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First Chapter
Chapter Eighteen
Chao peered at the holographic display at the front of the landing boat as she talked to an international audience. “Okay, folks! You can now see the Coalition Exploration Bureau’s ship Exultant Finger of Rithro. It’s missing its usual armor configuration; normally, this corvette would have triangular cones of armor at the front and back. But they re-configured that armor material into a shell to prevent us from seeing them as they flew towards Earth. Merely as a precaution; they flipped the shell around a few weeks ago to display their ship to us. They even extended their radiators towards our planet, which to them is a signal of surrender.”
She smiled at Parvati, who floated next to her. “Pretty cool, right?”
“Very cool indeed!” exclaimed Parvati. “So where is the damage?”
Chao pointed. “See these toroidal tanks around the middle of the ship? They hold hydrogen for the ship’s fusion drive, but after tangling with that Breaker some of them got punctured. You can see the holes there, there, and there. That means they’re now limited in how long they can burn the reactor. Plus the FTL drive is now pretty much kaput. It apparently uses a lot of energy.”
Parvati pondered the display. “Faster than light,” she mused. “We need that. After we get the fusion drive technology, of course. Assuming that ever comes out of committee.”
Chao laughed. “Well, that’s why we’re here, right? To show all of humanity what could be ours.”
“Will we go outside? I mean, for real outside?” The actress reached towards the display, halting when she realized there was no physical screen.
“We’ve got pressure suits. Should be okay, we did plan for going out for a few minutes to get some direct video. It’ll be limited in time, those suits aren’t really meant for proper EVAs…”
“Oh, that’s no problem!” said Takh from behind them, causing both women to do the equivalent of a zero-g jump. For someone so big, he somehow managed to just…arrive on the scene. “We’ve got plenty of components on board, we can make you all some proper hardsuits!” He grinned at the camera on Chao’s chest; watching an udhyr grin was an awe-inspiring sight, what with all of the teeth and mandibles. “It’s all snap-together for any body type, it works just like your Legos!”
Parvati, of course, was the first to regain her composure. “Thank you Takh, I’m sure that will be very welcome. One thing has occurred to me; even if our material is successful in allowing you to patch your tanks, you will still require hydrogen to fill them, yes?”
The XO’s cheer didn’t fade. “Of course. We’ll find a nearby ice-containing body and extract us some hydrogen. We already have a few candidates chosen. You can all come and ride along! It should be fun to watch.”
“Yes, very fun.” Parvati met Chao’s eyes in a clear unspoken message of is this guy for real?
A much smaller hand crept its way around Takh’s leather-armored shoulder. “Now, my dear,” said McCoy. “We mustn’t interrupt the PR people. They’re half the reason we’re out here, after all.” She winked at the two other women; both of the latter winked back.
“Oh, of course!” Takh bowed formally to the two. “Forgive me.”
“No worries,” said Chao.
“There is nothing to forgive, my good sir,” replied Parvati with an equally formal bow.
The huge alien and petite corporal vanished, leaving the two women to watch the ship as the boat headed for its docking cradle.
“They are utterly adorable,” said Parvati.
“So are you two,” said Chao.
“Sorry?”
“You and Ravindar. I’m not saying to make your move right now. We’re gonna be on camera for a while, and I know I just made a bunch of people on Earth go squee. But you need to tell him how you feel.”
For once the actress looked flustered. “I…I couldn’t, he’s so brave and strong…”
Chao’s voice sounded out like the slamming of a vault door. “Stop. I had the same problem. I was into someone who was brave and strong. Not as big as Ravindar, but then again few people are. Then I found out he was into me too, but because he thought I was smart. I’m not as smart as he thinks I am, but I’m not going to tell him that.”
Parvati glanced into the rear of the landing boat, where Martinez was in the midst of puttering around with the human and alien crew. The actress now looked thoughtful. “I see.”
“All I’m saying is, you don’t need to be exactly in-sync in terms of what you see in each other.” Chao smiled. “Heck, you might even find out that you’re in-sync in ways you didn’t see coming.”
The dark-haired Indian fixed Chao with a stare. “I sense there is a story somewhere in there that you’re not telling me. Ah well, as you say it can wait until we are all no longer under the camera’s gaze.”
__________
Master Sergeant Wilkes smiled down at the spidery alien. “Kifa, there’s someone I’d like you to meet. Consider it part of your helping us to train. This person made a living while driving one of the highest, fastest aircraft we’ve ever made.”
“Oooh!” Kifa looked very pleased at the idea. “That’s a good area to focus on! Where orbital mechanics and aircraft mechanics meet.”
“Indeed.” Wilkes nodded at the near door. “You may come in, sir.”
A man walked in, his face stretched taut in the way which only scar tissue can appear.
Kifa peered up at him. “Forgive me, this is probably very insensitive, but…were you injured?”
He laughed. “I sure was! Burned to a fare-thee-well!”
“Oh, I am so sorry!”
He smiled. “No need to be sorry. Hey, do you want a headpat? Word on the street is your species like that sort of thing.”
The xyrax rocked back and forth on its legs. “Well, a human headpat is always welcome….”
The man reached up and wiggled his fingers, making a great show that his pinky had full range of motion. “See this? Pure miracle that I can do that. The surgeon putting my hand back together, just on a whim, decided to put a pin in here so’s that my pinky finger can grasp properly. Good thing too, otherwise I would’ve never made it through the physical training.”
He then reached forth and with that rebuilt hand dispensed quite a few righteous headpats onto Kifa. After a mutual moment of happy bonding, the xyrax spoke again.
