), whose Deepdown outposts have been established there for decades in order to retrieve low-orbit material brought back to Earth in the area. The assaults led by ESA's underwater elite troops, the Nemos, stay fruitless as the cultists proved to hard to remove from the area. With number swelling steadily every year, New R'lyeh keeps growing weirder and is not going anywhere.
Cape Horn Wreckers (Scavvers Union) Location: Cape Horn area Numbers and Leadership: Up to 500 members. Leadership unknown.
Many places still struggle with the aftermath of the last Corporate War. Take Cape Horn, for example. The southernmost end of South America was for centuries the standard against which sailors measured their abilities and, more recently, a strategical passage to control for commercial and military purposes. Needless to say the place saw bitter fighting during the Sea War.
Which is why everybody started clapping when Argentinians and Chileans publicly decided to put their differences aside and find ways to clear up Cape Horn for maritime shipping once peace returned. Weary of corporate task forces, they decided to hire a multitude of small operators with designated areas to work on, in exchange for advantageous prices buying back salvaged material, as well as a share of any reclaimed equipment. Little did they know this would help turn their myriad of contractors in the now infamous Cape Horn Wreckers.
After only a couple of years, the small contractor crews started to work as a cooperative, granting them better negotiating power when selling back salvaged materials; while limited oversight allowed them to keep for themselves smaller ships and various pieces of armament at they saw fit. When the shipwrecks became too scarce and maritime shipping sputtered anew, the Wreckers naturally started using scramblers to lure passing vessels aground and pillage them.
By the time Chile and Argentina decided to intervene, it was too late. The Wreckers could stand on their own against national armies and navies. The international community obligingly looked aside for years but recent incursions in the Drake Passage forced foreign powers to start face the problem more directly. As a start, a series of bounties were set for anyone able to help identify and capture the Wreckers' leaders ...
North Atlantic Trade Hub (High Seas Trade Post) Location: Midway between the Azores and Ireland Population and leadership: 127,520 under joint Corporate-European Council oversight.
It took decades in the making for this trade platform to come out of the waves two years ago in the middle of Northern Atlantic. Decades of negotiations between Kaerms, the European maritime shipping titan, and European Council representatives during which American and Asian competitors took the lead. The North Atlantic Trade Hub is supposed to the European answer to this situation. Fearing Europe loss of speed in the maritime shipping and shipbuilding areas, N.A.T.H (as most familiarly call it) was conceived with the dual purpose in mind.
NATH is in reality an atoll of starfish-shaped platforms working in close relationship. On one side you will find the state of the art Noatun shipyards, pumping out small or medium trade vessels at an increasing rhythm and with a focus set on affordability and durability, the "sea mules" of the reborn sea trade. Paired with this, you will find a constellation of piers and decentralized trading centers, hosting a wide variety of small corporation and independent traders.
To keep their edge sharp, the European Union agreed to let the platform become a de facto city state with a policy of "high wages - low taxes" for five years granted to any worker, engineer or researcher choosing to migrate there; under the condition that they move to Europe and naturalize at the end of their contract.
As for now, the NATH managed its primary objective of becoming Europe's gateway for Northern Atlantic trade. The sea mules sell decently enough but are yet to threaten the Asian shipyards, the real mastodons of the industry. In the meantime, slack standards benefited many of the grey economy operators: if you need European gear, for cheap, then head on over before time's up and the forces of regulations start to crack down!
The Nansen Nation (Stateless Society) Area of Operations: Mediterranean Sea Estimated numbers and Leadership: ~200,000 citizens; 60,000+ vessels; led by the council of 500
Saying the Mediterranean sea has a millennia-long history of serving as the interface for human commerce and migrations comes to no surprise for anyone. If commerce was said to tighten the bonds across the sea, migrations became an increasingly divisive subject for trans-Mediterranean summits during the 20th century. Many ventured off the Mediterranean shore and tried to immigrate to Europe, often risking their lives in the process; while "Fortress Europe" focused inwardly on its own success and only offered token help to the migrants if they returned home.
The situation became a nightmare during the Middle-East meltdown of the late 90's. Hundreds of thousands of humans ended up stranded at sea, roaming the Mediterranean as ghosts, stuck between war-torn countries on one side and a paradise out of reach on the other. And Europe kept letting only a few in, openly picking and competing over whichever individuals they thought could benefit their countries the most.
By the time African states managed to open their door more widely and benefit from the influx of population, many refugees then refused to return to land. Living for many years at seas, they had learned to make a living off of the waters and to navigate the inland sea like no other nation; turning them into peerless transporters and smugglers with a central role in the Mediterranean.
After electing a council of 500 hundred captains, the multi-cultural community chose their name from the Nansen passport delivered to stateless individuals a century before that. Their counters can be found in any major port of the inland sea, under the purple Phoenician letter N, offering their services to anyone looking to move someone or something discreetly over the sea. Europeans pay double, it goes without saying.
Safaniya-Zakum (Oil Extraction Complex) Location: Persian Gulf Estimated Population and Leadership: 80,000+ inhabitants and workers led by local royals
"A technological prowess" is what the Safaniya-Zakum complex is often described as. Both proponents and opponents of the project do tip their hat to its execution. Using a blend of time-proven and cutting edge technologies, a network of oil rigs, fishing piers, gas ducts and housing blocks is now stretching out above the waves of the Persian Gulf, all the way from Kuwait to the Hormuz Strait.
