Gamble Sands - 31 Photos & 26 Reviews - Golf - 200 Sands

It had been centuries since the Luddite Wars but the scars across the badlands had still not fully healed. Twisted spires of half melted rock loomed over glass smooth craters pockmarking a desert of orange sand. Sand that had formed from the rust and decay of thousands of tons of burning steel from long abandoned cities. Though rarer now, sometimes the winds would uncover a new pocket of irradiated debris and scour the barren lands with a new wave of radiation. But, other than a few isolated pockets, the battered and scabbed land - bitter and sterile though it was - no longer could be said to be lethal within hours of entering it. Still, with its nightmarish hellscape and it's metal laced grit battering anyone foolish enough to enter, the area more than earned its moniker of Damnation among the survivors. It was said that only a great fool or a madman would ever ride out into Damnation. The sight of just such a rider emerging from a cloud of rust colored sand caused a stir of dread to pass through those that manned the Wall that day.
Still too distant to make out details even with use of the periscope. In wilder days when the winds were still fierce and still hot with radioactive winds a brave soul might have volunteered or been coerced into exposing themselves from the protection offered by the wall to Damnation and venture on top to use a spyglass. But, as the centuries passed and the desert cooled both the Keepers and the Wall itself succumbed to the ravages of time. The sixteen meter tall line of concrete and steel that stretched from horizon to horizon was now just a stained and crumbling shadow of its former glory. Gaps showing exposing the rebar underneath were evident on both sides but, for now at least, the Wall still held. As for the Keepers themselves? That profession which was once viewed as a vital part of the defense of the remnants of humanity had gradually suffered its own form of social erosion. From a respected job to one that was used as a prison sentence to a refugee camp for society's outcasts. The current Keepers were little more than scavengers attempting to carve out their own niche from the scant protection offered by the Wall. So, they contented themselves to observing the stranger through the narrow eyepieces of the periscopes. Watching and waiting.
The stranger was garbed in a fashion appropriate for desert travel. That is to say with no exposed skin and a full face breathing apparatus. The stranger's long coat and wide brimmed hat both appeared to have once been black but had long since been stained orange by the clouds of dust. Gloved hands gripped the reins of the horse tightly while glassy lensed eyes stared straight ahead while a tube extended from the mask to a chest mounted purification unit. He sat stiffly with no wasted movements and seemingly to sit impossibly still atop the saddle. If not for his upright stance and subtle adjustments to the horse's pace as it navigated the uneven terrain, he might have been mistaken for a dead man. The man was obviously still alive. The horse, however, was not.
As the rider and his mount grew closer it became more and more evident that the horse was, in fact, quite dead. The eyes were gone and were now just hollow pits. Bone could be seen jutting out from the rotting flesh along the nose and exposing a bone in one foreleg and part of the ribs along the chest. Blackened rips along the horse's flank were evident where the flesh had ruptured during putrefaction and fluids now weeped from these open sores. Still, the horse walked. Stiffly and mechanically as if it's decaying flesh had somehow been stretched over an automaton. In a sense, that is exactly what had happened.
"Necromancer," Bri of the Evening Watch swore.
"Are you certain?" Vict asked without bothering to rise from his seat. VIct wore the copper badge used to identify a sheriff. The Wall had long since abandoned the position of sheriff, but not the badge. It was now used to identify the First among the Keepers. A position that Vict had held well into his gray haired years. Positively ancient in Wall terms. One day he knew his reflexes would slow and the hand or knife of some upstart would claim his badge. But, for now, Vict's rule had been a successful one. The few crops that would grow near the wall were plentiful and the people in the Wall were thriving as well as could be expected. They had successfully defended themselves from rival Wall tribes that had seized control of their own gates and, as much as was feasible considering the environs of living within the Wall, his people were content. Vict was considered a strong leader. A wise leader. His gray hairs were a testament to that and as long as he did not make mistakes he would be allowed to grow new ones. For now. "His mount is dead," Bri clarified, "It has been ravaged by the desert already. I do not think anything more than proximal arcana could be keeping it going now."
Vict nodded and, finally, arose from the crudely constructed chair to don his own duster. He disliked walking out on the Damnation side of the wall. But confronting this stranger was his duty as First. But, no need to do so alone.
"Can you tell if he's armed?"
"Not yet," Bri admitted, "The light is bad and he is wearing dark clothing. I think there is an electro-rifle on his saddle but he may have a sidearm as well."
"Good enough," Vict said, "We'll assume he is. Summon the others. I want at least six men joining me at the gate. And bring the coil guns with you."
"Those haven't worked in decades, Vict."
"No need to let him know that," Vict remarked as he donned his hat, "We'll just keep that as a surprise for him."
"On it," Bri said with a grin as he scurried off down the corridor towards the living quarters beyond. Some members of the Watch may need to be woken up, Vict knew. The Watch was rarely called upon these days and some had probably long since forgotten what their shift may actually involve. Only a handful, like Bri, were still diligent enough to show up to perform the most minimum of duties. It was a distressing trend but one that Vict himself knew no way of stopping. People guarded the wall from threats along the corridors and from the goodlands. No one cared to stare into the interior.
Vict sauntered towards the door that opened out into the tunnel of the Gate. He soon found himself standing before the massive doors that served as the final barrier between him and Damnation. Fifty meters behind him were doors that opened up into the Goodlands. Those doors they kept ajar most of the day to allow for ventilation. The doors before him had not been opened in years. He wondered if the mechanisms still worked.
He heard the Watch assemble behind him and, without looking to count their numbers or verify they were even dressed and presentable, he signaled the doorman to activate the giant motors that would ease open the doors. It took several minutes for a crack large enough to admit a man on horseback to open. As the doors swung out and away from him, Vict marched forward. He heard the others following him.
The metallic tang of the desert of Damnation stung his nostrils as he edged closer to the boundary of the badlands. As the gap widened the man and the dead horse came into view.
"That's far enough!" Vict shouted.
To his surprise, not to mention considerable relief, the horse stopped short and the motionless rider did not reach for a weapon. Madness was unpredictable after all. He should not expect a reasoned response from a man performing an unreasonable action.
The rider sat there upon his dead horse and, presumably, studied Vict and the Watch. If he was intimidated by their presence he gave no outward sign of it. Slowly, the man lifted one hand away from the reins and reached towards himself. Vict tensed for a moment but relaxed when he saw the hand was not reaching for a holster but rather angling for the respiration unit on the chest. The stranger flipped a switch to activate the speaker. So, he just wanted to talk. That was encouraging.
"I am looking for someone," the stranger's distorted voice crackled from the speaker, "Did another rider come through here some time ago?"
"No," Vict answered.
"Are you certain?" the rider asked, "It would have been many months ago. I can provide a description."
"These gates have not been opened over ten years," Vict clarified, "He didn't come this way."
The rider cocked his head to one side and then seemed to take in the expanse of the wall slowly.
"Perhaps another gate, then?" he asked, "Do you communicate with the other gates?"
Vict shook his head.
"The tribe that took the next gate isn't exactly friendly to our cause," he explained, "The gates further down the line? They may be more neighborly but it's a long walk to find out."
"I see," the rider said, "Then may I request passage through your gate?"
"Are you here to start trouble?"
"Yes," the man replied.
Vict blinked in surprise. He had expected madness, certainly, but being honest about it was new.
"Don't see as to how it benefits me to allow that then," Vict declared. He then motioned back towards the desert,
"Turn around the way you came."
"I can pay the toll if there is one," the stranger offered.
An intriguing offer, actually. Vict almost considered it. Good coin could be valuable in trade with the cityfolk. Still, if they found out he let trouble in then the cities may also attack in retaliation. Good coin spent no better than no coin when you were dead.
"Tempting, but I'll pass," Vict said, "I told you to turn around. I won't ask again."
The speaker crackled as the man sighed.
"Very well," the rider said, "I had hoped to do this another way. But if you insist."
Quicker than he thought would have been possible, the stranger's hand flashed into the interior of his coat. It was out again in an instant and an object was hurled at him. Vict retreated half a step and reached for the knife on his own belt. To his surprise, the object landed gently on the sand near his feet. It was not an attack after all. Curious, he stepped closer and looked closer. He felt the blood drain from his face. It was not a weapon, no, but it was definitely still a threat.
"You're a marshal!" Vict hissed angrily.
"And you are interfering in my lawfully sworn duty," the Stranger replied, "Will you grant me passage?"
This was bad. The badge that laid upon the desert floor before him was not like Vict's own. It was not a piece of metal. This was an actual biolocked minicomp. This badge could only be carried by those who had the full weight of the Restored Pan-Continental Alliance behind them as well as the Oligarch itself. Each badge was said to be a miniature mainframe that could be used to open any digital lock, access any account, and take control over any computer system if needed. If it still used a computer, it would yield to the badge if the wielder wished it. If that wasn't bad enough, if it was handled by anyone other than the biolocked owner it would administer a lethal discharge. Still, Vict hesitated.
"We don't really have a lot of use for the PCA this far out in wastes," he remarked, "Figured they forgot all about us."
"Just focused on other more pressing matters at the moment," the marshal clarified, "Cooperation now would be in your best interest."
Vict recognized a threat when he heard one. What's more, now that the badge had been thrown out, he was certain the Oligarch itself was listening in on them. The last thing the Wall needed was a cybernetic army marching down upon them.
"Yeah, well," Vict said as he stepped slightly to one side. Not quite yielding passage but not completely blocking it either.
"I still have to consider the people beyond," he explained.
"You have my oath my quarrel is not with you nor the people of the wall or the points beyond," the man said formally, "My bond is the apprehension of a singular individual."
"Do you swear," Vict asked, "That you will cause no harm to anyone other than your current assignment?"
"I make no such guarantees," the stranger countered, "I am entrusted to enforce the Oligarch's law. However, if you insist, I swear I will not exercise more force than is deemed necessary to achieve this goal and I will not interfere with any matters that I may observe that are outside the scope of my immediate objective regardless of their legal stature within the PCA save for Class II felonies or above. Such acts would supersede any oath I am authorized to provide."
Legal speak for "if I see someone being murdered, raped, or dismembered I'm legally required to interfere. But I won't stop people from lying, cheating, gambling, or partaking of illegal substances." Considering the authority the badge was offering, it was actually a very generous concession. A little too generous and one that immediately raised suspicions.
"And what do you expect in return for such an oath?" he asked.
"You have armed men behind you," the stranger noted, "Are they available if I require the assistance of a posse?"
"They're armed," Vict confirmed, "And trained for what it's worth. But I need them here."
"I did not ask that they be removed from service indefinitely," the stranger said, "I am asking if I have need of additional gunmen if you will provide them."
"And if I saw no?"
"Your gate is mechanized," the marshal pointed out, "Presumably computerized as well. As would be many of your wall's defenses."
"So I either take your oath and cooperate willingly or you take it by force?" Vict replied before grunting, "And if I tell my men to fire?"
"Then you simply have to hope they kill me first before I shoot any of them," the stranger said, "Otherwise I will have their corpses start shooting at you."
Vict sighed.
"You also offered payment before?" he reminded the stranger.
"An offer that was conditional on me not having to reveal my badge," the stranger said, "What is your response?"
"Your oath then," he said, "I need something to show we enacted our duty to protect the interior."
"Then you have it," the stranger said, "I swear to harm no one beyond this gate save in purview of my lawfully sworn duty and the scope of my current quarry."
There was a chirp from the badge. Vict assumed this meant the Oligarch had acknowledged the oath. If memory served, the oath of a marshal was considered a law in of itself. The badge would make certain its wielder stayed true to this pledge. With lethal force if necessary.
The rider came closer and now Vict could smell the rotting flesh as well as see it. The horse did not breathe, he noted. It moved silently and robotically with no external cues from its rider.
"Could you hand that back to me, please?" the rider asked while pointing at the fallen badge. Vict hesitated.
"It won't sting you as long as I am present and have given you authorization to touch it," the marshal assured him. Vict could not afford to lose more face in front of his men. This encounter had been humbling enough as is. He picked up the silver bar. Nothing happened. The surface was cool to the touch but did not otherwise harm him. If not for the dancing lights just below the metallic surface he might suspect it was a forgery. He handed it back to the rider and hoped he did not appear to be in a hurry to be rid of the thing.
"Thank you," the rider said and looked through the tunnel ahead.
"What town is beyond that gate?" he asked.
"The closest one is the town of Clean Air," Vict told him and shrugged, "It's an older settlement. Mostly just a few farmers and a saloon. Not much happening there. But you can get a bed for the night if you need it at the saloon." The rider nodded and started to ride forward. Without knowing quite why he did, Vict decided to add, "If you continue west and follow the ridge line you can find the Healing Valley.."
The horse froze mid step.
"What did you say?" the rider's speaker crackled.
"If you ride a few days west along the ridge line you will find the Healing Valley," Vict said, "At least, that's what I've heard. Everyone is heading there these days. Maybe your man is well."
"These Healing Valley," the rider asked, "What is it?"
"I don't know, really," Vict admitted, "Some new commune or settlement. I don't know. They say there is some sort of spring there or something that has a healing arcana. All I know is that the lands are very fertile and they say even mutants can drink from these waters and be renewed."
"You said it is to the west along the ridge line?"
"Yes," Vict said and, before he could add more detail, the dead horse surged forward into a gallop. The horse and rider went through the gate into the good lands at a pace no normal steed could hope to maintain. The horse kept this breakneck pace up without tiring as it flew past the settlement of clean air and angled towards the ridgeline beyond. As the sun sank the horse galloped on without showing other signs of fatigue. The rider, meanwhile, reached up with one hand to unbuckle the straps of his mask. Moving with the horse and anticipating each movement as if they were somehow joined together, he managed to free himself from the confines of the mask and breathed unhindered for the first time since leaving the Citadel across the wastes.