“What training were you pursuing?”
“The same thing you and I are gonna be doing for a week or so.” His eyes, narrowed with scar tissue, lit up. “My dear Kifa, I’m gonna make you into a Sled Driver. God willing and the creek don’t rise, we might get to do it for real and not just in the simulators. They’re already pulling a bunch of Blackbirds out of mothballs. Hell, even the Russians are offering us titanium for building new ones. Seems like everybody’s got a fire lit under their kiester.”
Kifa’s eyes, already big and black, got even bigger. “What is a Sled Driver?”
“Why, it’s only the best profession on the planet, my little blue-furred friend. We get to go fast.”
__________
Joachim regarded the cylindrical, human-sized tank with some trepidation. It looked far too much like a transparent coffin. “You want to stick me in that thing?”
Zawahir nodded. “I know it’s a lot to ask, sir. It is entirely up to you, in the end. But if this works…” He waved at the tank. “If this works, then you will emerge from that tank physically in your twenties.”
They both regarded the tank for a moment, which was full of a clear and, at the moment, a very exclusive liquid.
“Corina too, of course,” said Joachim as he leaned back in his wheelchair. “If it works on me first.” He still wasn’t quite sure where he was; there had been a lot of back-and-forth with planes and whatnot.
“Of course,” said Zawahir. “That goes without saying.”
“Then the two people injured in the DC attack. This will regrow their limbs, correct?”
“Well, naturally.” Zawahir smirked. “They’re the Borlaug Institute’s big publicity stunt, after all. Testing on two people before-hand should be enough to let us know if it’ll work on them.”
“Of course.” Joachim gazed at the tank. “I’ll do it, on one condition.”
“Name it.”
“If…if I don’t come out okay, I want everyone to know that I tried, right? And I do mean everyone. All of humanity.”
“I’m just one person. At the moment, I can only promise that I’ll say what I can.”
After a moment, Joachim nodded. “Then put me in there. I just need to talk to Corina beforehand.”
“Of course, sir.”
__________
The blue-suited woman with a blonde pony-tail smiled as she stared into the camera. “Welcome to Summit Technologies’s livestream of Point-Counterpoint, I’m Amy Coulson. We are currently talking about and debating the latest announcements in space-based systems. As everyone is aware, this has become a source of great concern in the last month or so.” She nodded to the beige-suited man next to her. “This is Walter Higgins, formerly of TRW and who now works for Northrop-Grumman. Walter, to start with can you tell us what the current status is of the repair effort for the alien craft?”
Walt leaned forward, putting his forearms on the desk in front of them. “Well, the main concern is if the plates we’re providing for patching will actually work. So only one of the Rithro’s boats was launched…the one with Chao Me Chu and Parvati Devdhar, they’re towing the fifteen-ton loft provided by ULA to avoid wasting too much energy. Just in case the patching doesn’t work.” He winked at the camera. “I assure you, as someone in the aerospace industry, ULA is going to be very proud of that for a good long while. Anyways, at the moment, they are approaching the L5 point and we should be able to get some spectacular pictures of, well, everything. Of the Earth from near the Moon’s orbit, of the Moon itself, and most importantly of the Rithro.”
Amy nodded in a comradely fashion, but Walt was not fooled. He’d dealt with reporters before. “Sounds intriguing, and I’m sure everyone on Earth looks forward to such sights. But mere patching will not be enough to solve the ship’s issues, correct?”
He sighed. “You’re right. One of the ship’s fusion engines was damaged, and that limits their top speed. Think of it as…you’re a big ocean liner with three propellers, and one goes down. You might still be able to steer using just the other two, but you’re not going to be as effective or fast as you might be.”
“Effective,” she mused. “I suppose that our helping fix their fusion drive is among those bits of alien tech currently prohibited?”
“Yes. I have heard some rumors that the Borlaug Institute in Iceland has had some great initial success, so I hope that soon we will be able to tackle the fusion drive problem.”
She stared at him a bit, which he knew was a bit of theatricality. “Such a repair would make them more capable against these so-called ‘Breakers’, correct?”
“So-called? Now, Amy. Don’t tell me you’re agreeing with those lunatics?”
In the weeks since the simultaneous attacks, a few manifestos had cropped up online. All mostly spouted the same nonsense; at least, nonsense in Walt’s eyes. They all said the same thing; that the Breakers were fake. That this whole rigamarole was a false flag effort by the Coalition, one intended to get all of humanity under their thumb.
“I don’t agree with them,” said Amy, to her credit. “I’m merely stating the other side of the conflict. Yes, I think most people agree that there is an alien ship up at the L5 point which has been grievously damaged. I do trust the evidence of my eyes. I’m sure our two…”
“Five.”
“…five brave souls heading out to that very point at L5 will see exactly the same thing as the Hubble did. But. Have you considered, just for the sake of argument, that evidence of an attack is not evidence of Breakers? Perhaps this is some local dispute, and the crew has set up some sort of fake attack. They could intend to use us as shock troops to settle it.”
Walt leaned back in his chair as he went through the longest twenty seconds of his life. He knew things, thanks to his role. He also knew that if he spoke them aloud he would be burning his entire career right down to the waterline. “That is somewhat possible. But not probable.”
She leaned forward, as if sensing she had him on the ropes. “Why?”
“Because they didn’t need to.” His gray eyes were calm as he stared at her and measured his words. “Do you have any notion, any single clue, of the firepower that ship possesses?”
“Um…well, no, that part’s still classified.”
