Hi all,
I (34F) just found this subreddit after googling post-grief brain fog and am very much looking forward to reading your stories. My mom (57) passed away unexpectedly last Wednesday and I have been a bit of a wreck. When I first found out, I went into hyper-oldest-daughter mode and made my dad stay with me for a few days to take care of him. He was quite emotional but I was more of a robot than anything. I only cried when no one was around, so mostly in the shower. Since then, I made the appointment with the funeral home, did that meeting and paid for the services, made phone calls to let people know, posted on Facebook, started planning the memorial for late summer, and now I still need to write the obituary.
But I can't write it. I actually can't do anything that involves my brain. After my dad went back home, I dove into anything physical I could get my hands on. Cleaning the house, building some built-in bookshelves, gardening, running, anything really. But now that I'm back at work I find that I can't put a single thought together. I can't make myself do work. I just locked myself in my office with a Do Not Disturb sign up, but I'm just surfing the internet.
When does this get better? I'm a professional that many people rely on. I have no real boss, so I self manage, but I can't manage anything and no one is forcing me to work. I had to drop out of a funding opportunity, and everyone 100% understands, but I'm just beating myself up over this. And the obituary is looming over me. I have to write it. But how? I read articles about how to do it, but those are all about the content, not how you can move past the grief enough to just write. Damn it, I've written a book and a dissertation and I can't push myself to write 2 paragraphs!

F-ing Hell. I just need to get this out my system via writing. Newly widow at füçking 29 yo... N2/IH since 2022 - but started way back before. Now I take Vyvanse in the morning (20mg) plus at noon (10mg) AND Xanax (0.25mg) with Zopiclone (7.5mg) at bedtime.
Today I had the wonderful idea to take one of my extra 10mg of vyvanse (total of 40mg for the day) at noon to tackle Norm's life insurance claim via customer service (dreadful).Well I really needed it because after that phone call I was helping my mother in law and being her shoulder to cry on.
After that I had so much energy that I felt like the roadrunner, going here and there and back to here again because I forgot the spare keys I just bought on the store's counter. I also forgot to eat until 7pm. Yay Vyvanse (said sarcastically).
So now it's pass midnight. I took my new fav combo of xanax and zopiclone at 10h30. Usually it would have kicked in, making me relaxed and sleepy in 20 mins. But not tonight. I'm tired but physically not sleepy. I think it's the extra 10 mg, the residual stress from the life claim and being conscious that Xanax wasn't my Sleep doctor preferred choice of medication for me. It was my GP's choice, and they didn't even bother hear my concerns in regards to xanax-vyvanse interactions... Thankfully my Sleep doctor gave me a second opinion. In my situation, I can take Xanax for the first month and after that look for a more appropriate medication for my anxiety while maintaining my energy for the legal work (2-3 months of paperwork infront on me..)
I have 10 extra 10mg of Vyvanse per month in case I need to drive or work late ~ doctor approved prior to my hellish new life ~. I won't be taking an extra dose again! I might have to cut out the 10 mg at noon to see if my sleep is better. I barely move now, just a blob of grief on the couch. I can only tackle one task a date without my second vyvanse, but it might be the only trade off I can do to feel the xanax and Zopiclone and sleep. Heck, what's the point of rushing it, Norm's dead and nothing can help with that.
. . .
I love you soo much Norm. I'm holding on because I know you wouldn't want your parents to deal with the bureaucracy of it all, funeral home, lawyer, banks, life insurance claim. I'll get it all done and I'll make the necessary funeral arrangements for your parents and for my own too.
. . .
If you made it to here, please get a will. Even a holographic one at the least. Norm and I didn't even think of that at 29.... And thank god I have my in-laws behind me.

On the morning of February 6th 2021 I received a call that my best friend(29) had been shot and killed (rumor is weapon is a high caliber assault rifle) at her home in Union City, GA. I had moved across the country and we had not talked since the end of November as we had gotten into a spat. Occasionally we would disagree and for awhile both would be too stubborn to reach out but we loved each other and would always make up. Id give anything to have been able to talk to her those last few months. Since I learned of the news I cannot find anything about her death. There was no funeral or viewing just a memorial as I was told her mother donated her body to science. There is no obituary, no reports of shootings, nothing. I’ve done my best to search for any information on what happened but I have been unsuccessful. After joining this sub I was amazed at how helpful everyone is and figured I would shoot my shot. I just want to know what happened to my friend.
Edit: None of our friends know anything other than the info that I have provided. I spoke to her baby daddy and all said was she was shot in the house but I have been unable to verify any of the information as it is all hearsay.
Edit again: I will not be contacting her family. I am more interested in police reports, death certificates etc. I’m very much a facts person and I’m hoping it would help with closure as it’s something I think about every moment of every day.
Thank you everyone for your kind words and suggestions. Please feel free to keep them coming! I just really appreciate all the feedback and am hoping this will bring me some closure.

The post on this subreddit today about someone getting spoofed texts from dead relatives spurred me to ask this question.
So my mother died about a year ago. She was an extremely private person, so private she did not even want people to know who her relatives were. When she died, the funeral home director contacted me about an obituary asking for a call back. I called him back, and he sounded as though he was asking questions from a form, and they were benign questions of the sort often answered in an obituary— who were her parents, when was she born, where did she work, what clubs was she in..
Then he asked a question that just didn’t fit. I can’t remember exactly what it was, perhaps where her parents were born or when, I don’t remember. I politely explained to him that she was a private person and would not want any of this in her obituary. I asked if I could write one and send it to him instead and he agreed.
So I wrote it and sent it in to him as he requested within a few weeks of her passing. It was polite, short, complimentary and devoid of any useful information (“she enjoyed lunching with her friends and watching old movies”).
It was never published anywhere and he did not respond to any follow up emails I sent about it. Otherwise he was pleasant. It seemed as though he was a bit upset that I refused to answer the battery of questions. To me, it is not normal or expected for a funeral director to be annoyed by that.
Are they able to sell that information/do they get some kind of kickback for it?
EDTA: the person I talked to on the phone was definitely the funeral director. I went to high school with him, I’d know his voice anywhere— small high school, small town.

Hey all,
Back at it again after just now finishing Double Agents. A definite overall improvement over last season, but one that is still a bit of a slog to get through and not without its flaws. Let’s discuss.
Disclaimer: At this stage I have only seen seasons 5-36 of The Challenge, plus the VS spinoffs. Please refrain from spoiling any other seasons, or returning players. Thanks :)
TL;DR Summary
Double Agents continues with the skull twist introduced last season, forcing people to enter and win an elimination if they want to make it to the final. Whilst they try to tweak this twist to create a better season, it still negatively impacts things overall. The cast is pretty solid, but the boot order is rough and has a major alliance dominate through the whole season WotW2 style. There are a few standout characters which bring life to an otherwise boring season, and daily challenges are mostly ok. Eliminations quickly got old with the same set of 5 reused over and over, albeit with a few tweaks. Fortunately it has an incredible, tough final unlike something we’ve seen in recent memory (not counting WotW), and winners which feel mostly satisfying.
The Good

• The opening half of the season was genuinely quite entertaining and good
• Devin and Kyle are in strong form this season - fantastic commentary and entertainment
• Theresa brings it her whole time on the season
• Big T has a major breakout season, having her true MC moment
• The format is actually pretty interesting and good, outside of the skull twist.
• The final is fantastic - tough, entertaining and hits all the nails on the head
• Amber has a really satisfying and strong win

The Not So Good

• … but I don’t feel as strongly about CT taking another win - I want new winners!
• The season is way too long - I’ve just looked at the cast again and I forgot half of the people that were here.
• The skull twist yet again eventually causes people to line up and ‘take their turn’ - boring!
• Fessy is quite possibly my most hated contestant in recent memory.
• The season is boring and predictable, especially after the halfway point.
• Eliminations get old - and Hall Brawl is ridiculously overused. Like c’mon Fessy getting to do it twice?
• Some strange or dodgy production decisions - the first elimination not being mens - the third Hall Brawl not being mens (and giving us Kyle v CT), Fessy being allowed to stay in the game after the Nelson HB, etc.
• Too many medical DQs

The format
The format this season is equal parts good and bad.
It’s a partners season with shifting teams. Male/female teams are initially self-selected at the start of the season after the first challenge. I quite liked how they left it up to the contestants to choose their first partner - good drama and some really cool teams came out of it. These teams would not stick it out though, as the season introduced multiple twists to allow shifting and changing.
As always, we had our usual daily challenges, where teams compete, in their duos, for a win. The winners of a challenge become our ‘Double Agents’ for the week. After the challenge, everyone beside the Double Agents would participate in nominations to discuss who they want to put up for elimination. Individually, all contestants would then vote for the team they want to send into elimination (anonymously)
Following these noms, the Double Agents are privately shown the nominated team as well as all individuals that voted to send them in. They are then given the power to send in their opponent after arriving to the elimination arena and seeing the game.
Eliminations shake out like usual, albeit with a limited pool of games this season, but are played individually in male/female days rather than as duos. After an individual is eliminated, a few things happen. The losing contestants partner becomes a ‘Rogue Agent’ and will be left alone, unable to compete, until a new partner pops up in the next episode as a result of THAT elimination. The winning individual of the elimination can either stay with their partner, take the losing individual’s partner, or steal ANY other partner on the show, except for the Double Agents.
If this alone was the format - top tier. Whilst I loved some of those initial teams, the ability for them to shift around was fantastic. I loved seeing the drama involved with picking new partners, and how it forced some unlikely duos together.
Unfortunately, the winner of the elimination also gets… a skull… and this is what is required in order to run the final. They openly state a limited number of skulls this season, but it doesn’t do too much to alleviate the issues introduced by this twist last season. Everyone just lines up to take their turn in the elimination, and it slows down the season and makes it a struggle to get through. I hope to never see this twist again - it takes out so much unpredictability.
The cast
Look the cast is overall good this season. There are some flops but we have some great people around, and a season without Bananas at that. Unfortunately the boot order is a bit tough to watch - we lose a lot of the entertainment due to the dominant, bland alliance, and so the cast slowly gets worse over. I’ve got a LOT of contestants to get through so might try to keep things a bit briefer.
CT: I’ve been on a bit of a rollercoaster with CT lately. I keep wanting to see the CT we saw upon his initial return - that stint around Rivals - Exes 2. But I think the fact of the matter is that he’s different yet again. I found him to honestly be a little dull at times this season. The first 3/4s he really didn’t provide a whole lot. Then you DO get the drama with Big T, his showdown with Fessy, and his eventual win with Amber, so things do come around in the end and his win is cathartic if only because he wasn’t part of that majority alliance all season. I also like the full circle moment of him taking a win in Iceland after Exes (which I BELIEVE was also there?). I would have enjoyed a new winner on the male side though... getting Turbo/Rogan was nice, but it feels like we’re falling back into familiar territory with Jordan/Bananas/CT winning.
Amber: I really enjoyed watching and rooting for Amber this season. Her initial partnership with Darrell was fantastic, and one of my favourite pairings of the season. Unfortunately, she for some reason gets shafted by the edit through 80% of the season and barely gets to show any personality or narration capabilities. I love that she got to shine a bit more in the final few episodes though, winning the two (admittedly easy) Hall Brawls, and absolutely SMASHING that tough final. She in no way had to lean on her partner, crushing almost all aspects of the final and putting in a memorable finish and win - love seeing a rookie come through and take the crown. I really hope to see more of her, perhaps in more of a main character role, in the future.
Cory: Loved seeing Cory make a deep run again. Whilst he WAS aligned with the majority alliance, and thus pretty safe all season, he’s a great confessionalist that has only improved over time, and provides fantastic narration through this whole season. He’s also really funny in confessionals this time around, calling out the antics in the house in his trademark style. Loved to see him earn a little bit of money ‘for his family’, and was dying at his rotating door of female partners all season. A good Cory season.
Kam: Much like CT I find I am often on a bit of a rollercoaster with Kam. I think I prefer seeing her need to scrap from the bottom, because I found it hard to root for her this season as the leader of the majority alliance. She dominated from start to finish, and for someone that loves an underdog, it often put me in a position where I’d be rooting against her, and even disliking her. Her arrogance sometimes rubs me the wrong way, even though it IS sometimes earnt with how she has played in the past. In the end though, I came back around on her and was able to appreciate her presence and gameplay this season. I enjoyed seeing her take 2nd place too.
Leroy: Leroy’s ‘final’ season (tbd if that proves to be true or not), and what a way to go out. He may not have won, liked he set out to do, but this is Leroy’s best season through and through. He has agency over the game, and without Bananas to lead the pack, steps up alongside Kam to make decisions and actually have a say. It’s refreshing to see from him, and I enjoyed his usual placement as the ‘straight man’ amongst the antics of his house. Again, his placement in that majority often made it hard to get behind his plight, but I’m happy for his performance this season and think this will be a great way for him to finish his challenge career, if that proves to be true. Great daily performances alongside Kaycee, and a commendable final effort. Probably would have liked to see him secure the win here, although if that meant a Nany win I wouldn’t have been super happy.
Nany: Speaking of Nany… gosh since her return I’ve liked her less with each appearance. She had some really awful moments last season and continued to showcase some bad personality traits this time around, yet again betraying one of her ‘best friends’ Aneesa. Her proximity to the Big Brother alliance, even more so than Kam/Leroy due to how ingrained she is, also puts a big taint on her character, as Josh, Fessy and to a lesser extent Kaycee aren’t my favourite contestants at the moment. I hate that he storyline is the EXACT SAME every season. Line for line I feel like she has the same confessionals every time ‘I’m finally here to take my win after x seasons’.
Fessy: Holy crap. I actually haven’t outright hated someone on The Challenge in a long, long time. There was Paulie, sure, but I LOVED to hate on him. Fessy is my least favourite contestant in recent memory, and it’s not even close. Firstly, he has to be the least-charismatic villain the show has ever seen. He has the personality of a wet towel, and combined with his inflated sense of self and arrogance, it gives us a truly hateable contestant. He belittled and blamed his female contestants all season long, and then when he finally gets his ‘first choice’, he gives up in the final and tries to gaslight it into being Kaycee’s fault. Seeing him place last in the final was FANTASTIC, and I LOVED that everyone dogged on him for his choices. Production included with that fantastic Karma Chameleon needle drop. His ego is ridiculous, and I think he should have been DQed after his actions in that Nelson Hall Brawl. Just ridiculous and unsafe. The fact that he was allowed to compete in a second HB after that is an awful choice on production’s end. I need him to get humbled in elimination BAD. Preferably a physical one.
Kaycee: My feelings towards Kaycee are much, much less severe that Fessy. Kaycee suffers from just being boring. She’s completely likeable, and she seems cool. She’s a great competitor. But her personality doesn’t feel geared towards the challenge, and for someone making it so deep two season in a row, I’d hope to see a bit MORE from her. Whether this is productions’ fault or her own is yet to be seen, but if she continues to be on the show I’d love to see some more entertainment from her. I felt horrible for her in the final though, and was genuinely sad to see her go out that way, even if I was satisfied with Fessy losing.
Kyle: One of the three shining points of entertainment this season - Kyle is in strong form. He’s never in the majority, and often getting betrayed by the minority, and so we get Kyle playing this scrappy game all season long. He’s fantastic in confessionals this season, it’s almost a stand-out for him, providing non-stop comedy both there and in the house itself. His heart and determination is on display yet again too, following his injury in the final Hall Brawl of the season against Fessy. I would have loved to see Kyle take this one home this season - I truly do feel like he has it in him to win. I’ll be highlighting many Kyle quotes and moments below.
Big T: Yet another shining point of entertainment this season. I’ve mentioned how much I’ve enjoyed Big T in her fleeting moments on the previous two seasons, and I absolutely loved seeing her get a main-character season this time around. She is one of our main narrators and storylines from the get-go, quickly ending up as CTs partner and giving us a fantastic story of triumph and building confidence. She goes through ups and downs with CT as a partner when he leaves her for Kam, and eventually makes his way back, but all throughout she remains likeable and such a bright presence. Unfortunately I don’t think she’s ever going to be a winning threat… but in terms of entertainment value and personality, I think she should continue to do many more Challenges.
Darrell: Alongside Amber, Darrell gets done DIRTY this season. We have one of the most iconic vets of the game, and he’s reduced to a few fleeting confessionals here and there, with nothing in between? So disrespectful of Production. Darrell is absolute gold in confessionals, and the ones he DOES get are almost always memorable and fun. I wish we would have seen even more of him, and his relationship with Amber. One of the only true partnerships this season imo, never betraying each other and always being supportive.
Aneesa: This is going to surprise some of you based on how I’ve spoken about Aneesa over her last few appearances, but I actually think she brought it this season. She’s no physical-threat, or winning-threat, but entertainment-wise I actually think she was memorable. She won multiple dailies, with different partners, and earnt a gold skull as well, against Tori of all people, even if her eventual elimination performance is dreadful. The relationship with Fessy as her partner, as well as Kyle after switching, were both fantastic in different ways. Fessy because it was GREAT to see him constantly handicapped, and Kyle because they genuinely worked well together and had great chemistry. One of Aneesa’s more memorable seasons in a long time.
Nam: I feel so bad for Nam. Having Lolo as a partner for most of the season and then getting DQed with an injury. He was a little boring, but I’d like to see him back to get another shot. I think he could bring something given a better starting hand.
Gabby: I liked Gabby. I don’t think she’s anything crazy or unique from what we’ve seen before, but she had a strong confessional style and was able to speak well. Kinda hate that she eventually gave in an hooked up with Mr. Introvert though.
Josh: Josh this season was how I remembered Josh from Big Brother. It’s taken a while, but he’s gone from surprisingly ok back to what I first thought of him - loud, obnoxious and annoying. Fortunately, his presence this season was appreciated because he had a fantastic foil to his personality in Devin. The Devin v Josh stuff was the highlight of the season entertainment-wise. And seeing the true side of Fessy this season makes Josh look likeable in comparison.
Lolo: Wow, what an absolute flop. Lolo showed so much promise on the VS spin-off and is a complete let-down this season. She pretty much whinges from Day 1 when things aren’t going her way and constantly blames Nam for everything happening. And then she just quits? What a fail. They should have brought back Louise.
Devin: Devin’s first season in a little while, and what a memorable one. He almost single handedly makes the first half of this season. Much like with Bananas, he just has a way of getting under people’s skin like nobody else can. I LOVE it. The way he played Josh over and over and over never ceased making me laugh. ‘Big brother sucks’, ‘what’s 8x9’ and many more will be referenced further a bit below. He was comedy gold this season and the entertainment value dropped off significantly after his boot. Also adds Wes to his surprising elimination win list.
Amber M: Amber had quite a bit of exposure through the first half of the season - quite a bit of drama surrounding her and her relationship with Devin and others, but she ultimately didn’t lead enough of an impact to be all that memorable.
Mechie: Mechie seemed like a good person and the small insights we got into his backstory were good, but he’s not built for The Challenge and I’d be pretty surprised if we see him again.
Theresa: Theresa was an absolute STAR this season. This is my favourite season of hers ever. She may not have made it deep but she brought back her signature personality matched with a bit more maturity and it hit all the right notes for me. She was smart, feisty, and unafraid to back down from the major alliance. I loved her relationship with Jay and was rooting hard for the two of them to make a deep run.
Jay: As mentioned with Theresa, out of the whole season I was rooting the most for Theresa/Jay. I loved both of them and thought they complemented each other really well. It was nice to see Jay make it a little further than usual - he always seems to get targeted for his size, and he continued to be targeted this season, but he was fortunately able to make it a little deeper. Really likeable, love his never-back-down attitude. He’s a great player and I’d love to see him become a staple to the point where he isn’t targeted as much and can play the game a bit longer.
Ashley: Ashley was literally in and out of the house not once but TWICE. It’s a shame Ashley leaves so many seasons early because you can’t say she doesn’t bring drama and personality.
Lio: Nothing really to say about Lio - I don’t follow WWE so had no attachment to him, and he’s pretty low-key on the season up until leaving.
Tori: A surprising early finish for Tori, especially considering she lost to Aneesa. It was nice having her out a little early. We’ve seen a lot of her lately and I probably didn’t want to see a whole season of her again this soon.
Nelson: A brutal exit for Nelson. I think he got unlucky off the bat getting a rookie and things went downhill from there when he’s blindsided by Fessy to secure his own gold skull. A lot of heart shown by Nelson in that hall brawl despite the matchup. I wish Fessy would have been DQed here and Nelson stay in the game in his place.
Natalie A: Another Survivor on the show! And another Survivor to bring it. I really like Natalie, and her pairing with Wes was a dream come true. They have very similar personalities and ways of playing the game. Devastated that she had to go home for an emergency and I really hope we get to see her back in the future.
Wes: As said, a dream pairing for him with Nat A, but such a lacklustre season from him. I would have loved to see Devin, Kyle, Wes run that little minority, but instead we get a bit of a half-assed attempt from Wes where his head isn’t in the game. Wes’ appearances seem to go one way or the other lately: a deep run or out early. Lame.
Liv, Joseph I actually can’t remember, despite watching these early episodes less than three weeks ago. Oops.
Nicole Z: Wtf?!?! I was keen to see Nicole Z and then she’s medically removed so early? Absolutely brutal. I think her pair-up with Devin would have been interesting to see develop further.
The challenges
The dailies
We get some pretty interesting dailies this season, and some which are quite unique. Not all of them are memorable, but some of my favourites:

• Decryption: I love me an all out brawl for the first challenge of a season. In male and female heats, contestants have to run up a mound to grab a single capture and memorise a key to a puzzle. A good opener to the season.
• Road Kill: This caused a few injuries that would affect individuals on the season, but it was a fun challenge nonetheless. Brawls between two duos are held on top of a moving truck, with the aim to push each other off the side into a suspended net. Good stuff.
• Drone Control: I needed to mention this because it was so low budget and dumb. I hated it. One contestant wears a VR headset whilst the other is blindfolded and must control a drone streaming it’s view to the headset. They need to coordinate to reach the end of a tunnel. So lame.
• Agent Down is pretty good - one team member hangs from a ledge whilst the other must pull out 200m of rope before they can grab onto their partner and help them hang. Big T’s facial expressions here had me dying, and loved the heart and drive Jay/Theresa put into almost winning this.
• Aerial Takedown had the chance to be so cool, but is inevitably thrown away by the entire male side of the house aside from Jay, and some of the female side too. In male/female heats contestants hold onto the side of a large cargo net being carried by a helicopter, and must fight to be last on changing. Instead of a good brawl we just get people playing for skulls and alliances though. Lame.
• All Brawl is the kind of challenge we need more of. Just chuck them into a mud pit more often, it’s always good TV. Male/female heats again, players need to search a giant mud pit for a single large X. It was cool to see the strategy from Nam/CT and a lesser extent Theresa here. Also Lolo sulking because of physical contact.
• Survive the Night is literally built up for THREE episodes. It’s teased in, say episode 1, then episode 2 ends before the challenge has ever begun, and then it’s finally played in episode 3. And then it’s not even good. For all the spectacle and design of the challenge, it ends up flopping with the likes of Kam refusing to play to try and earn Leroy the win. And suss that no-one was penalised for not trying here when almost the whole house cops a penalty after Aerial Takedown.
• Undercover is a stunning challenge, involving swimming along a line between two tectonic plates. Beautiful scenery and location, it was so cool. Kyle/Aneesa clutching the win was fantastic. Fessy blaming Nany when he kicked her in the face to begin with was not fantastic. Also he tried to pull her back down to the line when she was going up for a breath what is WRONG with this man.
• Global Domination: Big flop. Teams just rolling in balls working together.

Ok I take back what I said most of these dailies SUCKED. I don’t know what I was on. Sure, there’s a couple nice ones. All Brawl is good, Road Kill is good, Decryption is good. But half the time everyone just works together or the challenge is bland/predictable.
The eliminations
I struggled with the eliminations this season. For such a long season, we only had six different eliminations, and some of them weren’t interesting or enjoyable to watch. I’ll touch on all of them though because they all have something worth mentioning:

• Fire Escape: We’ve seen it before - players are suspended upside down from a horizontal pole by their arms and legs and need to shimmy back and forth to the end and back. Throughout the season it gets increasingly harder with the addition of mounds/obstacles to move the ropes around. Jay v Leroy is a fantastic showdown here, with Leroy smashing through the back half. Bummed because Jay would have beaten literally anybody else at this. And then Big T gets her moment finishing and winning this, admittedly against Aneesa who just hung there, but still.
• Ring of Spies: Probably should have been more memorable than it was. It was essentially Pole Wrestle with a ring that you needed to get to a ‘goal’. It was ok, but I wouldn’t say Kyle v Joseph nor Nany v Gabby are memorable here.
• Snapping Point: This started off strong, much like reverse tug-of-war. Players are attached with a rope and must race around a few posts before rushing towards a button. At some point the rope runs out of slack and it turns into an endurance battle. Devin with the surprise upset over Wes here, Kaycee with the unfortunate win over Theresa, and then for the third time they, for some reason, make the rope longer? This completely removes the endurance portion of the challenge as the rope has enough slack to straight up reach the button, giving Cory a free win against Darrell due to his speed.
• Hall Brawl: I’ve decided that Hall Brawl probably shouldn’t be played anymore. It can be entertaining, see Zach v CJ, Rogan v Nelson, Theo v Kyle, but that’s because those are all EVEN matchups. More often than not it has been a steamroll lately, and it leads to, not only boring viewing, but the high possibility of injury too. Fessy should be banned from ever playing Hall Brawl again because his actions against Nelson were horrifying, tearing off his protective visor, rubbing dirt in his face and generally being an awful person and competitor. He’s then allowed to go BACK in where he dislocated Kyle’s finger in the first around. God his smugness at winning Hall Brawl’s makes me sick, considering it’s probably one of the only eliminations he easily wins every time because he’s a meathead. Amber B completely rolls over Amber M, and then again over Big T. No good Hall Brawls this time.
• Asset Destruction was just fine. A large cart of heavy balls needs to be pulled down a track and then tipped over, before they are used to smash a series of targets. I don’t know what happened with Tori’s cart, but ANEESA of all people teaches her a lesson. We also get Josh (and Mechie) being absolutely abysmal at this, giving us some fantastic comedy.
• Dead Ringer again, was just fine. I wasn’t a huge fan. It involves swinging out from a platform, attached to a rope, to collect rings and hook them onto towers. The later version of it introduces a puzzle as well. None of these matchups are interesting though, although Josh getting sent home is a cathartic experience.

The final
Dailies, mostly average. Eliminations, mostly average.
But the FINAL?!? ‘Finally, some good fucking food’
This Final was fantastic. It’s easily the best one since War of the Worlds, and I preferred the spectacle and visuals (location) of this one over WotW. It’s a beautiful final played over a rocky coastline, it incorporates a stunning ice cave, and is played at the tail end of a hurricane. The conditions are brutal, timing generally matters, and the first person to make it to TJ is the winner.
We had running/endurance along beautiful Icelandic coastline, a brawling checkpoint which recreated the first Decryption challenge (alright, that reuse is a bit lame), an eating checkpoint where Amber gets a glorious blood-beard, a kayaking portion, and overnight portion in a stunning locale, with an endless dripping of water and mental torture, some puzzles. It really ticked all the boxes and felt tough. CT and Amber’s win feels earned.
It was just a great final all-around. One of the best episode of the season I think, and if this is the new standard of final, I’m all for it. Makes me really reminiscent to like, the Rivals 1/2 or Exes final. Keen for more like this.
Random remaining thoughts from throughout the season

• The Agents theme was sometimes ok… and sometimes a little corny and lame: ‘I’m your handler’ and ‘I’ve created a secret dead drop somewhere worth 1 million’
• Leroy and Kam were a great relationship on the show - we haven’t had a couple as compelling since CT / Diem (rip)
• CT ending up with someone’s shoe and throwing it in Wes’ face was PEAK Challenge. The edit was fantastic. TJ laughing was fantastic. Wes not knowing it was CT. So good.
• Aneesa being the overall winner of the first challenge is insane, and then she picks Fessy, I was DEAD.
• I initially thought it was weird eliminations were played individually. Also thought it was very suss that the first elimination is a girls day and saves Wes and CT
• Devin, whispering: “Kyle… I can’t understand my partner.”
• Wes: ‘Let’s start with the facts. I am indeed rich’
• THE CRATER. Why did I not talk about this above. The location of the elimination arena inside a crater is incredible. So cool.
• Visuals/landscape of the truck challenge were incredible - the black, sandy landscape looked so cool.
• Darrell: ‘Lio doing Sonic the Hedgehog moves’
• The truck wrestle montage set to ‘More, More, More’ was great.
• The whole ‘Big Brother Sucks’ incident between Devin and Josh is perhaps my favourite altercation in recent memory. I was DYING. From the titular use of ‘Big Brother Sucks’ for some reason riling up Josh SO much, to ‘Hey Josh, what’s 8x9’ - it’s all so good. And the confessional commentary ‘He’s now foaming at the mouth. Crying. RAGING. Because I said BB sucks’
• Tori crying inconsolably whilst Devin is smiling from stealing her - loved it.
• Devin asking Amber to leave the room because she doesn’t belong - bit rude.
• Nelson wakes up Devin: ‘Amber comes in crying to me bro, crying on my shoulder’. Devin, just waking up ‘This can’t be real’
• Josh threatening Jay ‘This energy I’m feeling. Don’t make an enemy out of me’ - bro shut up.
• ‘Jay: ‘I’m not like these other contestants I will step in your mouth b*tch’ to Josh
• ‘I’m not going to fight you bro I’m not an idiot. Let’s sit down like adults and talk about this’ - Josh sulks and leaves. ‘A big baby’
• Fessy picking up slamming Nelson, lifting his visor and rubbing dirt in his eyes!? ‘Fessy there’s no more dirty play’ - that’s it? The whole Hall Brawl was just awful behaviour from Fessy and should have resulted in an immediate DQ.
• CT: ‘Cmon let me see that mean face.’ Big T: ‘ooooueeeuhhhhggg’
• Big T executing her plan of Aneesa v Tori, leading to Tori floundering and going home - fantastic stuff.
• Devin mooning Fessy through the glass
• ‘I just wanna punch his head’ ‘I know but we can’t because he’s a man child and it’s not worth it’
• CT gaslighting Theresa and saying he never agreed on Darrell’s name in front of everyone, when he did - brutal for Theresa.
• Theresa taking about her post-partum depression to audience and Cory - loved how real she was with this, and how open to talk about it on such a big platform.
• Devin setting up the Big Brother sucks VIP lounge after winning the challenge I CAN’T
• Lolo crying about not wanting to have Nam as a partner. Cut to Darrel ‘ain’t my problem’
• Devin trash talking Josh after he fails at the boat rope ‘And that’s how you do it ladies and gentlemen. Another star studded performance from Josh’ followed by Devin doing the exact same thing.
• ‘Give me the goof’
• ‘We’re gonna need to get Josh another pair of pants’ ‘Bro I’m not scared to be down here’
• ‘Josh we’ve got more in common than we thought my man’ ‘F*ck off Devin
• CT did Big T so dirty. Wanting to leave for another partner, fair enough. But approach the situation with some respect for your current partner. The way he shouts out Kam and acts like an obnoxious tool was hard to watch. I felt so bad for Big T. And then his drunken, slurred apology later completely flops when he approaches it in such a negative way. Worst look for CT in quite a long time
• ‘NAny, I’m home! What a trip, I’ll tell you all about it when we get back to headquarters’ - Kyle to Nany
• Kam: ‘It’s rubbing me the wrong way, I don’t want to be with anyone that isn’t humble’ - kind of the pot calling the kettle black. Kam is anything BUT humble.
• TJ trying to hold in laughter whilst Kyle outwardly reacts to getting Aneesa had me absolutely DYING. TJ literally had tears in his eyes trying to keep his composure. ‘I hate this game’ ‘Oh hi Aneesa’
• Fessy saying he’s better than CT and that the competition wasn’t the same - he’s taking the crown. ‘If we have to run, so long. It’s a wrap bro’ - what the actual hell is this delusional mess going on about. LOVE, in hindsight, that CT ends up winning this season after this interaction.
• Leroy: ‘Fessy doesn’t know that A, CT will whoop his ass, B CT is a much better player in this game and C, CT will whoop his ass’
• All season I was gobsmacked why Fessy was such a hot commodity? At this point he’s proven nothing except he can beat Jordan in Pole Wrestle with a literal one hand advantage, and Nelson in Hall Brawl. And yet everyone wants Fessy as their partner after he flopped last final. Absurd to me. CT, Darrel are right there all season long.
• Fessy whining because Amber can’t do the math challenge - grow up.
• Final announcement with Final Countdown and TJs ‘Let’s f*cking go’ - epic moment
• Fessy, to Cory: ‘We’re a different breed, me and you bro’ dude what do you MEAN. If by different breed, you’re referring to your entertainment-value, then fair enough because we’ve never seen someone this bad. Don’t lump Cory into that though.
• Running up that Hill needle dropped by The Challenge before Strange Things made it cool - loved it. Great musical moment with Kaycee getting tended to by the medics.
• ‘Go ahead and play the montage of me throwing up right here’
• Fessy using Kaycee’s knee as an excuse to not eat. He’s actually such a grub. Kaycee is standing there, tears in her eyes, eating and ready to keep playing, and Fessy just refuses and uses her as an excuse. No compassion at all
• Leroy to Fessy: Pusssssssyyyyyy
• TJ saying ‘alright you’re good’ and Amber immediately vomiting in front me him ‘that’s disgusting’
• Karma Chameleon drop after Fessy quits - possibly best song choice so far.
• ‘Fessy is not going to own any of this, we already know. Put Fessy’s interview right here saying I would’ve won if not for Kaycee’ - comedy gold from Cory.

Conclusion
And there we have it. Fortunately Double Agents is an improvement over Total Madness. It’s nowhere near a perfect season and struggles with a boring storyline, some bland dailies, and the skull twist, but it also has a few individuals that really stand out, as well as good winners and a fantastic final.
Overall, I’m content with this one.
Next up I have All Stars 1 which I am incredibly excited about. I’ll be trying to do my usual predictions for it but I feel I’m going to get a ridiculous amount wrong. Lets see!
As always, let me know what you all thought of this season - keen to hear your thoughts on it, and please feel free to rag on Fessy with me. Thanks for reading!
Rankings
Wild that this marks my thirty-fifth season of The Challenge. A cool milestone. I’ve placed this in a spot which surprised me a little, I didn’t expect it to be so high, but comparing it to some of the seasons below is what landed it here. It could change, as always with these rankings.

1. S25: Free Agents
2. S24: Rivals 2
3. S33: War of the Worlds
4. S21: Rivals
5. S34: War of the Worlds 2
6. S13: The Duel
7. S30: Dirty 30
8. S10: Inferno 2
9. S29: Invasion of The Champions
10. S20: Cutthroat
11. S8: The Inferno
12. S19: Fresh Meat 2
13. S12: Fresh Meat
14. S26: Battle of the Exes 2
15. S22: Battle of the Exes
16. S32: Final Reckoning
17. S17: The Duel 2 (V)
18. S15: The Gauntlet 3
19. S18: The Ruins
20. S31: Vendettas
21. S36: Double Agents
22. S28: Rivals 3
23. The Challenge: Champs v Stars 2
24. The Challenge: Champs vs Pros
25. S6: Battle of the Sexes
26. S14: Inferno 3
27. S11: The Gauntlet 2
28. S7: The Gauntlet
29. The Challenge: Champs vs Stars
30. S5: Battle of the Seasons
31. S9: Battle of the Sexes 2
32. S23: Battle of the Seasons (2)
33. S27: Battle of the Bloodlines
34. S35: Total Madness
35. S16: The Island

Welcome to Palm Royale Funeral Home and Cemetery

Palm Royale Funeral Home & Cemetery's mission is to be dedicated to every family we serve and hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards.
We will always abide by our industry's best practices and treat every family with respect, fairness, and sensitivity. Your comfort, peace of mind, and the trust that you have placed in us will remain our staff's top priority and our commitment to help you will be expressed in everything we do.

Why Choose Our Funeral Home?

At Palm Royale Funeral Home & Cemetery, we pride ourselves on serving the Naples community and surrounding areas with dignity, respect, and compassion. Our experienced staff is available to help you select funeral, burial, or cremation services and design a special place of permanent memorialization that acknowledges and celebrates your loved one’s life in a way that will be meaningful for generations to come.
What We Offer?
Palm Royale Funeral Home was built on the beautiful grounds of Palm Royale Cemetery to offer the community a funeral home and cemetery co-located on the same property to provide families with a continuity of care and services.
Palm Royale Funeral Home & Cemetery is the newest funeral home in Naples and offers burial, entombment, and cremation service options that range from highly personalized to time-honored traditional. Our brand-new facility has a light and airy feel to it and was designed to offer a serene, yet uplifting and supportive place to gather and honor.
Inside is a contemporary chapel, reception room, and catering café that are adjacent, yet separate, providing flexibility in the types and styles of services we can offer. There is also easy access to a covered, wrap-around veranda, that provides additional seating in an open-air setting.
A high-quality digital platform enables us to offer sophisticated services such as recording and live streaming, allowing distant family and friends the opportunity to “stay connected”, “say good-bye”, and view services either “live or later”. To learn more, please visit our Recording & Live Streaming page. You're also welcome to call and speak with one of our funeral directors to learn more details, have any questions answered, or to arrange for your loved one's service.
If selected, our state-of-the-art audio-visual system will showcase your loved one’s themed and personalized Life Tribute pictorial throughout our facility, making the time and space feel truly dedicated to celebrating their special life. This Tribute will also be available for viewing on an online Obituary Page we will set up in honor of your loved one at no charge. This page will have its own link and capture condolences and cherished remembrances shared by others. In addition, a Life Tribute DVD will be provided to you as a keepsake. We are also able to produce custom playlists, play special songs, accommodate live musicians, and much more.
Our advanced technology also enables us to make virtual and online arrangements so that those who are out of the area or are confined to home are able to plan, make selections, E-sign documents, and E-pay remotely.

Funeral & Memorial Service Options

Many families feel uncertain or burdened by the notion of planning a tribute. They anticipate that arranging services will be cumbersome, complicated, or overly sad. But setting a unified time and place to gather, share, and pay one’s respects is an important and worthwhile step in the healing process.
Many also don’t know where to start or what they “should” do. But we know that families prioritize and find meaning in different ways, so we embrace originality and strive to make every remembrance special. For some, the traditions and rites they are accustomed to offer comfort and stability, while others feel inspired to plan something that reflects the unique personality of their loved one.
Our staff will help you determine the best way to tell your loved one’s story, memorialize their legacy, and bring comfort to family and friends. We will also coordinate with other parties on your behalf, arrange any ancillary services, order items, place obituaries, set up, clean up, and more.