Proponents of the Saf-Za complex call it "the phoenix chant of a reborn Middle-East". Many put forward the accent set on sustainability and multi-cultural society, overcoming the ancient divisions. Not only the complex's only operator, a state-run company, manages to extract oil and gas from the sea bed again, but the ancient traditions of fishing and pearl culture are brought back. Considering the desolated lands of Iran and United Arab Emirates on both coasts, it is hard not to perceive the Saf-Za network as a cry of defiance against defeatism and a sense of doom.
Opponents call it "the swan song of a dying industry", preferring to point at the predominance of CHOOH² and deploring the refusal to let go of antiquated technologies. Others underline the complex's authoritarian regime and omnipresent police. Any visitors hoping to set a foot in will have to provide a full genetic profile and suffice to say that anyone even remotely affiliated to PetroChem or SovOil will never have a chance to peek inside.
With the extremely high level of difficulty regarding the obtaining of any information from inside the complex, experts are left wondering if the Safaniya-Zakum structure will hold long enough between intern fracture lines and outside pressure; long enough to recreate the major center of trade between India and the Eastern coast of Africa the region once was.
Deep Level Recovery HQ (Artificial Corporate Island) Location: Bay of Bengal Estimated Population and Leadership: ~7,000 employees led by D.L.R CEO and Face Kanchan Bonse
When the first Deepdown bubbles experimentation appeared decades ago, nobody expected any one else than military actors or some of the largest mega-corporations of the time to take the industry's lead toward expansion into civilian markets. But during the late 2020's, such actors had their compass set on rebuilding their power and returning to pre-war balance. Which suited someone who had been swimming under the radar for a bit.
Kanchan Bonse grew up following her corporate executive mother along a wide variety of postings. She emerged from her childhood with two passions: wreck diving and corporate power play. In the following years, she worked along the Indian coastlines on maritime salvage projects or post-disaster rescue operations. During those formative years, she lost nothing of her passions but gained a thick address book filled with talented if disgruntled, under-payed workers and engineers. Deep Level Recovery had all the ingredients to come to existence.
After building the core of her future corporation using her personal fortune; Bonse focused on developing proprietary designs for underwater habitats and workshops, allowing her technicians too work longer underwater. Spending many years experimenting and enhancing their techniques during humanitarian crises in South-East Asia, DLR took no side during the Fourth Corporate War but only gained power in the aftermath by landing many lucrative contracts all over the world.
Decades later, their glass bubble headquarters sit on waters granted by the Indian government as a thankful gesture. Visitors can admire there both the company's humanitarian projects and Deepdown habitat designs destined to the richest fringe of the planet. It is said that Kanchan Bonse only dives for pleasure these days but seems to be keeping tabs on elite divers across the world.
Far Yue City (Modular Floating City State) Location: South China Sea Estimated population and Leadership: 750,000 to 1,000,000 with a Central Representative Council
The fate of Hong Kong is one of the many tragedies of our times. After years of inner fighting and outside influence, the vibrant city was trying to recover when the Fourth Corporate War hit the world. A tragedy that climaxed with a biochemical attack for Hong Kong, closing that chapter on an abrupt end and leaving the rest of the wold with nothing but the Ghost World for memories. But that was without taking in account those who had to run prior to the events...
Since 2027 it has been noted that many members of the diaspora converged towards the Spratly islands to reunite with refugees from the Fragrant Harbour. Many former cargo vessels were bought as well as the maximum amount of TEU's they could get their hands on. In a matter of years a medium size fleet assembled with its inhabitants carrying their whole lives and families aboard, amidst a tangle of TEU's whose assembly became reminiscent of Kowloon's Walled City.
Early on, the ensemble stuck together giving life to a vivid culture of community and ingenuity. Workshops found new ways of extracting the most out of their minimal space and reduced resources. Personal networks connected and shared outside connections. The place became known as Far Yue City. By that time it was already able to travel as a group, approaching the coast of neighbouring countries, engaging in trade and knowledge sharing in exchange for protection.
Nowadays Far Yue city is able to criss-cross the whole South China sea as a whole, but more often fragmented; bringing city-sized dense assemblages of shops, schools, apartments, workshops and other gambling halls to various neighboring countries despite some local grumblings. For there is no better place in the region to obtain rare information, enjoy Dim Sum, place a bet, get a light-tattoo or learn hacking techniques than one of those floating districts sporting the white orchid emblem.
Ivory Sails (Free Navy) Area of operation: Worldwide Estimated numbers and Leadership: ~20,000 troops, ~2,000 boats, led by Ian Sharpgrove
The history of the Ivory sails is a tale of danger, daring actions and glory. Or it is a litany of war crimes, greed and ruthlessness. It usually depends on which side of the conflict you were. The Ivory Sails came to the world during the harsh days of the Sea War. As Militech and Arasaka were trading blows on land, sea, in the air, and in the cyberspace; their allies and subsidiaries destroyed each other; creating opportunities for professional outfits. Some of them at sea.
In came Ian Sharpgrove, raising out of obscurity at the tail end of the conflict and bringing with him a highly-specialized crew tailored for special operations. There was no raid the Sharpgrove Unit would fear to undertake, no desperate rearguard action they would not fight, no mission dangerous enough for them. Eventually managing the dubious feat of selling their services to most of the actors on both sides of the conflict, Sharpgrove and his troops made a name for themselves and soon enough everyone was ready to pay them so they would not fight for the other side.
This "sense of realpolitik winds", as he puts it himself, was what permitted now admiral Sharpgrove and his faithful troops to emerge rich and powerful out of the conflict. But their reputation was forever stained with infamy. In a transparent laundering effort, the group was re-named Ivory Sails and oriented themselves toward "peacekeeping" and "police actions", with a sprinkling of highly-publicized humanitarian stunts to seduce the medias.