“I will give you a hint. They have a spinal railgun that could, with around three shots, turn any metropolitan area on earth into a molten crater. They have nuclear-tipped missiles, even one of which could burn a city to the ground. They didn’t need to play nice, Amy. Those aliens could have stood off in orbit, smacked a few cities, and then gotten on the radio to dictate terms of our surrender. We’d have no choice but to comply.”
He stared daggers at her, half expecting some black-suited guys with earpieces to jump in and haul him away. But nothing happened, it was as if the world was holding its breath. “They did their very best to treat with us fairly, to treat us as equals.”
Amy looked away. “I…I hope that is true.”
“It is.” He glanced behind his shoulder for any Men In Black, but nobody was there so far. Maybe he should continue. He assumed a smile, one which he did not feel. “Anyways. We will see what they see, when they get there. There is, also, the international consortium’s proposal for the Sea Dragon.”
The reporter rallied, clearly grateful for the change in subject. “Ah, yes. You’ve reviewed the designs of this craft. Is it really necessary?”
“At the moment, yes. Starship holds a great deal of promise, but they’re still trying to crack the reusability and multiple-refueling issue. This design does permit reusability…of the first stage, if nothing else…but it isn’t strictly necessary for success. Success, in this case, consists of tons to orbit.”
“Why something so big, though? Won’t it be an issue?”
He chuckled, feeling surer of himself. “That’s why we’re launching it in the ocean, in the middle of nowhere.”
She actually looked troubled, so he figured he’d throw her a bone. “The first launch won’t have anything…controversial.”
“But Walt, the second launch is the issue! Nobody has launched this much radioactive material into space.”
“We need to, Amy,”
“But on an almost untested rocket? From a design which is decades old?”
“We have top people on it,” said Walt. “Including people from that era, who know exactly the pitfalls and also have access to modern technology.”
“Which people?”
“It’s still secret as to their identities. But like I said, I can confirm rumors that the Borlaug Institute is already paying significant dividends.”
Amy rolled her eyes. “Over a billion dollars funneled into a figurative black hole in Iceland. Why would you believe anything they say?”
“They’re going to have some serious proof soon,” said Walt.
__________
Iceland. Joachim had never, ever expected to visit Iceland. But yet here he was…again. He stood with no cane, with nothing supporting him but his own two legs. He stared at a nearby volcanic massif, one covered with green lichen. The spring was coming in, and the ground around him was similarly strewn with fuzzy green growth. His beard and hair were now coming in dark again, with only a hint of gray at the tips to betray his true age.
He heard some light-footed steps coming up the trail behind him. It must be Zawahir.
“Why the hell am I back in Iceland?” Joachim replied.
"This is where the tech is, at least for the moment. How are you feeling, sir?”
“I feel…like my old self, Zawahir. I forgot what it was like to have knees that don’t hurt anymore. How is Corina’s, er, ‘tanking’ proceeding?”
“Very well, sir. I am overseeing the procedure of her ‘tanking’ myself, I just wanted to come and let you know that everything is looking good.”
Joachim looked down at the back of his hand. It was no longer wrinkled, no longer showed a welter of age spots. “When?”
“She should be out in…seventy-two hours. That’s how long it took you.”
“Good to know.” He turned to face Zawahir. “My friend, I am going to need every single internet connection you have for the next seventy-two hours. I have a lot of design work to take care of in that time frame; I will need to have a lot of meetings using those oh-so-clever ‘online’ apps. I’ll be indisposed after that.”
“Sir?”
Joachim stepped forth and placed a newly-strong hand on Zawahir’s shoulder. “My dear Zawahir. I am now physically twenty again. In the next three days my wife, the love of my life and she who I hold dear above all else, will also emerge from your magic alien goo and she will also be physically twenty years old. What do you think will happen after she is thus reborn?”
Zawahir’s eyes widened. “Oh. OH! Yes, of course. Please, follow me.”
Joachim chuckled to himself as he followed the man towards the low-roofed buildings of the Borlaug Institute in the distance.
__________
Chao was now clad back in her pressure suit; fortunately, the aliens were quite adept at helping the humans back into their cloth-and-glass cocoons. She looked over at Parvati. “Neil can bite us.”
Parvati grinned. “For sure. Neil was a very great man, but sadly he never got to see an alien starship.”
Chao checked the readout at her wrist, ensuring that she was indeed sealed up and pressurized. She looked over at her four fellow humans, and received nods in return. “We’re go, Captain Sadaf.”
The on-board crew of the Rithro were now back in their chromed, faceted hardsuits. “Depressurizing,” said Sadaf. “Please monitor those to either side, sing out if you see any stress.”
Chao reminded herself to breathe normally as things just got…quiet. Very quiet. She managed, through sheer willpower, to not have an utter panic attack as she realized that there was nothing between her and a life-sucking nothing except for a few layers of fabric and plastic.
She glanced over at Parvati, who looked to be also in the midst of trying (and fortunately succeeding) at combating her own panic attack behind her Plexiglas helmet. “Doing okay?” asked Chao, and immediately felt like an idiot for asking such a stupid question.
Still, Parvati nodded. Chao felt a tap at her shoulder, and looked over at Martinez. The corporal grinned at her from behind his own transparent head-cocoon. “Doing okay?” he asked with just the right bit of cheekiness.
Chao slapped his shoulder, but it was a playful slap. “Dipshit.” She forgot, in the moment, that she was begin transmitted live to the world. Her curse was thus broadcast to pretty much every kid on the planet, who then gleefully repeated her curse-word until they all got smacked by their parents.
She didn’t know that at the time, her entire world was the airlock door that now opened to reveal…black.