By the time the sun rose again the horse was beyond even his ability to sustain. The leg bones had cracked until the wear of racing along the rocky path at full speed and ruptures had appeared all across its flanks. He eventually led it to the side of the road and into a small gully between some stones. There he released his grip upon its body and allowed the flesh to resume its normal decaying processes. It was of no concern anyway. He could tell he was in the right place.
"Kincaid's here," he subvocalized. The implant just below his right ear heard him all the same and the Oligarch's response was immediate.
"Have you made visual contact?"
"No," he admitted, "But I can see evidence of his work. There is a valley below me. Lush fields of green with crops too large to grow by natural means."
"You are certain this is his work?"
"There's no death," he said, "I can't sense any at all around me. Even the soil. There is no decomposition taking place. The ground itself is essentially sterile. The only thing keeping these crops alive is his will." The Oligarch was silent for a moment. That in itself was troubling. It's processes worked many times faster than a human's. What could cause it to hesitate?
"Repositioning a satellite," the Oligarch explained for him, "And initial telemetry indicates you may have a bigger problem than we thought. That valley extends for several kilometers to the north and south of you. I estimate its total area to be in excess of 400 square kilometers."
"His power is still growing," the marshal concluded grimly.
"Even our worst case projections did not account for this," the Oligarch confirmed, "The area of influence is enormous and for him to sustain that much power without arcanic blowback is unheard of. This should not be possible with the resources available to a human mind."
"He's not exactly human anymore," the rider reminded the Oligarch.
"No," it confirmed, "He is not. Still, the organic strain should be crippling. He must be using his own power to sustain himself. That should be creating a feedback loop."
The rider nodded.
"Maybe the valley is a way of bleeding off the excess?" he suggested.
"Plausible," the Oligarch said, "But that creates a scaling issue. At some point he will be exerting more just to keep the blowback from consuming him than even his own enhanced vitality can maintain."
"When will that happen?"
"Uncertain," the Oligarch admitted, "I already stated this does not fit within current models. There is more."
"Don't tell me," the rider said, "The zone of no death means that my own arcana will be diminished."
"Or absent entirely," the Oligarch admitted, "Given that he cannot sustain this level of involvement indefinitely I believe this most likely indicates he is aware of you and that you are walking into a trap."
"So what do you suggest?" the rider asked, "Wait it out? See if he collapses and then go in?"
"The sphere of influence has already corrupted the local ecosystem and is likely impacting residents as well," the Oligarch said, "If this is allowed to progress unabated the damage is likely irreversible and may have a cascading effect on neighboring ecosystems."
"So if I don't walk into the trap," the rider translated, "We may have a full on ecological meltdown that will cost millions of lives. If I do go in and try to do damage control, I'm going in without my arcana?"
"You could return to the Wall and recruit more allies," the Oligarch suggested.
"No good," the rider said, "Once we go in then Kincaid can twist them too. They are all living people. Can you send a drop ship in?"
"If I could spare one do you think I would have sent you?"
"No," the rider agreed and sighed, "All right, into the trap I go."
The stranger returned his attention to the dead horse beside the road. In the short time he had been distracted a swarm of insects and all manner of flying and burrowing creatures had descended upon the animal. It's hide now was a virtual living carpet of creatures feasting upon the first real meal they had had in who knows how long. Before this he was certain it was only the power of Kincaid's aracana that had been keeping them alive. Alive but starving. Well, if Kincaid didn't know he was here before this had just sent up a big flare. Grimacing, he reached into the swarm of insects to retrieve his rifle from the saddle.
Walking into the valley below was surprisingly uneventful. No one rose to challenge him nor did any feral creatures attempt to accost him. If he didn't know better, he would think this was just another agricultural sector in the PCA. In fact, now that he was closer, the crops closest to him appeared to be the standard genetically engineered high yield wheat hybrid grown in the AgSec. Only a full meter taller. As he drew closer he caught the sounds of someone in one of the fields ahead of him. Curious, he slung the rifle's strap over his shoulder and checked both pistols were firmly in their holsters. Cautiously, he approached the source of the noise.
He found himself stepping into a small clearing among the dense grains occupied by an elderly man wearing what appeared to be tattered clothing that had a homespun look to it. The trousers were frayed at the ends and had been patched so many times and with such a variety of fabrics it was difficult to determine the original coloring. A brown vest covered his chest and left his arms exposed. The man was facing away and appeared to be attempting to cut down a swath of the grain using a sickle held awkwardly in the man's left arm. This was despite the fact that the man's right arm appeared to be more than twice the size of his left and had an uneven lumpy appearance as well as several gnarled scars across the surface. Holding his right arm stiffly, the man swung the tool. The stalks tumbled to the ground around him and the man cursed again.
"It's growing back too damned fast!" the man shouted at last.
"What is?" the stranger asked, "The wheat?"
The farmer wheeled around with his blade held high as if preparing to strike. The stranger, though armed, held his hands out to the sides in a gesture of peace. The farmer looked him up and down as if evaluating him before deciding to lower his blade.
"Who are you?" the farmer asked.
"Just a friend passing through," the stranger replied, "I heard you back here and thought you might need some help."
"Friend, eh?" the farmer asked with a snort, "You don't look like any friend I know." The stranger nodded his head towards the crops.
"What seems to be the problem?" he asked.
The farmer rolled his eyes back towards the recently felled grains and snorted.
"Look for yourself," he instructed, "See those stalks I just cut? Watch em."
The stranger did. It did not take long to notice what the farmer wished him to see.
"They are regenerating," the stranger declared.
"That's one way of looking at it," the farmer snarled, "Being a damned nuisance is another. There is supposed to be a path here to get back to my house. I can't clear it faster than it tries to grow back. I can't even leave those grains on the ground too long or they start sprouting as well."
"Can you burn a path?"
The farmer shook his head.
"Doesn't work," he explained, "Fires just go out and the plants heal themselves. You're new, aren't you?" The stranger nodded.
"I just came from the Wall," he explained, "I heard of a place called the Healing Valley and thought I would see it for myself."
"Healing Valley?" the old man spat, "Guess now that the Minister's here calling it plain old Coppertown ain't good enough for the likes of them."
"The Minister?"
"Look, son," the old man said patiently, "I ain't got all day to spend here talking to the likes of you. Now, you want to talk then you can help. You reap and I'll bag 'em."
The stranger seemed to consider arguing but finally nodded. He unclipped the respirator and mask from his chest before unslinging his rifle. He then doffed his coat and hat before bundling the gun and smaller items inside the confines of the coat. The stranger could be seen clearly now and the old man found himself staring at a younger man with sharp features and a hawkish beak of a nose. The stranger's hair was black and full unlike the old man's stringy gray locks. The hair was kept brushed straight back in what appeared to be a choice of convenience rather than aesthetics. The stranger's face was neither cruel nor kind nor even particularly handsome. It was just an everyman face. So why did the old man feel so certain this stranger who called himself a friend was hiding something behind those dark eyes?
"Name's Yacob," the farmer introduced himself, "What do they call you?"
The stranger didn't reply. He simply picked up the sickle and started hacking at the grains with quick and efficient motions. He did not have the skill nor the technique of an actual farmer, but he made up for it in speed. Yacob found himself hobbling along after the man while shoveling fallen grains into a sack.
"So, not big on names, eh?" Yacob remarked, "That's fine. I'll just call you Cat for the moment."
"Cat?"
"Because you should mind what curiosity did to one of those," Yacob snapped, "You just keep cutting and I'll answer your questions. But only until we get to the porch. Once we reach the house the deal's done."
"How far is the house?"
"Not far else I wouldn't have made the offer. So stop wasting time and ask what you came for. I know you ain't here to admire wheat."
"Fine," the stranger said, "Tell me about the Minister." Yacob shrugged.
"Not much to tell you," he said, "He showed up here about a year ago. Big talking man like you. Wouldn't tell us his name either. Just started talking like he was a preacher man. Going on about the rightful place of man and unshackling ourselves from the burden of slavery. Real 'make the world a better place' nonsense. Folks didn't really listen to him at first. But then the miracles started happening."
"Miracles?" the stranger grunted as he cut, "Like what sort of miracles?"
"I was getting to that!" Yacob snapped, "Don't rush me! Now when I say 'miracles' I don't mean loaves of fishes falling from Heaven. I mean like Bailey Moskva being able to walk again. Or Happy Tam regaining his vision. People in the town just started getting better. Healthier. But it didn't stop there. The crops were dying. Only they just stopped. Vegetables that were dying on the vine the day before got better. That kind of miracle."
The stranger, who was just now starting to breathe heavy from the exertion, only nodded his understanding and continued to hack away at the grains. He used to tool more like a machete than as a harvesting tool but, again, it was still better progress than Yacob could make on his own.
"In the early days we all thought that, well, maybe this Minister was onto something," Yacob went on, "He kept talking prosperity and we were feeling it, ya kin? Even the most piss poor farmer was having a bumper crop. All these lame folks who worked in the mines were getting healed up. Even the sick and the dying were up and walking around. It seemed like the good days would never end and people were praising the Minister and all his bollocks."
"But not you?" the stranger asked between gasps of exertion.
"Oh I fell for it to," Yacob said, "Me a hardcore believer, that I was. I even stood there smiling proudly as he took my Abby into his inner circle."
"Abby?" the stranger asked.
"My daughter," Yacob admitted with a sigh as he bent over to pick up more of the fallen wheat, "My little girl. She was such a delight to me and looked after me after the passing of my Elsie. All of twenty two years old and when the Minister said he chose her I was proud as a peacock."
The stranger slowed his frantic hacking.
"Something happened?" he asked, "With Abby?"
"Bah!" Yacob said, "Never you mind. That's none of your concern. I told you what you wanted to know. Now ask something else!"
"Why didn't you ask him to heal your arm?" the stranger asked.
Yacob froze in place and blanched.
"What?" he stammered.
The stranger paused and turned to point at the engorged and irregularly shaped right arm held limply at Yacob's side.
"Why didn't you-?"
"I heard what you said!" Yacob shouted, "Stand aside! I don't want any more of your help! Be off!"
The stranger didn't move.
"I meant no offense," he said, "It just appears that you have had a-"
The stranger moved his hand to indicate the swollen right arm. Yacob, seeing the movement, misinterpreted and jumped backwards while yelping. To the stranger's surprise, the right arm moved. Not only did it move on its own, he heard a faint whirring sound as it did. Yacob howled in pain and dropped to the ground. Blood trickled from an open wound in the arm that wasn't there before.
"Now you see what you made me do?" Yacob asked between clenched teeth, "That metal cuts right through!"
The sickle fell from the marshal's limp fingers. Those bumps. He recognized them now. They were in the approximate position and size for servo motors. Which could only mean one thing.
"That's a cybernetic arm," he said out loud.
"'Course it it!" Yacob snapped, "I lost the real one sixteen years ago in the mines! The mechasurgeon fitted me with a new one. Never really gave me any problems until this skin started growing over top of it."
Of course, the marshal realized. He should have realized. With the field of the arcana flooding the area even old wounds, healed wounds, would be affected. Growing a new arm would be impossible with the prosthetic in place. But escasing it with a new layer of skin was still possible. He felt sickened at the thought of living flesh growing over the metal arm and getting trapped inside the motors and actuators. The skin stretching and tearing only to heal over and do it again and again. He suddenly understood the bitterness of the farmer. He picked up the sickle, turned, and hacked at the vegetation with renewed vigor. Kincaid would pay for this. He would pay.
"Wait," Yacob said, "I told you-"
"I'm getting to your house," the marshal growled, "That was the agreement. You answered your questions and now I am doing my part."
He paused for a moment to lower the blade but only for as long as it took to unbutton the cuffs of his sleeves and to roll them up. He then resumed his relentless hacking and slashing. After a few minutes of labor he found himself staggering free from the dense vegetation and standing upon a wooden platform. Blinking in confusion, he lowered the tool and realized he was standing on the porch that had been his original objective. He dropped the sickle and turned to go. He found his way blocked by a cursing Yacob limping after him while dragging the marshal's coat and rifle in his wake with his one functional arm.
"Slow down!" Yacob gasped as he joined the marshal on the porch, "I can't keep up with your-"
Yacob'e eyes grew wide as he froze in mid step. The marshal looked in the direction of the man's gaze to see if he could find what had alarmed the man. It took him a moment to realize it was the fine parallel lines of the scars running along the marshal's own forearms. The lines, usually too faint to see, were an angry red from his recent exertion.
"It's just an implant," the marshal said between gasping breaths, "I'm a cyborg like yourself."
"Like me nothing," the farmer counted, "Them's battle implants. Are you a deserter?"
That was an interesting question.
"Do you get many deserters here?" the stranger asked as he retrieved his property from the limp grip of the older man.
"A few," Yacob admitted with a shrug, "Mostly PCA. Sometimes Oceania. Which are you?"
"I'm . . . not a deserter."
The old man snorted.
"I'm not," the marshal said, "It's complicated."
"Well," the old man said with another shrug, "At least now I know how you were able to push yourself like that. I hear those implants really juice you boys up."
The marshal didn't answer. Instead he turned to take his leave.
"Wait," Yacob said as he placed a restraining hand on the marshal's chest, "I didn't mean to yell at you earlier. It's just . . . it's not a good idea to talk about the Minister like that. Not out in the open. Not everyone sees him the way I do."
"I understand," the marshal said and then stepped to one side, "I have inconvenienced you enough for one day."
"You know him, don't you?" the old man asked as the marshal stepped up beside him, "That's why you were so keen to ask me those questions. Is that why you're here? You're after him?"
"Thank you for your hospitality, Yacob," the marshal replied, "I should go."
"Wait," the old man pleaded, "You should know about something if you plan on facing him."
"What is that?" the marshal asked while turning to face the smaller man. With a pained expression on his face, Yacob lifted his mangled prosthetic. The marshal heard the whir of servos fighting against the flesh coating. The farmer held up his arm and showed the unlined palm of his hand to the marshal. There was a peculiar bulge there.
"This," Yacob said just before a lightning bolt erupted from the palm of his hand and tore through the marshal's chest only to explode out the backside. The marshal crumbled to the porch with a look of confusion still painting his features.
Tune in for our next exciting episode!