Nowadays the Ivory Sails can be found anywhere across the globe training coastguard navies, securing areas for corporate clients, escorting refugee convoys and other such actions. Each time extracting a true ransom in exchange for their presence. But Sharpgrove knows the new golden age of privateers is reaching its end and takes every opportunity to line his pockets, mercilessly resorting to piracy if needed, before someone finally "retires" him once and for all.
submitted by ZhtWu to cyberpunkred [link] [comments]

UPDATE: Episodes 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 and 108

I recently posted about watching episodes 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 and 108 for my own curiosity to see if anything coherent would come out of it, and which characters and themes are highlighted. Here are my findings:

'Too Long; Didn’t Read' Version

The show is so much more complex than can be shown in a few episodes, many of the supernatural elements get zero screen time due to it being heavily weighted in the first season although we see a decent amount of crossovers within flashbacks which hint at a wider meaning to the island (Christian, Sawyer, Claire, Ana Lucia are all connected to Jack, and we see a picture of Nadia on the island as well as her buying a House from Locke).
In general, because we see the characters at the beginning of their arcs, it means it is rather a sad tale for most:
Major themes which come through are manipulation - obviously in Sawyer, but also in Charlie and Locke’s Dad. Even Shannon manipulates Charlie early on to fetch fish for her. Also, people going to extremes when they should just talk it out: Charlie eliminating Ethan, Sayid torturing Sawyer, Gambling for medication & guns, Smashing the lighthouse which could have been so much more!
All in all, it doesn’t really seem like there are any happy endings here. So I wouldn’t recommend this 7 episode run for the feels. But what it lacks in happy endings it makes up for in references to the Red Sox (which feature in 3 of the 7 episodes).

'Too Short; Give Me More' Version

4 - Walkabout
This could easily be the first episode of the series - it starts with a close up of Locke’s eye waking from the plane crash and wiggling his toes, and there’s quite a lot of exposition which means I’m not lost(!) when it comes to the whole Oceanic 815 situation.
On island, there are boars rummaging through the wreckage and Locke steps in to hunt them with his many many knives - solving the boar problem AND the food crisis at the same time. What a hero! But wait - in flashbacks we learn he’s not a hero, but a bit of a loser at work and in his personal life too. The classic reveal has him shouting “Don’t tell me what I can’t do” at the Walkabout guide, but he’s wheelchair bound and powerless. Huuuuge contrast to the on-island legend who drags a boar out of the forest to prove he can be a hero, though it’s unclear whether he killed it or if that weird monster in the jungle did…
Claire puts on a heartfelt memorial service Shannon uses Charlie to get a fish Charlie & Hurley bond over fishing Jack sees his father standing ominously on the beach
8 - Confidence Man
Sawyer comes across as an arrogant womaniser in this run. One moment he’s trying it on with Kate, the next moment he’s getting it on with a woman in the flashback. He then beats up Boone. And this is all before the opening titles. Later, while trying it on with Kate again, we hear the infamous Sawyer letter which makes him sound like a heartless con artist.
Even though he’s not Mr.Perfect it still feels really harsh to have Sayid full-on torture him imo. But then Sawyer just uses his tortured position to get a kiss from Kate which is a bit sad. SAYID STABS HIM THROUGH THE ARM (completely forgot that) and he’s bleeding out but Mr.Perfect bandages him up in no time.
In a flashback, Sawyer sees a little kid while conning his parents, and his heart grows three sizes that day. Kate learns he isn’t the Sawyer in the letter, but that he WROTE THE LETTER. WHOAAAA. Okay, he's been through a lot.
Charlie & Claire just being cute and eating imaginary peanut butter S1E08 ft. Kate “Let me talk to Sawyer” Austen General tension between Jack/Sawyer in this run seems way more prevalent than the Jack/Locke
15 - Homecoming
Claire comes back from being kidnapped but has no memory of the survivors or the crash. Lots of exposition in Claire asking questions so not much is lost from the skipped episodes. The first hint of there being others on the island “Ethan is the bad guy”
Flashback — Looks like Charlie is doing a bit of a Sawyer. Too many con men on this island for my liking. He’s told “a man has got to provide” and that he will “never take care of anyone”, so it’s easy to see why he feels protective of Claire even if she just wants her independence and has no recollection who he is. Ethan says he’s going to kill someone every day - Scott is killed (not Steve) so I guess Ethan really is the bad guy. The “Alpha” survivors equip themselves with guns to get answers from Ethan. Charlie sulks but then does a full-on Leroy Jenkins and puts some lead into Ethan’s chest. This episode really highlights one of the themes of the show — the lengths people go to for those they love (Looking at you Michael) “I want my independence, Charlie, but I also want to trust you” - Claire pretty much
16 - Outlaws
Episode starts with Lil’ kid sawyer so we remember to sympathise with his inevitable jerkitude. The boar is getting more screen time in this run than Hurley or Sun/Jin. In a flashback, a drunken Christian Shepard gives Sawyer the courage to kill a guy. The return of Kate “I speak Sawyer’s language” Austen, with the language in question being the language of having killed a guy, which we discover in a game of ‘I never’.
Locke tells a story about his dead sister NOT coming back as a dog, ‘cause that would be silly, but Sawyer’s heart grows three sizes again and he chooses not to kill the boar, in case it’s inhabited by the dead soul of the shrimp vendor he killed. He also connects the dots about Jack’s father.