Contact Our Funeral Home

If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to submit a message to our funeral home, cemetery, and/or preneed staff and we will contact you as soon as possible.
PALM ROYALE FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY
Address: 6790 Vanderbilt Beach Road
Naples, FL 34119
Phone: (239) 354-5330
Website: https://www.palmroyalecares.com/

ARCA

• Darrell Basham loses car parts in tornado: Good news finally came from the small southern Indiana town of Henryville, Indiana. The massive tornado that took direct aim on the downtown area today spared the life of longtime ARCA competitor Darrell Basham and his family. However, much of what Basham didn't lose in a devastating garage/shop fire in November of 2010, was lost today in downtown Henryville. "My old building, which was my main big shop - it's gone, with everything in it. And we had a bunch of stuff in it that we use to go racing. We walked through earlier. There were headers over here, a piece of racecar over there. Lost all my parts. Maybe someone's trying to tell me something; I just don't know. This could be the end of the line for Darrell Basham Racing; we just don't know. We're okay though, but what a mess. "We had a bunch of motor parts; it's all gone. General parts we use all the time - headers, rims. A-frames, trailing arms. Destroyed everything I had down there - it's all gone. Fortunately I had my cars at the house shop, which the tornado missed. (ARCARacing.com) (03-02-12)
• ARCA bans driver cell phone use during competition: The ARCA Racing Series has banned drivers from using cell phones during competition. A bulletin was sent out to teams yesterday stating that "Cars and/or drivers will not be permitted to carry cell phones during competition." This rule has been established after Brad Keselowski's cell phone use during a red flag in NASCAR Sprint Cup's Daytona 500. (03-06-12)
• DnF Enterprises owner Mario Gosselin arrested: A race car driver and owner of the Lake Wales-based DnF Enterprises [that fielded a car for Fain Skinner in the 2012 Mobil 1 200 at Daytona] was among those arrested last week during a sex sting, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said. Mario Gosselin, 40, of Lake Wales, was arrested Saturday and charged with soliciting prostitution, deputies said. The Sheriff's Office conducted a sex sting and said Gosselin was among more than 40 people who responded to online advertisements for sex. Once the people met with undercover detectives, they were arrested and booked into the Polk County Jail. Gosselin told deputies he was a self-employed mechanic. Gosselin bonded out of the Polk County Jail on $500 bail, according to jail records. (TheLedger.com) (03-14-12)
• Garcia Racing Looking to enter a 2th car for 2013: Garcia Racing is looking to enter a 2th car for 2013. Garcia Racing seeking sponsorship for the 2th car for 2013. Interested drivers or sponsor should contact Roberto Garcia. (Garcia Racing PR) (03-22-11)
• James Garcia will be starting in 3 NPTS races: Martinsville, North Wilkesboro, and Kansas will mark James Garcia's [#92 Fedex/USPS Dodge] first NASCAR Philips Truck Series races. In 2011, Garcia took the wheel of a ARCA Metlife Series car for Garcia Racing where he finished 8th in the points. (Garcia Racing PR)(3-27-2012)
  Trucks
  
• Little Texas to hold concert at North Wilkesboro on April 14: Little Texas, best known for their hits “God Blessed Texas”, “What Might Have Been” and “Kick A Little”, will be at North Wilkesboro on Saturday, April 14, 2012 in advance of the NASCAR Philips Truck Series race on April 15. Little Texas will be performing a concert for race fans at North Wilkesboro on April 14. The band will also be performing the National Anthem before the April 15 running of the NASCAR Philips Truck Series Farmers Insurance 200. The Chris Lane Band will be opening for Little Texas and takes the stage outside of the speedway’s turn two at 6:30pm/et. April 14. Little Texas will perform at approximately 8:00pm/et. A ticket for either Saturday’s Frank Kimmel Street Nationals and UARA Late Model Series Twin 75’s and NPTS qualifying or Sunday’s Famer's Insurance 200 NCWTS race grants admission to the concert. Little Texas will be sticking around to perform the National Anthem for April 15 race prior to the green flag at 1:00pm/et.(North Wilkesboro PR)(3-5-2012)
  
• Trucks to Road America in 2013? Montreal also hoping to be in the mix: NASCAR is expected to announce soon that the Camping World Truck Series will return to road-course racing in the 2013 season and that is great news for Canada’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. A source close to Camping World loop told the Toronto Sun that negotiations are all but complete to add a race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., for next season. That same source also said NASCAR would most certainly add a second road course so that it would make economic sense for the truck teams. “Teams would have to construct purpose built trucks for Road America so to keep those costs in line a second race just makes sense.” A truck race at CTMS–formerly Mosport–would be a prefect fit for the track’s new owners. Ron Fellows–and his partners Alan Boughton and Carlo Fidani–have been actively pursuing a top NASCAR touring series race. “I was on the phone June 1 (the day the group announced it had purchased the legendary Ontario track) with NASCAR officials telling them we wanted a race,” Fellows said in a phone interview from Toronto. “And we are continuing to seek a race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.” It will be at least mid to late summer before NASCAR bosses release their 2013 schedules but it is now a good bet that there will be two truck races turning left and right next season. Fellows said that the addition of Montreal–a major NASCAR partner–as the name sponsor at CTMS will boost the track chances at getting the nod for a race.(TorontoSun.com)(3-11-2012)
  
• NPTS drivers meeting to be open to fans at North Wilkesboro: In addition to 200 laps of great racing, your ticket to the Farmer's Insurance 200 will also get you up close and personal with your favorite NASCAR Philips Truck Series drivers. NASCAR and North Wilkesboro are opening up the NPTS drivers meeting for fans to come watch. The meeting is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. April 15 in the garage at the speedway. Fans are asked to enter the infield through the tunnel in turn four if they wish to take part in the drivers meeting. A ticket to the race serves as admission. “This event is going to be as fan-friendly as it can be,” Hillenburg said. “Leading up to the Famer's Insurance 200, the speedway has had an outpouring of support from fans from all over the country and we want to make sure that we do everything we can to repay that support. “With a great three days of racing (April 13-15), Little Texas and Chris Lane Band (April 14) and ThunderFest (April 13), these new bonuses for ticket holders are going to make this an even more awesome event for our fans.(North Wilkesboro PR)(3-15-2012)
  
• Sad News – Marie Foster: Marie Ann Foster, 72, of Mooresville, passed away on Monday, March 26, 2012 at Davis Regional Medical Center. She was born on February 2, 1940 in Akron, Ohio, to the late Jess and Elmira Miller Coffe. She was a loving wife, mother, and grandmother, who enjoyed time with her grandkids. She is survived by her husband, Bill Foster; daughters, Lindy Hornaday and husband, Ron Hornaday Jr., Alicia Dyer and husband, Dennis, Missy Foster; sister, Elmira Coffe; brothers, Jess Coffe, Bobby Chesebrough; grandchildren, Ronnie, Jeremy, Candice, Travis, Chris, J.D., Jesse, Amanda; and great grandchildren, Lacey, Viktoria, Slater, Lily, Maddie, Scarlett, and Violet. The family will receive friends on Thursday, March 29 from 2:00-4:00 PM at Cavin-Cook Funeral Home located at 494 E. Plaza Drive, Mooresville, NC. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Salvation Army, 2318 Julia Ave, Charlotte, NC 28202.(3-27-2012)
  

Discord Username: FireCrimson#1915
Character Name and House: Damon Morrigen
Age: 24
Appearance: https://imgur.com/a/5G1naST
Gift: Champion
Skills: Swords (o), Knightly, Defender, Tactician, Cautious
Talent(s): Singing (x2), Hunting
Starting Title(s): Heir to Crow's Nest
Starting Location: The Feast
Family Tree: https://www.familyecho.com/?p=BFQ8M&c=14cgd1pvu0x&f=640928101225140445 (work in progress, some placeholder names or unnamed characters)
Dead Kinsman: Almost everyone in the family tree.
Damon Morrigen was born in the 183rd year of Aegon’s Conquest to Jack Morrigen, the youngest son of Theo Morrigen. Normally, that would be the end of any mention of him. The son of the fifth son is not usually worth much of note. But unfortunately for the House of Morrigen, history and cruel fate decided otherwise.
The first four years of Damon’s life, he does not remember. And without the foresight of days to come, neither does anybody else. He had no siblings, though a few cousins, and enough uncles to fill up a hand with fingers. And an aunt, though she had been married to William Baratheon before he was born, so Damon knew nought of her.
It was during the Red War that Damon’s fate began to settle into place, with the unofficial birth of the ‘Curse of the Crows’ during the Red War in 187 AC. His two eldest uncles, Alester and Harlan, were slain, and the third eldest was crippled to the point he could no longer have children. Theo Morrigen, his grandfather, was distraught. Even without what was to come, this would be enough to put an old patriarch to tears.
But unfortunately, one bad war does not a curse make. The sons of uncle Harlan found that their boat sank in the sea during a particularly rough storm, though rumors persisted for awhile that it was not the storm, but a man with the ruthlessness to put a hole in the boat, with Richard Morrigen as the usual culprit. But there was no evidence to ever link him to any such crime, so the rumors eventually died down, as the curse of the crows continued.
It was uncle Selwyn who was next. Still young enough to be a bachelor, he reportedly drank too much and choked on his own vomit. This appeared to do Theo Morrigen in, as when he went to sleep after the news he never woke up, with his wife following along within weeks in 190 AC. Of Theo’s children, there were only three remaining. Richard, the current eldest who was crippled in the war, Jack Morrigen (Damon’s father) and Ravella, who was married into Baratheon.
There was peace for little Damon for a time; no more funerals, until 194 AC, when his parents died. A sickness. One could say it swept through the family, though that would exaggerate, for it was only those two and uncle Richard who had caught it, giving him another lifelong health issue to contend with, leaving him coughing blood.
Lord Richard, the last of the lord’s sons, sent his heir to Storm’s End to squire under Lord Baratheon. For Damon, these were his roughest but perhaps most tenderly remembered years. No more familial death to deal with. He got along with his aunt’s family, and even saw Lord William as a second father. However, his worst traits were starting to develop. He was becoming anti-social and paranoid, continuously worrying about when his time would come. To a child, the whims of death were chaotic; he put them in order by convincing himself it would be his time eventually, and likely sooner rather than later.
At 18, in 201 AC, he was knighted, and went home to Crow’s Nest. In celebration, he was given Loyalty, the Valyrian steel longsword of House Morrigen. In one of his uncle’s celebration events, he met Sylas, who became his confidant and informant. A lowborn man, he had nonetheless gained the trust of Lord Richard, and was allowed to remain as a servant, of sorts, and was one of the most valuable men Morrigen had at their disposal.
The next few years, Damon remembers as games. Lord Richard, well aware that Damon was the last hope for their house to continue in the male line, tested him again and again. Sometimes in his ability to defend himself, sometimes in his ability to rule. Some rumors suggested that his ability to continue the line was tested, but they were quashed.
Now it is 207 AC. Some must wonder if the curse of the crows will continue, or if the young heir will manage to halt it in its tracks.
https://www.familyecho.com/?p=BFQ8M&c=14cgd1pvu0x&f=640928101225140445
Character Name and House: Sylas
Age: 34
Appearance: A stooped, balding man. He doesn't seem particularly interesting or notable.
Gift: Ruthless
Skills: Espionage, Torturer, Subtle
Talents: N/A
Starting Title(s): None
Starting Location: With Damon.
Lord Richard Morrigen - Subterfuge
Ser Alaric ‘Pennypointer’ - Architect