Utter black.
Chao had enough experience in zero-g maneuvering to push herself towards the door. “Oh. Man. Folks, this is it. Gonna step outside, for at least a little bit.”
She could feel both Martinez on one side and Sadaf on the other. The latter figured; the captain struck Chao as a ‘lead from the front’ type.
“Grip the frame,” said Sadaf. Through the translator bead her voice was deadly calm. “No big muscle movements, just kind of…drift where you want to go.”
Chao obediently swung herself up and out of the boat, reveling in the fact that now she was seeing the Exultant Finger of Rithro in real time. The long ship stretched alongside a clamshell-like shield, its radiators stretched out towards the Earth in a gesture of surrender.
Speaking of which…
Chao kept a firm hold on the doorframe as she looked behind her. A small, fragile, blue-and-white marble floated before her, a sphere which looked to be the size of her thumb-tip held at arm’s length. Chao did so with her free gloved hand, watching her thumb occlude that fragile-loooking sphere. And in that moment, her world was completely changed.
It is one thing to know a fact. It is one thing to meet aliens, to accept that they are from oh so very far away, that your world is but one little dust mote drifting in the vast and limitless cosmic ocean. But it is quite another to see that fact laid bare before you, where you can witness it in real-time through nothing but a Pexiglas helmet. Chao now knew. Everyone she’d ever known, everyone she’d ever heard of, every king or warlord or emperor or internet celebrity who anyone had ever heard of had lived down there, upon a sphere that looked to her like the most ephemeral of soap-bubbles. She had the crazy notion that she could just reach out one gloved finger and pop it.
She also knew that millions, perhaps billions, were watching this live via her bodycam. Perhaps they were going through the same epiphany.
Her breath caught in her throat, and she knew she was on the verge of tears. No, that was a bad thing. She was in freefall; there was no way for those tears to stream down her face. They would just collect over her eyes and blind her. So Chao breathed in deep and managed to tamp down those threatened tears.
“Chao?” called out Sadaf through her comm. “Are you all right?”
“I’m good, Captain. Just…next time…, we send up a poet.”
__________
Shaw hated, hated, hated having to use a wheelchair to get around. Most of the time he could wheel himself around using his substantial arms, but every so often the nursing staff would try to get oh so helpful and try to push him towards where he was going. Several of them had nearly lost limbs of their own thanks to such efforts.
Still, he was alive and that was a good thing. Although…watching Agent Milton Vila and his family, who were nearby as he went through his own convalescence, made Shaw reevaluate his life choices. It would be nice to have a wife and kid to hug while one went through the worst thing ever. But he was too old, such things were well behind him. While on autopilot, Shaw wheeled himself down the tiled and very off-white hallway with a sour air. One which told the entire staff that he was Not To Be Disturbed. He was thinking of a particular girl, one with the cutest pigtails and the sunniest smile. Yeah, she would have been the one, if he’d had his head on straight back then.
And then, in spite of his ‘Fuck the Fuck Off energy’, someone did block his path.
He stared at a pair of narrow legs, clad in narrow pants, then looked up with a distinct lack of humor. “I do believe you are in my way.”
The dark-skinned man blocking his path smiled, but it was a gentle smile. “I am. But, I am very sure you will want to hear my offer. Both you and Agent Vila.”
Shaw regarded him with gimlet eyes. “Oh, really? What’s your name?”
“I’m Zawahir Ibn Harith. I am the head of the…”
“I don’t give a single solitary fuck,” said Shaw. “I’ve had plenty of people trying to get me to tell them my life story since I got my leg removed with extreme prejudice. I don’t know how you got in here, but you strike me as someone just like them, Harith. So. I may be minus one leg, but I can still fuck you up but good. I can fuck you up so bad you’ll never shit right again. Do you wanna get out of my way now?”
The man’s smile didn’t change. “Borlaug Institute.”
“What. Really?”
“Really, sir. Both you and Agent Milton Vila. It sounds…very cynical, but you were the two that we wanted to heal first. As an object lesson to humanity. Do you understand?”
The notion made Shaw’s mind reel. “Heal?”
“Fully. We have successfully restored two people to the prime of life, and we are now certain that we can do the same for you and Agent Vila. With all of your limbs intact. We have done a great many tissue-sample experiments, and it appears that the regeneration also re-grows limbs.”
Shaw looked down at his missing lower leg. “And you’ll do the same for Milton?”
“Of course, sir.”
“Stop calling me sir, I work for a living. Call me Mack.”
“Very well…Mack. I won’t lie to you, this has been planned well in advance. But it turned out that limb re-growth for humans also unlocked certain regeneration within our cells, particularly the telomeres…”
Shaw held up a meaty hand. “Just…I’m a dumb grunt in such matters, don’t bother to tell me how it works. So you have some kind of magic goo that you slather over me and hey presto I’m twenty again?”
“That is more or less the shape of it, si…Mack. You will need to be immersed in the ‘magic goo’ for at least three days. Perhaps more, since this will also be regenerating a limb.”
“Either way, I go first,” said Shaw, with a flinty glare up at Zawahir. “I’m the test subject, and you need to test me good after I get re-birthed from your goop. I know you said you’d done it on two people, but we need to make sure this doesn’t give me some kind of bullshit super-cancer before Milton goes in. He’s got a wife and a kid. If he has to use a prosthetic instead of magic alien goo, then he has to use that instead. Understand?”
Zawahir gave Shaw a little bow. “Of course. I do believe you are quite the appropriate test subject.”