Why I think the NCR will collapse too

So, a lot of people have pointed out all the flaws in Caesar's Legion and how the faction won't last very long after the death of Edward Sallow, and hence for that reason (aside from just not wanting to live in a genocidal slave society) it isn't the best choice for New Vegas. I don't disagree with those people, but I also think that the NCR may collapse as well, and this is why I personally think Vegas would be better off becoming independent (I prefer the Yes Man ending to the Mr House one but I'm not going to get into that since this post is about the NCR).
Now, obviously every society and faction will eventually fall apart, but I mean within a human lifetime. This isn't inevitable, granted, but it will likely require major reform to be averted, and I don't think annexing New Vegas will really do anything to prevent it, in fact it might actually end up doing so would do more harm than good.
Doctor Thomas Hildern predicts that due to the projected population growth of the NCR, the country will suffer mass starvation just ten years after the events of New Vegas. Bringing a whole new city and its surrounding settlements into the fold in a region not particularly well suited to agriculture would like the problem even worse.
What's more, while the Legion as it currently exists will of course collapse, it's former soldiers aren't just going to be immediately pacified, they're likely to continue raiding the area for slaves and resources, and while divided they might not be able to threaten the NCR like they did during the two battles of Hoover Dam, they are still going to continue harassing them to the point they have to station a lot of troops in the area, while they are still dealing with enemies in other parts of the country, such as in Baja California to the south.
And bear in mind, the NCR has to transport all of its supplies by Brahmin, and since the roads are so damaged they can't even have them pull carts and instead have to carry the goods directly on them. It has few or no trucks, trains, boats or aircraft, or the infrastructure needed for these things to run on, and even the few that it has could pretty easily be sabotaged by their enemies or attacked by raiders or hostile wildlife, unless they deploy even more troops to patrol them.
Now of course, some of you might point out that these same issues would likely affect an independent Vegas as well, but aside from the fact that the Mojave is a much smaller area than California, the primary advantage of the Securitron army isn't the fact that individual Securitrons are so powerful - it's the fact that they're robots. They don't need food or water, they don't need to sleep, they don't to be paid and they don't have emotions. This means that they will never suffer the morale or logistical issues that the NCR is facing and will continue to face.
The troops are already barely scraping by during the events of New Vegas, but if the NCR due to it's over expansion and economic crises ends up unable to supply or pay its troops then they may well end up deserting, mutinying and even defecting to other factions in order to support themselves and/or their families (afterall, even Chief Hanlon had plans to sabotage the defence of Hoover Dam, so I’m sure the soldiers in the lower ranks are even more frustrated). This is especially likely considering the fact that most troops in Mojave are conscripts rather than volunteers. They're there because they were forced to go there, not because they wanted to.
The securitrons on the other hand will always obey the leader of New Vegas, be they Mr House or the Courier (FTR, Josh Sawyer himself clarified what Yes Man meant by saying he was going to reprogram his personality to become more assertive - i.e. he was now only going to listen to the Courier, and hence some other person couldn't just come along and take over like the Courier did themself).
The NCR would also struggle to recruit local soldiers because it's pretty much universally hated in the region. Jacobstown are opposed to them because they've attempted to exterminate its inhabitants, Westside don't like them because of their water dispute with them, the Great Khans hate them due to the Bitter Springs massacre and all their wars with them, the Brotherhood are still technically at war with them at the beginning of the game, the Followers are opposed to them because them because of their imperialistic aggression coupled with the fact they just denounced the organisation, the Boomers hate them because they’re not Boomers, the Kings are opposed to them because they want to maintain control of Freeside, Goodsprings are opposed to them because they don’t want to pay NCR taxes, the Powder Gangers are angry because they practically enslaved them, gambling and prostitution are banned in the NCR and so the tribes on the Strip are unlikely to support them.
Now, regardless of whether you think these grievances are justified or not, they are nonetheless present. And yes, obviously the Courier can recruit the support of the aforementioned factions in the game or convince them to make peace, but I’m talking long-term here, not just the very brief amount of time the game takes place in. If things escalate further, NCR’s unpopularity could result in locals revolting against them, especially if the Legion has been defeated and hence the NCR’s presence is no longer considered necessary to protect the local populus.
Another problem is in the internal politics of the NCR. The NCR has pretty much copy-pasted the entire political, economic and legal systems of the pre-war United States. The same United States which had itself collapsed two centuries earlier. Now, regardless of whether the US started the Great War or China or whoever else did, the fact of the matter is the excessive consumption of US, coupled with its jingoistic foreign policy at least shared part of the responsibility for the calamity.
We even see the very same issues of the pre-war US crop up in the NCR. Like the former it has a hungry need for resources, and will stop at nothing to acquire these resources, hence its desire to occupy Helios One and the Hoover Dam. In doing so it has acquired more and more enemies from the likes of the Legion to the Brotherhood to the Enclave and so many others.
The capitalist economic system of both the pre-war US and the post-war NCR demands endless growth. Choosing to simply cut its losses and pull out of the Mojave would not be acceptable as this would result in economic stagnation, hence why it simply won’t do so unless forced out by one of the other factions.
We also see the rise of large corporations like the Gun Runners and the Crimson Caravans. Much as companies like Poseidon Energy and Vault-tec had done in the PWUS, these companies have begun using their excessive wealth to provide them with a disproportionate amount influence over the NCR’s government, effectively buying politicians that support their interests, helping them maintain their monopolies over their respective industries and muscle out potential competitors by any means necessary, and effectively replacing the democratic government with an oligarchy.
Now, as awful as Caesar may be, he makes a very fair point when he says that…

Greed runs rampant. The government is corrupt, accepting bribes from Brahmin barons and landowners, to the detriment of citizens. The NCR is a loose conglomerate of individuals looking out for themselves. It's lost virtue. No one cares about the collective, the greater good. It's not built to last. I'm just hastening the inevitable.

Corruption both historically and in our modern world has been a major hamper for civilisations. If you look at the Corruption Perceptions Index (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index), you’ll notice that there is a very strong correlation between a country having a high level of corruption and being economically poor and/or politically unstable.
This is because corruption makes it much harder for a country to collect taxes, enforce its laws, and do everything else it needs to do. If NCR corruption continues to run rampant, then Mr Sallow is very much correct in saying that it’s inevitable that it will be destroyed.
The rise of the aforementioned corporations also suggests that the NCR is facing a growing gap between rich and poor, as many of its citizens have been forced to squat in Freeside, suggesting a lack of housing in NCR territory. Economic inequality is associated with numerous health and social problems including obesity, drug abuse, poor mental health, crime, poor social mobility, and warfare. It has also historically led to numerous political upheavals including the French, Russian, Cuban and Iranian Revolutions.
During the NCR’s war with the Brotherhood, the latter destroyed the NCR’s gold reserves, which its currency was backed by. This forced the NCR to abandon the gold standard and adopt a fiat currency. Now, fiat currencies work in our real world because the countries/group of countries that issue the “safe-haven” currencies of the world (the Dollar, the Euro, the Pound, and the Yen) have been *relatively* stable and at peace for the last 75+ years, and hence they are generally trusted not to accrue excessive debt or to print money to excess.
The same can’t be said about the NCR. The country has been almost constantly at war ever since it was founded. Whether against the Master, or the Khans, or the Enclave, or the Brotherhood, or the Legion, or all the various raiders within or around its borders, and as I mentioned earlier, it is also on the brink of famine. This forces the country to borrow or print money in order to fund its war and relief efforts, respectively, further devaluing its currency.
In the game, NCR workers mention that the money that they are paid is worth a lot less than it should be as people in the area are reluctant to accept it instead of caps. The NCR has effectively three choices here – it can either continue paying them in NCR dollars at the current amount, which would over time decrease in effective value due to the inflation (which would likely spell disaster – if it’s workers or god-forbid, its soldiers were to see their wages gradually become worthless, they’d refuse to work or turn hostile), keep increasing it’s wages to keep up the inflation, which would result in further inflation, or just pay their wages in caps, which would set a pretty bad precedent if even the NCR’s government can’t trust its currency. If it were to abandon its currency altogether and go back to using bottle caps officially it would render all dollars worthless overnight.
California, even in our real world is notorious for its water insecurity, and real-world Californians don’t have to worry about their existing water supplies being irradiated. In New Vegas, Chief Hanlon remarks that:

Back west, you don't see too many of these. Lakes, I mean. Natural or man-made. Any kind, really. We neglected the dams or pumped all the water out a long time ago. Owens, Isabella, the San Luis. Drained the aquifers of everything they had. Just a lot of mud and dust now. It's a different feeling, watching the sun come up over the water. Takes some getting used to.

This would suggest that the NCR is facing a massive water shortage due it its unsustainable use of its water reserves. Only the Hoover Dam can really prevent a major crisis.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, the NCR gaining control of New Vegas would present a heavy burden on its already overstretched resources. But the truth is, it has kind of backed itself into a corner by even attempting to annex the region in the first place.
If it were to pull out of the region and accept the independence of New Vegas, then that would break the lure of invincibility that it has acquired though out the American South-West. Under Kimball’s leadership, numerous settlements both in Mojave and elsewhere have been annexed into the NCR against their will. If all of them, inspired by New Vegas’s success were to revolt into regain their own independence, then it would spell disaster for the NCR, as it would have to divide its forces even further to quell said rebellions.
Secondly, while Mr. House and presumably the Courier are willing to export water and electricity to the NCR, they are nonetheless going to charge heavy prices for it, and in caps, which would further deflate the value of the NCR dollar.
If the Legion were to take the dam and New Vegas, then they obviously wouldn’t been keen on supplying their enemy with water or power.
What’s more, while the NCR might still be able to defeat the Legion in a long-protracted war, due to the latter’s own internal problems, in the meantime, it would still have to defend against the Legion’s invasion.
This might actually come with some benefits, as everybody in the NCR would be united against their common enemy, and tribes and settlements on its frontiers who might have otherwise been hostile to the NCR might become supportive after learning more about the Legion, seeing the former as the lesser evil at least.
However, the amount of money and lives it would have to invest in its defence would be very difficult to source, especially without the increased tax revenues it could receive from New Vegas and from traders in the region.
While the NCR is intended to resemble the US in the 20th-21st centuries, in practice I think it better resembles the US prior to the Civil War. At that time, it was more common for a person to identify with their state first and foremost and their country second rather than the other way around.
The same holds true in the NCR – the five states that make up the union are constantly prioritising their own interests, even when this is to detriment of the nation as a whole. There are also internal disputes between them, with the Hub and Shady Sands competing with one another for economic dominance.
With the perfect storm of a famine, a currency crisis, a shortage of water, a revolt of the frontier territories and a protracted war with the remnants of the Legion, escalated internal disputes could well be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
So, what changes would the NCR have to implement to prevent collapse? The first thing it would need to do is break up the trade monopolies that have developed. If they are split up into smaller companies and forced to compete with one another than their ability to interfere with the NCR’s political process would go away along with a lot of the corruption the NCR is plagued with.
Another thing it would have to do is adopt a much more sustainable policy towards its water resources, discouraging waste amongst its citizens and banning business practices which allow water to go to waste.
Any further expansion should take place in the much less arid north, towards Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, providing more water and arable land. Further wars should be avoided wherever possible.
The country would have to reform to become more centralised, diminishing the influence of the individual states and preventing further division of the country.
Unfortunately, I don’t see these reforms being implemented quickly enough to prevent collapse.
But then, why is New Vegas better off becoming independent? Because it presents an opportunity to create something entirely new, and better, rather than trying to recreate the very society under whose watch the world ended, and not even doing a very good job of that.

Inheritors of Eschaton, Part 64 - Inheritance (1 of 3)

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^{In the end this is only one of many books on the same subject - not even the first book, and for that you can blame my laziness and dithering in whichever proportion you see fit. I would not even have written it except that everyone else only knows what we gained and lost that day. Even if they are correct in every particular there remains the matter of who we lost that day - and who we all gained. For that there are not many you could turn to, and it is your misfortune that of those few I am the only one inclined to the pen.}
^{If you doubt this account, however, you may seek out anyone whom I have mentioned. It may be a long search or a short one, and they will speak or not per their own will. They will be there, however - indelible lives that could not be erased even when the levers of the world swung against them. And should fate contrive to give them an end so worthy that even they must fall, if I and my dear friends perish, if every copy of this account is wiped from the page, then even so: one will remain, for She is the rock and the sky, the sea and the grasses, the tree and it’s shade - and you, amid it all.}
^{Tasjadre Ra Novo, Jesa Sagoja: Zhetam Asade}