23 - Exodus (Part 1)
We see Rousseau for the first time, warning that her baby was stolen after seeing black smoke years ago. “The others are coming” for Claire’s baby too. The potentially have a hatch they can hide in, but they need dynamite to get into it. On the way to get it, there’s a sudden attack by the “security system” monster. RAFT LAUNCH WOOHOO! Sawyer, Michael, Walt and Jin make it off the island!
Sawyer tells Jack about meeting his Dad in a bar In a flashback, Jack meets Ana Lucia at the airport Seems way less eventful than I expected, I guess Exodus parts 2 and 3 are the killer eps
42 - Lockdown
Even though a whole season jumped, the only things to piece together are that they got into the hatch, it looks like the raft didn’t make it very far and they also found some of the tail section survivors.
In flashbacks, we see that Locke’s dad is yet another con man, using him to perform another job. On island, Henry Gale plays on Locke’s vulnerability asking “Why do you let Jack speak to you like that?” In short, everyone wants to crush Locke, including the blast doors of the hatch. It looks like this is the beginning of Locke’s crisis of faith. Thinking the island would solve all his problems, when in reality it just gave him back his legs. Henry Gale manages to convince Locke that he’s a good guy by entering the numbers, but Sayid comes back and outs him as a fraud. So many letdowns for Locke, seems like he’s going to spiral downwards.
Jack & Sawyer take a back seat, mostly playing poker with Kate “Shall I get a ruler?” Austen.
108 - Lighthouse
There is a massive jump from S2 to S6 but they're all on the island so it picks up nicely to begin with. In hindsight, this run would have been a lot happier ending with episode 42.
Now there are clearly others on the island as there’s a whole temple with randos in it. We learn from an English speaking Jin that about 3 years have passed. The flash sideways reads like a regular flashback as we know very little about Jack in this run. But seeing Dogan from the temple throws a spanner in the works. Is it just yet another connection before the crash?
They arrive at the Lighthouse by following Hurley’s dead guy visions of Jacob, it’s clear something supernatural is going on in terms of watching people’s lives, and timelines crossing, especially as we’ve now seen that there are links between Jack, Christian, Sawyer, Claire & Ana Lucia in flashbacks. This is the first hint of some ‘higher reason’ for them being on the island, and the first real supernatural element other than the “monster”, but then Jack goes and smashes it up… which really infuriates me. Twice now the survivors could have learned something crucial about the island, through Ethan and the lighthouse, and it always ends they same, they fight, they destroy...
Meanwhile, Claire and Charlie don’t seem to be an item any longer. She’s more into living like an axe-wielding savage with an animal-skull-Aaron in a crib, and a “friend”. This is really sad to see, both in this run and the series as a whole. But this run just ends with John Locke walking into her tent as Claire says in this crazed voice “This isn’t John, this is my friend.” Which makes me feel like they’ve both just completely lost hope and sanity and ends it on a real sour note.
Directed by Jack Bender
submitted by halfajacob to lost [link] [comments]

[The Dark Lord's Home for Undead Heroes] - Chapter 11 - It's a Trap!

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With Leonine dead as well, there was no time to lose. I motioned to Sarah to follow, and we took off at a sprint along the palace corridors. Aside from the odd maid and floor sweep they were completely deserted — was the place usually this empty or had they all just gone to see what the fuss was all about? It took a couple of turns for me to realize I had little idea where I was going. Coming to a dead stop, I touched a nearby maid’s shoulder to get her attention — she had been lost in thought dusting the mural of a former duke — completely startling the poor woman.
I felt a bit bad about scaring her, but she was here and I needed directions.
“Where can I find Court Mage Thaos?” I demanded, trying not to be too forceful — she was scared enough already. The maid blanched, opening her mouth to speak but only gaping ineffectively, much like a fish. “Well?” I tried again.
“H-he lives in his tower, in the n-north-eastern corner,” she finally stammered, uncertainly. “Just follow this hallway, take a right at the end, then the first left and it’s right at the end of the hallway.”
I murmured a thank you and set off again.
“Did you get that?” I heard Sarah ask from behind me. “’Cause I already forgot.”
I snorted. “Just follow me.”
Our run was quiet right until we reached the final corridor. As soon as we made the turn, doors on both sides burst open to release a company of guardsmen in our way.
I turned my head around to where we came, hoping to see it still clear, but another company emerged from a room in the corridor we’d just left, boxing us in.
It was a well-executed trap, I had to admit, but we were not going to go down so easily.
Sarah had already positioned herself in a defensive stance, her back almost touching mine. She was holding that sword of hers — where did she even keep the thing? I could have sworn she wasn’t carrying it with her.
At least, with the two of us, we had all directions covered. I readied myself, bringing threads of Force to my fingertips. I debated using Soul, but I wanted to minimize casualties, and Soul attacks were seldom non-fatal. Mind was right out, using it against well-aware opponents was unreliable at best.
“Try to disable, not kill, but don’t hold back if you feel in danger,” I murmured low enough that only Sarah could hear it.
“Why aren’t they attacking?”
That was a good question. Were they afraid? Or were they stalling for something?
The answer soon became irrelevant as the front row of guardsmen — four in all, as the hallway was not very wide — exploded into motion. They all charged in concert, denying me any space with which to dodge. Their fellows behind them advanced as well, ready to step in should they get the chance.