“Oh, go fuck yourself. Where is this shindig taking place, anyway?”

His musicianship is incredible, his lines are so clever, his tone is a bass laser, his stage presence and singing are captivating.
Go. See. Tigercub.
Just saw them a second time last night, and, the dude just rips!!! And without ever overplaying…just taking tons of inspiration from his playing.
https://youtube.com/@tigercubtigercub

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Story Teaser: Chess is truly an interesting game, even with only one board. Managing the wants of your pawns, the directions they want to go against the ones you need them to - it is said that the God of Chess was the only one who understood it properly, and, as everyone knows, all the gods died centuries ago, in the Thousand Years War.
But this game is different. 3 pairs of players with 3 boards stacked on top of one another, a single Wild Card crowning the final game. That Wild Card is Melony, a girl living in the dying City who abruptly finds herself thrown into a world that confuses past, future, and present. Who will be the victor, and what does it mean to win?
Chapter Teaser: Finishing up
Navigation: [ Table of Contents ] [ Chapter 1 ] [ Previous ] [ Next ]
MELONY WASN’T QUITE SURE what to think of the Aspect of Justice. She didn’t want to trust him, but at the same time she wanted to be able to – because she wasn’t going to have a choice in whether she had to. Though Daederisha could highlight the paths forward for her, the deluge of information was far more abstract than simple directions – though they showed her that she could choose to trust the Aspect of Justice or ignore him or that she could wait here or leave, they didn’t show her where to go.
On top of that, Melony was extremely conscious of the time limit. The rune of protection would only last so long, and she was already finding it slightly harder to breathe from when she’d first arrived in the Abyss.
“Well?” prompted the Aspect of Justice, head cocked to one side. “Am I correct in assuming that you have a reason for being here, or…?”
Mel crossed her arms, mirroring his pose as well as his phrasing. “Am I correct in assuming that you have a reason for helping me, or…?”
Ardeln barked a laugh. “Very well, very well. How about this, then: I’ll give you the… simplified answer to your question, and you give me the simplified answer to mine. If we’re both satisfied, then we’ll move on to the fine details.”
Melony tilted her head to one side. “Daederisha?” she asked, not taking her eyes off the Aspect of Justice.
Hm? I’m fine with it, responded the sword to both of them, then continued in a mental voice that only Mel could hear, Time is wasting, though. Don’t waste too much of it – I can almost guarantee that you’re going to have problems with the Aspect of Circles.
The Aspect of Justice looked vaguely amused by her consultation of the demon sword, but nevertheless clapped his hands together and smiled. “I might not know very much of what’s going on with you,” he said, shaking his said in affected sadness, “but from what little I’ve seen, I can tell that it’s very… interesting. And I hate to miss out on something like that.”
He raised an eyebrow toward her and Mel smiled brightly. “Saving the world,” she said, feeling Daederisha’s amusement radiating from its place in its sheath.
Ardeln raised an eyebrow, obviously interested in her answer. “Which world?” he asked.
Melony shook her head. “Your turn, first,” she responded, watching closely for his reaction. She was reasonably sure that he wasn’t lying, but she’d rather be completely sure.
The Aspect of Justice sighed. “You do know about demon swords, yes?” At Mel’s nod, he continued. “I figured as much, given your association with Daederisha and Haerkisha. However, from our side of it,” he said, tapping his chest, “though we remove the memories of the past, we’re not entirely stupid.”
Debatable, interrupted Daederisha. That is very, very debatable.
The demon continued, only sparing a single amused glance toward the sword in response to its comment. “We preserve some basic knowledge, though not as one who experienced it, but rather from a… third person perspective.” Ardeln was watching Mel with interest. “Most demons despise contact with the swords forged from their memories, and while it is… unpleasant, it is sometimes necessary.”
Hurry it up, please, snapped the sword. I’d like to actually get something done, soon.
The Aspect of Justice shook his head, but, somewhat to Mel’s surprise, continued at a slightly faster pace. “There were three very interesting anomalies that presented themselves the first time we met,” he said, glancing at Mel. “Well, more than three – there were three main ones. And I couldn’t act until I’d gathered more information – information I no longer had. I consulted one of the demon swords that I had helped forge following the Thousand Years War, and it definitely confirmed my suspicions. The Sphere of Chess was a part of this somehow, Haerkisha was both still in the mortal world and involved, and he’d been overseeing a chess game with a very interesting Wild Card.”
He paused, glancing toward Melony. “The sword Remembers… respecting her. She was devilishly clever, and if the Aspect of Strategy was involved, too, in something as chaotic as a chess game…” The Aspect of Justice trailed off, raising his shoulders in an elaborate shrug. “Something important is going on, and I’d be a fool – and a bit of a jerk – to interrupt it. I think I’d rather see this to its conclusion.”
Mel tilted her head contemplatively. His logic and motivation made sense. “Well,” she said, far more cheerfully than she felt, “Allessa and the Aspect of Strategy aren’t the only ones involved,” she said. “The Sphere of Runes and Technology are in on this as well, along with a number of mortals who you’d probably consider unimportant.” Ardeln, his eyebrows now raised, looked extremely amused with her rapid speech. “As for what you can do for me – I need an audience with… Claide, was it? Aspect of Circles.”
She looked at him expectantly, and he shook his head. A long pause stretched out, and then he spoke again. “And what, exactly, is the goal here?”
Mel affected not to understand.
The Aspect of Justice crossed his arms. “You did promise the full explanation, my dear. I think I’d like to hear it.”