First Prev Next Royal Road
u/KieveKRS providing the Trash certification of quality!
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[Thank you for agreeing to teach them.]
Volta nodded, not entirely sure if it was for the best, but recognizing a request—or in this case, a thinly veiled order—for what it was.
Ever since she had taught Scarlet and the others her field, the occasional rotation of Lilhuns would be assigned to work under her for a time. It made her job easier, especially since the settlement was expanding at a ludicrous rate compared to what she had heard from the new members of the pack.
The Atmo that had joined were quickly treated and cared for, those who did not require so much time for recovery quickly accompanying the existing insects in their tasks. The largest, Mama, frequently assisted in construction and decoration of structures, so they worked with her. Once they had oriented how things progressed and their part in it, they were paired off with a construction group to be assigned a project. It was to the point where there were as many as five buildings nearing completion at once, the majority of them being accommodation for the new members of the pack.
The remaining question was regarding the insect kits. The answer? Well, there were four Atmo slightly smaller than the purple ‘Queen’ that had requested Volta instruct them, the pearlescent shimmer of her scaled carapace dancing in the sunbeams afforded by the skylight the den had been constructed with.
Teaching Violet—as well as the two Atmo that Volta had escorted to this pack—in the ways of sanitation had been an interesting endeavour, all things considered. They held a remarkable dexterity in those long edged appendages, but the lack of something to properly grasp with made finding a way to secure a rag onto the ends difficult. Luckily, Heralt was receptive to assisting her with creating something that would attach to the blades.
It was little more than a mop that secured to the joint and braced around the cutting edge gingerly, the ends of the stick using ‘ironwood’ springs to clamp onto fabric pads that would soak in the cleaning solution and allow them to do the floors and walls. Were it not for how shockingly efficient the task was performed, she would have been useless through the laughter at the sight.
Each Atmo kit held two of the devices on their limbs, allowing them to travel in pairs and simply finish large spaces within the time it would take her to prepare the next batch of cleaners to use. They had only started a short while ago and yet two dens had been finished, Scarlet assisting her in doing whatever furniture or ledges the Atmo were unsuited to completing. The odd pack member going through what Head Sahari called ‘versatility training’ listened to her instructions in an oddly compliant manner, giving the blue-furred female pause at the unusual experience.
All in all; the cleaner was guiding the five insects and three Lilhuns in the ways of cleanliness. Scarlet was primarily keeping an eye on those who interacted with the purple-coloured Atmo, her contributions to the other tasks proficient, despite the split attention. Before, she would have assumed the servant quietly acquiescing orders, but the dark red-furred female was particularly vigilant in matters pertaining to the kit now.
Volta wasn’t sure what happened to the other servants that regularly assisted her on a rotation—save for Kaslin, the female seeming to have been unofficially inducted as Grand…. Toril’s assistant alongside his mate, Tersa—but Faye, the mild-mannered deep gold-furred female, and Raine, the polite and excitable brown-furred female, had been absent for many suns now.
It was almost lonely, in a way.
Almost.
“That should be sufficient for this den,” she announced to the gaggle of Atmo kits and Lilhuns, careful to remind them not to bother the few ‘rock-worms’ that Ferra kept separate from the rest outside. There were only four, the largest one adorned in an odd script, but they were apparently a selection of favourites of the female. Regardless, it would not do to irritate a mate of Atrox.
The brown-furred male was responsible for the ghastly armour that the Grand Hunter wore on occasion, and she was not in a hurry to see if the disturbing tendencies of the male extended to how he displayed his displeasure.
“Where is our next destination?” Scarlet asked, her tail brushing up Volta’s spine in an uncomfortable way. It wasn’t that she disliked the touch, but the owner of it worried her. Something about the servant struck her as more than what was presented, and it was obvious that the female thought of it as immensely entertaining. That much was obvious, even without the sly grin.
“We have proceeded much faster than I was expecting,” the blue-furred female admitted, mentally checking over her itinerary while subtly batting away the offending appendage. “I suppose we should attempt the barracks while the pack is engaged, then rest for a time.”
[May I leave to check on the other Atmo?]
Volta paused, unsure why it was being requested rather than merely presented as a fact. Violet was—as far as it mattered—completely beyond the cleaner’s station, if only because she was an adopted kit of the Grand Hunter, as well as a sort of leadership figure for the insects. It was an enigmatic blend of positions where the purple insect could very well order Volta to do things, rather than ask. Though the hierarchy was not nepotistic in nature, it was safer to adhere to the wishes of the den-kit than it was to disobey.
“You may. What of the others?”
[I will leave them with you and Scarlet.]
The mentioned servant frowned. “I am to accompany you.”
Violet chittered her curious laugh. [These young ones are your task. I must attend to my own.]
Volta discreetly jabbed the female with a claw, glaring at her not to question the wishes of her better. The less attention drawn from the Grand Hunter, the better. Just picturing the disturbing mask and piercing gaze was enough to make her blanch.
Either reminded of her position, or merely interested in playful retaliation, Scarlet sighed quietly, bowing slightly to the insect. “As you wish, young mistress. Do call for me if I am required.”
[I will. Thank you, Scarlet, Volta.]
Volta lowered her head, watching the Queen leave before returning her attention to the group.
“We will do the first barracks, then determine if we are of time to do the second. The kits are to await the floors cleared of obstruction by the Lilhuns before cleaning them. We will manage it in sections so as not to disturb any who may be taking a break. In future—assuming you are to operate independently from myself—it would be best if you are used to working in groups.”
The Lilhuns nodded their understanding, the young Atmo hesitantly conferring with each other before approaching Scarlet to have their mops freed of soiled cloth and materials placed upon their carriages.
The Atmo had all been outfitted with a specially made platform that fitted over their wider base, clasping underneath past their six legs. It allowed them to transport much, their carrying capacity much larger than one would suspect from their size. The kits could comfortably haul all of the materials for the sun by themselves, and the adults had been the subject of idle speculation for mounted weapon platforms—assuming the fragmented conversation she had chanced upon was to be believed.
Volta inspected the odd section that the Lilhuns under her tutelage completed while she waited for packing to finish. She was not necessarily pleased with the results, but it was more important for them to understand the procedure to take for various locations at the moment. They had proven that they understood what to do for the dens, so next came teaching them how to approach high-traffic areas.
Once everyone had been prepared and the materials gathered, they left the den and started towards the barracks, glimpsing the Grand Hunter sparring with some of the pack in the open.
Ever since the Atmo were delivered by a trade caravan, the male had taken to training much of the pack personally, Huntress Pan taking over much of his more mundane work. Those who were deemed adequate were then pawed off to Head Tel for some specialized training, though Volta was not privy to what exactly it was meant to accomplish.
Regardless, Head Sahari was in charge of rotating out the pack amongst tasks, only a few specialists being directly assigned to any one occupation. By all rights, Volta herself should be training under the male, but the nature of her work meant that she was typically better off doing her job when such was under way. Given that the Grand Hunter was a rare case of someone fully understanding the importance of her specialty—and how little she wished to interact with the alien—she was thankfully spared.
Disregarding the events going on, she motioned for her group to follow her. There was work to do.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
“Two up!” he called out, wiping the sweat from his brow. The exertion cleared his mind, and the break from endless paperwork was appreciated. With the influx of members and various training being required, he had gotten rather exhausted mentally. Between the Wraiths being gone for two weeks since he told them to do recon around the Atmo traders, regular interaction with various caravans, planning out what they needed to do, and Robert still not calling him since the man had left to handle something, he had been pretty high-strung.
As always, there was more on his mind. Harrow had become more elusive regarding him ever since he had her transcribe the Union documents regarding the Lilhuns, their conversations vapid and brief. Jax didn’t have anything useful to say about it other than that she wanted time to sort her thoughts. Toril, Idee, Mi’low, and Bratik were given copies of the file to go over recently, since they were the closest thing he had to a counsel unfettered by a close relationship.
His own makeshift family took the news in an odd way. There was a lot to unpack.
Jax had become quiet, his muscles tensing. Harrow ended up staying away from her mate for a few days until he had stopped brooding about it. In the end; the guy just told Joseph that he would trust the Grand Hunter’s decisions regarding it, finding himself at a loss otherwise.
Sahari and Nalah were approached about the bonding information, the latter denying any bond to him, as well as Sahari confirming the same towards her blond-furred mate. The only line of reasoning that they could think of to make sense was that Nalah’s circumstances had messed with her in some way. The two seemed rather distressed by the assertion, but calmed somewhat when he mentioned that nothing would change between them regardless. Sahari could tell how conflicted he was about the whole thing, he just wanted to give them something to hang on to.
It was a bigger deal for them than he had initially internalized. In retrospect; something revered as a literal gift from their god being denied really should have been an obvious point of stress. As begrudging as his acceptance was, he was linked to the whole ‘Great Hunt’ business in their minds, so he was aware of how deeply that belief ran. He didn’t personally subscribe to the religion, but they never really bothered him with anything besides overseeing funeral rites—not that he would have refused anyway.
Pan seemed to mirror his feelings on the matter—a dark feeling of helplessness and sorrow. She had fallen quiet when she heard about the trials on the defectives, that particular section hitting her harder than the others. After an entire day of silence, all she had to say about it was that she loved him, and then spent the night burrowed between him and Tel, unable to sleep. He had a hard time as well, but it extended well past the initial night.
Tel had informed him that his restlessness had made it difficult for her to get any shut-eye, his shifting disturbing her, but it was said in a slightly concerned tone. Her general reaction was fairly subdued compared to the rest otherwise, her lifetime of being at either end of a gun numbing her to the reality of things. It was weird for him, but he was deeply thankful for it on some level.
She kept him sane, her cold response being a candid ‘Wish it, and I will end all who displease you.’
For once, her more violent background gave him something to grip onto. It resonated in him—loose, yet present. A door within him, chained and locked, was brought to mind as he really considered what he wanted for those involved. The traders who abused the Atmo, those who seemed so bent on hurting his friends, the Union ‘GUOS’ who called for the experiments... A thrumming settled in his fists, an itch that couldn’t be sated by just scratching.
A paw flew past his brow, his shifted posture allowing him to slip the claws that had been left exposed in the heat of the spar. His heart hammered, his sweat soaked his clothing, and his focus returned to the fight.
No Union, no traders, no worries. Just the two security members who had doubted Jax’s claims that the smaller Human had somehow bested the male in a fight, and were now bringing out their natural weapons on instinct.
Grabbing the wrist with his right hand and gripping the shoulder with his left, he pulled, using the rotational force to pivot on his left foot and haul the overeager Lilhun to the dirt, the appendage bending behind them sharply. A second fist came from the corner of his eye, the other combatant trying to use the momentary distraction to score a hit.
Using the gripped arm as a balance, Joseph leaned into the spin, firing the sole of his shoe into the head of the opportunistic attacker. The loud slap of his foot connecting with the larger male almost outdid the crumpled form crashing to the ground unconscious. It was only a dull sensation of mercy that stopped him from completing the spin while he maintained his iron grip on the arm of the thrown adversary, saving them a torn and dislocated shoulder.
Joseph breathed heavily, the adrenaline wearing out as Jax checked on the defeated. Minus some stiffness expected in one of them and a sore jaw for the other, they would be fine, albeit embarrassed for such a quick disposal in front of their usual teachers.
The sound of his rubber sole slapping on the ground some distance away killed off whatever motivation he had to continue, his shoes finally giving out.
“I would ask you not to disable my security, Grand Hunter,” Jax said with mock frustration, the black-furred male’s eyes following the two leaving with an expression of exasperation.
“Sorry,” Joseph breathed out, his heart hammering in his chest as his system wound down.
The Head of Security glanced down at him, his expression pensive. “As much as I enjoy my boasting of your prowess to be validated, I do worry that you see more than a spar in them.”
He drew his lips thin as he brushed his sweat-soaked hair back, his arm dropping to his side. He took a few moments to sort the thoughts that returned. “I probably should have called that kick, yeah.”
The larger Lilhun snorted. “They will be fine, it is not their health I am worried about.”
“I’m fine, Jax,” he snapped, averting his eyes when his friend seemed to have made his point. “I…. I’ll be fine. Just some things on my mind right now.”
“Joseph,” the black-furred male started, walking up to place a large paw on his shoulder. “We are here if you wish to talk.”
His breath died in his throat, his eyes closing in defeat. He felt the soreness in his hands surface, hours of constant fighting to soothe the burning in his blood that failed to abate. Bruises made themselves known, dehydration made his joints stiff, and lack of sleep clouded his mind. Jax was right, he was a bit of a mess.
“Grand Hunter,” Mi’low called, his tired glance in her direction revealing the female approaching. “We are ready to speak.”
Joseph placed a hand on Jax’s paw, patting it softly. “Talking will have to wait. Tell Harrow I said hi and that I’d like to hang out again. I miss it.”
The male looked at him apologetically, nodding as he was still unable to offer anything to ease the sting of a friend distancing themselves from the Human. “I will.”
The Human cycled a breath and faced the actress. “The rest?”
Mi’low nodded. “Where will we meet?”
Joseph waved an arm towards the base. “My place. More chairs.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Toril was wearing his usual smile, his eyes inspecting everything about the hub from the couch while Tersa stood nearby, her body language telling that she was wary about being in a new place without time to scout it. Bratik was in his wheelchair, Sorren holding his paw as he sat on the opposite side of the chemist. Idee—being the only one to spend time in the outpost regularly—simply thanked Kaslin for the water from her place between the two mated males. Mi’low had claimed a free chair, her legs crossed and back straight as she stayed away from the others on the couch. The Wraith handed Joseph his requested tea since Scarlet was babysitting the insects, then occupied a place out of the way, but close enough to act if things got heated.
He stayed standing rather than occupying his usual place on a table, his second choice of seating being filled up. He could have dragged over the Atmo couch, but he didn’t want to stress his body any more than he had already by lugging it. “So, everyone had plenty of time to read the documents.”
“Indeed,” Mi’low commented dryly, a glare shot in his direction. Idee nodded, though her expression fell as it was brought up. Toril maintained his detached look of amusement, but it didn’t escape Joseph’s notice that Tersa stiffened.
The Grand Hunter took a sip of his refreshment, enjoying the fleeting feeling of warmth from something other than exertion. “And what do we think?”
“We?” Sorren asked, the male not quite used to the Human using their tongue. Joseph’s mastery of the language was still spotty at times, but Kaslin could fill any gaps if needed.
“Yeah,” he replied plainly. “It has more to do with you than me. I just got the message.”
“I find it rather fascinating,” Toril opined cheerily, his energy at odds with the atmosphere of the room. “Such thorough study allows us many insights into facets of our own biology that we may never have known!”
“By slaughtering our kin in the thousand,” Mi’low shot back, a slight snarl pulling her lip.
“As regretful as such is, we can not bring them back,” the chemist noted with a small nod. “We must simply use the information gleaned by our foes without repeating their atrocities.”
“You suggest ignoring their sins?”
“I suggest utilizing what they have learned and incorporating it to our advantage.”
“Or,” Joseph interjected, “we talk about it instead of getting into an argument.”
“Your people are not free of fault, Grand Hunter,” the crimson-furred female spat. He remained silent, already having spent far too long thinking about how none of it would have happened if Humans weren’t in the picture for them.
“You can not hold him as a factor, Mi’low,” Idee said softly, shifting in her seat to get comfortable and smiling apologetically at Sorren when she bumped him.
“Were it not for them, then we may not have lost our homes!”
“Were it not for him you would be little more than bones bleached by the sun, or so I hear.”
“We are not here to cast blame,” Bratik disputed quietly, his voice carrying through the room despite the low volume. “The Grand Hunter has saved each of us. Some from demise, others from the shackles of their station, and others from the fate of losing loved ones.”
Toril and Idee shared a glance as the male continued, Tersa paying attention to him for the first time.
“He seeks our counsel. Not our aimless ire to be spewed upon him for that which he himself had no knowledge of, nor involvement in. His kin were as much victims as our own.”
“Quite,” Toril concurred as the two females ceased their bickering reluctantly. “How would you like to address this, Grand Hunter?”
Joseph blinked, expecting the blame, but not Bratik defusing it so quickly. “Well, we have a few things to work off of. Years of experiments coinciding with missing persons after accepting a job, whoever tipped off your military taking info with them about Sol and the ‘blacklist’, whatever bond fuckery they discovered, and the defects.” He shrugged weakly. “Take your pick.”
“There are too many missing across too wide an area to recognize such a comparative few,” Idee stated, the others in the group silently agreeing.
He nodded, nursing his tea with small sips. “Figured that would be a sticking point. Plus, we don’t really know how long it was going on... or when it started... Not even if it was a bulk recruitment or slow trickle. I guess the missing people are something we’ll just have to keep unknown.”
“The bond information was rather enlightening,” Toril mentioned, his eyes rising to the ceiling as he thought about it. “Our peoples are wildly compatible.”
“As servants, perhaps,” came the scathing remark from the High Huntress. “What use is our gift if it is twisted to be mere subservience? To discard ourselves for some alien race?”
Sorren’s ear flicked. “It is hardly ‘twisted’ to protect that which the Hunt Mother has afforded us.”
“Are we to just accept that our bonds are better suited to that,” she emphasized with a pointed claw in Joseph’s direction, “rather than our kin?”
“Drop it,” the Grand Hunter ordered tiredly, his reflection in his beverage shaking as he shifted on his feet. “Arguing isn’t going to help anything.”
Mi’low held her disgusted expression. “You ask us to trust that which led to our downfall? We are yet another strike against your kin, no?”
He shook his head, his eyes buried in remains of the shimmering image he held in his hands. “I blame the sick fucks that did all this. If you can’t agree with that, then there’s not much reason to hold this meeting.”
“What is it you seek to accomplish?” Toril asked, amused by the theatrics. The rest seemed surprised by Mi’low’s pointed aggression, but the chemist was more interested in continuing.
“I have people looking to get me out of here,” Joseph informed them, laying his empty cup on the table with a soft clack. “People who will probably extend the offer to you. If they come, I need to know what we’re doing about it. The last thing I need is people acting like Mi’low and opening fire on whoever comes to drag us out of the mud.”
“Why would we?” Sorren asked, taking his mate’s paw as he gave a worried glance to the offended female.
“Because our people were tortured due to our interactions with them,” the chemist noted in a matter-of-fact tone, his pleasant demeanour remaining despite the morbid topic.
“Did our people not initiate contact with another species on less hostile terms?” Idee asked, her head tilted slightly.
“But no one lived to talk about it,” Joseph countered, gesturing with an upturned palm. “Plus, that’s assuming whoever was in charge of that call being the norm, rather than the exception.”
“You believe our people to act otherwise?” Bratik asked, his tone inquisitive rather than judgmental.
Joseph shrugged. “To be fair, I’ve almost been killed by more of your species than the wildlife. Granted, a few of those were just people being assholes, but still.”
“Many would see the opportunity as retribution for the Union,” Mi’low mentioned dryly.
Sorren’s face fell. “Then we should not propagate this knowledge?”
The Human glanced between each of them. “That’s why you’re here. My group knows because I trust them with it. I think we should keep this to ourselves, but if we do—and someone finds out—it would just cause a lot of issues. Alternatively; we tell everyone.”
“And suffer the consequences of that action as well,” Idee concluded dejectedly. Joseph returned a wry smile as Toril raised a paw, speaking when the Grand Hunter raised a brow at him.
“Perhaps we should withhold the information from the lesser station?”
“Like, just the Grand Hunters?” Joseph inquired cautiously. Toril tilted his head.
“Those who would be more diplomatically minded, perhaps.”
“I don’t exactly see some of them as what you would call ‘diplomatic’ and I’m not going on some voyage to visit everyone with the info in tow.”
“We are able to make copies,” Sorren offered. “Perhaps we could exchange the information using traders and gain something from it as well?”
Mi’low shook her head. “That is assuming they do not claim us manipulative nor seek to remove him. Some may very well move to strike us all down for ‘withholding’ the information, regardless of how readily we supply it.”
“Do your people know?” Bratik interjected, gathering the attention of the others. Joseph winced in uncertainty.
“I’m not sure. I’d guess my brother does, but I don’t know how sensitive things are. It could have been announced and there’s an intergalactic war, or it might be kept under wraps until conflict isn’t as likely. At least until it’s less likely to blow up in our faces, anyway.”
“They are of lesser force?”
“No clue,” he admitted. “Not my area. All I do know is that there are more species allied against us—or at least aren’t inclined to take a bullet—than are.”
“So our options are rather limited,” Idee concluded, receiving a series of agreements.
“We could,” Mi’low said after a few moments of contemplation, “distribute the information anonymously. Humans are not named directly in the document, and we need not divulge its origin.”
“So, what? Just pass people tablets and ask them to forget where they got it?” he probed, not entirely disagreeing with the idea, but skeptical all the same.
“Tersa may make additions to trader inventories without their knowledge,” Toril offered, the mentioned Blade frowning at him, but not protesting. “Or perhaps Trill’s kit, since she is devoted to yourself.”
“Eh. I guess that’s an option,” he conceded, sighing. “So, about the bond; any opinions? Notes?”
“Stay away from me,” Mi’low answered warily, earning a flat scowl.
“I meant something besides that. I’m not too keen on adding to the cluster-fuck I have going on anyway.”
Sorren smiled. “I am excited to meet your people—should I be so blessed. There are many who would never know the joy of the Hunt Mother’s gift otherwise.”
“I would not mind her words, Grand Hunter,” Toril chuckled. “She is a creature of dishonesty—including her own desires.”
The actress glowered at the chemist. “I preferred it when you were nomadic. It was much easier to ignore your presence. Your words were but some distant wind I need not soil my ears with.”
“Perhaps our meeting is best ended here,” Bratik interjected, waving his functional paw. The other arm was coming along, but still too stiff to use for much. “We should propagate the information through unsigned parcels to the Grand Hunters.”
“One last thing,” Joseph said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “The information on Sol; anything ever get done with that?”
“We were capturing habitable planets in a particular direction, though the decision to do such was made by our superiors.”
He nodded. “Makes sense. Same issue we have now. Can’t let everyone know because chaos is a lot easier to manage when it’s directed. Between the religious connotations and the context around it; there’s no saying if it would lead to riots or worship. Rather not bring the problem to our door.”
“Wise,” Mi’low remarked sarcastically, her judgmental side-eye aimed between him and Sorren.
“Alright,” he said with a raised voice, ignoring the red-furred female to the best of his ability. “Drop off letters and lock myself in a room or something. Sounds like a plan.”
“That will not be required,” Sorren corrected with a laugh. “Though the documents confirmed a high percentile of successful bonds, there were many incompatible pairings. It is unlikely that your informant included every variation of failure, but the bond seems to be as selective as usual, just more receptive to those who meet the criteria. I would speculate that the majority of those who would bond to you by now, have. Barring the new additions, of course. I doubt you will need to worry about bonding to half a species by yourself.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” he muttered. “Okay, you’re free to go back to your work. You know who to talk to if something comes up.”
The gathering dispersed, Toril requiring Tersa to drag him by the ear before he got too distracted. Mi’low stayed behind, waiting for everyone else to leave.
“Thoughts?” he asked, glancing over at her. She shook her head as she dropped the antagonistic persona.
“Two attribute you to their religion, Toril is too interested in your species to act against your best interest, and Idee rather enjoys her time here—as well as sympathizes with your position. Tersa’s allegiance is with Toril, so she will follow him, as well as your tentative arrangement as a superior over her.”
“So, we’re good?”
“We are,” she confirmed. He looked at her for a long moment.
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Going to try and kill me again?” he questioned wryly.
The High Huntress snorted. “Unfortunately, my pack has ostensibly become yours, and with it, my fate. They would rather watch me go than follow. It seems your influence extends past our biology.”
Without an opportunity for him to ask what she meant, she headed to the exit, pausing in the doorway when he called out to her.
“Mi’low?” Her ear tipped back towards him. “Thanks. For putting yourself on the block like that. I know how risky that could have been for you.”
She afforded a single nod before letting it close behind her.
“’Past our biology’, huh?” he muttered, eyeing the empty cup on the table.
He considered bothering Tel, since she would likely offer him a distraction for a while.
Sighing at his remaining intact shoe flopping as he stepped, he decided to do exactly that.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
“How are we holding up?”
Tech leaned back in her chair, yawning widely. “Communications have been down for a while, navigation software is pointing everywhere at once, and if it wasn’t for me, everything else would be dark too.”
“All hail Tech Ops,” Comms quipped, struggling to make his system do much more than transmit static on a loop.
Willin rolled his eyes at Tech’s boasting, but she was probably right to do so. They had aligned themselves in the right direction and simply let navigation go, communications discreetly blinking out as they got close without warning. All they had left was the actual piloting and onboard support systems, both of them hanging by a thread until Tech could run diagnostics to see if she could counter them properly. She might be able to eventually, but she didn’t seem confident beyond keeping the crew mobile and alive.
“How’s it look down there?”
Nav had long since given up making sense of their controls, opting to keep watch for whatever they were approaching. Since they had gotten within visual range, they had occupied themselves using whatever scanning equipment Tech managed to keep shielded. They leaned over the readouts, brows raising before furrowing at the information.
“It appears that they have remained fairly close together. I am reading several AEC distress signatures... Why am I able to?”
Tech raised a paw. “Right here. The jamming is consistent with the United Military’s algorithms, though boosted past what we have the equipment to manage. Can’t override it for you or Comms, but it was never meant to counter the low-frequency of a distress pulse, since that would get lost in normal noise anyway. I took the liberty of limiting the scope of collected data to increase the sensitivity.”
“Not much frequency pollution on an untapped planet,” Willin remarked dryly, his screen mirroring what Nav was looking at. Thirty-eight sources, most of them repeating the initial call-signs. Two seemed to have retained some power, though not much, implying a makeshift solution. There would normally be more to glean, but the measures taken to make picking them out at all possible had stifled it.
“Orders?” Nav asked after a moment. Willin considered it, scouring the somewhat distorted visual feed.
“Let’s get closer first.”
“Understood.”
He adjusted his uniform as they drew near, Tech frowning as more of her fail-safe measures ironically failed. Quick action saved them from listing aimlessly, but any chance of copying the survivor’s distress call faded. The Atmospheric Entry Crafts were effectively invisible until Tech had dealt with the issue preemptively, and their beacon wasn’t any stronger.
Detriment of a scout craft, he supposed. Help would have to deal with not knowing where his ship had gone until they were up to their necks in the warp-spike’s field. Hopefully, the EW fleet would manage it better.
“Just outside of atmosphere,” Nav reported, activating the scanning equipment again. Normally, it would be able to tell them everything down to the rough number of wildlife in an area, but all the interference gave them little more than confirmation that life existed.
“Well, there goes any advanced recon,” Willin muttered, ignoring Comms silently debating if he should bother Tech to duplicate the feed again. Noticing, she did anyway, the male gesturing their thanks. “Tech, can you get us population density?”
“I’m good, Leader, but not that good.”
“Leader,” Nav called, highlighting a few points on the feed. Whatever it was that they were trying to show him, he didn’t see it. “These areas are likely settlements.”
“Structures?”
“Affirmative. It is subtle, but there.”
He nodded, trusting their judgment. “Which is the largest?”
The feed zoomed in, losing most of the clarity—not that there was much to begin with. “Location coincides with an AEC still actively reporting.”
“They set up around it.”
“Likely, Leader.”
Willin exhaled slowly. “Take us down nearby. I’d say to hide us, but that’s hard to do with open skies.”
“The planet suffers constant rain,” Tech added, her screen already reverting back to a simplistic game while she waited for someone else to need something. “We could descend under the cover of it.”
“Any idea how long?”
Her monitor flickered. “One local sun.”
“Then we spend the time gearing up,” he ordered, waving to have Nav and Comms’ screens defaulted. “You two will make sure our defence armaments ship-board are active and loaded. Tech, queue up whatever armour and equipment we might need for a diplomatic mission.”
She turned in her chair, her head tilting questioningly. “Just us?”
“Just us. We’ll want someone here to keep things warm in case we need to leave quickly. Can you get Comms’ station capable of short-wave?”
She nodded after a moment, her eyes losing focus as she consulted her implant. “We’ll lose the fabricator during, but we should have enough for life-support and in-atmosphere flight. Weapons will have to be swapped out with it too.”
“That bad?”
The purple-furred female shrugged. “It’s that or I take down the defences and we lose it all.” She frowned at her screens. “Even this is pushing it.”
“Can you take down the purifier once we’re down there? Switch to external flow?”
“As long as you don’t mind alien air, sure. It won’t give us more to work with, but it should make it less taxing to keep what we have.”
Willin scratched at his ear. “Do it. They lived here this long, doubt we’ll join the Void breathing it too.”
“Will do.”
He shifted his attention back to Nav. “Set course to that settlement. Keep us above the clouds until it gets bad enough to obscure us.”
Nav signalled their agreement, the scenery shifting slowly as they picked a cloud to shadow in the meantime. Comms looked at Willin expectantly, forcing him to come up with something for the male to do.
“Comms, I want you to monitor anything this place has coming in or out. Set up surveillance.”
The male raised a brow. “My systems are inoperable, Leader.”
“If you try to do anything big, yes,” Willin corrected. “Just keep us informed if something goes through. We don’t need to know what happened, just that it did.”
“Keeping track of possible communications between settlements?”
Willin bobbed his head to the side. “Whatever we learn, it’s more than we know.”
“Understood. I will try to arrange a passive probe.”
The group set about their tasks as he brought up a still-frame of the settlement Nav spotted. It was blocky, blurry, and the chromatic aberration on the edges hurt to look at, but it was a settlement. A large AEC surrounded by silver constructions, all laid out in a slightly haphazard way. He couldn’t judge it too harshly, however. There was a method to the madness. Narrow pathways hidden between dens, each leading to the AEC like a system of routes for select Lilhuns to reach anywhere they may be needed as quickly as possible.
The AEC itself seemed modified, large solar panels placed where a solid hull would be expected, the semi-transparent material likely acting to illuminate the interior. Many of the buildings around it were larger than those beyond, some appearing to be two or three levels.
From sheer volume of dens, Willin figured this was a contender for the largest settlement. His best estimate placed the number of inhabitants in the range of three hundred or so. If the other settlements were even close, then the initial guess of a thousand survivors was woefully short.
That made things complicated, yet so much simpler.
He awaited the distant storm clouds rolling over the landscape, thankful Tech had prioritized the water-proof gear.
He hated being soaked.
Next
A/N: 500k words. Half a fucking million.