As I wove half the Force I held into a kinetic burst meant to knock them away, I realized that the cramped corridors were not doing the guardsmen any favors. They could only charge us four at a time on each side, and I could use this, couldn’t I? I unleashed the working, aiming for my attackers’ legs, making them stumble back into the advancing column. This gave me a precious few moments to think.
I spared a glance behind me to check on my companion. Sarah could not use magic, so her defense relied solely on her swordsmanship — and yet, she held her own surprisingly well. She had figured out how to leverage her infinite stamina into deceptively fast bursts of movement that, in spite of her heavy armor, allowed her to be seemingly everywhere at once. She wasn’t pushing them back, but they weren’t gaining ground either. Given her pitiful demonstration barely a week earlier, it was an almost unheard-of progress. Was this the power of Heroes, then?
I focused on the fight before me. I had a number of ideas to disable the guardsmen — maybe creating a stampede? Moments later, I had my solution, and I grinned inwardly at its simplicity.
I wove my remaining threads of Force — and continuously drawing new ones — into simple, normal heat, and dumped it around me with reckless abandon. It went unnoticed for the first few moments, and the guards facing me had recovered in the meantime and began their second attack. I was still using most of my mana throughput to dump heat around, so I had barely a couple of thin threads available to force three of the attackers to narrowly miss.
The fourth got me good in the abdomen, opening what would have been a nasty gash had my body not been a mana construct. As it was, it merely stung like hell, but I was able to use the guardsman’s surprise to land a Force-empowered fist into his chest. He crashed heavily into one of his friends, and I could already see the end of the battle in sight.
I heard a confused “What the fuck?” coming from behind me, as the guardsmen began to collapse on their own, seemingly out of nowhere. I waited a few more seconds and stopped dumping heat into the room, and switched my mana draw to Matter. Haphazardly throwing around threads imbued with the intent to bind, I had the guardsmen’s armors stuck to the floor. Hopefully. I wasn’t at all good with Matter, but I hoped the intent would make up for the lack of a proper spell framework.
“Heat, my dear knight,” I explained to my confused companion. “Heatstroke in armor is quite unpleasant, I’m told, but temperatures like this have little effect on us undead.” I finished with a smile and began trudging through the fallen company. The heat would disperse quickly through the hallways, and it was best to make ourselves scarce before they came to.
“Huh. That’s smart.”
A quick body count revealed there had been around forty of them involved in the ambush — a majority of the palace guard, I believed. I found it a bit baffling — why were they not spread out and searching for the Viscountess’s killer? How did they know to ambush me on the way to the Court Mage’s tower? Actually, was I even the actual target or were they expecting someone else? So many questions, so few answers. With a bit of luck, we’d get at least some of the mystery solved once we reached Thaos.
***
The rest of the trip to the grand spiral staircase that served as the tower’s entrance was mercifully devoid of any surprises.
As we began carefully climbing the stairs, I drew as much mana as I could possibly handle, making sure to have a bit of every Aspect. There was no real reason why mages almost always made their home in towers other than tradition, but one thing they always had in common was that they were trapped and warded to high heavens.
I had made sure to counterward both myself and Sarah against the likeliest effects, but I knew the Adept had me beat in Fate, and given my barely apprentice-level grasp of Dimension, he almost certainly outmatched me there as well.
Fights between mages tended to be a lot like strategy games, but there was an element of gambling as well. You needed to predict what defenses your enemy would use, and attack through whatever avenue was the least defended. Knowing your enemy’s specialties helped enormously, but you could always bluff — leaving your biggest weakness undefended wasn’t an uncommon gamble, since the enemy would generally assume you would concentrate your defenses there.
The spiral staircase was connected to the outer wall of the tower — we could see some of the inner chambers as we climbed — libraries and laboratories, mostly. As we climbed, I grew warier and warier — we had yet to engage any trap, and we were a good halfway up already, by my count. It wasn’t that there were none — I could feel a number of wards anchored through the walls, and their potency was nothing to scoff at. But they had let us pass, and this puzzled me greatly.
I had assumed Thaos to be antagonistic, especially given his link to the gods. This did not fit in my scenario at all — we had come here armed and weapons at the ready, which in any reasonable world would have prompted a defensive response. Was he simply not worried about us? Maybe he’d reached a high enough level with Fate to discern the outcome of our meeting?
I wasn’t sure which option bothered me more.
***
Court Mage Thaos was sitting on a countertop, his feet dangling off the edge, when we finally reached the top floor. I had turned the top of my tower into a cozy observatory, but the Adept seemed to have made a bar and lounge out of his. He held a half-empty bottle of some spirit in one hand, and an empty shot glass in the other. He looked me straight in the eye as I entered and gave me a wolfish grin.
“Archmage Crane! So good to see you so soon. A bit early, though, are you not?” He tilted his head quizzically. “Not very polite, you should have sent a messenger if you wanted to come sooner.”
His demeanor caught me entirely off guard. “Early? You were expecting me?”
“Did you forget?” Thaos frowned. “We were supposed to meet here in the afternoon. And right now it is—” he blinked a few times and I could feel a thimble of Dimension mana flowing through him, “—just about nine in the morning. Quite a bit early,” he punctuated.
I remembered now — his invitation during the dinner. It somehow felt so long ago.
I wasn’t sure why he was suddenly so strict about propriety, given recent events, but I decided playing along would be for the best. “You have my apologies for that, Adept. The circumstances in the palace below have made a mess of my plans.”
“Yes, indeed — I’ve had to remake my plans over and over because everything just kept going wrong!”
Thaos let out a weary sigh, taking a gulp straight from the bottle.