“I promised no such thing,” Mel said calmly. “First, the question you asked was what I needed, which I have answered in full, and second, I only promised details, a great number of which I have supplied.”
Ardeln regarded her for a moment, opened his mouth, and then closed it again. “I think,” he said slowly, “that I’m going to trust the Sphere of Chess and Haerkisha’s judement on this. Furthermore,” he said, continuing in an undertone, as if talking to himself. “By some definitions of fairness, I would owe her – as well as the Spheres of Runes and Technology – for what we did in the War.” He paused a moment more, then shook his head and motioned for Melony to follow him. “This way, then,” he said.
Mel stooped to pick up the Aspect of Thresholds’s weapon, which they’d abandoned in their fury, and followed, glancing at Daederisha. As if picking up on her thoughts, the sword said, You can trust him. He is the Aspect of Justice – he keeps his word.
“You said I could trust Therma and Marcos, too,” she muttered in an undertone, hopefully too low for the Aspect of Justice to hear.
And I was right! exclaimed the sword indignantly.
Mel merely shook her head and continued on, following the Aspect of Justice through the streets. She noticed that he made sure she never got too close to any of the other demons who were near them – close enough to be seen, perhaps, but not so close that they’d be able to tell that she was mortal.
Finally, they arrived at one of the branching tree buildings, and he led her inside. “He’s usually here,” Ardeln said in an undertone. “Not one for moving around much.” A winding, and slightly ruined, set of stairs, before knocking on a closed sliding door. “Aspect of Circles?” he called out, his voice loud enough to travel through the wall.
A short pause stretched out, as if the Aspect of Circles was trying to decide whether to answer. “...Yes?” came a thin voice finally, sounding resigned. “I assume this is important?”
“Oh, no,” the Aspect of Justice responded cheerfully. “That’s why I ran halfway across the Growth, climbed up that accursed staircase, and knocked on your door. Because it wasn’t important.” Then, with a wink at Melony, he opened the door. “There’s someone here to see you.”
The thin, short demon at the desk looked up and squinted at her, appearing annoyed at the interruption until he suddenly sat bolt upright in his seat. “A mortal?” he said incredulously.
“See?” said the Aspect of Justice, already moving toward the door. “Not important! Anyway, I will be outside the door. Preferably close enough to eavesdrop, but you can never really tell how thick the walls are in these buildings.” With a wistful sigh, Ardeln exited the room, pulling the door shut behind him.
Hey there Claide, remarked Daederisha cheerfully, reminding Mel that the Aspect of Justice had hinted addressing a demon by there name was disrespectful and prompting yet another wide eyed stare from the Aspect of Circles. The demon recovered quickly, however, and leaned back in his chair, arms crossed.
The demon and Mel were standing – or, in his case, sitting – on opposite sides of a large desk, scattered with different papers. Smiling widely, she pulled the contract out of her bag and laid it on the desk with a flourish, watching the demons eyes widen, then narrow, as he read it in its entirety.
Melony watched with narrowed eyes, finding it hard to get a read on the demon and remembering Daederisha’s warning that they were likely to have trouble with him.
“I see,” Claide said finally, leaning back in his chair and folding his hands together on the desk. “Yes, I see. Now, mortal, tell me: why should I accept.”
Mel regarded him with a flat stare. “Wow,” she said, her tone laced with sarcasm and very aware that she was mimicking Samheim. “I really don’t know. Everything just seems so great in the Abyss, why would you ever want to leave? Nope. Couldn’t tell you.”
Claide glared at her. “Why should we be subordinate to mortals?” he demanded. “You – and your entire world are imperfect and weak, and – ”
A muffled voice from the other side of the wall cut him off. “Sorry to interrupt,” said the Aspect of Justice, not sounding sorry in the slightest, “But the young lady would’ve beaten Deri in a duel had I not intervened. I believe she still has their spear?”
Also, when we’re on the subject of imperfect, remarked Daederisha, have you, uh, looked around recently? At the Abyss? Yeah
The Aspect of Circles glanced at the spear she was holding in surprise, then seemed to reevaluate his opinion of her. “Deri… Aspect of Thresholds. Hmmm.” Then, seeming to brighten, he reached for a pen and moved to the bottom of the contract. “Very well,” he said. “I’ll sign.”
He didn’t quite make it through the second part of his statement before Daederisha was out of its sheath, buried in the desk, having teleported to knock the pen out of the demon’s hands. Oh no you don’t, snapped the sword. You don’t need a pen to sign a demon contract – just your circle.
Claide scowled, and Mel suddenly hoped that he’d capitulate without too much more hassle. It was once again harder to breathe. Come on, encouraged Daederisha as Mel moved to pick the sword up. You want out of the Abyss, here’s a way out of the Abyss. A solution just falls into your lap and you ignore it? I’m a sword. I’m not supposed to be smarter than you, but here we are.
The Aspect of Circles’ scowl seemed to deepen, directed in equal part at both Mel and Daederisha. “Your solution is proposed by a mortal, demon sword.”
Melony’s solution, corrected the sword, seeming to take great pleasure in Claide’s discomfort. She supposed she could understand that – here they were, a mortal and a demon sword, two beings looked down upon by most demons, wielding the power over these negotiations. It is not my solution, it is Melony’s, continued Daederisha. I’m just along for the ride!
“I am not going to accept a solution that places mortals above us,” hissed the Aspect of Circles.