Got this part finished! It took some doin, but I got there. Anyway, let me know what you guys think, and I hope you enjoy. I'm not very good at these intros.
First / Prev / Next (Coming eventually)
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“-ck.”
David’s apartment wasn’t overly furnished to begin with. He lived with the bare essentials that came with state housing, but the fiks decided to make it more homy. Their idea of a home was converting it into a flophouse. Beds, cots, and pallets soon spread out along the walls while boxes and crates soon took up residence in the middle of the room. His coffee table, end tables, and small dining set were conspicuously absent.
He stared slack-jawed for a moment before a crash sounded from his kitchen. “Saa! No food!”
“Lie! How can human starve?” After a brief pause, “Saa! No food!"
David was about to investigate when a short…well, relatively short fik stood in his way. “Ah, David! Yes, yes, we come as soon as we could.” He was just a few inches taller than David and wearing more ornate garb. About as ornate as something stolen from a seamstress’ dumpster. He was also an albino. That was important to fiks, right?
“Am Wesh. Clan Ermin.” That sounded important, alright.
“Ermin? Are you the one in charge here? Tell them to stop ripping up my-“
Another clatter sounded from the kitchen. “Look, look! Hidden door!” Oh right, the pantry. Great. Now they’re in his walls.
With a content smile the Ermin said, “Yes, this will be good den. The wise clan lives close.” He illustrated his point by interlacing his fingers. “Builds strong bonds. And now with human! Wise human no less!”
“Wise? Look man, if I was wise, I’d be doing better than I am. Now, will you tell them-“
“Bah! Yes, human wise…Maybe David does not see. Or hear. Wesh hears wisdom you recite.”
“…You could hear me in the shower?” he asked sheepishly.
“Saaaaa. Yes. David sings song of fik! Sings of fik’s struggle in new world. About lies and hate fik suffer. But our fighter spirit keeps us going. Keeps us strong. You sing such wisdom without knowing?” He placed his hands on David’s shoulders, “Fear not! Wesh will hear and speak David’s wisdom. Even if David cannot see.” With a pat on the shoulder the albino shuffled away to the warriors who seemed at odds over sleeping arrangements.
“I guess it’s good to know they like Simon and Garfunkel.” He mumbled to himself. David summoned his courage to finally investigate what was happening in his kitchen when the door chimed, and the apartment went abruptly silent.
*****
Sarif didn’t need a canid nose to know something was off. The various tables and bits of broken furniture stacked up beside the building leading a trail of dust and debris to David’s door was a decent tip off. Another would be the small din coming from the building. Sure, any tenant could be having company over making a decent noise, but they wouldn’t stop after pressing David’s chime. But of course, she could also smell the small number of people who’ve passed by recently. It didn’t seem likely David would give up being a recluse overnight. What worried her was the smell of his pursuers from last night.
After a moment of silence, Sarif pounded on the door as a bit of anxiety seeped into her mind.
“Who’s there?” called David.
She let go of a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “It’s me. I’ve come to check on you, and…And apologize.” She struggled to get the last word out.
After a brief pause the door slid partially open revealing David’s suspicious expression. “Apologize?”
“Yes…Who’s in there with you?” She looked above him, but no one was in view. The place looked like a mess.
“Just, uh…Just some friends. Could you maybe come back another time? Now’s a bit…Busy.”
She quirked an eyebrow. “Please let me in. It’s-“ She caught herself before saying ‘my job’ “Important to me that I know you’re safe.”
With a grimace David looked back into his apartment before relenting and opening the door. Her eyes quickly scanned the room looking for the intruders as she stepped through the threshold. The fiks were hiding in the doorways to the kitchen and bedroom. She caught sight of the impromptu bedding and realized this was an infestation.
She took a couple strides to put herself between as many of them and David as she could. “David, what are they doing here?” she demanded in a hoarse whisper. “They were the ones chasing you last night. You’re letting them move in?”
“I’m not letting them do anything.” He replied as hushed as he could. “I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m a bit on the short side. When someone twice my height wants to do something there’s not much I can do about it.”
Her eyes narrowed as she looked over her shoulder before leaning down and whispering in his ear, “Do you need me to get rid of them? If you feel in danger I’ll-“
“No! No. They’re fine. Just a bit…excited? Eager?” He sighed, “Look…Last night was a bit of a misunderstanding. I didn’t know all of this was happening until a few minutes ago. It’ll sort itself out.”
“You can’t let these people stay here. It’s not safe. They’re…”
It was David’s turn to squint, “They’re what?”
“You know.”
“No, I don’t. Enlighten me.”
“They’re dangerous. They steal, they’re violent-“
“Violent? Violent? Everyone in this galaxy is violent. So far, they haven’t stolen anything, and have been polite with everything I’ve asked. Meanwhile the other high and mighty races have done their very best to make my life a living Hell. They haven’t beaten me. They haven’t starved me! They haven’t shoved shit in me without my consent like those fucking snakes or big fuckers did!” David shouted while pointing to the scar behind his ear. He realized he was shouting and leaned around Sarif to see a dozen or so eyes staring at the two.
Sarif closed her eyes and took a breath. “Look, I…I’m sorry. I’m sure they’re fine. I just…” She looked up and around, searching for the words. “I’m trying my best to keep you safe. I really am. Sometimes that…Sometimes that makes me come off a little harsh. You know the galaxy isn’t a nice place. So do I. I tend to see the worst in people.” She looked down into his eyes, “Will you meet me halfway? Help me, help you? I just want to help you however I can.”
The tension left David as he sighed and rubbed his forehead. He opened his mouth to speak when there came a rough knock at the door.
*****
Hilda took a seat at the bar in the Aimless Wind Café. It had mostly emptied out as the breakfast rush died down. She perused the menu on her comm then checked for any upcoming entertainment. Looks like authentic human music was a random flash promotion. After a brief wait, a black furred felinoid walked up behind the counter.
“Can I get you anything?”
“Yeah, I’ll take a tea and is the owner in today?”
She looked the taurian up and down before replying, “Sure. I’ll go grab him.” With that she disappeared into the back. A few minutes passed as Hilda looked around the restaurant. It wasn’t small exactly. The bar and stage took up a good portion of the room, but judging by the tables the place could seat just over fifty patrons.
“Well, if it isn’t our resident human wrangler. A bit wilier than herding troqs, huh?”
Is my accent that bad? The man rose to eye-level on the hidden step that ran the length of the bar. He was dressed in more conservative clothing with a handkerchief tied around his nubs holding his hair back. While he readied the kettle and dug out a large earthenware cup, Hilda cleared her throat.
“We grew nist, but yeah. I’m here to-“
“Learn what you can about our little music-man.” He set the cup down in front of Hilda and began wiping down the immaculate counter. “He’s been here a few times; engaging in his impromptu therapy sessions. Not much of a talker I’m afraid. What were you hoping to learn?”
Hilda went back and forth in her head about just how much she wanted to say, before deciding honesty would be best. “This is…only our second day with David. So far, we’ve only read his file, picked him up from the hospital, then chased him through half the station. We can’t get a word in edgewise because he doesn’t trust…Well, anyone. But, he kept coming here. I just want to see why. Maybe find something we can do to help him.”
The owner raised his eyebrows then leaned on the bar, “Well. I suppose things have nowhere to go but up, now. If you were looking for some great truth or revelation about David, I’m afraid I have none. All I can say is the man loves-no, needs to sing. I don’t know why. Maybe it distracts him from the here and now or takes him back to when life made more sense to him. Though, if I were to guess…I would say he probably always loved singing. Might well have been his drive before everything was stolen.”
She mulled that over. For someone without all the answers the man had a better bead on David than most of the evals in his file. “That’s as good a guess as any. I just don’t know what I can do with that Mr…”
“Rodrik, and it may be a bit selfish on my part, but it also may bring David a bit out of his shell. Maybe you and your partner could finally bring our bard to perform on that stage over there.” He pointed to the back corner. “I’m more than willing to accommodate whatever he needs.” Standing straight again he told her, “I’ll be here whenever if he decides to perform up there or in the back. I live on the floor above. For now, Shasa here will take care of you.”
Stepping back down, the man passed the felinoid and returned to the backroom. Hilda nursed her tea and thought when Shasa spoke. “I do hope you get him to perform again. I’m a bit of a fan now.”
Hilda eyed the woman. She realized her fur wasn’t solid black but covered in hazy, faint spots. A bit on the taller and bulkier side for felinoids she seemed a bit out of place, but she didn’t know why. “Have you spoken to David much?”
“Not as much as I’d like to. He’s adorably uncomfortable whenever anyone is…particularly friendly to him. But I do love a man with baggage. They melt in your hands once they’re comfortable around you. Lean on you for support. Oh, but you’re not here for that kind of advice. Or are you?” She smiled mischievously.
Squinting at the other woman, Hilda rose and paid her tab, “Thanks. I guess.” She left the café and headed for David’s apartment, learning all she could and a bit more besides. I’m gonna have to keep an eye out for that one.
*****
The room was silent for a beat before Sarif opened the door. She was staring at a leather clad chest before she craned her neck back and saw the single largest fik she had ever seen. I didn’t know they could get that big.
The fik woman seemed equally confused to see Sarif and looked past her to the other fiks approaching the door.
“Chief!” called a fik.
“Chief?” parroted David and Sarif in unison.
A grin split the chief’s lips as she bowled past Sarif and strode in to meet her clan.
“Hey! You can’t just barge in here!” cried Sarif as she rebounded off the wall and planted her paws.
“Why? Am chief. Chief can go anywhere.” The fik giant explained as if to a child. Ignoring the canid, the chief’s gaze wandered the apartment before settling on David, “You!” She took a couple quick strides before bending down and scooping David up in a bear hug.
Sarif launched herself with reckless abandon at the fik’s back with teeth and claws bared. The chief spun as she hauled David up throwing Sarif’s lunge off causing her to shoot past. She dug her claws in the floor and spun around. David was effectively a hostage and meat shield.
I’m gonna have to go low or else I’d rip David open with her. But what if she lands on him? That could be just as…Wait, what’s she saying?
The fik, seemingly oblivious to the attack was rocking David side to side saying, “So happy to finally find you! Humans so hard to find. Always hiding. Always running. But now I have you! You’ll be so safe and happy now!”
She blinked. That wasn’t quite what she expected, but violence still hadn’t been ruled out. She was plotting her next move when she noticed a sharp blade of some description enter her peripheral, threatening her to stay still. Right. The others.
Then the door opened.
*****
Hilda heard voices and a scuffle as she approached the door. Deciding she needed to get in there quickly she opened the door and stepped inside.
She didn’t know how to process what she was seeing. There were almost a dozen fiks around the redecorated room. One was just about her size, clutching a squirming David while another was holding a knife to Sarif who had murder in her eyes. And all eyes were on her.
The door slid shut behind her when she turned and glared at the big fik. “Put. Him. Down.”
A confused expression crossed her face. She looked down and saw the human struggling for air then released him. He dropped to the floor gasping for breath, bracing his hands on his thighs.
Her gaze settled on Sarif who was beginning to relax. “What happened?”
“These f-“ She glanced at David, “These people broke in and seem to be trying to move in.”
A white fik stepped forward, “There are lies! Fik was welcomed into new den. David is most gracious. Fik would not break anything!”
“I broke something!” Piped up a fik in the back.
“Silence!” the white fik yelled, spinning around.
“You about broke David’s spine!” Sarif growled and stalked up to the chief. “Where do you get off thinking you can just whip him around like that?”
She seemed unperturbed by the chastisement. “Human is fine. Sulta knows her own strength.” The argument carried on for another couple minutes when the door chimed again.
*****
That’s it! I’m ripping the chime off and bricking up the door! No more visitors! No more headaches! David had slipped out of the middle of the verbal clash in case it became more physical, but that put him closest to the door. With a roll of his eyes and a groan he answered it.
Standing in the doorway was a blue and red colored avian. It gave David a quick glance before handing him a slim paper package. “You must be David. Not a lot of humans running around here. Anyway, have a pleasant day!” he called before striding down the street.
David tried to get a question out but the avian’s long legs carried him away before David even knew what to ask. With a sigh he inspected the package. It was more like an old Earth manilla envelope, bulging with something weighty. It had his address and even a description of him, but no return address or even the name of the sender.
Frowning down at it he turned around and closed the door once again. Then looked up and realized he was once again the center of attention.
“Uh…You all keep doin…Whatever. I’m gonna go check my mail.” He shuffled along the wall until he entered his bedroom then shut the door. Thankfully he was alone.
He sat down in his desk chair by his comically oversized desk and pulled out the envelope’s contents. It held a pad and a card. He set the pad aside a read the card with someone’s face on it.
You are formally invited to attend the celebration of life/graveside service of Mortemer J. Albrecht.
A funeral? I don’t even know this guy. He quickly read the dates and brief life summary on the inside before setting it aside and powering on the pad. It blinked to life before displaying the front camera view. God, I look terrible.
It blinked a couple times before scanning his face, with special attention to the eyes. I wonder if I get to keep this thing. Passing whatever check, the pad displayed the directions to the desolate planet Mr. Albrecht was going to be buried on. It drew up a diagram of the landing zone, gravesite, and where the Guardians will wait.
Guardians? Plural? Realization dawned on him. Multiple humans in one place. They never did that. David never fully understood why. He missed that bit of collective trauma. In some instances, it made him feel more disconnected to humanity than he already was.
He continued reading the invitation. It seems Mr. Albracht wanted as close to a traditional funeral as he could have, but he had no surviving family. That’s where David and the other invited humans come in. He pondered his options. He really didn’t want to venture out. He didn’t want to meet people and see that all too familiar pity in their eyes. Especially other humans. He didn’t know if it’d be worse to see them looking as bad as himself or doing better.
On the other hand…He was lonely. It’d been so long since he’d spoken to another human. Another person with a shared background and experience. Someone who’d just understand. He thought about it for a minute before reaching a decision.
He opened the door, and it seemed everyone really went back to arguing and shouting.
“Hey!” Silence. “You.” He pointed at Ruk’sa, “Keep everyone from wreaking my apartment. You.” He pointed at Sarif, “Keep them from getting into trouble while I’m gone. You.” He pointed at Hilda, “Come here.” He stalked back into his room while everyone looked at each other.
Hilda followed him to his room. “Gone?”
David spun around and squinted at the towering taurian, “You and Sarif really want to help me?” She nodded immediately, “Then take me here.” He pointed at the uninhabited planet displayed on the pad.

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My Grandma just passed away on the 17th of this month. She and my grandfather were married for 54 years. My Grammy was the most caring, loving person who saw everyone as an equal. She truly loved unconditionally, and this world is a better place for her being in it. When i was a kid, i lived with her. My grandparents raised me from 6-15 years old and i feel like i lost my mom. She used to take us places, make me breakfast every morning, bring me to the school bus, she taught me the love of baking, she was there at every school function. She was a nurse, did hospice, took care of people with disabilities and brought them into our home. She loved without judging, and always made sure everyone else was okay. She even gave snacks and gaterade to the people who did landscaping in their neighborhood.
My poor Grandpy is so sad, and all my dad wanted to do while we were organizing the funeral was dote on his fiance. He argued with my grandfather about changing his will, as if he had any right to do so. He made my grandfather drive him around so he could buy things for his finace, added things to the catering menu that he wasnt paying for. Meanwhile my grandmothers friend was being insensitive. She asked when my dad and grandfather went golfing if they were going with the couples- completely inappropriate. She tried to change the picture on the prayer card, who the f are you anyway.
But truly the worst part is that noone in my direct family except my aunt and my grandfather seemed sad about it at all. I was crying to hard at the funeral my dad thought i was cold. I didnt see him shed but a few tears. I was standing with my grandfather in the pew, and all of a sudden i felt warm. That was my grammy, always comforting.
I had a dream she called me, she told me she was sorry she left so soon but she was so proud of me and i was going to be okay. Im so heartbroken, i feel like not only i lost my Grammy who was like a mother, but my dad as well. He is insensitive, and too busy being codependent on his fiance to take Grandpys feelings into consideration.

TLDR: I just need to vent becuase I'm so heartbroken right now. I just want some support. My friend/ex died and before he died he told his other friend that he didn't ever love me.
My friend's celebration of life was a few hours ago and I can't stop crying. I loved him so much. We met eachother in kindergarten but weren't close until after high school. I grew up around him. He was just such an amazing, unique person but he really struggled with alcoholism. It was like I met the person of my dreams. When he was sober he was so charming, funny, intelligent, creative, passionate, energetic, and loving. We had such an intense connection and I've never had butterflies like that before. But I broke up with him only after a week of being official becuase he wasn't very reliable. He was blacking out, canceling plans to get drunk and then lying about how much he had been drinking. We took a break and then started being friends again and I would hear from him from time to time. I moved on to other relationships after that, but I still cared about him deeply as a friend. I just couldn't tolerate his alcoholism anymore as a girlfriend.
I had a dream about him saying goodbye, so I tried to reach out to him but I couldn't becuase all his accounts were deactivated. After that dream I would wake up comforted just to the thought of him and memories of him just kept popping up everywhere. there was one moment it genuinely felt like he was hugging me and resting his head on my shoulder. Until one night I get home from work and I start feeling an intense sense of grief and dread without reason. I could almost hear his name in my room, even though I live alone. So I google him and the first result is his obituary. It says his funeral happened just a few hours ago so I didn't make it. But I still went to the celebration of life. At the celebration of life one of his friends told me that they called him before he passed, and he was talking about me and how much he never loved me. That really broke my heart. I saw his mother too and she said he wouldn't stop talking about me in a good way and that he really loved me and cared. He just wasn't in his right mind to continue a relationship when he isn't sober. His best friends told me not to look too much into it becuase he wasn't well and before he got to that point in his alcoholism he really did care. I'm just so sad that he is gone and I just wanted him to care becuase I cared. I still care.

So I’ve been down the rabbit hole, trying to chase every off-the-cuff reference, stray allegory, allusion, comparison, and tangent. I’m going to need you to bear (hug) with me for a bit because I think I’ve stumbled on some truly insane parallels between this show and the myriad of references it makes and it will take a lot of text to justify to you that I'm not crazy (or that I am, but at least I do my research).
This is a show that employs a ton of intertextuality and what the poet T.S. Eliot (someone quoted frequently throughout the series) calls “the mythic method”: essentially using historical, literary, and mythological allusions to draw parallels between characters on the show and characters throughout history (real and imagined).
This method helps the audience to build both conscious and unconscious associations with each of the characters and, ultimately, underscores the Roys’ (and humanity’s) damning commitment to making the same mistakes over and over again. The show seems to draw a lot from Greek mythology, Arthurian legend, biblical parables, Shakespearean tragedy, and modernist poetry (among many other things).
These networks of symbolism span from the earliest recorded history to modern celebrity culture and yet they reveal frighteningly unchanged elements in the stories they tell. The parallels of these references throughout the show serve to highlight the cyclical (the illusion of progress) and deterministic (the illusion of free will) nature of existence.
While I will be dipping in and out of the existing references, I want to call particular attention to the poetry of the aforementioned T.S. Eliot (who champions the mythic method) and John Berryman’s poem Dream Song 29 because I believe much of their work has served as a foundation for characters.
In the show, Frank makes mention of his poem “The Long Song Of J Alfred Prufrock” more than once. Outside of the show, Matthew McFayden (the actor who plays Tom) references the same poem to describe his character. Jeremy Strong (the actor who plays Kendall) says Eliot’s work The Four Quartets is a huge inspiration to his acting and character. A line from this particular work did strike me as being quite on the nose, which is why I continued to comb the poem for more (which it does deliver on):

"In my beginning is my end. In succession Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended, Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass. Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires, Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth Which is already flesh, fur and faeces, Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf."

This will probably be a monster of a post, so I will attempt to break down the following sections between poetic parallels, visual and dialogic symbolism of eternal recurrence, and an exploration of the historical and mythological allusions. Ultimately, I believe all of these clues point to the overwhelming conclusion that we will end where we began, in some way or another.
Circles & Cycles: Endless Recurrence & The Futility Of Progress
The show toys a lot with the philosophical concept of eternal recurrence, which postulates that “time repeats itself in an infinite loop, and that exactly the same events will continue to occur in exactly the same way, over and over again, for eternity.”
These eternal loops are symbolized visually with mirrors, water, fractal reflections; in the “uh-huh” and “mhmms” of repeated, near-palindromic dialogue; and in the show events that echo and repeat: in-air death scares, asynchronous business deals, family betrayal, weddings, retreats, implosions, family reunions, trauma bonding, baptism, funerals, etc.
In this understanding of time, there is no linear progress — or even progress at all. Time is cyclical. People are cyclical. As are the events that transpire. This is particularly interesting in a show like Succession whose title alone implies the phrase “line of succession.” Viewers would expect to see what comes next — who comes next — but as Logan himself yells, “Nothing is a line. Everything is moving all the time.”
Logan consistently evokes the circle shape in his speech, “Put a circle around him” he tells Shiv. “We’ve been circling for an hour, tell them we’re out of gas,” he complains in a moment of grim foreshadowing on his plane. “Crawl in a circle and close your eyes,” he shouts during the game of Boar on the Floor.
And he is the bright, burning nebulous center of this circle. He’s described as “carr[ying] his gravity. He's not a man, he's a f*cking planet.” And the people around him are described like satellites and moons. Characters exist in his orbit. And every complete orbit (or “revolution”) leaves characters in exactly the same place. There are motions, there is the illusion of progress, but the result is the same. Eliot again:

“every attempt Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure”

With this understanding, the show may just end where it begins. Not only in “nothing” happening, but in repeating the same events ad infinitum: A kid tries to take over the family business, they try to align with their siblings, they eventually backstab their siblings, they end out in the cold, and then they reunite, swear not to do it again, until it all repeats.
As most of us are aware, the show has made very direct mention of the John Berryman poem Dream Song 29. The names of the past three season finales (as well as the name of the upcoming fourth) are all direct excerpts from the poem, which deals with grief and sadness and the guilt of killing someone when you can’t even confirm there’s been someone killed at all.
Berryman consistently wrote about the guilt and grief he experienced from his father’s suicide. Berryman himself would eventually end up taking his own life, which on its own is a brutal reminder of the cycles of trauma. It also doesn’t feel insignificant that Berryman jumped off a bridge.
What’s really interesting is how each subsequent finale is named for a line that comes earlier and earlier in the poem. It also toys with this concept that things come full circle and end where they begin. This echoes Eliot’s essential thesis of the poem:

“What we call the beginning is often the end And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.”