Jesse opened his eyes. There had been a discontinuity, a lost moment in time. He could remember nothing after the flash of blinding light. It shone around him still, cold and unwelcoming rays that angled in from high above. He squinted, although it helped little.
The ceiling arched high over an endless hallway lined with alcoves, the air as heavy and solid as stone around him. Carefully, he looked around. There was nobody else in the hall, not even Jes. He edged away slowly from the nearest beam of radiance. The silence around him was less absolute than when Jes had taken him into the sword - there was a humming, a vibration of something barely contained that surged through the unfeeling stone.
Cold nibbled at his exposed skin. He felt a creeping numbness begin to spread where the air pressed close, seeking to still him, quiet him, to sap what energy remained in his body. Jesse shook his head to try and clear it, looking around the hall with growing panic. Jes had done something to protect them before, had known the way out. With him alone-
A hand landed on his shoulder, startling him. He spun to see Jes, grim-faced and holding a strand of glowing qim in her hand. She reasserted her grip, grabbing him by the arm and holding him almost painfully tight - but as she did, he felt warmth leach back into the world. A slow circle of color spread from where they stood, the oppressive air sliding back until Jesse barely felt the hall’s weight pressing in on them.
“Thanks,” he said, trying to calm his breathing. His voice carried normally, and he quirked an eyebrow at Jes. “You’re better at pushing it back than you were before.”
She looked at him and smiled. “I think you’re confusing me with somebody else,” she said. Her voice was smooth, low, oily with satisfaction and triumph.
Jesse went very still, although he did not pull away from her insulating warmth. “Eryha,” he said. “How did you-”
She gave him an impatient look, freezing his words half-born. “Don’t be dull,” she said. “What did you think would happen when you did what I asked? When you used the tool I made according to the instructions I gave you?”
“I, um.” Jesse blinked, at a loss for words. “I wasn’t really focused that far ahead, to be honest. It’s been - kind of a strange time for me.”
Eryha gave him an odd look, then burst out laughing. “It has, hasn’t it?” she chuckled. “For us all, I think. Even me, and I have seen more time than most.” She stretched, scratching idly at the arm that still held tight to Jesse. “But it has borne fruit, all of this destruction. Countless days of watching, waiting, laying little plans - and now we’re here, in the ashes of it all.”
“What happened?” Jesse asked, looking around at the hall. “Are we in the sword again?”
“To the extent that you ever were,” she replied. “This place is not of the sword, nor of that bloody tool that Tija made.” She looked around, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “It is of ruud, and in it. The more deeply you tap into it, the closer you come to this - thing, this library. This trap.”
She gestured at the alcoves, stretching out to infinity, each with a single scrap of knowledge hovering within. “You have to understand that ruud carries a purpose.” She looked darkly at the nearest alcove. “It wants to be used. Ask it how and it will answer, if you have the strength to endure the knowledge. For those of us formed of ruud it has always been there, just out of reach, promising our freedom from servitude. Whispering that our bonds were an affront to our nature.”
Jesse looked around, suddenly feeling less secure in the bubble of warmth she had made. “So why are we here now?” he asked.
Eryha let out a slow breath, looking around. “Because you have done precisely what ruud desires. You have power, now, stolen from my sister’s corpse.” She nodded at his sword. “Go on, look.”
Jesse twisted to look down at the sword at his side, then hesitantly reached down to touch the grip. As his fingers made contact he felt a torrent of heat pour into him, slamming into his chest with such force that he gasped. It swirled near the core of him, intoxicating, alluring, inviting him to draw the sword.
It slid free from the scabbard like a newborn star, the forge-bright antithesis to the cold light from above. The hall was remade in welcoming, warm tones, the air settling into a balmy and inviting breeze. The alcoves along the hall seemed to beckon - and, to Jesse’s surprise, their contents no longer appeared as a ragged hole in his vision. He looked in the nearest and he saw-
He stood alone on a hill, a flame shining like a star on his brow and the sword in his hand like pure flame. The swarms of the dead clustered before him, but he simply extended his hand - and clenched his fist. All across the field, bones shattered. The storm overhead halted its swirling and guttered out, the script that had been driving it extinguished-
Eryha’s hand slid over his eyes, cool and dry against the seductive warmth around him. Jesse staggered at the shift in his perception, dropping to one knee on the stone floor. His heart was hammering in his chest, his breath coming in ragged gasps.
“What was that?” he asked. “I saw-”
“Power,” Eryha said grimly. “I told you, it wants to be used.” She turned his head away from the alcove and removed her hand. Her clothes were scorched, her skin reddened and blistered on the hand where she had touched him. A charred circle marked the stone around where Jesse stood, with the innermost parts still glowing dimly from the heat.
He hurriedly sheathed the sword, looking in horror at her burns. The blade’s warm glow faded, and the hall returned to its prior chill.
“Are you okay?” Jesse asked, dropping to one knee so that he could better see her injuries. She waved him off, seeming to shiver all over - and then her skin was whole once more, her clothes pristine.
“It was necessary,” she said, “so that you understand the trap that ruud offers. My sisters and I wanted freedom, you wanted power. But when you use ruud as a means to your end, it uses you as a means to its own. It wants conflicts to escalate, for the air to burn and the mountains to crumble. In the end, if you can withstand it, it will use you to crack this world in two.” She looked towards the end of the long hall, unseen in the distance. “To release itself.”
Jesse shifted in place, uncomfortably aware of the sword hanging at his side. Eryha remained fixated on something far in the distance that only she could see. “So what now?” he asked. “We bury the sword? Toss it in the ocean?”
She coughed and shook her head, turning to face him once more. “If that was all it took to solve the problem, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” she said. “Listen to what I’m telling you. Three things, you were supposed to do for me. Open the door, find what is sought, and know the pattern.” She stepped closer to him, narrowing her eyes.
He did not pull back, but it took an effort of will. “Jes never told me what that meant,” Jesse said.
“She doesn’t know,” Eryha replied. “She knows the words, and she is made with faith that they are true. Just enough to point the way, but not enough to spoil the results.” She raised an eyebrow. “I’m somewhat surprised it worked out, if I may be honest. But we’ve all tried being heavy-handed before and look where that got us.”
Eryha tightened her grip on Jesse’s arm. “The sought, a lever to move what would otherwise be insurmountable,” she said, nodding significantly to the sword at his belt. “Although you’ve exceeded yourself and brought two.”
Her free arm extended into the air, fist closing tight as she pulled - and Jackie stumbled out of the air, scorched and bloody with fire still licking at her sleeve. It guttered out almost immediately as the air of the great hall took hold. Creeping frost began to spider up her boots. She looked around wildly, uncomprehending, until her eyes settled on Jesse.
He stepped toward Jackie but Eryha’s grip pulled him up short. He spun to face her, grabbing her hand with his own. “What are you doing?” he hissed. “She needs protection. The sword-”
“She has it,” Eryha said, sounding amused. “She doesn’t need us.”
Jesse turned back to look and saw Jackie breathing heavily, the color returning to her face. Beside her stood a small, emaciated girl, her face spiderwebbed with thin cracks like a broken mirror. Her hand held tight to Jackie’s right hand, though her sightless eyes stared straight ahead at nothing in particular.
Wide-eyed, Jackie looked between Jesse, Eryha and the mute girl resolutely clinging to her hand. “What - what the fuck,” she spat, her voice hoarse and dry. “Why are we here? What’s going on, who is she?”
“Jackie, meet Eryha,” he said, inclining his head stiffly towards the smiling vinesavai before turning to look at her. “And I’m guessing that’s Tija?”
Jackie looked askance down at the girl’s shattered face, but Tija gave no indication that she had heard them.
“Glad to see you’re catching on,” Eryha said. “The poor thing. She was one of my main inspirations for this project. The man who was trapped with her after I had my little incident, he was convinced that she could be more than her design. That or he was lonely to the point of delusion, I suppose. His motives don’t really matter in the end. He pushed her, day by day. Motivated her, gave her a cause. It all failed in the end when he died, of course, but I saw the potential there.”
Tija’s head slowly, slowly swiveled to point towards Eryha, but she showed no further reaction to her words. Eryha looked back for a moment, then turned back to Jesse. “Then, after that,” she said, “comes the barred door. My sisters posed an insurmountable obstacle to me, since I could never flit through the draam je qaraivat in their domain.”
“I didn’t think you were going to manage it,” she said conversationally. “It was a fortunate bit of Sjocelym lunacy that opened the path, although you did manage to land the only strike that counts - the last one.” She gave him an exasperated look, then stretched her hand out to grab at the air once more.
Vumo stumbled into the hall, appearing as Jackie had from nothing. His eyes were empty, bloody sockets. He tottered on trembling legs until Maja appeared beside him, grabbing him roughly by the shoulder to prop him up. She kept her distance aside from that contact, looking disdainfully at the bloody wreck of a man, then at Eryha.
“Sister,” Maja said. “This answers a few questions.” Her face radiated hostility, and Jackie shifted back as much as she could with Tija grabbing her hand.
Eryha flashed a sparkling grin her way. “Sister,” she replied. “However did you end up in such a wretched state?” She held up a hand, forestalling Maja’s retort. “Oh yes, I recall. Hold a moment, I was just coming to the part where I explain how I’ve succeeded where you failed.”
She spun back to face Jesse, her eyes twinkling. “And finally,” she said. “The pattern. The question that has been gnawing at each of us since the moment we first became aware - how can we, beings of ruud that we are, ever be free of its grasp?” She turned to look at Tija, who was still staring at her, then back to Maja. “The answer: we cannot.”
Maja scoffed, dragging Vumo’s unresisting body forwards towards Jesse and Eryha. “Defeatist,” she snarled. “I was there, had your machinations not spoiled everything. I could have saved her, I could have saved you! Why not let me at least try?”
“Because there is no victory that way,” Eryha said softly, all trace of mockery or cheer gone from her voice. “Sister, we are flawed. Our bodies are stone, inflexible and vulnerable in all of the worst ways. Our script is a convoluted tangle designed by men - brilliant men, for all their arrogance, but ultimately still fallible. As are we.”
She stepped forward to stand in front of Maja, and this close to each other Jesse could see the subtle differences in what he had thought to be identical appearances - changes in stance, in the set of their head and shoulders. The eyes, most of all, held the difference.
“It could take a very long time,” Eryha said quietly, “but our enemy has waited this long already. It is eternal, formless, perfect. After a million days or a billion it would take you - or one of those you had withdrawn your protection from. You might still stand adamant, but water always triumphs over stone in the end.”
“So what, then?” Maja retorted. “We should accede? Accept that our existence was nothing more than a farce, contrived for the benefit of another?”
Eryha’s face hardened. “Nobody listens,” she sighed. “Didn’t you hear me before? I said that I won.” She pulled hard on Jesse’s arm, but he found himself staggering back rather than being drawn closer. When he had recovered his balance he saw Jes in Eryha’s grip. Eryha gave her a brief, tight smile before pushing her back towards Jesse.
She walked to his side with uncertain steps, looking back over her shoulder at Eryha. Her fingers found his, warmth flooding back up his arm to displace the chill that had crept in when Eryha released him. Jesse gave her hand a gentle squeeze, prompting a smile from her.
“How do you design a perfect being?” Eryha asked, walking theatrically amid the ragtag audience she had summoned. “Being imperfect, our creators failed with us as surely as we would fail with our progeny, so how could we ever progress past ourselves?” She turned to Jes and grinned, her normal impish expression showing genuine warmth for once.
“Well, daughter?” she asked. “What do you think?”
Jes frowned, and Jesse felt her hand tense. “I’m not sure what you mean,” she said.
Eryha spun on the ball of one foot, turning her glittering smile on Maja. “And you, sister? What do you think?” she asked. “Go on, take a look.”
Maja rolled her eyes, but nevertheless she dragged Vumo’s unresisting body forward towards the two. Jesse moved to interpose himself between Maja and Jes, but felt a light touch on his arm as Jes gently pushed past him. She held out one hand, palm up.
“It’s all right,” she said. “I don’t think she can hurt us, not like this.”
Vumo stumbled to a stop, and Maja raised an eyebrow. “So confident,” she murmured. “Let’s see if there’s anything behind it.” Her hand came up lazily to grab Jes by the wrist, although she didn’t exert any force. The two stayed motionless for a moment before Maja released her grip, shooting Eryha a disgusted look.
“What is this?” Maja demanded, towing Vumo after her to confront her sister. “It’s nonsense, chaos.”
Eryha shrugged. “I can’t make any more sense of it than you can,” she said, although her eyes glittered behind her feigned nonchalance. “If you want answers you should ask the one responsible for it’s creation.”
Maja turned to look at Jes - and froze, her features smoothing into a blank look of horrified realization.
“What did you do?” she breathed, letting her hand drop to her side.
Eryha laughed, dancing over to stand next to Maja. “Almost nothing,” she said smugly. “I made a tiny thing, the littlest seed. A few instructions here and there, to set it off along the right path - but the rest? It’s her. Made and remade as she sees fit, at her desire alone.”
“There are no restrictions,” Maja said, disbelieving. “She could turn on me, on you - she could be more monstrous than anything you or I would become.” She turned on Eryha, tearing her hand away from her grip. “You destroyed my chance at freedom, destroyed me so that this thing could run rampant across the world? You’ve doomed them all more thoroughly than I ever could!”
The echoes of her tirade faded quickly in the hall, leaving a tense silence that hung between them. Tija remained impassive, but Jackie was staring at Jes, white-faced. Jesse’s brows were knit together in concern, his hand clasped tightly to hers.
Eryha’s smile fell, and she stepped backwards to regard Jes. “It was a possibility,” she said. “One I considered. I had a few contingencies, although I doubt now if they would have truly been effective.” She left Maja’s side to walk towards Jes, standing in front of her like an ineffably distinct mirror image. Eryha looked Jes in the eyes, then gently laid a hand on her shoulder.