He was about to continue, but Mel interrupted him. “Really?” she asked, in tones of conversational interest. “You’re not going to accept this way out of the Abyss?” Claide opened his mouth to reply, but Mel ignored him. “That’s too bad. I really wonder what’s going to happen when everyone else here,” she said, gesturing expansively to the outside world, “realizes that you’ve single handedly doomed them to stay here forever. I can’t imagine that I’d be very happy with you, were I in that situation.” She winked. “But hey, at least being dead here will be better than, ah, what was it… living in a forest in the mortal world?”
Mel thought she might have heard Ardeln’s muffled laughter through the wall, but she wasn’t sure. Maintaining eye contact with the Aspect of Circles, she watched as he leaned back in his chair and studied her. Cocking his head to one side, she watched as his anger seemed to cool and harden into a quiet animosity mixed with something else she couldn’t quite place. He considered the contract for a minute, then, glancing up at her, placed his hand on the bottom, his circle etching itself into the paper.
Accompanied by the feeling of triumph emanating from Daederisha, Melony breathed a sigh of relief, noticing as she did so that it was harder to breathe than before. Quickly, she sheathed Daederisha and picked up the contract, aware that it was probably much safer for it to be in the Old Man or Marsha’s hands than left in the Abyss with the Aspect of Circles.
Mel smiled, feeling the beginnings of the pull that she’d felt when Daederisha had pulled her into the Abyss. “Pleasure doing business with you,” she said, conscious of the crackling of energy permeating the Abyss as the contract took effect.
Then she was gone from one place and back to another.
Navigation: [ Table of Contents ] [ Chapter 1 ] [ Previous ] [ Next ]

https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/pull/66034
This PR got merged without a ton of fanfare but it's one I'm really happy to see. Martial art and weapon technique stuns no longer work on zombies, and many disablers no longer work on enemies which are more than one size category bigger than your character, so you can't stunlock juggernauts or throw hulks around unless you're a mutant. I suspect some of these giant enemies will get weakpoint attacks that can disable them, but it won't be as reliably OP as it was.
This is especially relevant if you were relying on combat knife+eskrima to cheese everything, as most enemies are now actually able to retaliate instead of getting tied up with rapid-fire stuns. With a 10 stat 4 skill character with a combat knife and eskrima, I only got a juggernaut down one bar before it grabbed me, and then I was in a lot of trouble. These are supposed to be dangerous boss monsters and not minor speedbumps, so that feels about right to me.
Knockbacks and knockdowns still work on zombies, though not ones that are way bigger than you. I'm interested to see how this will play out. I suspect axes are about to be everyone's favorite weapon, but knife gang is going to go running for their spears.
Now if you excuse me I have to go bury my cudgel in the backyard.

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https://preview.redd.it/wuzwnrsmfz4b1.jpg?width=660&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=16d7424087c5edca7df4dd1f198a37158f95974e
Today we will do things veeeryyy different than during the main character study of Gorou Amamiya or Aqua Hoshino but I assure you it won't be less interesting. It was by pure accident that I stumbled over an old book I haven't touched for a long time, a book that goes by the title "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. It's from the late 19th century.
The story revolves around the rich and handsome Dorian Gray and a portrait of him painted by Basil Hallward, a friend of Dorian's and an artist infatuated with Dorian's beauty. Through Basil, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton and is soon enthralled by the aristocrat's cynical hedonistic worldview: that beauty and ruthless self-centered sensual fulfillment are the only things worth pursuing in life while ethics and morals are the natural enemy to this philosophy. Newly understanding that his beauty will fade, Dorian expresses the desire to sell his soul to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade. The wish is granted by some supernatural force and Dorian pursues a libertine life of varied amoral experiences while staying young and beautiful; all the while, his portrait ages and visually records every one of Dorian's sins in grotesque expressions.
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Now what I discovered during my excursion of a book that I actually didn't really enjoy at all to be quite frank, were similarities in both conception but also psychological realities for both Gorou/Aqua and his father Hikaru Kamiki. From time to time his monologues would sound like commentary to understand what is going on in Hikaru's mind, while the mystic circumstances of Dorian Gray's picture and his eternal youth have strong links between Aqua and Hikaru who indeed are lookalikes. Aqua by that is Hikaru's portrait which will age and visually record every of Hikaru's sins while Hikaru pursues a libertine life of varied amoral experiences while staying young and beautiful. It all culminates to Aqua's movie role of the culprit in which Aqua will be the living proof of Hikaru's sinful life and eventually lead to his downfall. This is also Dorian's fate with his potrait.
I know, this sounds so unbelievably far stretched but believe me I'm thrilled about the actual similarities and the integretiy of the psychological templates that found their way into Oshi No Ko. I firmly believe it's not accidental. And since I enjoy ONK but not so much Oscar Wilde's novel I'm glad those in itself truely interesting psychological types found their way into Aka's work.
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AQUA HOSHINO AKA DORIAN GRAY
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Trivia:

• In Greek the name Dorian means "child of the sea" or "gift of the sea". The name aquamarine comes from aqua (Latin for 'water'), and marine, deriving from marina (Latin for 'of the sea')
• Dorian is described to have gold hair, blue eyes (and rose-red lip)

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1.
In Chapter III of the book we get to hear about Dorian Gray's tragic family background and this is already the first strong indication that 1. the similarities are real 2. what we discovered about Gorou's grandfather / family background could have been more right than wrong.