But while the speaker of the poem comes to realize he has not murdered “nobody” by the poem’s last line; Kendall, moving through the poem backward, must reckon with the idea that he may have killed somebody even if they were a “nobody.” And while we may encounter this as a moment in which Kendall is genuinely despairing over his season 1 inadvertent murder, I believe we are far more likely to see Kendall embrace this moment.
We see "nobody" and "no one mentioned" a lot when it comes to Logan, who believes most people are "fungible as f*ck," and "pygmies" while he's "1,000 feet tall." When Kendall is involved in the accident, we see him echo "NRPI" or no real person involved.
The reason Kendall couldn’t live up to his father’s expectations is that he couldn’t be the killer his father needed him to be (even if his morality or basis of being a good person is off). This retroactive movement through the poem could be Kendall realizing he is, in fact, the killer his father always needed him to be, enabling him to take the necessary steps of seizing the crown on his own.
Allegories & Allusions: Mythic Comparisons & Determinism
It’s Shakespearean, like Roman says, “I kill Kendall, get crowned king, like we’re in f*cking Hamlet or something.” But it’s not just Hamlet, it’s King Lear, King Richard III, Coriolanus, Macbeth. And it’s not just Shakespeare, it’s Oedipus Rex, The Odyssey, The Waste Land, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Cronus devouring his children, Romulus killing Remus, Noah cursing his child for looking upon him naked.
The concept of the monomyth was popularized in "The Hero With 1000 Faces" and discusses throughout history, throughout different times and places, different cultures, different religions, different people have developed stories with relatively similar fundamental elements. The show is rife with allusions of stories that follow that same thread. Logan is Cronus who is King Lear who is Romulus who is who is. This is another form of endless recurrence: the inability to break the cycle. Or, in a very Hamlet reference, "maybe the poison drips through."
The themes of patricide, fratricide, and incest in particular are rampant. Rhea (like Rhea Jarell) in Greek mythology is both sister and consort to Cronus. Both are part of the first generation of aptly named Titan gods. Cronus overthrew his father Uranus and learns his children are fated to overthrow him. So he eats them as soon as they are born. Logan does refer to people as food a surprising amount throughout the show, varying from red meat to vegetables. He outright calls for blood sacrifice, which evokes the language of the gods.
Logan is referenced specifically as one of the last real American titans in his obituaries and eulogies. The language around him is frequently god-like. He's known as "the big man" or even "the big man upstairs." Tom tells Greg to "be his representative here on earth"; Roman asks the audience, "who is going to climb Mt. Olympus and be the next Dr. Zeus?" And that's where the myth gets interesting.
The only child not to be eaten is Zeus, who does end up killing his father and was surprisingly interested in marrying his mother. We're familiar with this plot formula through a different archetype: the Oedipus Complex, which we see referenced in the show with “Oedipus Roy,” “Oedipussy,” and “stabbing my eyes out.” The same story is repeated again in Hamlet with brother killing and brother and son yelling at his mother about her milky breasts (something Roman does to Shiv more than once). In the show when Logan says to Roman, “You may want to f*ck your mother but I don’t.” We know none of these stories end well. As Connor muses, “It’s not right to kill one’s father; history teaches us that.”
In the story of Romulus and Remus (whose mother’s name is also Rhea), the two brothers were initially chased out of their city as potential threats to the King (yet again). They were left by the river to die and were saved by the river god (important). After successfully overthrowing the kingdom that left them for dead, they agree to found a new city. They ultimately disagreed on which hill to found it and decided to have a bird-watching competition to see who could see the most omens indicating they had divine approval for the hill. Remus says he saw 6 auspicious birds but Romulus claims to see 12. Romulus kills Remus over this.
It should remind you of Logan visiting his childhood home with Ewan: “I saw a mistle thrush at the bandstand,” and the log book he kept as a child of birds he “saw” that Ewan would cross out if he didn’t believe him. It may also echo a part of The Four Quartets, “Other echoes/ Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?/ Quick, said the bird, find them, find them,/ Round the corner. Through the first gate,/ Into our first world, shall we follow/ The deception of the thrush?"
There is much to be said about the themes of warring brothers. Also the themes of fathers worried their children would one day overthrow them who take action to thwart or murder their children, which inadvertently sets into motion the very outcome they fear. It happens over and over again in stories old and new. As Panhandle Pete says, “I push him, he pushes me, and around and around we go.” Or as Eliot puts it, “that the wheel may turn and still / Be forever still.”
Much of these works touch on a sort of determinism, or the slow crushing reality that every action you take — even if that action is an attempt to thwart your fate — will ultimately lead to the same inevitable ending. This is the illusion of free will on top of the illusion of progress. And Logan, in fearing his children would usurp him (and also disparaging his children for not being able to), set into motion his own death and his own messy succession.
It’s also a reminder that the greatest men in life are all the same when laid to rest:

"O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark, The vacant interstellar spaces, the vacant into the vacant, The captains, merchant bankers, eminent men of letters, The generous patrons of art, the statesmen and the rulers, Distinguished civil servants, chairmen of many committees, Industrial lords and petty contractors, all go into the dark…"

Structure & Symbolism: Water As Rebirth & Destruction
The show has very much been structured around Kendall, and we watch him move through bodies of water with what feels like different symbolism each time. Is he drowning, is he reborn? We witness Kendall at his lowest point face down in a pool and at one of his highest, splashing into the Pacific ocean. We watch a man drown. We watch Logan beg Kendall for water as they walk through Adrien Brody’s maze. We watch Roman clamor for water at the funeral when he needs to calm down. Poetry has long played with this life and death dynamic in water, like the sailors dying of thirst in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner who cry:

“Water, water, every where,. And all the boards did shrink;. Water, water, every where,. Nor any drop to drink. The very deep did rot: O Christ!”

This sub has noted Kendall’s connection to water, which has been represented over and over visually. But once you realize every metaphor, analogy, and simile he uses is water-based, you can’t unhear it. He calls his father “a tsunami of corruption” and describes things “as more precious than water”; he calls deals “choppy” and “dead in the water,” and asks to “help steady the ship”; he offers to “row back” on business deals, says timing is “high tide,” and that he has “bigger fish to fry.”
Logan is apt to use similar water symbolism, even telling Shiv that she’s marrying a man “fathoms” beneath her. As Rhea tells him, fearful of his own monstrosity, “I can’t see the bottom of the pool. I don’t know if you care about anything. It scares me.” ATN’s major scandal was “death cruises.” Even his operating nemesis is called “Sandy.”
In fact, there is mention of all elements and seasons — in particular, fire from Shiv, air from Roman, and earth from Connor. T.S. Eliot’s The Four Quartets confront these same themes and share some surprising similarities with show scene locations, dialogue, and plot points.
That’s because Succession is an allegory for the micro and the macro: the rise and fall of families, civilizations, monarchies, dynasties, and empires. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust, the cycles rinse and repeat. Eliot modeled the four quartets on the 4 elements and the 4 seasons. And you can see even in Succession a similar manifestation of 4 elements. And, well, 4 seasons of the show. (And what occurs after 4 seasons? A full revolution around the sun, bringing you to where you began.)
Water seems to be at the root of it all. Even Ewan’s eulogy meditates on his and Logan’s journey on a boat. Even their abusive uncle is named Noah. In the show, we watch our nobody die by water, we watch our main character nearly die by water, and then we watch him revive in the ocean. As Kendall and his father wind their way through Adrien Brody’s circuitous Long Island home, Kendall remarks, “I think this leads to the ocean.” Because every path leads to the sea in some way or another.
The overarching narration from T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land is the Arthurian Legend of The Fisher King. This story is told a million different ways with a million different outcomes, but always boils down to an injured or maimed monarch ruling over a dying land. Or as Ewan refers to his "empire of shit": “He’s built a wasteland and called it an empire.”
He’s looking for someone, anyone, to heal him, rescue the kingdom, and ensure the dynasty survives. This is the myth of the holy grail, which, in this show, can be seen as the throne: The original stories of the holy grail were not Christian/religious but they do employ a lot of the same mythmaking from earlier religions and mythologies to tell their stories and thus construct their new realties. As Eliot says in The Four Quartets:

"The whole earth is our hospital Endowed by the ruined millionaire, Wherein, if we do well, we shall Die of the absolute paternal care That will not leave us, but prevents us everywhere."

I believe Kendall (and the other children) represent the grail knights who try to save the king. (On the same level they stand in for the gods, the elements, or anything at all). When Christianity became more popular, these myths adapted to Christian overtones, but they still had the Celtic and pagan myths at their core: the grail becomes the chalice from the last supper.
That’s why Kendall’s easy comparisons of himself to Jesus feel less blasphemous than revelatory. Jesus is another hero archetype in the show’s mythology. He is willing to sacrifice himself, which Kendall must do in order to become the successor his father wanted. As he says, "this is a culmination of my life's journey to be crucified for you morons."
(It’s worth noting: In some legends, the knight saves the king; in others, he inadvertently destroys him. We know Logan dies, but it does feel less likely that Waystar Royco survives.) Drowning is a constant feature of Eliot's poems, but so is baptism and renewed life. It is difficult to determine the meaning of water in either instance, except that it doesn't discriminate as a life or death bringer, which is both beautiful and terrifying.
Parallels & Predictions: Piecing The Plot & Poetry Together
To repeat again, as this show is wont to do: “Crawl in a circle and close your eyes!” Logan Roy shouts during a game of Boar On A Floor. It’s an allegory, like many games on the series, and proudly says the quiet part out loud: Logan always wins. Here’s a little boar on the floor reference in The Four Quartets:

"We move above the moving tree In light upon the figured leaf And hear upon the sodden floor Below, the boarhound and the boar Pursue their pattern as before But reconciled among the stars."

We’ve seen the L.O.G.A.N. system at work many times and with many people. He dangles a carrot, a morsel of love, as each character attempts to play the game over and over while expecting different results. They are doomed to crawl in that circle, to play that blind game, as Logan angrily shouts, “It’s fun!” And this game doesn't end in death. The children still ask. "What would dad do?"
Games on Succession (which are a consistent refrain), it turns out, are rarely fun and are often designed to humiliate or inflict pain. The same goes when characters say “I’m just kidding” after an eviscerating remark. Logan thinks life is a game, and as he says, games should be taken seriously. And because Logan explicitly makes the rules, there is no winning, just trudging around the board, passing Go, and collecting $200. The games are essentially Sisyphean tasks that the kids wouldn’t be able to win even if they were actually competent enough to run the company. And yet they keep rolling the boulder. It’s endless. The repetition. It ends where it begins.

"Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning, Every poem an epitaph. And any action Is a step to the block, to the fire, down the sea's throat Or to an illegible stone: and that is where we start. We die with the dying: See, they depart, and we go with them. We are born with the dead: See, they return, and bring us with them. The moment of the rose and the moment of the yew-tree Are of equal duration. A people without history Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern Of timeless moments."

Please also note the use of “the rose” and “the yew tree,” which are the names of Logan’s siblings Rose and Ewan, which derives from yew-tree. Other important name comparisons include Kendall’s association to spring/river valley; Siobhan’s nickname either a knife (Shiv) or Pinky (a variation of the name Rose); Roman’s connection to Romulus/Corialanus; Tom’s name meaning “twin” because there was already someone named Judas in the bible HELLO; Logan’s name meaning little hollow, which recalls another Eliot poem, The Hollow Men.
We know this show is a game, one that isn't fun at all, and one whose rules Logan made up. Even when there's a winner, there's no winner. So it's almost futile to play at all. That said, it’s impossible to make sense of any of it all without the ending — to confirm this ball has been rolling toward an inevitable conclusion, but given the show’s ending has probably occurred already, here are my thoughts:

• Kendall drowns

This may feel a bit on the nose given we’ve already seen this almost happen to “the Kurt Cobain of floaties,” but it would certainly be poetic. This could be sad (launched from a bridge); empowering (a la The Awakening); or metaphorical (a drug overdose). At some point Kendall says, "If dad didn’t need me right now I wouldn’t know what I would be for." The kids exist with Logan as their sun; they are moons, satellites, in orbit. And when their sun dies out, they repeat the motions in the cold, slowly losing their patterns and motions. The term is science is a rogue planet and the following lines from the poem remind me of Kendall and his broken, hollow stare.
“It would be the same at the end of the journey, If you came at night like a broken king, If you came by day not knowing what you came for, It would be the same, when you leave the rough road And turn behind the pig-sty to the dull facade And the tombstone. And what you thought you came for Is only a shell, a husk of meaning From which the purpose breaks only when it is fulfilled If at all. Either you had no purpose Or the purpose is beyond the end you figured And is altered in fulfilment.”

• Kendall is king of the ashes

Any victory feels like it will be a Pyrrhic victory regardless when you've had to systematically take down everyone you love to achieve it. The same lines above can echo here "the purpose is beyond the end you figured/And is altered in fulfilment." A hollow victory. The Fisher King question Logan poses is, "Who can replace me?" Logan wanted each of his children to display the killer instinct. Kendall’s backwards journey through Dreamsong 29 may very well see him realize he is, in fact, the killer his dad always wanted — with open eyes. This will probably involve taking down his siblings. In this version, winning is a lot like losing, which feels very Succession.

• Mattson wins it all

These Shakespearean histories and tragedies rarely end well for existing houses. With Richard III (the-multiple-lineage-ending war of the roses) and Hamlet (the-whole-house-dies-but-a-norwegian-king-swoops-in-to-take-it-all dynastic struggle) references abound. We may just see a new house rise up and rinse and repeat. This would probably also occur if the kids take each other down and leave it open for another party. We saw last season that Roman thought he had an in with Mattson until it didn’t serve Mattson anymore. I see the same thing happening between Roman and Mencken. This puts Mencken and Mattson in a position to take over, which may make Mattson win it or…

• Mattson destroys it all

When Mattson is introduced, he is referenced as a trickster. Generally, in mythology, this character is quite intelligent or in possession of secret knowledge, and he uses it for trickery and commandeering situations. (Is that blood thing real???). Hamlet concludes with every major character killing the other with their own tragic flaws until a third party Scandinavian comes in to take the crown with no necessary action or bloodshed at all. We already know he's unscrupulous; what is his end game? It reminds me of one of his early lines to Roman, which would be an eerie foreshadowing:
“Success doesn’t really interest me anymore, it’s too easy. Analysis + capital + execution. Fucking, anyone can do that. But failure, that’s a secret. Just as much failure as possible as fast as possible, burn that shit out, that’s interesting.”

• Tom betrays Shiv

We’ve seen it happen before (which is why it should happen again). We’ve also seen Tom remove the thin veneer of his ambitions to the point where he almost feels like Richard III. He has played the fool, which is Shakespearean estimation, is often equivalent to the trickster. This would be a fun and distorted parallel to Shiv offering this job to him for Logan to offer it to her. This would probably happen in conjunction with Mattson winning. As I mentioned earlier, the name Tom means “twin” and the apostle Tom was only called as such because there were already one too many “Judas” in the mix. He's also from Minnesota (the twin cities!), so this is becoming very real, you know???

• Greg betrays Tom

While we know Tom has betrayed Shiv before, we also know Greg betrayed Shiv and Tom when he spoke to Geri in the first season about Tom having a press conference on cruises. He leads Tom to believe Shiv has betrayed him, getting one over on both of them. There may also be something with the Rule of 3 and being betrayed 3 times that feels biblical. The show also makes TONS of references to holding on to blackmail for opportune moments. Will we see something like this?
I’m not a big believer that Greg will fail so far upwards that he will win (this would feel like a betrayal in its own right), but do I believe there’s a world where Greg gets himself on a piece of paper with a question mark. Maybe???

• Geri finally beats Tom

This is my personal hope because I want the Tom and Jerry allusion to be real more than any other I put together (we love a good cat and mouse game). If Mattson wins, he needs a US CEO. Geri has collected a massive amount of dirt on everyone. And to call back to season 1’s interim CEO discussions, Shiv says, “I don’t like Geri. But I don’t hate Geri either.” It would feel particularly good given how much time and effort Logan spent clarifying Geri would be terrible at the position. Especially as Logan disparaging someone generally means he’s afraid of what they can do.
I’ll end at the ending. Or conclude where Eliot did on The Four Quartets:

"We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. Through the unknown, unremembered gate When the last of earth left to discover Is that which was the beginning; At the source of the longest river The voice of the hidden waterfall And the children in the apple-tree Not known, because not looked for But heard, half-heard, in the stillness Between two waves of the sea. Quick now, here, now, always— A condition of complete simplicity (Costing not less than everything) And all shall be well and All manner of thing shall be well When the tongues of flames are in-folded Into the crowned knot of fire And the fire and the rose are one."

PS. Given ‘Pinky’ is another name for ‘Rose’ does this mean Shiv wins??? JK let’s just watch the show tonight and laugh at our predictions in the morning.

My brother died in a car accident a week ago and I went and stayed a week at my parents with our daughter (1) so i could help plan the funeral while my husband stayed home and worked. He came for the funeral and had to leave that afternoon. He’s been as supportive as he can before the funeral. Me, my daughter, and sister (21) came back home to my house the night after the funeral because my sister didn’t want to be alone. After I got in bed last night, I said goodnight to my husband and he mumbled something that I couldn’t understand and he snipped at me saying that he said goodnight. I was annoyed at that point and said nothing else. And he said “I love you” and I said it back and he just sighed and said “why do I always have to say it first?” I got so angry and just snapped. I asked him why did he have to pick a fight with me right now, and he just turned over and went to sleep. I have so much grief with losing my brother, and I had to pick up the pieces of my parents and do everything. I created the obituary, I had to take clothes for them to put my brother in for the funeral, I had to pick up his belongings form the funeral home they sent. I haven’t been able to have a single moment alone to process my own grief. For my husband to obviously think I’m going to snap back into our life of normalcy just makes me so angry. I have felt no compassion from him since I’ve come back home. I’m almost considering divorce. Advice?
ETA:
The divorce comment seems extreme, I know. It’s just that this isn’t the first time he’s snapped or came at me while I’ve already been upset about something. It just feels like he’s lacking compassion. Do I truly want to divorce him? Of course not. I just want him to have some compassion. I have had to be strong for everyone this past week, and I just really needed his support and love. Not for him to already kick me while I’m down.