“At least everything is on track now, finally. You know,” he began as he pointed his bottle at me, eyes forming into a glare, “you didn’t make this easy for me at all. Like, what the hells? What kind of Dark Lord are you even supposed to be?”
“...excuse me?”
Sarah circled around me, moving to stand further inside the room, ready to attack the mage if he tried something. I motioned to her to be cautious, wary of the strange mage.
“Like, seriously,” Thaos continued, ignoring the silent communication in front of him, “I gave you all the reasons to come kill the bastard — and you just, like, don’t?”
My eyes widened in surprise. “You sent Vinara with the letter?”
He snorted. “No, Illvere did. But I told him to do it. And he thought it was a good idea! Anyway,” he took another mouthful from the bottle, “I then went and did it for you — framed you perfectly too! — and you tried to make peace with the terrible three, of all things?”
Thaos rubbed his face with the back of his right hand, spilling the contents of the shot glass on his face. He winced, continuing. “Fuck, that stings. Anyway, at least the lion bitch is dead now so you can’t get out of it now.”
...Had he just confessed to both murders? Also, wait, what?
“Get out of what?” I stammered, incredulously.
He glared at me again. “Are you dense? Taking over the duchy, obviously.” He dropped the glass and the bottle, then, taking out a silvery coin from his pocket, he spun it around a few times, thinking. “What else was there? Oh, right.” He grinned, jumping off the counter and giving me a mocking bow. “My Master sends their regards. Compliments of the Fox.”
Then he crushed the coin in his left hand, which unleashed a stream of incredibly thick mana — Origin? — while drawing an activation sequence with his right hand — I felt the wards permeating the building shudder.
“You’ve some kick-ass wards around you, so if you don’t survive you’ve only got yourself to blame!” Thaos yelled, finally, as the Origin mana engulfed him completely. A moment later, he was gone.
I only had a moment before I realized what he’d done — he had supercharged all the wards in the tower, effectively setting them to detonate. Before I could cast anything to shield myself, the world went white.
​
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submitted by possibly_a_dragon to redditserials [link] [comments]

My opinion is that buying 10 shares at a time is better than buying in bulk, prove me wrong.

Hey guys, this post is not intended to tell you what to do. I'm not a financial advisor. This isn't my day job. I am not even a day trader. I learned the difference between call and put options like 3 months ago. I don't trade options. I don't even know how yet, to be frank. I recently got an RH account to try to learn how and then this shit blew up. This post is viewable to the general public and is not "insider knowledge". Everything I am about to say, I have gleaned from PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE DATA. That Hedge funds and other people in the media, the government, and in the general public ALL have access to. This is MORE VISIBLE than even Facebook. Let alone a country club or private "dinner party". Just saying. I am a real person. I am not a bot. I am not trying to screw anyone over. I like the stock I am choosing to gamble my disposable income on and think it will be a good investment regardless of the action over the next few weeks. 💎🙌
I CAN earn it back if I have to. I didn't stake my entire savings. I don't advise people to gamble with money they don't have. Not for financial reasons, solely, but more for mental health reasons.
Bias disclosure: I currently have 1882 shares of AMC at an average price of 9.27$ and I occupied Wall Street for a bit after the financial crisis, mostly on reddit as I was in medical school at the time, and supported occupy the SEC. Please see my post history. It's all there in the top posts. I have nothing to hide as I know I am a valued member of our society, I pay my taxes, I treat mental illness, I follow the law, and I don't normally gamble. This is not about the money for me personally, it's about principle. It's my token of rememberance for the failed actions of our government to hold these types of people accountable for the great recession and the subprime mortgage crisis. Also, WSB just happened to stumble upon these criminal vulture firms, in the act of active company rape and decided to give them a licking. If you were interested in GME and were one of the people on the other side [IE at one of these firms] reading the discussion over at WSB should have been your job as a form of market research. If you missed the warning, it's not Reddit's fault. If you suck at your job, it's not Reddit's fault. I don't see how pinning them in that position was illegal. It wasn't planned, it wasn't private. It developed organically like a movement. It continues to grow. Silencing us will only make it louder. You need to level the playing field and regulate the markets. What they did to defend themselves was illegal. The manipulation of the market and the media was illegal. The restriction of buying was illegal. The algorithmic ladder attacks were illegal. Thus I will hold the line, as I HAVE been since Tuesday. It's been a wild ride and I'm tired of this shitshow. I want to get back to normal investing after this fiasco. It's much better for my sleep.
*So here goes my theoretical question. AGAIN, I AM NOT saying you SHOULD do this. What you do is your call. I am asking if this has been done before or if it even can be done. I'm a n00b. Educate me. I'm trying to learn how the arena works. Like how it really works.
If short ladders by algorithms are being used to artificially deflate the stock price. IE: tanking the price of AMC with low trade volumes that they simply pass amongst themselves. I think yesterday it was 5% buy and hold and 95% sell for AMC but each time with low volumes in a very predictable pattern. (Trey from the link below explained it very well several times better than me.)...
What prevents retail traders from spacing out their purchase orders to 1-10 shares at a time and holding. Wouldn't that be better than just impulse buying 100 shares because you want in and you like the stock? Would it do the same thing as short laddering but in converse? Just curious. Would like to hear your opinions.
​
I've been watching this channel to learn about AMC action and markets in general and it has been super educational.