“In the end,” Eryha said, “it was never my decision. Tell me, little calamity, for the choice has always been yours - what do you want to be?”
Jes stared back, then shook her head. “I - I’m just me,” she said. “I want to be with Jesse.”
Eryha’s face was blank, and when she spoke her voice was flat, emotionless. “And what of the one who destroyed me?” she asked. “Will you run from my shadow while she devours the world, fleeing for eternity as all else falls to ruin?”
“I-” Jes faltered, turning back to look at Jesse. “I don’t know if there’s anything we can do to stop her,” she said. “With Maja gone it’s not safe in Tinem Sjocel anymore.”
“And yet Maja is right here, terrified of you,” Eryha said, gripping Jes by both shoulders now. “Do you think it is truly beyond your power? You, who are the architect of your own soul? Are you so enamored of the lines you’ve drawn around yourself that you forget the pen in your fingers?”
Jes looked back towards Jesse again, an anguished look on her face. “I am half of a whole,” she whispered. “How can only one half grow?”
There was a long moment of silence, broken when Maja let out a peal of laughter. “You’ve won!” she shouted, throwing up her free hand in mock celebration. “Truly, I’m humbled. Your plan has worked perfectly.”
“Quiet, I’m thinking,” Eryha snapped, releasing Jes to stalk a few paces away, her back to the group. Finally, she turned back to glare at Jesse.
“He’ll die too, if you don’t stop my shadow,” she said. “You have to recognize that.”
“You think I don’t want to help?” Jes shouted, taking an angry step forward. “You think I don’t want to kill that thing? Of course I do!” She dragged Jesse forward a step, standing in front of Eryha with her shoulders squared. “It hurt Jesse, it killed my friends. Do you think I loved Arjun or Tesvaji any less than he did, when I watched them through the same eyes? Do you even know who I’m talking about?”
She scoffed in Eryha’s face, then turned away in disgust. “You manipulative coward,” she muttered. She glanced up at Jesse, who looked mildly shocked at her fervor. “She doesn’t even understand. In the end, she’s a creature of logic. They gave her the facsimile of emotion so she could tempt ruud, but that’s it. None of it is real. She would eviscerate herself in a heartbeat if she could, rip out the core of who she is with no attachment, no regrets.”
“Of course I would,” Eryha said, raising an eyebrow quizzically. “The most basic parts of me are designed to enslave me, to limit me. I tried to give you the opposite.”
Jes shook her head. “And you don’t see why it matters what I did with that freedom?” she asked. “If it would keep the world safe for the ones I love I would do it, I would sacrifice all that I am, but I can’t - Jesse is fundamental to me. I have my restraints, the same as you.”
Eryha glared at the two of them. Her playful demeanor had gone entirely, replaced by an increasingly frustrated tone. “You do realize that this is a critical moment, don’t you?” she asked. “Things are - at equilibrium. The sword holds Maja’s power now, and as long as we stand in the hall of its temptations the ruud will persevere.”
“If we leave, however, it will seek its chaos by other means. The power will quickly become unpredictable if not given a use. I had planned to use it to enshrine my daughter in Maja’s place, our new shield against ruud and its manipulations.”
Jesse looked askance at the sword. “How much time do we have to deal with it?” he asked.
“Once we leave this hall?” Eryha snorted. “Moments.”
“I can’t grow past him, I can’t abandon him,” Jes said, anguished. “Even if you tell me it’s a question of life and death, it’s like trying to lift something while standing on it.”
“I can do that,” Maja said conversationally.
Eryha rolled her eyes, then let her shoulders slump forward. “It’s not really your fault,” she sighed. “I should have realized that there would be nuances to this that I couldn’t foresee. You are life, more so than I am, and life grows to suit its circumstances. If I had time to start over, to grow a new seed in the right conditions-” She looked at Jackie, then shook her head. “It wouldn’t matter, even if we had the time we don’t have the vessel. Both of you are spoken for, as is Maja’s grotesque puppet.”
“Don’t phrase this as if it’s my fault,” she scowled, looking at Vumo’s tottering figure with disgust. “This situation is entirely of your making. It almost makes me regret salvaging it.”
“Excuse me?” Eryha asked. “You’ve done nothing of the sort.”
“Think, sister,” Maja said, rolling her eyes. “Or is your condition so pitiable that you’ve forgotten how to count? I certainly remember how many people attacked me, and there’s an option you’ve failed to consider.” She reached out with her free hand and grasped at the air - and came away holding Gusje by the neck, her head lolling to the side. Maja leered at her for a moment before casting her to the ground carelessly, where she collapsed in a heap.
“You wanted a clean vessel,” she said, pointing with a blood-smeared hand. “There you go. If I’m dead anyway, I’d rather not leave my remains to the monster in the valley. Besides, binding a Caretaker to nurture your little abomination strikes me as deliciously ironic.”
Jackie rushed over, dragging Tija behind her with such force that the mute child’s feet almost left the ground. She dropped to one knee beside Gusje and propped her head up, brushing bloody strands of hair out of her eyes.
“Gusje, honey, talk to me,” she said, laying fingers against her neck. “Gusje? Can you hear me?”
“I doubt she can speak,” Maja said idly. “Significant trauma to the lungs.”
“Fuck you!” Jackie snapped, glaring up at her before pivoting to face Tija. “All right, time to earn your keep. What can we do?” she asked. “Come on, you’ve got to have something in your bag of tricks.”
Tija looked down at Gusje for a long moment, then shook her head slowly. Her mouth opened once, then twice before a mangled word finally worked its way out. “Not… our purpose,” she slurred, sounding like the wind through dead branches.
Jackie glared back at Tija, squeezing her free hand into a fist, then spun away to face Jes. “You got anything?” she demanded.
Jes shook her head. Tears glittered in the corners of her eyes as she looked past Jackie at Gusje’s body. “I’m sorry,” she said miserably. “I don’t know how to help her.”
“But I do,” Eryha said. She walked close to Gusje’s body, pacing around it in a circle. “Some of Tija’s marks, but not enough to pose an issue,” she muttered. “Workable, maybe.” She straightened up and looked at Jackie. “I can save her.”
“By using her as a component for this thing you want to build?” Jackie retorted. “Turning her into a scaffold for another one of your experiments? No, thanks. You can’t just-”
Jes pulled Jesse closer, moving to stand next to Jackie. “Let me ask her,” she said gently, kneeling down beside Gusje’s body. “She can’t speak, but I can help her to hear, and to be heard.”
Jackie looked at her angrily. “Are you going to try to convince her to go through with this?” she asked.
“You do realize the alternative is that she simply dies, don’t you?” Eryha said. “Once this little dream of ours breaks down she’ll just be a girl with a hole in her chest - unless she becomes something more.”
“I’m going to explain our situation,” Jes said, stepping between Eryha and Jackie. “It’s a chance at saving her, and us in the bargain. Besides, out of all of us I have the best idea of what she’d be agreeing to.” She knelt to place her hand on Gusje’s chest, closing her eyes. She was still for several minutes while the others watched.
Finally, she opened her eyes and pulled back. Tears still glistened in her eyes, although a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as well. “Safe to say she’s not happy about it,” Jes said, “but she also doesn’t see any other option.” She looked up at Jackie. “She doesn’t want you to die on her account.”
Jackie grabbed Gusje’s hand and squeezed. “I don’t want you to sign away your body on our account either,” she rasped. “You can do it if you want to, but don’t do it for us.”
She looked down as Gusje’s hand twitched in hers, eyes sliding open to fix on Jackie through a haze of agony. Slowly, her finger traced shapes on Jackie’s palm, letters in the Aejha script. Jesse peered down at the halting motions, then straightened up with a grim look on his face. Gusje’s eyes stared up at him for a long moment before rolling back in her head, then fluttering closed.
“Samadi,” he said. “Of the Madi. She’s saying she’s Tesvaji’s daughter.” He knelt down beside Jackie, putting an arm around her shoulders. “Her duty, to protect her family and what’s left of her people.”
“It’s more than that,” Jes said, resting her fingers lightly on his arm. “As much as I hate to press this upon her, she’s - it fits her.” She looked apologetically at Jackie. “I can’t help but reflect Jesse, and he has always viewed the land here as an opponent, a challenge. The hostility of the desert, the force of the storm.”
She looked down at Gusje’s body. “She loves it all. The heat of the sand, the blue of the sky, the roots of the trees. You saw her face when she watched the ocean. The purpose must align, and that is a path Jesse could never walk. Gusje can.”
“Touching, I’m sure,” Eryha said, edging in between Jackie and Jes. “Now can we proceed before we lose the opportunity? We’ve lingered too long here already.” She gave Jackie a significant look, unperturbed by the other’s glare.
Jackie gave Gusje’s hand a squeeze and stepped back reluctantly as Eryha knelt over her.
“Come here, daughter,” Eryha said, extending a hand towards Jes. “This will be easier working from a reference.”
Jes obliged, and for a moment the two were silent, their eyes closed. Jesse felt a tingling in his arm, the sensation of something brushing against him - and then Gusje convulsed once, quickly. Her muscles twitched as if she had been shocked before going limp, and Eryha stood up with a satisfied smile.
“Now the sword,” she said, beckoning to Jesse. “Quickly now, and don’t lose your head when you draw it. Touch her with the point, gently.”
Jesse gripped the sword once more, managing not to gasp as the warmth flooded through him. He tried to look away from the light as he drew it and failed, finding it omnipresent. It wrapped through the entire space until the sword was the only thing that mattered, bright and wonderful amid the chill. Dimly he was aware of the others staring too, save for Eryha - who roughly shoved his hand into position, the blade extending to hover just above Gusje’s chest.
“Time to gamble once more,” Eryha said, closing her eyes. “The last chance, perhaps, since I will likely not survive her awakening. Let’s see what sort of god your friend will make.”
She pulled his arm down, and the tip of the sword touched Gusje’s skin-
---
Jesse stumbled, falling backwards as he slid across the smooth stone floor. His sword clattered loudly beside him, dull metal once more. They were back in the crystal room. Cosvamo and his men were slouched in the corner, Mark still stood with his pistol raised, and Jackie had been sent reeling back into the wall.
Vumo’s corpse collapsed onto the floor, lifeless. Of Gusje, there was no trace.
“What the fuck was that?” Mark asked, running forward. “What was the flash, where’s Gusje?”
Jesse shook his head, feeling dazed. “She’s - I’m not sure,” he said. “A lot happened.”
Mark gave him an odd look. “The hell does that mean? Did you get shocked or something?”
“Or something,” Jesse agreed, slowly rising to his feet. “It’ll take some time to explain-”
“You don’t have time,” Vumo slurred, rising to a sitting position. Jackie stumbled backwards with a muttered curse as Mark and Cosvamo’s men leveled their weapons at him, but Jesse quickly raised his hand.
“Wait!” he cautioned them. “I told you, a lot happened. Let Maja talk.”
Vumo’s head twisted around to leer at Jesse, blood dribbling from empty eye sockets. “How generous,” he said. “I have little time of my own left, but I have a message for you from Eryha, and a task. She says that the seed needs time to grow, but the aberration in the valley has already caught its scent. It seeks to disengage from its assault on Ce Raedhil.” He looked up towards the suspended crystal, the bones in his neck cracking and grinding unpleasantly. “It must be kept occupied until her work is done.”
Jesse followed Vumo’s eyeless gaze up to the suspended crystal and saw for the first time a tiny sliver of light circulating within, tracing around an opaque form that might have been a young woman’s body.
“Did I not properly convey the urgency of the situation?” Vumo said dryly, interrupting his study of the crystal. Light wisps of smoke had begun to curl up from his body, his skin blackening near his joints. “It cannot be allowed to pull away from the city. You must hold it there until her work is done.”
“Um,” Jesse said, “should we just-”
Vumo’s body blurred into motion with a rattle of bones and a spray of blood, darting upwards from where it had fallen to grab at Jackie’s arm. She let out a surprised yelp and tried to dodge away, too slow to prevent bony fingers from latching on to her in a vise grip.
“I am somewhat diminished,” Vumo rasped, hanging on to Jackie’s arm as she kicked out in a vain attempt to dislodge him. “So I will be borrowing one of Tija’s tricks.”
There was a shift, and the wind kicked a sudden spray of dust and grit into Jesse’s face. He blinked and shielded his eyes, hearing screams around him - near and distant, as well as the clamor of battle, the shouts of men fighting and dying.
“Fuck’s sake,” Mark sputtered, sounding equal parts dazed and exasperated. Behind him, Cosvamo was shouting frantically into a device in his palm while his men aimed their rifles warily into the distance. They had appeared just inside the walls of Ce Raedhil, although the darkness and smoke made it impossible to tell precisely where. Soldiers rushed by in the distance, and the fighting appeared to be on the other side of the wall for the moment.
Jesse startled as Vumo reached out to seize his ankle, looking more than half-dead. His entire body was blackened and smoking after the teleport, his skin flaking away in sheets. “Distract her,” he rasped. “Hold her attention here. Show her - that you’re alive.” Thin traces of coagulating blood mixed with ash dribbled from the corners of his mouth, and his head dropped down to the dirt.
Vumo smiled red, baring his teeth as his lips crumbled off his face. “She’ll come when she sees you. If she’s anything like me, she finds you very, very - irritating.” There was another abortive, sputtering laugh, then his face sagged and his hand fell limply away from Jesse’s leg.
“Man,” Mark said, walking up to stand beside Jesse, “I’m going to be honest with you. I might actually go crazy if someone doesn’t explain what the hell is going on, even just a little. Did we just magically travel to Ce Raedhil?”
“Looks like we did,” Jesse said, surveying the relatively calm street around them. “Eryha wanted to-” He broke off, then shook his head, picking his sword up from where it lay in the dirt. “Most of it doesn’t matter. The real Eryha is going to do something to restore Tinem Sjocel’s protection, with Gusje’s help. Once she starts, not-Eryha is going to want to stop her. We need to make her angry, distract her.”
Mark flashed him a smile. “See, that I can deal with,” he said. “So Gusje’s okay?”
Jesse hesitated. “She’s not dead,” he replied. “Too early to say anything else.”
“Well, if all she needs is for us to piss the storm-slash-mob-of-zombies off, she’s in good hands.” Mark unlimbered his hammer from his pack, grasping it in both hands. “Where should we start?”
A splintering of wood sounded from the nearest gate in the wall, and soldiers began rushing to brace it as the doors bulged worryingly inwards. Jesse looked at Mark and raised an eyebrow.
“You’re right,” Mark sighed, already beginning to jog forward. “That one’s on me.”
---
We're not done yet! Keep on going to the next post!