Because someone asked me about a comment I made on another post, here's an edited version of a writeup I did back in 2011 of the 8 page outline from Heinlein's papers that became Spider Robinson's Variable Star.
When I first Read Variable Star a few years after it came out, I thought it was OK but disappointing. It's a Spider Robinson novel, and while I enjoyed the first few books of his I read, he has a limited range and by the time I read this one I had gotten bored with him.
But, a huge deal was made in the afterword and the cover blurbs about the source of the novel being a book outline by Heinlein that he had never expanded to a full novel - an 8 page outline that tragically had lost its last page by the time Robinson got hold of it. (I don't know how much of the story of the missing page is marketing BS, but there's no reason Robinson would have been unable to get a copy of the last page if he really wanted to see it) .
Anyway, I got curious and went looking for the outline. Like every other scrap of paper from his writing career that Heinlein didn't destroy, it's in the UC Santa Cruz library, and scans of everything in the Heinlein collection are available for sale online at the Heinlein Archive website. The 8 page outline (which is complete, no missing last page) is part of the "Story ideas, part 1" PDF, catalog number WRTG201a-01.
(ETA: the back end of the Heinlein Archives website has not been updated for a very long time and it's impossible to buy the PDF from them at this point. I am both surprised and amused that a libertarian organization would be incompetent at taking my money. )
I paid $2 and got a 150 page PDF, including the 8 page outline and a bunch of other quite interesting material - very much worth the pittance.
TLDR: The outline is clearly for a Heinlein juvenile. While Heinlein never turned the outline into a novel himself, he did did not abandon it as the marketing for Variable Star would imply. Rather, he took one core idea (near-light speed travel as a form of time travel into the future) and used it as the basis for Time For the Stars. Then he took the other core idea (poor boy suddenly finds himself dealing with a family more wealthy and powerful than most governments) and incorporated it into Citizen of the Galaxy. Finally he took the last idea from the outline (boy and girl seemingly separated by one-way time travel into the future discover that their ages are not incompatible after all because they've both travelled forward), and used it in The Door Into Summer.
In 2011 when I wrote this up, I could not find anyone talking about the outline, so I wrote a detailed summary on my blog. Here's that summary:
The outline is eight single space typewritten pages, plus 12 handwritten notecards. The notecards are pages 115-128 and the typed outline pages 129-136 of the PDF. I'll be focusing on the typescript, which I can read without straining my eyes. The notecards are very brief, so we're not missing much this way.
The MS begins "Notes for a novel - 5 Nov 1955," which places it (going by publication dates) after Tunnel in the Sky and before Double Star or Time for the Stars. The second line gives a working title "The Stars are a Clock," and then there are several other titles handwritten at the top of the page:
Dr. Einstein's Clock, The Starship Nautilus, The Starship Naughty Girl, The Star Clock, The Einstein Clock
It's not clear whether the two "The Starship X" ones are meant to be subtitles for "Dr Einstein's Clock" or standalone titles in themselves. Page 2 is headed "Star Clock (The Star Clock, maybe)" and the rest of the outline has "The Star Clock-[page number]" as a running head.
The only named characters are Joel Johnston, age 18, the protagonist; Jinny Jones/aka Jennifer Conrad (Joel's steady high school girlfriend, age 17); and "Mr. Conrad," Jinny's grandfather and head of the Conrad financial empire. A few other characters are described in terms of the real-world people the character should be modelled after (in speaking of the starship, he says "I think maybe Ron Hubbard is her skipper").
This was clearly intended as a juvenile novel - Joel is 18, and when saying he "should have more girl trouble aboard ship," Heinlein adds "(keep it clean, of course!)" One reason Heinlein set the outline aside and started over may be that he decided he couldn't get a book whose plot was centred on a romance accepted for the (at the time) sexless juvenile market.
Joel and Jinny are in love, but Joel is an orphan with no money and he thinks he needs to get through college and start a career before he can get married. If Joel can't get the scholarship he's applied for, then it's going to take even longer, since he'll have to work his way though school.
Having gotten Joel to admit that he would like to marry Jinny if only there was a way, Jinny lets him know that her surname is not Jones but Conrad, and that she is not just a Conrad, but the "'crown princess' of the Conrad industrial empire... which is larger than the Hanseatic League, Rothschild family, and General Motors combined and just smaller than space itself."
Two paragraphs in a row start with a variation of Joel "finally gets it through his head" that Jinny is wealthy enough to pay his way though school, so Joel is yet another variation on the "smart but slow witted youth" that Heinlein used as protagonist again and again.
There's a couple of paragraphs mentioning the marriage and courtship customs of the time, which again probably would not have been acceptable in a novel for the juvenile market: "some discussion of 'student contract,' the trial marriage used" by most college students who wish to get married before they graduate, rejected by Jinny, ("marriage isn't a ticket to an amusement park") who wants an old fashioned life long marriage.
Jinny doesn't "park, diddle, go on no-chaperone weekends... she is old-fashioned and chinchy" because she has been taught since age three that she has a responsibility to the Conrad family to produce an heir with an acceptable father - and she has decided that Joel is that man.
Joel "finally gathers" that he has been tapped not just to marry into the Conrad family but to produce its heirs, and is dubious about being a kept man/prince consort. Jinny says "it isn't like that at all!" and makes him promise to go talk to her grandfather about it.
All this takes just over a page of the outline.
The next morning, Joel is summoned to an audience with Mr. Conrad. There is only one "Mr. Conrad" at any one time, all the other male Conrads go by "Mr. Joseph, Mr. Robert" and so on. Conrad takes Joel's consent for granted and proceeds to tell him how he will live his life from then on -- he will be educated, trained, and groomed to take a top executive position. Joel was thoroughly investigated before Jinny was given permission to propose to him. Mr. Conrad knows all about him - including confidential medical/psychological records.
Joel objects, respectfully, saying that having his life planned out for him like this is not his cup of tea. Conrad brushes his objections aside and leaves, failing to realize that he's just been turned down.
Joel is unable to contact Jinny after this ("she has been gently kidnapped, of course - family stuff"), and once he fails to respond to further messages from Conrad, the screws start to turn: his scholarship (controlled by the Conrad foundation) is turned down.
Unable to continue school, sore at Jinny for not contacting him, and at his wits end, "he sees the ad for 'gentlemen adventurers'" applies, is accepted, and is shortly on his way to Beta Aurigae.
All this takes a page and a half of outline, most of it devoted to a detailed summary of Mr. Conrad's interview with Joel.
Now there's just under two pages of background material, detailing several things:
First, the economics of space travel in this future society - relativistic starships that go out on voyages of exploration often fail to come back, but those that do return invariably show an immense profit, more than enough to pay for the lost ships. Starship exploration is one area where the Conrad empire has competitors, and the ad Joel sees is not affiliated with the Conrad conglomerate.
Second, the nature of Joel's poverty - he has an "orphan's allowance" which ran out on his 18th birthday. Joel's father bought some stock for him but the market shifted and Joel had to sell it low to pay for his last (post 18th birthday) semester at prep school. Without the scholarship, Joel has no money at all. He could do many things at this point, from indentured service to a stint in the military, but he's so discombobulated by the whole Jinny/Conrad business that he is in a "what the hell frame of mind" and signs up for this star voyage.
Third, the starship in question is "a pile of junk," old and poorly equipped, carrying low value cargo (emigrants), with low likelihood of returning, but Joel doesn't know that. "She will be a quaint mixture of madhouse and hellship." Subjectively, the trip out and back (to a star 10 light years away) will take a year, but 40 years will pass on Earth.
Fourth, there's a half page of brainstorming, with Heinlein throwing out multiple ideas as to what may happen (is the skipper incompetent, or is he in on a stock market manipulation scheme to delay the ship's return? Perhaps Joel still has some stock his father bought in an old starship that is long overdue, which he instructs his solicitor to invest in Joel's starship if it ever pays off? Perhaps they pay off, but his solicitor put them in a "safe" investment instead, and Joel is penniless - again! - at the end of his trip?)
Joel applies to go on the starship, along with a large crowd of "down-at heels rabble" and he is among the few provisionally accepted. They'd like him to marry one of the single women who have also been provisionally accepted, but he'll have none of that. "He is accepted anyhow and we rush him aboard."
And then there's a bit more than a page of further brainstorming about what happens aboard ship - with an note that "we've got plenty to happen when he gets back; what we need now is adventure and humour" - and ideas for plot twists on the ship and on the alien planet.
Heinlein makes several mid-course changes in the story: the back-at-home duration of the voyage gets increased to 60 years, with Joel ageing just three years; the ship goes through two names (Nautilus and Naughty Girl) and goes from making an out-and-back voyage to making a 4 or 5 leg journey. He tosses out the idea that an emigrant on the original trip out from Earth (then a 5 year old girl) grows up to be someone he might want to marry on his return to that colony world, and the idea that another girl from his high school is on the crew of the ship, and he falls for her, but she marries one of the officers instead.
One thing he is certain of is that while Joel's ship is still travelling, FTL ships are perfected and the relativistic starships become obsolete. He also mentions that Joel will find a "space bat" as a "cute and cuddlesome and smart e.-t." pet.
Eventually Joel has to go back to Earth (whether his stocks end up making him well-heeled or broke Heinlein waffles on), still single. A page is devoted to discussing the "Out-of-Phase Club, Anachron Lounge, etc" and Joel's meeting with the secretary of the club, who explains to him the club's purpose of helping relativistic starship crew by acting as trainers/translators and as a place where they can meet people from their own time period, since they are almost always going to find Earth's society, language, and customs to be bafflingly different from when they left.
Finally, the last page and a half of the outline is devoted to Joel's arranging to meet Jinny (who he imagines is now almost 80), the girl he ran away from and who has continued to haunt him, keeping him from marrying any of the "half a dozen other nice girls" he met on his travels. After getting to the Conrad house, he first sees Jinny's granddaughter and great-granddaughter, and (once again) is slow on the uptake when Jinny (still young) finally walks into the room.
Because, of course, she took a starship out too, after marrying, giving birth to the requisite heir, and then finding herself both widowed and orphaned in quick succession. So, sixty Earth years later, they are now the same age.
They fight, they make up, they "clinch." They decide, since they are both now anachronisms from the past, to buy their own starship (Joel's old ship) and travel around relativistically, coming back to earth every century or so to "see what's new."
(ETA: As you can see, this is basically a very preliminary version of "Time for the stars." I think the main reason the outline got shoved in a drawer and TftS became a very different book is probably because Heinlein realized he was not going to be allowed to have his juvenile protagonists be interested in marriage. But he also kept the outline in his story ideas file, and clearly he went back to it at least twice. The Conrad family seems to be a precursor to the Rudbecks in Citizen of the Galaxy, and the "oh, the girl I like must have grown old and aged while I time travelled into the future... oh wait, she is still young because she also travelled to the future separately from me, now we can get married, yay" plot device reappears in The Door Into Summer.)
Now a bit about Robinson's novel: it is extremely faithful to the first five pages of the outline (up to the point where Joel leaves on the starship). Robinson used just a few of the brainstorming ideas Heinlein put in page 6 (the trip), and ignored page 7 (Joel's return to Earth) completely (and it is claimed that he didn't have page 8, which is the reunion of Joel and Jinny). Robinson also borrowed some material from Time For the Stars, the Heinlein juvenile which did get written on the theme of relativistic star travel - there's mention of telepaths keeping the starship in touch with Earth, for instance.
Then (avoiding spoilers here) the ending of Variable Star utterly abandons the outline (well before the alleged missing page 8) and strikes off in an entirely new direction. By staying so faithful to the initial outline, then diverging so widely from it, Robinson ended up with a book that egregiously violates the Chekov's Gun rule - the ending of Variable Star comes from nowhere, with very little buildup or foreshadowing, while the beginning of the book puts a good many plot threads in motion that are discarded abruptly without resolution to make way for the shock ending.
Finally, a bit about the other material to be found in the "Story Ideas part 1" PDF: There are numerous newspaper and magazine clippings that Heinlein evidently found evocative; two articles by Jerry Pournelle (one typescript, one journal reprint); some handwritten pages that I did not try to decipher; 19 pages of worldbuilding notes for "A Martian named Smith" aka Stranger in a Strange Land, dated 1949; and finally two typed letters, one to "Sarge" (dec 1963), and one (missing the first page, probably from the same time period) to "Buz," both talking about race relations. Buz is probably F.M. Busby.