​
*I am not investing in AMC to make a quick buck. I am not a day trader or a pump and dumper. I am doing this because I think AMC will not die from the pandemic, was artificially deflated by vulture hedge funds, almost to the point of bankruptcy, and will NOW be able to pivot into a better business model with fresher screens, Hollywood exclusive releases, fancier theaters, pent up demand, etc., with the new capital and public interest. People LIKE the MOVIES. I grew up in NJ and movie theaters were a HUGE part of my life and many of my most memorable moments occurred at the movies. They make me warm and fuzzy. They have a certain nostalgia for me personally and I like supporting local business when I can. [I know AMC was bought by China, but the staff are all local]. In my opinion GME has an antiquated business model bc I buy games on STEAM and online. AMC was only struggling because of COVID and I don't think that otherwise people would completely stop going to the movies. We Americans LOVE going to the movies. I love going to the movies. That's just my opinion. Don't hate on me for it. I think that the "real value" of AMC is AT LEAST about 10-20$ which is what they were at before 2020 and it wasn't even their peak value. Even if the real value is closer to 5$, according to the arguments of experts, that's just their fucking opinion. It's a different situation now and I don't agree. Is that my right to disagree with them and pick my own stocks? Or can I only bet on what Fox Business tells me to. Or Jim Cramer. As an individual investor, am I free in this country to spend my money how I want on the stock market, or am I not? Am I free to make my own choices about whether to buy a stock or not? At least I think I should be. If I am not, it will solidify my opinion [and the watching world's opinion] that "free market" capitalism is indeed a farce. It will highly depreciate the value of the American dream and my respect for our current government. Which I was Ecstatic about during Election Day. [Disclosure, Bernie/Liz Bro, who voted for Biden and abstained from voting in 2016 due to bitterness about the primaries. Damn you DWS, you know what you did.] We all know the hedge funds sure are free to buy as much stock as they want to. Apparently even to buy stock that doesn't exist. WTF is that? Glad I found out now. Even if I lost 8k by betting it will be 10$ in 2022 rather than 5$ isn't it my CHOICE when to sell? Am I not free to HOLD the damn stock if in my opinion, I'm willing to consider it a tax on sending a giant reddit shaped middle finger into space to these people that rape companies regardless of the consequences to local staff? These parasites who prefer profit to morality and decency? Who sold their souls in the search of...what?...private islands and yachts? Let THIS MOMENT be your Memento Mori, you soulless motherfuckers. If you have any of it left, now is your time to search for it. Your actions will leave behind a husk of an economy and earth if left unchecked. We the Reddit "Retards" stumbled upon our teeth. For the first time the MARKET BITES BACK AND WE ARE NOT LETTING GO. WE ARE MAKING A STAND. FUCK YOU. We all know that the American Citizens will end up footing the bill anyway in taxes when all those people start relying on the government for survival after you motherfuckers artificially drive their employer into bankrupcy. FUCK YOU. You're already taking my money and you know it. I pay 47% in taxes due to my income and living in NYC. FUCK YOU for evading them with offshore accounts you GREEDY FUCKS. I am willing to lose 8k to do that (send you a message) and to rapidly learn about what is going on to manipulate markets. It's also partially the cost of education in my calculus. I have learned more in one week riding this wave, than in 4 years of getting my Economics degree. Either way, my current buy in as at 9.27 so I will hold at least until I make my initial investment back. I am also disclosing that if the stock goes up to 30$ I will likely SELL enough shares to cover half of my position because I am not a degenerate gambler and have been holding the line since Tuesday and it has taken a toll on my sleep and my sanity. I know I might lose some money and this is a crazy roller coaster. I want to get out most of my investment ASAP and then ride the wave to then END with you all. IF it happens. I know it may not. I don't care. The message seems to have been sent. Seems like they received it. But we don't know who will be regulated and how yet. I am tired of this fight. I don't like it. I don't want to do it anymore. But I stayed in for the principle not the principal, and for the people just finding out about this now to still be able to make a choice about what to do before we release them from the HOLD. This is a constantly evolving situation. Will they censor the media from talking about stocks? Why target Reddit? Reddit is LIKE the media. It's not a private chat room. THESE WORDS CAN BE READ BY ANYONE WITH AN INTERNET CONNECTION AND WE ARE AWARE OF THIS. If it falls, and I lose my money, I don't think the government will come in and save me. I don't expect them to. I EXPECT them to let this play out and not SIDE with these assholes. It upsets me that they seem to have decided to save Vulture capitalists. Anyway, despite my fear of posting this question and the associated rant, I really want to know the answer. Has it been done before by Algorithms pushing stocks higher? Is it possible to make a crowdsourced one? Is it legal?
If this gets removed or censored in some way. You have your answer I guess.
facta non verba.
Thanks.