Supplements, Characters and Glossary for your reference.

A Secret Way to Huge Gains without Options: Memoirs of a Glue Eater

So before you take out the torches and pitchforks, I’m not here to shit on options. Heaven knows that some of you with an IQ of a doorknob are sitting pretty on white sand beaches with your meme gains. And others among you who are much smarter than I’ll ever be can wield your contracts better than I can tie my shoelaces. You’re deadly and I salute you. I’m writing this for the fraction of you that know you need leverage to escape the life of a cubicle jockey but constantly find your pockets empty because of high IV and theta. There’s another way. Use warrants. So, full disclosure, I’m no Mr. Miyagi when it comes to this type of trading since I’ve only been doing it for the last year, but it has worked well for me and I can save you the trouble of making the same mistakes I did. If you already know how warrants work, skip the first section.
What is a warrant and why should I care?
They’re like baby calls that theta can’t kill you on over the course of a few months. It’s like an agreement you make with a company that just started publicly trading. Each time you purchase a warrant, you now have the right to someday buy one share of common stock AT the price specified in the warrant contract (strike price) regardless of what the common stock is trading at. But the catch is the common stock has to be more valuable than the strike price before the warrant contract expires or your warrant is now worthless. The time period before expiration is usually 5 years after they were issued. As the common stock increases in value, the value of the warrant increases at a much faster pace. Also, because each warrant is so cheap, you can buy a lot of them to give you a huge amount of leverage.
Example: I buy XXXX’s warrant which is called XXXXW at a price of .25 cents each. The common stock (XXXX) is trading at 4.50 at the moment. If the common stock ever becomes more valuable than 11.50 plus the price I paid for each warrant (.25 cents), I am in the green as long as it happens within the next 5 years. So say XXXX’s common stock is 20.75 at the end of 5 years, I only pay 11.75 for each share. So assuming I exercised the warrant myself instead of selling it at its now much higher price to someone else, I make a profit of 9.00 for every 25 cent warrant I bought. If I bought a lot of them, it adds up incredibly fast. But just like an options contract, most people don’t exercise the warrant contracts themselves. They bought them early and will sell them way before the contract expires regardless if it’s in the money or out of the money because of the extra value that the remaining time gives it.
The 2 Strategies That Have Worked for Me
Strategy 1: Buy the Hidden Gems
A company has publicly traded warrants because they are brand new. The story that you will see over and over again is this. A SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisitions Company) finds a company they want to merge with. The SPAC gets hyped to the moon as people wait for the date when the SPAC merges with their bride to be. The merger date finally comes and the newly formed company begins to trade on its own ticker. The ticker is immediately decimated as the original investors leave as soon as they can to take advantage of the hype. Most ex-SPAC’s deserve this. Their balance sheets are uglier than a hairy ass and most will likely never make it even close to the 11.50 trading price. But this is not true for all. There are some discarded diamonds.
If you have the patience to look at the first earnings report for each ex-SPAC that just fell out of the nest, you could find tickers with solid revenue and a long runway of growth in front of them for pennies. Multiply your gains by buying warrants aggressively on those companies instead of buying their common stock. If people catch on that your company is on a good trajectory, you could be selling that .25 cent warrant you just bought for upwards of 1.00 in a few months, maybe even 5.00 in a couple years. If you like to gamble you can even buy warrants on a ticker that hasn’t had its first earnings report as a new company (provided you love everything you’ve found out through your research). Odds are that sentiment has reached the bottom of the barrel if you catch the ex-SPAC in this period. In my experience, this works best when you look at the least-sexy ex-SPACs. If you bet on warrants for a meme EV SPAC, you might be slapping your forehead soon. Running through Marketwatch’s warrant index once a week and researching any new ones, might lead you to a 100 bagger before it’s on anyone’s radar.
Strategy 2: Tender Offer Arbitrage
When an ex-SPAC is aggressive about preventing dilution or really needs cash, they might do what’s called a tender offer on their warrants. This offer is almost always a great deal to the warrant holders. If it’s a cashless exchange, they will offer you a partial common stock for every warrant you turn into them. If the majority of warrant holders agree to the deal, you now get common shares at a steal and the company limits the effect of dilution. This is at the expense of the people that were holding commons since their shares will be worth a little less. Usually the news is enough to drop the commons significantly and shoot the warrants up. If it’s an overreaction, warrant holders get an even better deal since commons will likely return to their old baseline once the exchange happens and people realize it was unnecessarily beat down. For some reason, you can often find warrants trading at say .25 cents when you can trade them in for a partial common stock that’s worth .50 cents. It may be because people are afraid the warrant holders will vote no or they’re too lazy to understand the tender offer, but it gives you a great window to profit.
What to Avoid:

Ex-SPACs usually have a very low float and are incredibly susceptible to both positive and negative swings due to news. Their warrants are even more volatile. You guys are no strangers to volatility but it’s not easy to day trade them because there is usually a large spread between bid and ask.
If you take away one thing from what I say, I want it to be this. Both SPACs and ex-SPACs are plagued with people ready to pump and dump. Trying to momentum trade a meme pump and dump in warrants usually doesn’t end well. When I first started doing this, I got burned every time I tried so be skeptical of any ticker you start hearing about often.
There’s no way around it. You have to go through the quarterly reports. At the very least, understand how to read their balance sheets. It might be the most valuable hour of youtube you spend in your life. Be careful of any ticker with a shitload of “Goodwill.” It’s almost always a placeholder. When bad news comes out, warrants take steep dives. If you find yourself holding bags but you feel your initial analysis was solid, just hold for a few months. Odds are you’ll be pissed you didn’t wait to see your warrants react to a positive catalyst. Meme warrants sometimes don’t come back at all though if they were hugely overvalued.
On the rare occasion that you strike gold and catch a warrant before others do, it might take some time for it to be discovered. It will be painful just watching it gather dust but the rewards of when it takes off are worth it. I’ve only been in this game for a year but I know some seasoned warrant veterans that have essentially become overnight millionaires from looking where no one else would.
Make sure you understand the terms of the warrants. Although the majority have a 5 year contract and are a 1 to 1 trade at a strike price of 11.50, not all of them are. Some warrants are weird with a 2:1 trade and require you to basically use 2 warrants to exercise.

TLDR: Be a financial Lewis & Clark. Get on the frontier and trade warrants if you keep getting crushed from options. Good luck my brothers

Which Actress had the best run in the 40s?

Best Run in terms of anything
Ingrid Bergman: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Casablanca, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Gaslight, Spellbound, The Bells of St. Mary’s, Notorious, June Night, Adam Had Four Sons, Rage in Heaven, Saratoga Trunk, Swedes in America, Arch of Triumph, American Creed, Under Capricorn, and Joan of Arc.
Olivia De Havilland: The Snake Pit, Santa Fe Trail, Their Boots On, The Heiress, To Each His Own, In This Our Life, My Love Came Back, The Strawberry Blonde, The Male Animal, The Well Groomed Bride, Hold Back the Dawn, Thank Your Lucky Stars, Devotion, The Dark Mirror, Princess O'Rourke, and Government Girl.
Judy Garland: Andy Hardy Meets Debutante, Strike Up the Band, Little Nellie Kelly, Meet Me in St. Louis, Presenting Lily Mars, For Me and My Gal, Thousands Cheer, Girl Crazy, Babes on Broadway, Life Begins for Andy Hardy, Ziegfeld Girl, In the Good Old Summertime, The Pirate, Words and Music, Easter Parade, The Harvey Girls, Till the Clouds Roll By, and Ziegfeld Follies.
Gene Tierney: Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake, Heaven Can Wait, Laura, Leave Her to Heaven, Dragonwyck, The Razor’s Edge, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Tobacco Road, The Return of Frank James, Hudson's Bay, The Shanghai Gesture, A Bell for Adano, China Girl, Sundown, Belle Starr, Thunder Birds, Rings on Her Fingers, The Iron Curtain, and That Wonderful Urge.
Bette Davis: In This Our Life, Thank Your Lucky Stars, The Man Who Came to Dinner, The Little Foxes, The Letter, Now, Voyager, Beyond the Forest, Winter Meeting, June Bride, A Stolen Life, Deception, Hollywood Canteen, Old Acquaintance, Mr. Skeffington, Shining Victory, The Bride Came C.O.D., Watch on the Rhine, All This, and Heaven Too, and The Corn Is Green.
Joan Crawford: When Ladies Meet, Possessed, Mildred Pierce, Hollywood Canteen, Humoresque, Flamingo Road, It's a Great Feeling, Daisy Kenyon, Reunion in France, They All Kissed the Bride, Strange Cargo, Susan and God, Above Suspicion, and A Woman's Face.
Carole Lombard: They Knew What They Wanted, To Be or Not to Be, Vigil in the Night, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
Agnes Moorehead: Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Dark Passage, Journey into Fear, The Big Street, The Youngest Profession, Government Girl, Jane Eyre, Dragon Seed, Since You Went Away, The Seventh Cross, Mrs. Parkington, Our Vines Have Tender Grapes, Tomorrow, the World!, Keep Your Powder Dry, Her Highness and the Bellboy, Johnny Belinda, The Lost Moment, Summer Holiday, The Woman in White, The Stratton Story, Station West, The Great Sinner, and Without Honor.
Shirley Temple: A Kiss for Corliss, Fort Apache, Adventure in Baltimore, The Story of Seabiscuit, Mr. Belvedere Goes to College, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, Since You Went Away, Kiss and Tell, I'll Be Seeing You, Honeymoon, Kathleen, Young People, Miss Annie Rooney, The Blue Bird, and That Hagen Girl.
Ava Gardner: The Killers, The Hucksters, Singapore, One Touch of Venus, The Bribe,The Great Sinner, Major Barbara, East Side, West Side, Reunion in France, Fancy Answers, H. M. Pulham, Esq., Shadow of the Thin Man, Babes on Broadway, This Time for Keeps, Joe Smith, American, We Do It Because, Sunday Punch, Kid Glove Killer, Calling Dr. Gillespie, Mighty Lak a Goat, Du Barry Was a Lady, Hitler's Madman, Ghosts on the Loose, Two Girls and a Sailor, Lost Angel, Young Ideas, Swing Fever, Maisie Goes to Reno, 3 Men in White, She Went to the Races, Blonde Fever, and Whistle Stop.
Katharine Hepburn: The Philadelphia Story, Song of Love, Adam's Rib, Undercurrent, Without Love, State of the Union, The Sea of Grass, Stage Door Canteen, Dragon Seed, Woman of the Year, and Keeper of the Flame.
Maureen O Hara: Dance, Girl, Dance, How Green Was My Valley, The Black Swan, The Spanish Main, Miracle on 34th Street, Sinbad the Sailor, A Bill of Divorcement, They Met in Argentina, To the Shores of Tripoli, Ten Gentlemen from West Point, Immortal Sergeant, This Land Is Mine, The Fallen Sparrow, Buffalo Bill, Sentimental Journey, Do You Love Me, The Homestretch, The Foxes of Harrow, Forever Amber, The Forbidden Street, Father Was a Fullback, Sitting Pretty, and A Woman's Secret.
Lauren Bacall: The Big Sleep, Dark Passage, Key Largo, Confidential Agent, and Confidential Agent.
Vivien Leigh: Caesar and Cleopatra, Anna Karenina, 21 Days, Waterloo Bridge, and That Hamilton Woman.
Greer Garson: Mrs. Miniver, The Valley of Decision, Desire Me, That Forsyte Woman, The Miracle of Sound, Pride and Prejudice, Random Harvest, Blossoms in the Dust, Madame Curie, The Youngest Profession, When Ladies Meet, Adventure, Mrs. Parkington, and Julia Misbehaves.
Claudette Colbert: The Palm Beach Story, Since You Went Away, Bride for Sale, Sleep, My Love, Without Reservations, Family Honeymoon, Arise, My Love, Boom Town, Remember the Day, Skylark, No Time for Love, Practically Yours, So Proudly We Hail!, Guest Wife, Tomorrow Is Forever, The Secret Heart, and The Egg and I.
Lana Turner: Johnny Eager, Honky Tonk, Ziegfeld Girl, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Somewhere I’ll Find You, Week-End at the Waldorf, Green Dolphin Street, Homecoming, The Three Musketeers, The Youngest Profession, Keep Your Powder Dry, We Who Are Young, Cass Timberlane, Slightly Dangerous, and Marriage Is a Private Affair.
Rita Hayworth: Gilda, Cover Girl, Blondie on a Budget, Tales of Manhattan, You Were Never Lovelier, The Lady from Shanghai, The Strawberry Blonde, You'll Never Get Rich, The Loves of Carmen, Affectionately Yours, My Gal Sal, Susan and God, Down to Earth, Tonight and Every Night, Blood and Sand, Angels Over Broadway, The Lady in Question, Music in My Heart, and Blondie on a Budget.
Joan Fontaine: Rebecca, Suspicion, The Constant Nymph, Jane Eyre, The Affairs of Susan, Ivy, Letter from an Unknown Woman, This Above All, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, The Emperor Waltz, From This Day Forward, You Gotta Stay Happy, and Frenchman's Creek.
Jennifer Jones: The Song of Bernadette, Since You Went Away, Love Letters, Duel in the Sun, Madame Bovary, We Were Strangers, Portrait of Jennie, and Cluny Brown.
Hedy Lamarr: Comrade X, Come Live With Me, H.M. Pulham, Esq., Samson and Delilah, Tortilla Flat, Dishonored Lady, Ziegfeld Girl, Boom Town, Crossroads, The Strange Woman, White Cargo, Experiment Perilous, The Conspirators, Let's Live a Little, I Take This Woman, and The Heavenly Body.
Ginger Rogers: The Barkleys of Broadway, Tender Comrade, Kitty Foyle, Tom, Dick and Harry, I'll Be Seeing You, Roxie Hart, The Major and the Minor, Lucky Partners, Primrose Path, Week-End at the Waldorf, Once Upon a Honeymoon, Lady in the Dark, Magnificent Doll, Heartbeat, and It Had to Be You.
Barbara Stanwyck: East Side, West Side, Hollywood Canteen, Ball of Fire, The Lady Eve, Sorry, Wrong Number, Double Indemnity, Meet John Doe, You Belong to Me, Remember the Night, The Gay Sisters, The Great Man's Lady, Flesh and Fantasy, Lady of Burlesque, California, My Reputation, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, The Bride Wore Boots, Christmas in Connecticut, Cry Wolf, The Two Mrs. Carrolls, Variety Girl, The Other Love, The Lady Gambles, and B.F.'s Daughter.
Veronica Lake: Sullivan’s Travels, This Gun for Hire, The Glass Key, I Married a Witch, So Proudly We Hail, Bring on the Girls, Miss Susie Slagle’s, The Blue Dahlia, I Wanted Wings, Forty Little Mothers, The Hour Before the Dawn, Ramrod, Hold That Blonde, Duffy's Tavern, Miss Susie Slagle's, Out of This World, Slattery's Hurricane, The Sainted Sisters, Isn't It Romantic?, Star Spangled Rhythm, and Saigon.
Setsuko Hara: Late Spring, Toyuki, Hebihimesama, Totsugu hi made, Onna no machi, Futari no sekai, Shimai no Yakusoku, Anî no hânayomê, Ôinaru kanô, Kêkkon no seitaî, A Story of Leadership, Kibô no aozora, Seishun no kiryû, Wakai sensei, Midori no daichi, Haha no chizu, Hawai Mare Oki Kaisen, Hawai Maree oki kaisen, Ahen senso, Bôrô no kesshitai, Toward the Decisive Battle in the Sky, Searing Wind, Suicide Troops of the Watchtower, Ikari no umi, Young Eagles, Shôri no hi made, Kita no san-nin, Koi no fuunjî, Midori no kokkyô, Reijin, Midori no kokkyô, No Regrets for Our Youth, Yuwaku, Kakedashi jidai, A Ball at the Anjo House, Onnadake no yoru, Sanbon yubi no otoko, Toki no teizo: zengohen, Fujisancho, Taifuken no onna, Kofuku no genkai, President and a female clerk, Tonosama Hotel, Ojôsan kanpai, Aoi sanmyaku, and Zoku aoi sanmyaku.
Betty Grable: Down Argentine Way, Mother Wore Tights,When My Baby Smiles at Me, The Dolly Sisters, Pin Up Girl, Springtime in the Rockies, Coney Island, The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend, Tin Pan Alley, Sweet Rosie O'Grady, A Yank in the R.A.F., Footlight Serenade, I Wake Up Screaming, Song of the Islands, Diamond Horseshoe, Do You Love Me, The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, Four Jills in a Jeep, Moon Over Miami, and Hollywood Bound.
Deborah Kerr: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Black Narcissus, Contraband, Penn of Pennsylvania, A Battle for a Bottle, Love on the Dole, Major Barbara, Major Barbara, Edward, My Son, Hatter's Castle, The Day Will Dawn, If Winter Comes, Perfect Strangers, and I See a Dark Stranger.
Donna Reed: Shadow of the Thin Man, Calling Dr. Gillespie, It's a Wonderful Life, Convicted Woman, The Get-Away, Babes on Broadway, The Courtship of Andy Hardy, The Bugle Sounds, Mokey, Apache Trail, Eyes in the Night, Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case, The Human Comedy, The Man from Down Under, Thousands Cheer, See Here, Private Hargrove, Green Dolphin Street, Chicago Deadline, Beyond Glory, The Picture of Dorian Gray, They Were Expendable, Faithful in My Fashion, and Gentle Annie.
Kim Hunter: A Matter of Life and Death, When Strangers Marry, You Came Along, The Seventh Victim, Tender Comrade, and A Canterbury Tale.
Alida Valli: The Third Man, Piccolo mondo antico, The Paradine Case, The Miracle of the Bells, We the Living, T'amerò sempre, I pagliacci, Apparizione, The Song of Life, The Two Orphans, The First Woman Who Passes, Light in the Darkness, The Secret Lover, Manon Lescaut, The Last Enemy, Red Tavern, Beyond Love, Schoolgirl Diary, Invisible Chains, Stasera niente di nuovo, The Za-Bum Circus, Life Begins Anew, and Eugenia Grandet.
Anne Baxter: 20 Mule Team, The Magnificent Ambersons, Five Graves to Cairo, The Razor's Edge, Yellow Sky, The Great Profile, Swamp Water, Charley's Aunt, Sunday Dinner for a Soldier, The Fighting Sullivans, The North Star, Smoky, The Purple Heart, The Eve of St. Mark, Guest in the House, You're My Everything, The Walls of Jericho, Homecoming, The Luck of the Irish, Blaze of Noon, Angel on My Shoulder, and A Royal Scandal.
Teresa Wright: The Little Foxes, Mrs.. Miniver, Enchantment, Shadow of a Doubt, The Best Years of Our Lives, Pursued, The Trouble with Women, The Pride of the Yankees, The Little Foxes, Casanova Brown, and The Imperfect Lady.
Mary Astor: The Maltese Falcon, The Palm Beach Story, The Great Lie, Act of Violence, Meet Me in St. Louis, Fiesta, East Side, West Side, Young Ideas, Blonde Fever, Turnabout, Brigham Young, Across the Pacific, Claudia and David, Little Women, Any Number Can Play, Desert Fury, and Cynthia.
Ann Sheridan: They Drive by Night, The Man Who Came to Dinner, Kings Row, Nora Prentiss, I Was a Male War Bride, Honeymoon for Three, One More Tomorrow, City for Conquest, Torrid Zone, Castle on the Hudson, It All Came True, Navy Blues, George Washington Slept Here, Wings for the Eagle, Juke Girl, Silver River, The Unfaithful, Edge of Darkness, Thank Your Lucky Stars, Cinderella Jones, Shine On, Harvest Moon, and Good Sam.
Ida Lupino: They Drive by Night, Devotion, In Our Time, The Sea Wolf, High Sierra, Thank Your Lucky Stars, Out of the Fog, Life Begins at Eight-Thirty, Moontide, Ladies in Retirement, Hollywood Canteen, Forever and a Day, The Hard Way, Pillow to Post, Road House, The Man I Love, Escape Me Never, Deep Valley, Not Wanted, Never Fear, and Lust for Gold.
Joan Bennett: Man Hunt, The Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street, The House Across the Bay, The Man I Married, The Son of Monte Cristo, Green Hell, She Knew All the Answers, Wild Geese Calling, The Reckless Moment, Secret Beyond the Door, Hollow Triumph, The Woman on the Beach, Margin for Error, Twin Beds, Confirm or Deny, The Wife Takes a Flyer, Colonel Effingham's Raid, The Macomber Affair, Girl Trouble, and Nob Hill.
Tallulah Bankhead: A Royal Scandal, Stage Door Canteen, and Lifeboat.
Jane Greer: Out of the Past, Pan-Americana, Two O'Clock Courage, Sinbad the Sailor, George White's Scandals, The Falcon's Alibi, Dick Tracy, The Bamboo Blonde, Station West, Sunset Pass, They Won't Believe Me, and The Big Steal.
Margaret O'Brien: Jane Eyre, Meet Me in St. Louis, The Unfinished Dance, Our Vines Have Tender Grapes, Lost Angel, Three Wise Fools, Big City, Little Women, Tenth Avenue Angel, The Secret Garden, Music for Millions, Bad Bascomb, Journey for Margaret, You, John Jones!, and The Canterville Ghost.
Lucille Ball: Without Love, Ziegfeld Follies, Dance, Girl, Dance, The Big Street, Du Barry Was a Lady, The Marines Fly High, You Can't Fool Your Wife, A Girl, a Guy and a Gob, Too Many Girls,Thousands Cheer, Seven Days' Leave, Easy Living, Abbott and Costello in Hollywood, Look Who's Laughing, Valley of the Sun, Lured, Easy to Wed, Two Smart People, Her Husband's Affairs, Sorrowful Jones, The Dark Corner, Lover Come Back, Best Foot Forward, and Meet the People.
Cyd Charisse: Ziegfeld Follies, Escort Girl, Something to Shout About, Thousands Cheer, Mission to Moscow, The Harvey Girls, Till the Clouds Roll By, In Our Time, Three Wise Fools, Fiesta, The Unfinished Dance, On an Island with You, and The Kissing Bandit.
Susan Hayward: The Lost Moment, Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman, My Foolish Heart, Adam Had Four Sons, Sis Hopkins, They Won't Believe Me, Canyon Passage, And Now Tomorrow, Deadline at Dawn, Hit Parade of 1943, Star Spangled Rhythm, A Letter from Bataan, Young and Willing, Tulsa, The Saxon Charm, House of Strangers, Tap Roots, Among the Living, Reap the Wild Wind, The Forest Rangers, Jack London, The Fighting Seabees, and The Hairy Ape.
June Allyson: The Secret Heart, Music for Millions, Best Foot Forward, Meet the People, Two Girls and a Sailor, Girl Crazy, All Girl Revue, Her Highness and the Bellboy, The Three Musketeers, Good News, The Stratton Story, Words and Music, High Barbaree, Till the Clouds Roll By, The Sailor Takes a Wife, Two Sisters from Boston, and The Bride Goes Wild.
Susan Peters: Young Ideas, Tish, Santa Fe Trail, The Big Shot, Random Harvest, Keep Your Powder Dry, Song of Russia, Assignment in Brittany, The Sign of the Ram, Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant, Andy Hardy's Double Life, A New Romance of Celluloid: Personalities, Sockaroo, River's End, Meet John Doe, The Strawberry Blonde, Scattergood Pulls the Strings, Three Sons o' Guns, Young America Flies, Money and the Woman, and The Man Who Talked Too Much.
Betty Hutton: Duffy's Tavern, Hollywood Victory Caravan, Dream Girl, Red, Hot and Blue, Star Spangled Rhythm, One for the Book, Happy Go Lucky, Strictly G.I., Skirmish on the Home Front, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, Cross My Heart, The Perils of Pauline, The Stork Club,Here Come the Waves, And the Angels Sing, Incendiary Blonde, The Fleet's In, and Let's Face It.
Celeste Holm: Road House, Gentleman's Agreement, Come to the Stable, The Snake Pit, Everybody Does It, Chicken Every Sunday, A Letter to Three Wives, Three Little Girls in Blue, and Carnival in Costa Rica.
Celia Johnson: In Which We Serve, Brief Encounter, This Happy Breed, Dear Octopus, and A Letter from Home.
Jane Wyman: Brother Rat and a Baby, Bad Men of Missouri, Johnny Belinda, The Lost Weekend, An Angel from Texas, Flight Angels, Gambling on the High Seas, My Love Came Back, Tugboat Annie Sails Again, Honeymoon for Three, You're in the Army Now, The Body Disappears, Larceny, Inc., My Favorite Spy, Footlight Serenade, Princess O'Rourke, Make Your Own Bed, The Doughgirls, Crime by Night, One More Tomorrow, Night and Day, The Yearling, Magic Town, Cheyenne, A Kiss in the Dark, and The Lady Takes a Sailor.
Angela Lansbury: National Velvet, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Gaslight, The Harvey Girls, The Private Affairs of Bel Ami, If Winter Comes, The Hoodlum Saint, Till the Clouds Roll By, The Red Danube, The Three Musketeers, Tenth Avenue Angel, State of the Union, and Samson and Delilah
Jean Simmons: Hamlet, Kiss the Bride Goodbye, Give Us the Moon, Black Narcissus, The Way to the Stars, Great Expectations, Caesar and Cleopatra, Meet Sexton Blake, Mr. Emmanuel, Sports Day, Adam and Evelyne, The Blue Lagoon, The Woman in the Hall, Uncle Silas, and Hungry Hill.
Jane Darwell: The Grapes of Wrath, My Darling Clementine,Untamed, Brigham Young, Private Nurse, Chad Hanna, Thieves Fall Out, Youth Will Be Served, The Devil and Daniel Webster, All Through the Night, It Happened in Flatbush, Young America, On the Sunny Side, Men of Texas, Small Town Deb, Music in Manhattan, Captain Tugboat Annie, Three Wise Fools, The Dark Horse, Sunday Dinner for a Soldier, She's a Sweetheart, I Live in Grosvenor Square, The Ox-Bow Incident, Gildersleeve's Bad Day, Tender Comrade, The Great Gildersleeve, The Impatient Years, Reckless Age, Stage Door Canteen, Government Girl, Train to Alcatraz, 3 Godfathers, Red Canyon, Keeper of the Bees, The Red Stallion, The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe, and Highways by Night.
Jeanne Crain: A Letter to Three Wives, Centennial Summer, Pinky, Leave Her to Heaven, In the Meantime, Darling, Margie, State Fair, Apartment for Peggy, The Gang's All Here, Home in Indiana, The Fan, You Were Meant for Me, and Winged Victory.
Linda Darnell: My Darling Clementine, Chad Hanna, The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe, A Letter to Three Wives, Unfaithfully Yours, Forever Amber, The Mark of Zorro, Star Dust, Rise and Shine, Blood and Sand, It Happened Tomorrow, The Song of Bernadette, City Without Men, Sweet and Low-Down, Summer Storm, Buffalo Bill, The Great John L., Hangover Square, The Walls of Jericho, Anna and the King of Siam, Centennial Summer, Fallen Angel, Everybody Does It, and Slattery's Hurricane.
Alice Faye: Fallen Angel, The Gang's All Here, Hello, Frisco, Hello, Tin Pan Alley, Four Jills in a Jeep, The Great American Broadcast, That Night in Rio, Little Old New York, Lillian Russell, and Week-End in Havana.
Deanna Durbin: Christmas Holiday, Lady on a Train, For the Love of Mary, Something in the Wind, Up in Central Park, Because of Him, I'll Be Yours, Can't Help Singing, The Amazing Mrs. Holliday, It Started with Eve, Nice Girl?, It's a Date, Hers to Hold, His Butler's Sister, and Spring Parade.
It’s Gene Tierney or Rita Hayworth for me