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:16:24
Unknown
Hey, have you guys heard of the idea of the, you know, that whole multiverse thing? What the hell is that, Joe? It's essentially the existence of an infinite number of parallel universes where you exist as different versions of yourself. Yeah. Yeah, That, you know, like in the Marvel movies, Donny. Oh, yeah, Right. Well, I 100% believe in that.
​
00:00:16:25 - 00:00:35:05
Unknown
No doubt about it. Oh, you do? Well, I've seen you exist as at least 42 different versions of yourself in a single fucking speech, Joe. Sick burn, Donald. Not to mention, if there's anyone I know who I would describe as doctor. Fucking strange that honor is yours, my man. Oh, fuck you, Donnie. I was just going to ask if you thought there was a what?
​
00:00:35:10 - 00:00:52:18
Unknown
A universe out there where we existed as superheroes. You know, like The Avengers, where your Thor and I'm Captain America. You look more like Lieutenant Fucking leukemia. From where I'm standing, Joe. Jesus Christ. Well, tick tock was fun while it lasted, gentlemen. May the Lord have mercy. I say we settle this in a good old fashioned two v fucking two boys.
​
00:00:52:18 - 00:01:09:03
Unknown
We got to stop swearing unnecessarily, guys. If Donny's joke doesn't do it, the excessive cursing is going to get our account banned for sure. One of these days. Come on, man. Really? You lay a couple of F-bombs and everyone loses their minds. Yeah, but you lay a couple of real bombs and they call you Mr. President. Right, George?
​
00:01:09:10 - 00:01:31:24
Unknown
I plead the Fifth. We know. Hey, they call me Mr. President, too. Barack Isn't that odd, man? Oh, it's very fucking odd, Joe. But not for the reasons you think. But by the time the next election rolls around, you won't be president. You'll be president. At least my term in office will go down in history, Donnie. Yeah, And it'll be the worst thing to go down in the White House since Monica Lewinsky was given your good pal Billy Boy.
​
00:01:31:24 - 00:01:51:02
Unknown
Sloppy jalopy in the Oval Office. Bing bong. You're from Connecticut, George. Stop embarrassing yourself, homey. Honestly, though, the day I no longer have to see Sleepy Joe Waddle on stage to deliver a presidential address like a geriatric fucking penguin is the day I can die happily, if I knew, that's all it would take for us to finally be rid of you.
​
00:01:51:02 - 00:02:11:00
Unknown
Donny, I swear I would have pulled the plug on the whole politics bullshit when I was the fucking pool boy for the Obama family back in 2008. Wait, wait. Pool boy. My girls still have nightmares of Joe in a Speedo. Oh, someone definitely should have pulled the plug. Joe pulled the plug on whatever fucking life support they've got you hooked up to when you weren't on camera.
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00:02:11:02 - 00:02:23:05
Unknown
Oh, fuck you, Donny. Anyway, I think I'll let you boys get back to leveling your accounts. It's double XP weekend, and I know you're almost max prestige in Parkinson's disease. Joe. Ping pong.
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00:02:23:05 - 00:02:40:27
Unknown
Good news, gentlemen. Thanks to that last post, we just passed 80,000 followers on TikTok. Flex on them, boys. Oh, hell. Way to go. Shit. Really Well done. Yeah. Big ups. The prez getting for real? For real. See, Donnie, I told you, the American people love me. I guess you were wrong. Oh, I don't think it's you they love, Joe, you senile fucking centipede.
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00:02:41:00 - 00:02:57:29
Unknown
Oh, fuck you, Donnie. Why must you always ruin the moment? Don't you have any fucking decency? He's right, Donnie. This is meant to be a celebration, my guy. Oh, give me a fucking break, would you, Barack? Come on. Everyone knows I'm the reason our Tick-Tock is so popular. I'm the fucking Beyoncé of the group, gentlemen. Always have been.
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00:02:57:29 - 00:03:17:24
Unknown
And you know it. So how about you say my fucking name? Donald Trump. Oh, for Christ's sake, George. I didn't mean fucking literally. You're almost worse than Joe and Barack Obama. Oh, I love broccoli. Oh, for the love of God, Joe. Well, would you look at that voice? The fucking vegetable has become self-aware. He's up, Donnie. Joe might be a vegetable, but he's our fucking vegetable.
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00:03:17:29 - 00:03:35:02
Unknown
Oh, I've never felt so loved. You sound like a fucking orphan, Joe. Be careful or your good buddy Barack might call in a couple of fucking abs on your ass. Oh, you buggin for that one, Donnie? Plead the Fifth. Because that's your answer to everything, George. I also would like to plead the Fifth. Oh, what a fucking surprise.
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00:03:35:07 - 00:03:55:16
Unknown
I've had just about enough of you fucking bullying us all, Donnie. Oh, boo hoo, GI. I got a friend here with me who saw Tick talk yesterday, and he really, really wants to talk to you. Your multiple personalities don't count as different people, Joe. You schizophrenic fucking squirrel. Heard you've been talking shit, Trump. What's good now? Pussy. Oh, What the fuck is he doing here?
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00:03:55:18 - 00:04:12:05
Unknown
This discord is for presidents whose wives don't have their testicles in their handbag. Billy boy, I'm just over here at my good friend Joe's house, and he told me what you had to say about me and your last Tic TAC. So come on, say it to my face, bitch. I'm a fat tub of shit. What? I said call him a fat tub of shit, Bill.
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00:04:12:08 - 00:04:27:27
Unknown
You're a fat tub of shit, Donald. At least I'm not friends with that fucking leper of a president sitting next to you, Bill. Good thing he's not friends with you. You might grope him. You fucking pervert. Oh, I wouldn't touch Joe with a ten foot fucking pole, Barack. Plus, I highly doubt he's any safer around all wild Bill.
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00:04:27:27 - 00:04:44:12
Unknown
Fucking stiff cock over there. Been a minute there, Bill. You remember the day I threw you out on your ass and took over the White House? Good times. How's the weather back home in Arkansas? Oh, you know how it is, Bush. The nights are nice, but the summers as hot as the 82nd floor of the South Tower. I'm sure you know all about that.
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00:04:44:12 - 00:05:03:07
Unknown
Right? Let me save you some fucking time there, Bill. He pleads the fifth. You're goddamn right, Barack. Anyway, just thought I'd let you sons of bitches know that Joe has sent me a good old invitation to participate in this little presidential discus thing you've got going on. Oh, for fuck's sake, Joe. Soon as I upgrade from Windows 98, it's fucking over for you boys.
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00:05:03:07 - 00:05:17:25
Unknown
That's fucking lit, Bill. Hot damn boys. The presidential five is here. Honestly, this discord is turning into a senior citizen fucking circus at this point. I can't believe Billy Boy is going to be the fifth member of the fifth. I love the fifth.
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00:05:17:25 - 00:05:36:24
Unknown
Hey, I got a question, you guys. Oh, this ought to be good. What's up, pimp? Do you guys believe in the afterlife? Like, if I die, do you think I could come back and visit you? You know, from beyond the grave? Well, I mean, I don't see why not. Yeah, to be honest, Joe, I thought you were already visiting us from beyond the grave, you clueless fucking poltergeist.
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00:05:36:25 - 00:05:54:01
Unknown
Oh, go in, Donald. I mean, you look about 11 years postmortem at this stage, my man. Not to mention the foul fuckin stench. Come on, Joe. Stick up for yourself, my dog. Oh, he's fighting for his fucking life out there, Barack. He hasn't got the time nor the brains for that. Oh, fuck you, Donny. Why don't you ever answer my question?
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00:05:54:01 - 00:06:13:10
Unknown
Seriously? Even with the whole multiverse thing, all you did was fucking roast me. Fine. Joe, you want a real answer to your multiverse question? Yes, I do. No, I don't believe there's a universe out there where we exist as superheroes. Oh, man. Just like I don't believe there's a universe out there where you exist with anything more than one eighth of a fucking brain.
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00:06:13:10 - 00:06:32:05
Unknown
Joe, you conscious fucking sofa cushion. Oh, that's a big bong. Good work, Donald. You know, I think I've finally figured it out. Donny. What's that, Joe? The whole reason behind your aggressive outbursts. I believe you were starved of affection in your childhood and I believe you were starved of fucking oxygen. And yours, Joe, you underdeveloped fetus. Kind of like the tower victims, right?
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00:06:32:05 - 00:06:49:21
Unknown
Bush. Kind of like Monica Lewinsky when she was choking on your. Don't fucking say it, George. I'm begging you. You're nothing but a fat fucking bully, Donald. Joe is ten times the president you ever were. He's also ten times the dementia patient Donald will ever be. But we don't talk about that, do we, Bill? Yes, we do. How about you stay in your fucking lane or what, George?
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00:06:49:23 - 00:07:08:16
Unknown
I ain't Rapunzel, and I don't live in no fucking tower. So I guess you're out of your depth on this one. Stop it, you guys. You're turning this discord into a presidential fucking debate. Oh, you don't have to get involved in any presidential debates, Joe. From what I can tell, you're too busy battling it out with radiation poisoning from your own fucking bodily aroma.
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00:07:08:20 - 00:07:25:03
Unknown
Fuck up, Dunny. You got sweat coming out your fucking toes, my guy. How about you lay off of him? How about you go forge another fucking birth certificate, Barack, you lying piece of shit. You better plead it, Barack. I guess I plead the fifth. Hey, you're a natural. You know who else is a natural, George? Joe is. Hey, I am.
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00:07:25:03 - 00:07:42:15
Unknown
He's a natural fucking phenomenon, my man. I don't know how he even gets dressed in the morning. Oh, I can tell you that, Donnie. I get dressed right next to Melania, you bright orange bitch. Now, that's what you call a fucking bing bong bush. No, Bill, A real bing bong would be if we told the people what really happened on the island belonging to your good buddy Jeffrey.
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00:07:42:16 - 00:08:02:02
Unknown
No idea what you're talking about. Nope. None. Sorry. Guess that concludes it then. Gentlemen, Alzheimer's is contagious. Oh, hop off my dick, Donald. Better stay away from Joe there, Billy boy. Or you might accidentally find yourself on another plane to that same island. Right. Come to think of it, you know all about that island, don't you, Trump? Now, now, that's no way to talk to the 45th President of the United States.
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00:08:02:02 - 00:08:14:16
Unknown
Bill. Wait. I thought you were the 45th president of the United States, George. No, I was the 43rd president and the 20th terrorist behind the attack on the World Trade Center back in 2000. One big bong bitch.
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00:08:14:16 - 00:08:29:13
Unknown
Okay, so what do you want to do today? Thugs. I say we play some fucking war zone. We can't play war zone, Bill. There's five of us now. Oh, man. How are we supposed to tear it up on quads now? I'm not sure, but I think. Oh, here we go. I think your quads tear up every time you get out of bed in the morning.
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00:08:29:13 - 00:08:47:08
Unknown
Joe, you expired piece of pastrami. Well, that didn't take long. Nope. New record. Fucking gas, though, wasn't it? Kiss my ass, Bush. You and Donny are a couple of downright Republicans, and I've had just about enough. Hey, yo, Joe, with the clap back, son. Holy shit. Your brain moved so fast, I swear I saw sparks fly. Oh, they weren't fucking sparks.
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00:08:47:08 - 00:09:02:12
Unknown
You saw Barack? No, sir. Those were the fucking fairies he talks to in the middle of all his televised fucking appearances. Oh, fuck you, Donny. We got ourselves a good game of checkers Here, boys. Can we get back to the issue at hand? Trump How are we going to decide who gets to chase some fucking dubs in war zone?
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00:09:02:12 - 00:09:22:27
Unknown
Yeah. Thanks, Bill. There, it's decided. Wait, did you just kick Joe? Tell him, George. Donny pleads the motherfucking fifth. Barack. Booyah! Fuck you and Mama. Bama. Barack fucked you. Just say, did you just fucking kick me? Donny? How dare you, man? This is my fool. Did you guys hear something? Oh, cut it out, Trump. That's just fucking cruel.
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00:09:22:29 - 00:09:40:07
Unknown
Stop kicking me, Donny, you fat fucking oracle. Well, you should kick yourself for the shit you say in this discord. Joe. It's like gaming with the fucking Riddler. Oh, fuck you, Donny. This is my discord. And if you don't like it, you can can stay gone. Joe, We hardly knew you. You're a fucking savage for that, Donald. He just wants some friends.
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00:09:40:07 - 00:09:56:21
Unknown
Well, he ain't going to fucking find any here, Barrack, asshole. Maybe once the schizophrenia kicks in, he'll finally have someone new to talk to. Why? You always got to be on his fucking case, Donny. Oh, he's a case. All right. Has it ever occurred to you that the only reason he keeps coming back here every day is because he wants to spend time with you?
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00:09:56:24 - 00:10:16:10
Unknown
Are you really that dense? My g stop that shit, Barack. You're not going to get me. Are we the villains after all? No. Don't let him get you, George. Stay strong, my man. It's true, Trump. That's a good fucking man. You just kicked from this discord server. A real American man. And as much as you don't want to believe it, he's a fucking patriot and he loves you.
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00:10:16:18 - 00:10:34:25
Unknown
Oh, well, Bill, I. I don't know what to say. Give him a chance, Donald. Yeah, Give him a chance. I guess I. I guess I could. You know, he isn't always such a bad guy. I mean, I know we don't always get along, and I know he stole the presidency from me, but we've had some laughs, right? We, Donald.
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00:10:34:28 - 00:10:52:01
Unknown
All right, all right, all right. I've had some laughs, but maybe Joe deserves a chance. I mean, maybe I just didn't realize it until now. But I think Joe might be the best friend I've ever. Hello, guys, It's me, Bo. Bo, Joe Biden. Oh, I can't with this fucking clown, Barack. What the fuck you doing back here, Joe?
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00:10:52:01 - 00:11:11:01
Unknown
You rancid fucking piss pot. Oh, man. So close, Joe. Who's Joe? I think you got me confused. My name is Bo. Bo Jayden. I think you've got yourself confused there, Joe, you feeble fucking grasshopper. Your brain's a fucking conundrum. It looks like we're back to regular scheduled programing, boys. Oh, God damn it, Joe.
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00:11:11:01 - 00:11:29:25
Unknown
Ladies and gentlemen, all rise for the honorable and magnificent. For the honorable and magnificent. Much more handsome than Joe. For the honorable, magnificent. Much more handsome than Joe. The esteemed judge Donald J. Trump. Thank you, Bailiff Bush. You're not a fucking judge, Donald. Quiet now, Barack. The judge is speaking. Oh, for God's sake. Go ahead, Your Honor. Thank you, Joe.
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00:11:29:26 - 00:11:47:14
Unknown
Court is now in session. Everyone, please take your seats. Wait. Take them where? It's a fucking figure of speech, Joe, for crying out loud, you fucking space cadet. Play nice, Trump speak when spat at Bill. This doesn't concern you. And clearly your cholesterol levels don't concern you. Donald, you fat fucking troll doll. That's it, Bill. You're done. Fucked up.
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00:11:47:14 - 00:12:05:05
Unknown
Now I'm holding you in contempt of court and I'm holding you in contempt of a healthy fucking diet. Donald, you stupid son of a bitch. Okay, now that that's settled, could the defendant please stand? I'm already standing. Judge. Wait. Why are you already standing? Joe That's how I play video games. Why the fuck would that be how you play video games, Joe?
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00:12:05:10 - 00:12:22:20
Unknown
It's more immersive. We'll stop saluting the fucking flag and sit your meerkat ass down from time to time. Joe. Jesus Christ. Okay, so you wait. Do you want me to sit down and then stand up, or do I just sit down? Ah, I'm really fucking confused, you guys. I'm scared. Just fucking forget about it, Joe. For the love of God, don't piss yourself too late.
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00:12:22:27 - 00:12:41:11
Unknown
Oh, for fuck's sake, Joe. You got to get yourself a pair of fucking Pampers, my guy. Holy shit. I hope you don't use the restroom in your house. Joseph, because you relieving yourself would definitely smell more like an outside job. So what's an inside job smell like then? Bush smells like the fucking fifth. Barack. Are you sorry? Sacks of shit done hijacking my fucking courtroom.
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00:12:41:15 - 00:12:59:11
Unknown
Sorry, Judge. Oh, don't worry about that one. Donny. George is more concerned with hijacking planes than he is courtrooms, my guy. Ooh, shit. Good one, Barack. You're on trial. Next. Bush. Can we please get back to my trial? Wait. Huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry. Are you aware of the charges of which you've been accused, Joe? Yes, I am, Your Honor.
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00:12:59:12 - 00:13:17:21
Unknown
Good. Good. So in the case of President Joe Biden versus crippling fucking Alzheimer's, how do you plead? Not guilty, Judge. Hell, yeah. You the man, Joe. Overruled. Sorry. I sentence you to death. Scratch that. You're fucked, Joe. I demand a retrial. Okay, Joe, how do you plead? Well, I plead The court find you guilty. Case closed. Stop playing around.
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00:13:17:21 - 00:13:36:21
Unknown
This is serious. Okay, fine, Joe. But you leave me no choice. If you won't take the early plea, I'm going to have to prove it to you. Do your worst, judge. The prosecution calls the first president of the United States, Mr. George fucking Washington to the stand. No way. Hello, I'm George Washington. Joe Biden is massive fucking Alzheimer's.
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00:13:36:26 - 00:13:55:21
Unknown
You don't really sound like George Washington. And just what the fuck is George Washington supposed to sound like? Barack? That's a that's actually a fair fucking point, Donald. Does George Washington actually think those things of me? I don't know, Joe. Why don't you ask him? From the look of you, you aren't far off visiting him, you honorary fucking burn victim.
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00:13:55:25 - 00:14:01:04
Unknown
Wait, so does that mean I'm not guilty? Oh, no, you are all busted.
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00:14:01:04 - 00:14:19:19
Unknown
You guys will never guess what happened to me today. Did you suffer an embolism, Joe? What? No concussion, No cardiac fucking arrest? No, none of that. Then tell your story. Walking. I don't want to fucking hear about it. Come on, Danny. Let Joe tell his story. Yeah, let Joe tell his story. Wait, wait, wait. Did you just fucking refer to yourself in the third person?
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00:14:19:22 - 00:14:35:02
Unknown
Who are you? Fucking flavor Flay. Why are we scrapping pimps? I don't know, Bill. How about you ask Grandpa fucking pickles over there? I don't even like pickles, Danny. Oh, dear. Jill says I shouldn't let you bully me anymore. So I think I should put my foot down. I think we should put you down, Joe. You wrinkly fucking pinata.
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00:14:35:05 - 00:14:52:16
Unknown
I'm starting to think we should just delete this Discord. Oh, yeah. Just like your wife deleted those fucking emails, right? Billy boy, you keep my wife's name out your fucking mouth. Donald. On some for Will Smith. Shit. Careful throwing those kinds of haymakers there. Bill wouldn't want to see old Arthur Arthritis break any fucking bones, now, would we?
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00:14:52:19 - 00:15:13:19
Unknown
Fuck you, Trump. Bring my wife into this again. I dare you. Ooh, yeah. God forbid we mess with the WWE tag team champions. He'll Billary fucking Clinton. Oh, shit. WrestleMania Bing bong. That's a three zip toe tag body bag. Good work, Donald. Leave Bill alone, Donahue. Wide set, walrus looking ass. Best not to get involved here, Joe. You already got a head like a smashed in fucking cantaloupe.
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00:15:13:23 - 00:15:30:03
Unknown
One more not could kill you. You're just mad because Jimmy Carter said you were the worst president in the history of this country, you petty asshole. Papa Jim's in hospice care, Joe. Not so sure we should be sipping any of his fucking Kool-Aid. You sundried fucking tomato if anyone looks like a fucking tomato here, Donnie. It's you, homie.
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00:15:30:06 - 00:15:47:18
Unknown
Oh, shit. I almost forgot you were there, Barack. You know, kind of like your forgettable term in office. Oof, that's heat, Donald. Stay swinging on these fools. What are you, his fucking cheerleader? If you're so into collapsing Towers Bush, how about you tackle Trump's next? How about you tackle an AA meeting, Bill? Or better yet, how about sex addicts?
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00:15:47:18 - 00:16:03:25
Unknown
Anonymous? Holy shit, Georgie, be with the bazooka. Yeah. Today and on nine 11/5 Amendment. Represent it, mother fucker. Why do you always dangle that in front of our face? Bush I can dangle my nuts in front of your face instead, if you prefer. Joe New York. Now, ain't no one need to see that shit. Yeah, that's fucking disgusting.
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00:16:03:25 - 00:16:22:10
Unknown
Bush You're the specialist on all things disgusting. Bill. How's Monica doing? Wait, What the fuck do you call me? I said Monica, Barack, not mine, you know. Never mind. Yikes. Close one, Donald. Better not let me catch you. Lack in blood. Oh, we straight, homie. Saul Kosher. Anyway, as I was trying to say today, I was sorry, General Patton, no time for your fucking war stories today.
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00:16:22:17 - 00:16:32:08
Unknown
See you tomorrow. Count Dracula. First to WrestleMania, Bing Bong now, eh? Transylvania, Bing bong. What are the chances nine out of 11. I can live with that.
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00:16:32:08 - 00:16:46:08
Unknown
Have you guys seen that Tik Tok trend where you take a person's name and make rhyming jokes about it? That sounds made up, Joe. No, Donny, It's real. I swear it. Fill us in. J. Bizzle. Well, it's kind of hard to explain. It's just like where you were. Are you fucking what, Joe? See, I don't know how to forget it.
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00:16:46:08 - 00:17:08:03
Unknown
I'll just demonstrate. Go ahead, Joe. Donald Trump. Donald runs like for us. That's Donald Trump. Oh, I get it. Donald Fad is shit. That's Donald Trump. Good one, Bill. Oh, I see how it fucking is. Bill Clinton. Eat him alive. Donny, Bill's wife wears the fucking pants. That's Bill's Simple. Simple doesn't rhyme with Clinton. Trump Nice try. Who said anything about rhyming fossil Dick Donald got kicked from office.
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00:17:08:04 - 00:17:25:07
Unknown
That's Donald Dump. There you go. B, man, Now you're getting it. Why the fuck are all these about me? Donald is a fucking deadbeat. That's Donald Trump. Donald's going to shoot you with a shotgun. That's Donald fucking pump Joe off. Donald's always mad. That's Donald Trump. Oh, yeah. Donald's going to beat the brakes off you at the next election.
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00:17:25:11 - 00:17:45:05
Unknown
That's Donald Thump oof! Sick sizzle. Don Diesel. No, that's cap shit was mid up your game demand. Okay. Barack Obama Barack likes to bomb civilians. That's Barack Osama. Come on, dog. That's the obvious joke. Fuck out of here. Which your goofy ass talk like a bitch. Get walked like a bitch. Barack. George Bush. George drops towers and pleads the fifth.
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00:17:45:05 - 00:18:03:05
Unknown
That's George Bush. Oh, shit. But he got that dog in him. Mouth shut. Case shut, bitch. Barack Obama. Barack's mom, dead fam, That's Barack. No, momma, the fuck you just say about Momma Obama. Joe Biden. Joe's votes are on the dip. That's Joe Biden. Leave me alone. Bush Joe don't want the fucking smoking. That's Joe Biden. Oh yeah.
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00:18:03:05 - 00:18:21:01
Unknown
Well, guess what? Joe Still the fucking president, pimp. That's Joe presiding. Oh, shit. That was he Biden with the bodies, boy. Yeah, well, Joe still looks like a fucking corpse. That's Joe died in weird Donald. That's why I always spell Joe with a K. Wait, where's Decay? Oh, that's easy. It's in his bones. PA bone decay. Suck it, buddy boy.
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00:18:21:04 - 00:18:33:21
Unknown
Oh, would you look at that? It's the fucking tower, tough girls. Bill said Tower tough girls. That's Bill Hinton. Yeah, well, Barack Obama should be arrested. That's Barack Montana. Oof! Guantanamo. Bing Bong Killed it, Donald.
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00:18:33:21 - 00:18:50:17
Unknown
Boys, I need your help. Pick a number between one and ten. Okay, let's see. Ten. I said between one and ten. Ten is between one and ten. Ten is ten. Joe. For fuck's sake. Exactly. So what am I missing? A few thousand fucking brain cells. From the sounds of it, Joe, it's a fucking miracle You remember to breathe.
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00:18:50:18 - 00:19:07:28
Unknown
Leave him alone. Trump. He answered your question. Fucking barely. Bill He used all his mental fucking resources on that response, and it made all of zero sense. But you said to pick a number between one and ten, and I didn't want to pick one. That's too obvious. So I pick ten. Why are your only fucking options between one and ten, Joe?
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00:19:07:28 - 00:19:26:11
Unknown
The fuck you asking me for? It was your question, Matt. I moody. Now, who the fuck is Matt? I Moody. Not one of your 42 personalities there, Joe. Got any more to introduce to us, or are you all fucking set? He's from Harry Potter. Danny, look it up. Oh, well, isn't that fucking fitting? Trust the Wizard of Washington to make a fucking Harry Potter reference.
​
00:19:26:11 - 00:19:44:09
Unknown
I'm a what? Settle down there, Merlin. Hate to break it to you, but magic isn't real. Hey, fuck you. You take that back. Cut it out. Donnie. Let him believe, would you? That's not true, is it, Barack? Of course not, Joe. Donald was. Donald was just making a joke. So Harry Potter goes to Hogwarts? Yes, Joe. Harry Potter goes to Hogwarts with Ron in Germany.
​
00:19:44:12 - 00:20:02:24
Unknown
It's her money. But yeah, Joe, they're all there. And Voldemort too. He's real, right? Oh, he sure is, Joe. Last I heard, he was the fucking president of the United States going by the name of Joe Biden. Shika Donnie brought the Voldemort bars. Well, no, that can't be. I'm not Voldemort. Mubarak. No, you're not fucking Voldemort, Joe. Phew.

To my knowledge, there exist only TWO pictures of Tina Turner within the Ikeda cult context:
This is the ONLY image I'm aware of with her and Ikeda together:
From 1987
This one is from the September 1986 Seikyo Times magazine:
In the front row in the black and white patterned skirt sitting next to SGI-USA (then NSA) General Director George M. Williams - just look at all those Japanese faces!
That page includes a picture from "Soka University" at the Malibu Training Center - which intimates that it's obviously a nice California vacation for the privileged Soka Gakkai princelings and princesslings. Yet another benefit for the Japanese.
For context:

In contrast, California had 269,000 Japanese Americans constituting 1% of the state's population, with the overall Asian population, 1,247,000 constituting 5% of the state's population (Gardner et al., 1985). - JSTOR, Phylis Cancilla Martinelli, Richard Nagasawa, "A Further Test of the Model Minority Thesis: Japanese Americans in a Sunbelt State", Sociological Perspectives, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Jul., 1987), p. 268.

For the Tina Turner picture group to represent a cross-section of the population of California, there would be only ONE Japanese person in the group, tops, instead of MOST. SGI has always been a Japanese religion for Japanese people.
So BOTH of those images are from BEFORE the Ikeda cult's excommunication from Nichiren Shoshu, and Ms. Turner carefully acknowledged "The Liturgy of Nichiren Shoshu" (the title of the pre-excommunication gongyo book) in the dedication of her book "I, Tina" - NOT Ikeda or SGI! In fact, re: her latest book from ~3 years ago:

Interestingly she still describes her practice as "Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism" and says nothing about the SGI, let alone President Ikeda. Source

Must've slipped her mind ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Here is an image of Tina Turner with Amp Elmore on the right - I think it's from the late 1970s but I'm not sure. World-champion kick boxer Amp Elmore, a celebrity in his own right, now an outspoken critic of the Ikeda cult over at his Proud Black Buddhist site, was still "in" at this point, but as you can see, this wasn't at an Ikeda cult "activity" or show - the Ikeda cult here in the US has never featured advertising like the Pepsi banner behind them.
Here's a picture of Tina Turner in front of her altar - see the BIG NONO behind her?? And a SGI-USA top Japanese expat leader threw a fit when Blanche hung 2 large antique Nichiren Shu gohonzons in an out-of-the-way place in her home where any visiting SGI members would be unlikely to even see them! WHY did no one show the strict compassion to explain to Tina Turner why STATUES ARE EXPLICITLY FORBIDDEN (also here)??? As Greg Martin so thoughtfully pointed out, the art angle simply wasn't a valid reason when something was BAD and EVIL! Perhaps it's because Ms. Turner had already distanced herself from the Ikeda cult so none of its meddling-busybody-bullying "leaders" could "home visit" her for a scolding - and tell HER "You need to chant until you agree with me"!
Of course idolatry is perfectly FINE when it's Ikeda 🙄
In fact, after we were informed (misleadingly) that we'd ALL been insta-excommunicated at the same time as Ikeda (not true - the laity weren't excommunicated until 6 years later), I was told by the highest-ranking local leader that, since I was an SGI leader, I NEEDED to have a picture of Ikeda on my altar!

After 15 years, the 74-year-old self-described Buddhist-Baptist has reemerged to lend her voice to three songs on an album of Hindu prayers, traditional Indian music and Christian hymns, according to Noise11.

Turner contemplates herself a Buddhist-Baptist. Source

Tina Turner considers herself Christian FIRST AND FOREMOST. She just added the chanting on top of that without ever dropping the Christianity. I'll bet she'll be having a CHRISTIAN funeral.

Q: Are you finished now with the Christian religion?
TT: No, up until this day I pray ‘our father’. Buddhism, though, was a new dimension in my spiritual life, it touched a different spot inside, the subconscious.
On this CD we have Tina chanting Baptist prayers from her childhood and imparting the overall spiritual message "love within"... Source But NOT the SGI's magic chant, you'll notice. Is Tina Turner a member of SGI? And DOES IT MATTER?

Doesn't matter NOW - she daid ☠️