​
****IMPORTANT ADDENDUM****: I want to add that I was quite revved up when I wrote this and have had some time to reflect. I want to stress that it is not my intention to lay blame or judge any individual person or organization for the current situation [Of stacked odds in the retail investor vs hedge fund battle]. Emotions run high in the stock market. I know this through experience now. I was angry when I wrote this post. [I am leaving it unedited for posterity and since whoever needed to see it already saw it so removing it would be pointless] This should not become a witch hunt or be personal. These guys and girls are people too. They work for a corporation. They earn a paycheck. They have friends, partners, and families too. I am a person. You, reader, are a person. Don't make this personal. They didn't invent algorithms and weren't the ones that necessarily wanted to take these short positions. The market calculus at the time, dictated that this was a good call for them, it wasn't. We accidentally stumbled upon it on WSB and shit-posted about it until it blew up and they were really in a bind. I understand their calculus to a degree, but I am a "smooth brained" "retard" when it comes to these things. I am learning fast though. I understand that certain companies are likely to fail and it is possible to make a profit off that. My moral views about it are irrelevant as the situation they're in dictates their actions, not my personal views about that. I understand that they're getting screwed at the moment and I'm sorry. I truly hope most of them do not get too damaged by this and have had time to change their positions. But I also believe in the American dream, and think that the people that were able to find a good position in the stock market [the retail investors] should be rewarded. I sincerely hope this doesn't trigger a massive systemic issue and we don't accidentally BREAK the stock market with this action on those stocks. It doesn't seem like that would happen, but again smooth brain here. WE NEED THE MARKET TO STAY ALIVE to have peace and stability in this country. Reddit crew, I beseech you, please understand that the individuals involved are also playing by the rules given to them by the market. The problem I personally have is that the rules are different for the retail investors vs. the big institutions. I don't have a problem with them as people. I don't want to destroy anything or any institutions. That was never my goal as an activist nor as an investor-activist and I can only speak about myself. I just hope they could find it in their hearts to try to understand our outrage and consider playing by the rules or at least letting us play by the same rules. We are attacking them and they don't like it. I get it. In either case, please understand that I am not vested too strongly in either outcome anymore. I am tired and want to return to my regular life and will not be on reddit for a while, nor will I be investing any more money into the stock market for a while... The whole thing has taken it's toll on me and I am going back to my regular life. This is not my war.
On the government's side, I also understand that their goal is to enforce the rules. I hope I'm not breaking any here and will remove my posts if I am. I am not trying to cause a revolution. This country has been through too much and we finally have a shot at beating COVID and have a competent administration that can guide us back on the right track. I truly believe that the people in charge now are decent people and will do good for this country. If Biden says no more diamond hands, I will listen to Biden. What I do further with my shares shall remain my business otherwise. I will no longer tell anyone what I am doing with my shares. I realize now that this is not always a good idea and should be done with tact and experience. I am not a financial advisor. But also, financial advice and being one is not a joke. I realize this now. MEMEing about stocks is like MEMEing about drinking bleach. People might listen to you and sacrifice their lives on a losing battle. Not everyone knows the stakes and not everyone knows what they're doing. Now that this is blowing up, people can get really hurt financially. Reddit, we could be putting people in danger. I see this now. So you all, too, reading this, PLEASE be careful. About investing and about what you say on social media. INVEST but INVEST RESPONSIBLY and not with money you can not bear to lose. I pledge that I will personally no longer post any inflammatory shit on Reddit. Because now I'm afraid that WE are suddenly some form of weird market makers and I don't have as many lawyers as the hedge funds. I am tapping out from posting any more about the current battle. I wish you all luck on both sides, truly. In the next round tomorrow.
Dear Government: If you want this to end, don't you have the power to delist these "Meme" companies and distribute the shares somehow? If not, the the system is truly stronger than our institutions. If you do this, please make sure people don't lose their life savings somehow. That would be nice. Then, please try to make sure this won't happen again and that the SEC actually regulates and prosecutes people so their calculus isn't that the fines are too low to justify following the rules. [Just my humble opinion as a smooth brain with limited experience of markets. Do what you think is best and I will obey the laws as an individual]. Sorry you might disagree hedge fund guys and girls, but I am entitle to my opinion in a free country. This is my platform. You can have CNN and Fox News. Sorry for saying something. I promise this is the end of it. But also, a lot of market makers on TV seem to assert that the market will self correct and I don't see how this should be a large risk for overall wealth. Who knows, none of us can predict the future. But I think if a bunch of Reddit "retards" get a couple hundred thousand bucks, it won't change the overall situation or necessarily be a net negative; and may in fact trigger a renaissance in this country. You'll still be the biggest fish, just in a more biodiverse pond. It may just create a new class of petite bourgeoise in this country. But it is not likely that if they win, it will cause something like the French Revolution. There will be losers and winners, but in the end, it will be a good story for Hollywood. [Hopefully played on an AMC screen in a post covid world] But what do I know, I'm a just another "retard" on reddit.
I hope that after this, you are all decent humans at the end and don't break any law on all sides. [Reddit, Retail investors, Government, Hedge fund investors, etc] I hope we don't break the market over this. If that is a true risk we need to make the market unbreakable or this WILL keep happening. If anyone is resentful about losing future gains on a good position so the government can fix the market, don't be a fucking greedy idiot and look at what we've achieved so far. This is already a big win for the small guy. And if our markets are vulnerable, the next winners will not be idiots on reddit. But will likely be our enemies from abroad. Not to name names. We will ALL benefit more from long term stability than short term gains. We MUST come together as a country so we can spend that money in the future for things. If we break the stock market, we will not be able to buy things with all that worthless money. But if the system isn't at risk, I don't understand what all the hullabaloo is about. There have been countless bubbles before. Why weren't those regulated as much. Maybe they were and I'm an ignorant smooth brain. In any case, I hope that we can stop fighting over carcasses for greed. This was always about making the rules of the casino fair for me, personally. It's not life or death. I'm not an extremist or an ideologue. It's not about burning down the casino. I hope that the government will intervene if they think it is going to short circuit the whole thing and that people reading this gamble responsibly.
This will be my last post about this as I have a life to live.
-Tememachine OUT.
​
EDIT 2: Now they're making fun of the movement. Fuck Wall Street. I hope they get what's coming to them one day. [In terms of regulation and prison sentences] I'm still out of this war. But seriously. Fuck them.
submitted by Tememachine to WallStreetbetsELITE [link] [comments]

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