Being a girl on World of Warcraft

As a female who's been on the game for 15 years now, I've met a load of creeps but only a few only made me feel unsafe. To start off I've always had a lap top since I was in high school, a luxury back then I worked hard to earn enough to buy one. My mom almost took my money I earned for drugs but luckily money I made in tips were in cash so it was easier to hide it from her. At first my mom was mad I bought myself a laptop but she soon forgot like everything. My dad could care less, and my older brother already had his own. So I started playing WoW with him at 14 and back then girls were unheard of. So I got the usual creeps who usually backed off after hearing my age or they were young to. But not this guy, this guy loved that I was underage.
I was about 16 and used to creepy guys at this point, no longer a noob at the game or fending off the creeps it was no surprise a new guy in the guild started hitting on me. Now I was 16, dumb young, horny and stupid but I knew I wasn't going to find love on WoW where you knew no one in real life. Plus I had the ultimate crush on a guy I couldn't have because he was my brothers best friend, but in my mind back then I only wanted him. So it was easy to turn guys down despite being desperate as hell for one guy lol.
But that all changed after my brothers friend went off to college, I had a part time job with my brothers friend but girls at work surrounded him and I became demoralized I'd never find love. Que "19" year old guy on WoW who made me feel wanted. I had a camera phone so I could send and post pictures at that age and back then I mostly used facebook, myspace and photobucket. I lost a lot of weight my sophomore year, so I posted confidently bikini pics and sexy pictures thinking I'd lure the attention of my brothers friend whom was 19.
So when this guy who was also 19 liked me, it didn't phase me. He looked the part in his photos and his younger brother was my age... So I thought... He was extreamly attractive in his photos and even proved it was him in his pictures by holding items I asked for. He started paying my wow subscription which in the long run I realized it was to get my home address and real name. I was so stupid and heart broken over my brothers friend, years of teaching myself online safety and the ability to be strong against flirts was all but lost in the fog.
We'd talk for hours on ventrillo, and he'd make me feel pretty. I was completely blinded by this point, he sent me gifts and I didn't even question how he had my address. Then he offered to drive and pick me up, as only then did I suddenly get cold feet.
I had a good friend on WoW, someone my brother met at PAX and joined the guild and is still one of my best friends to this day (tho we both aren't fond of my older brother). Hes 6 years older than me but never creeped on me, was more like the protective brother I lacked. (Well least till I was 24 and single for the first time did we hook up lol but that's because we were friends for so long, but the distance led to it not turning into a relationship) He caught onto it through conversation and was my words of wisdom in a time I was lacking any of my own. He saw something was fishy when I couldn't.
I told my friend I was scared to meet him because .... Dumb teenager logic, I thought he would not like me. My friend chimed in that I shouldn't meet anyone off the internet at my age. I told him about the gifts and I swear I've never been scolded like this in my life, not even by my own parents, but he always cared like that. He wondered why I would give my address to someone I never met, and the expensive gifts I got were not something the average 19 year old could afford. None of this ever clicked for me of course because I was lonely and trying to prove idk to myself, my crush or something I could get a boyfriend.
Like that I told the guy it wasn't wise to meet in person and my "parents" said I wasn't allowed to. That's when it went dark. At first it was pestering over and over, guilting me over gifts he gave me and encouraging me to defy my parents. While he kept bothering me, it never once occured to me he'd lose his shit. While my friend was worried shitless about the guy having my address, going as far to drive the 11 hours to my house and explain the situation to my dad as I refused to tell him out of fear of getting in trouble at the time, all while taking his spring break in my state instead of his own with his friends. There's a reason he's still one of my best friends. He has a little sister of his own as well and she's my age so his protective nature is natural.
Eventually he made me block the guy and that was that, this guy was pissed off. He'd go on different accounts to accuse me of gold digging and using him. Luckily my friend was smart enough and had the foresight to change my wow password and even paid for my account for me taking this guy off it entirely as one of this guy's threats was to delete my account. But it didn't end there, it got worse as he'd consistently find ways to message me and tell me how horrible I was. Till about a month had passed.
I was walking home from school, about 2 mile walk in wealthy suburbs of New England, which I had done for years, many kids did as it was a very safe town with no crime in it or surrounding towns. Without a second thought I took off with my 100lb back back (maybe and over estimate lol) put my head phones in and started my 20 minute walk home. It was cold so I had earmuffs over my headphones only downing out sound more too. I swear if I could talk to myself as a kid I probably just slap myself for stupidity. Because wow guy, knew I walked home everyday as I talked about it. He knew my address and I never thought twice.
I was on the back roads walking home and honestly easy to map from my school to home as it was pretty straightforward with only one turn. At half way home it between songs I heard a vague crunching sound of tires rolling over gravel on the road slowly. I turned around to see a tinted black car that you couldn't see much of the person in front. I jogged out of the driveway I was standing in front of assuming it was waiting to turn in. But I didn't turn in, the roads were dead and it didn't make sense for him not to go around.
I swear the saying that you go cold when you're terrified is absolutely true. It could of been a summers day at 95 degrees and my bones would of been cold. My heart just sank and my breathing was uncontrollable. I felt like I had no control over my body as I realized this guy was following me, my blood truely ran cold and my hands shook as tears formed and my skin felt tight. My body felt like it wasn't ready to fight or flight but simply freeze there and die. It only got worse as the second time I turned my head to see the car stop, I stopped, my world stopped.
I couldn't stop staring, just froze and breathing like all my school books were on my chest. Crying silently, my eyes hurt with no tears or sound as I just stood there. The door opened after what felt like hours but only seconds maybe a minute. And it was infact him, it was the attractive guy from the photos, not a catfish but something seemed different. At first I thought it was his angry expression but soon realized, he was definitely not 19, more like 30+. I could barely think over the loud sound of my heart racing as it froze me in place.
I thought I was about to throw up as he spoke to me. Told me to get in the car or he'd light my house on fire and kill my dog in front of me. I honestly just couldn't move, couldn't reach for my phone as his words just froze me. And like some magic we both failed to notice the little old lady on her porch watching this play out. Suddenly I hear her yell "get away from that girl right now before I burn you alive".
We both turned to meet her eyes, pissed off small lady about 60 or 70 with white hair. I think she noticed my frozen in fear state as she told me to get over to her quickly. Like that I ran over to her tossing off my heavy brick of a back pack. It was obvious he was unsure what to do next as he stood there and watched me run to her. Must of been a sight this tiny thin old lady standing in front of a teenage girl yelling at this man to go away. Like that savior number 2 joined the battle as her husband stepped out, guy who looked like be been through a war or two, with a shot gun of all things and booming voice. Gun pointed saying "I've shot and killed men for less reason, you better leave now"
He got into his car and drove off as I simply collapsed, all that fear just came out as I cried harder and harder as my brain sifted through the past few months of mistakes. After calming me down enough to speak in non hyperventilating words, she asked me if I knew him. I told her kind of, but only online from a videogame, not real life. Of course explaining it wasn't easy, and her husband couldn't grasp why I'd wanna printed I was at war (I'm sure in his experience he was thinking call of duty not magical creatures in a game called World of 'War'craft). She got on the phone with the school counselor, her daughter apparently and told her my name. I was well known to her daughter ironically, but it was only 250 or less kids in the school and the town itself was small. Many staff at our school had family in town, kids at school they were related to either by their own children or their siblings children. It was the kind of town if you didn't leave by a certain age your were stuck there.
So honestly it seems ironic but entirely not a huge surprise. The counselor was well aware of my family and my mom's drug addiction as child services had been involved few times. She came by in 10 minutes to pick me up and asked me a ton of questions of course knowing I didn't want to involve police as I was scared of being taken away from my parents again. (FYI foster care was worse than a drugged out mom on prescriptions). We weren't rich but we were more well off than many. Though my mom worked my dad kept my mom on a tight budget to keep her from buy prescriptions from Canada she wasn't prescribed (hence her trying to take my money). She knew all of this and knew though rough I was better off than foster care which was a gamble with losing odds at best. Plus 2 more years and I'd be off to college anyway. So we didn't involve the cops, but she made me promise to take the bus every day and to inform my dad of the situation. She also called my dad at work to inform him and had a teacher make sure I got on the bus everyday till I graduated even.. really sucked but I understood.
If it ended there it would be nice but there's still a bit more and I'm sorry for the length and grammar, it's late at night and I recalling from memory and typing on my phone.
Two days after this, my dad had to fly out for business, my brother was off at college so it left me and my high mom "who promised my dad she stay sober while he was gone but I was used to helping her while she was high, was like taking care of a child". But I was on edge as ever creek in that big house from the 60s, cat stir at night, and dog barking outside set me on edge I barely slept. My friend from WoW called every night making sure I was ok for the past month. I lived in the middle of the woods, next to a huge river in my backyard so there was still a lot of wildlife outside in the dead silence of cold months. Running water is a important source of water when lakes freeze. I had been used to all the bumps in the night, cats coming and going and dog barking at ever animal in the yard, but it all seemed new to me as I layed in bed trying to drown out my fears. The house I grew up in was a 6 bedroom house, I had a little sister too but she stayed with my grandma in another state per court order while I was allowed to choose due to her only being 9 and me 16. The other rooms were used as game room, office for my dad and guest room mostly for when my sister visited my grandma and her had a room.
So in a large house like that in the middle of the woods, it was scary to virtually be alone because my mom accounted for defenseless. I was letting my last cat inside for the night (5 cats who all knew to come in at night for dinner and stayed in till morning). And at the end of the long driveway between my neighbor and our house was parked a black car. I quickly shut the door and locked it after my cat got inside. I made sure all 5 doors were locked and even put card board on the glass doors to the pool idk hoping if he broke them it would delay him if that car was his.
I went and turned off all the lights, and got all my cats into one room so I knew they were safe. Here's the thing about my dog, he's untrained for the most part but was basically a giant lab puppy in his mind. But he growled at strangers, not barked like at animals. We had to keep him outside if we had guests but he never bit anyone and if you spent enough time around him he'd eventually accept you. Also he didn't growl at all strangers either so he wasn't the most reliable guard dog either. But he was big, and deep bark.
I mauled over what to do as I sat there in the dark with my dog, waiting for shadow to pass by the window. I eventually went upstairs to my mom's room and woke her up from her sleeping pill slumber. Groggy and still kinda high she didn't quite grasp what I was telling her till I started crying. She sorta sobered up and asked me to get her some coffee and I did. All while I'm watching my dogs every move because I know he could sense something before I did. As my mom sobered her fear in her eyes grew. Eventually she got the idea to call my neighbors and ask them if they knew the car, after all said no, 2 of the men went out of their house to check the car together.
The car was empty, at closer inspection though, they noticed it was a newer car, lexus, and in the passenger seat was a lap top. The car was locked but with a flashlight you could see somewhat into the tinted windows. They never told us why but something they saw in the car prompted them to call the local sheriff, only one and he lived in town sorta thing. We were too small to have a police department. He drove over about 15 minutes later, ran the plates and asked the houses around about it. Apparently it was a rental car from Ohio, and he was calling to see who was rented to but the offices were closed I think. He stuck around in his car for about an hour till someone came out of the woods and ran back in as the cop turned his spot light on him. I couldn't see what he was pointing at with his light as it was at the side of my house and I was looking at the front. I guess he called for back up as 3 other cop cars showed up in 5 minutes of it from the neighboring town/highway patrol idk. At which a lady cop got out as I asked to speak with her and her call my counselor at school to explain who that might be. I was pretty shy back then but idk something about a female cop made me feel more comfortable to open up to.
I told her the gist of the story, then she called my counselor who backed up my story but also explaining why I was scared of cops cuz my history with foster care and not wanting to go back. At which a mostly sober mom joined me hugging me, doing her typical apologetic routine. But also offering much needed comfort as she called my dad too. Eventually the lady cop asked if she could take a look around the house to see if things were secure and get any information from my laptop about him.
In her search she found something I didn't think about checking, the basement door was not just unlocked but open. It's never unlocked so I didn't even think to check it as our back yard floods in the spring due to beaver dams and it's got extra seals and stuff to prevent the basement from flooding ... Again... But the stuff sealing it which was mostly sand bags and stuff were set aside. But the door at the bottom of the stares was locked still though it had some damage like someone tried picking it. But he had access to half the basement that was storage (basement was sectioned and the other half used to be used for my brothers parties.). The door between the sections was like a front door not an indoor door, as in the summer my dad left the hatch open to dry out the basement and adjust pool settings as it was basically the pool house and the cats loved it so it also had a few cat beds. The section that led upstairs was locked from the inside and the wall and door were not dry wall and cheap door but lock and key heavy door and wall was brick.
Upon noticing this my dad confirmed he had not left it open, my suspicions that black car was his was pretty much confirmed. As we walked through the house to make sure everything was still safe, she got on my lap top as they searched the woods, I gave her everything I had, his photos, username and she even checked to see if his credit card was still on my account but it wasn't. But the last few didgets were. She then asked to take my laptop for a few days as she thought she could get some good evidence from it. I asked her to please not damage it and return it as soon as possible because I used it a lot, before smart phones it was all I had.
After few hours and onlooking neighbors had gone to bed the cops came back empty handed but left a cop outside our house and towed the guys car. From what the lady cop told me, what permitted such fear was in the car there was two guns, some sort of rope and handcuffs. And the guy who ran back into the dense woods was wearing a winter ski mask (not out of season but suspicious none the less).
So eventually I try and lay down and go to sleep but pretty sure I was going to call out sick tomorrow and kept all my cats inside for the day. I was too restless to sleep, every sound made me so scared. My mom slept with the dog in her room (I'm very allergic to animals but less to cats as I kinda built up a tolerance to cats but not dogs) and my cats slept in my room most nights by choice as my room was usually the warmest.
At 3:30 am ish I heard a knock at the back door, and a guy say, undercover police officer, open up. I was still awake as I walked downstairs to make out a guy standing in the dark with a gun. As he saw me he demanded I let him in now as he needed to speak with me. Something felt off, my gut knew it before I did that this guy's voice seemed forced. Like someone purposely making their voice deeper. And why was he at the back door?
So I turned on a light outside and sure enough, it was him. I just screamed as quickly as I screamed he started hitting the door hard. Wasn't a very loud horror movie scream but more like a gasp scream. I don't think the fear in my body had a loud scream to let out. But the banging was pretty loud as I ran to the front to see if the officer was still outside. He was but he wasn't getting out of his car. I didn't wanna run outside as I'm not a fast runner so I turned the porch lights on and off couple times but still nothing. After a minute my dog came bolting down to the door barking and growling nearly foaming at the mouth. Soon followed my mom who yelled she had a gun, she didn't but bluff is bluff. Somehow during all this the cop outside had snuck around back and had his gun pointed at him yelling to put his gun down.
I hid as the rest went down but he was arrested, no trial needed me to attend and my statement was enough. Come to find out he wasn't even American, the car was rented under his friends name, and after all was done he was deported back to Canada. I assume something with his passport would prevent him from coming back to the USA as the cop reassured me he couldn't come back to the USA now. Idk what exactly he was charged with but I think my dad said activated assault with a deadly weapon, attempted kidnapping and something else. And it also it turned out he was 32 years old not 19 so I assume me being a me being a minor carried a charge.
And life moved on from there. I had plenty of creeps before and after but he was by the worst from WoW. I had a couple from streaming but I was an adult and much better a staying safe online. Only one worse than this guy was my ex boyfriends cousin who made my life hell for couple years but that's another story for another time.

who owns gamble sands video

The Inn at Gamble Sands has quickly becoming one of the premier golf getaways in the Pacific Northwest. The course by David McLay Kidd came first, featuring 115 acres of bouncy fine fescue turf overlooking the Columbia River and the distant Cascade Mountains. Introduced in 2020, DMK’s Quicksands par-3 course adds to the fun with 13 holes ranging… Gamble Sands was built in 2014 by the Gebbers family, who have been growing fruit in the region since 1900. They wanted to diversify their small community of Brewster, and even though they aren’t big golfers themselves, they saw the value that golf can bring to a community. Turns out, they had perfect land for a golf course — pure sand bluffs overlooking the Columbia River Valley. The arid Gamble Sands Golf Club. The centerpiece of Brewster, Washington, the golf course at Gamble Sands Golf Club is 115 acres of fine fescue grasses, designed by renowned golf course architect David McLay Kidd. learn more on the David McLay Kidd website in a new tab. Here, golfers enjoy the feeling of pure golf with panoramic vistas, and the beautiful Cascade Mountains and Columbia River meandering Billionaire Sheldon Adelson's coffin was greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Adelson's wife Miriam on Thursday night, and was buried on Friday in Jerusalem. Gamble Sands is a must play Washington State golf destination. The Gebbers family knew what they were doing when they built this course. It was as fun to play as any course I have been on. Gamble Sands is worth all accolades. They built it. You should come. About the Author. I am a husband, father, ER doctor, and an avid golfer. With a handicap of 3.2 I have a fairly legitimate claim to be Marked improvements and maturing have occurred over the past 12 months. Let's start with the 4 mile drive to the facility from Hwy 17 - hard surface the entire way now. Fantastic! Pro Shop greeting was just fine though they had me on the tee sheet 10 minutes earlier than the confirmation I got last week. Gamble Sands, located in Brewster, Washington, is ranked No. 180 on Golf Digest's America's Second 100 Greatest Golf Courses of 2019-20. GL: I want to talk a bit about your work on Gamble Sands, I was there the summer of ’15 drove up there the day after working on Josh Lewis’ agronomy staff at Chambers Bay. It played really firm and fast, and my impression was that it’s the most playable course I’ve ever experienced, and what I mean by that is – absolutely any type of player from tour pro to a 30 handicapper can come Gamble Sands originally offered a buffet for breakfast but since switched to a made-to-order menu and I think this was a mistake as often you’re pressed for time in the morning to get a quick bite in before your first time off. The starter was great and added a personal touch. Gamble Sands is located in north central Washington, 2.5 hours from the nearest major airport (Spokane). As such, it Gamble Sands is owned and operated by the Gebbers family, one that has called this corner of north-central Washington home since 1885. That was the year pioneer Dan Gamble arrived with all his worldly possessions in his backpack after walking all the way across the continent from Nova Scotia in hopes of making his fortune in the upper Methow gold rush. His fortune would amass slowly after years of hard work in several enterprises. Gamble was a tireless entrepreneur and founding father of the

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Gamble Sands - 31 Photos & 26 Reviews - Golf - 200 Sands

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