Now, the story behind the birth of Dorian is slightly so different then Gorou's but the general notion in a short poetic summary within the novel sounds pretty familiar:

"So that was the story of Dorian Gray’s parentage. Crudely as it had been told to him, it had yet stirred him by its suggestion of a strange, almost modern romance. A beautiful woman risking everything for a mad passion. A few wild weeks of happiness cut short by a hideous, treacherous crime [NOTE: HER FATHER, DORIAN'S GRANDFATHER KILLs HER LOVER, DORIAN'S FATHER]. Months of voiceless agony, and then a child born in pain. The mother snatched away by death, the boy left to solitude and the tyranny of an old and loveless man [NOTE: HIS GRANDFATHER]. Yes; it was an interesting background. It posed the lad, made him more perfect, as it were. Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic. Worlds had to be in travail, that the meanest flower might blow.... " (Chapter III)

Isn't this interesting? And there is another very cool symbol. Dorian - after he witnessed the first changed in his potrait - had to hide the picture in a diferent room of his mansion where nobody could find it and witness "his soul" which is captivated in that portrait that gets uglier and uglier with each day of his sinful life. About that room:

"He had not entered the place for more than four years—not, indeed, since he had used it first as a play-room when he was a child, and then as a study when he grew somewhat older. It was a large, well-proportioned room, which had been specially built by the last Lord Kelso for the use of the little grandson whom, for his strange likeness to his mother, and also for other reasons, he had always hated and desired to keep at a distance." (Chapter X)

So we have: A drama between mother and father, child born in pain, mother dies after giving birth, boy left to soltitude and tyranny of his grandfather who hates him for physical likeness to his mother (in PART II we wrote: Gorou would remind his grandfather every day of his own failure and guilt for losing his daughter), always hated his grandson. This is just literally everything we found out in PART II of our character study!
And the man with this background gets reincarnated in the body of a human being which looks exactly like his father Kamiki, thus is his "portrait" or "The Picture of Hikaru Kamiki"! But this portray inherited Gorou's trauma which is expressed by the symbol that the portray lives in the "trauma room" which had been specially built by his grandfather.
Also the metaphor's of "play-room when he was a child and then as a study when he grew somewhat older" goes hand in hand with what we figured out in the "THE RIGHT TO DREAM" essay about how Gorou's childhood-trauma and the guilt-complex provoked through his grandfather's abuse induced him to study medicine instead of striving for his own dreams as a result of him living in this "study trauma room".
Additionally "He had not entered the place for more than four years" - like Aqua who hasn't entered his trauma room for 4-5 years after reincarnation until Ai was murdered in front of his eyes! This reenactment placed him back into this room of guilt.
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2.
Another interesting story revolves around Dorian's first love with the actress Sibyl Vane. While we can look at this "Arc" from the perspective of Dorian as represented by Hikaru and Sibyl represented by Ai - and we certainly will because actually looking at Dorian as the representation of Hikaru will be even more intereting then the things we have to say about Aqua right now - we can also look at it from the perspective of Aqua and Ai/Akane, which we'll do now.
Dorian loves theater and one night his curiosity leads him into a shappy filthy working-class theater, one with lousy actors and a lousy orchestra. It's essentially the last place a delicate creature would expect greatness. However there at a performance of Shakespears "Romeo and Juliett" he witnesses Sibyl playing and falls for "her" instantly.
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"But Juliet! Harry, imagine a girl, hardly seventeen years of age, with a little, flowerlike face, a small Greek head with plaited coils of dark-brown hair, eyes that were violet wells of passion, lips that were like the petals of a rose. She was the loveliest thing I had ever seen in my life. You said to me once that pathos left you unmoved, but that beauty, mere beauty, could fill your eyes with tears. I tell you, Harry, I could hardly see this girl for the mist of tears that came across me. And her voice—I never heard such a voice. It was very low at first, with deep mellow notes that seemed to fall singly upon one’s ear. Then it became a little louder, and sounded like a flute or a distant hautboy. In the garden-scene it had all the tremulous ecstasy that one hears just before dawn when nightingales are singing. There were moments, later on, when it had the wild passion of violins. You know how a voice can stir one. [...] Harry, I do love her. She is everything to me in life. Night after night I go to see her play. One evening she is Rosalind, and the next evening she is Imogen. I have seen her die in the gloom of an Italian tomb, sucking the poison from her lover’s lips. [...] I have seen her in every age and in every costume."

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Aqua's similar rememberance of Ai in a sigfnificantly less pathos drivin manner.
Sibyl Vane is Dorian's ultimate ido. She can perform any of Dorian's romantic ideal heroines from the most captivating drama's written, in utter artistic perfection. He is "her" ultimate fan:
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"Lips that Shakespeare taught to speak have whispered their secret in my ear. I have had the arms of Rosalind around me, and kissed Juliet on the mouth.”
“Well, I can’t help going to see Sibyl play,” he cried, “even if it is only for a single act. I get hungry for her presence; and when I think of the wonderful soul that is hidden away in that little ivory body, I am filled with awe.”
“You can dine with me tonight, Dorian, can’t you?”
He shook his head. “Tonight she is Imogen,” he answered, “and tomorrow night she will be Juliet.”
“When is she Sibyl Vane?”
“Never.”
“I congratulate you.”
[...]
"My God, Harry, how I worship her!”
[...]
“Harry! Sibyl Vane is sacred!”

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To put it into Kindaichi's words in ONK C97:

"You'll find people with those eyes ... once in a while. Deceptive eyes that have the power to make lies look like truths. It's the best quality for an actor"

The concept of great acting is basically reduced in the symbol of eyes for the sake of keeping the lore a little bit simpler in ONK, but essentially he just means that sometimes there are special actors who can just perform like if they are literally what they perform.
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Dorian approaches and courts Sibyl, and soon proposes marriage. They love each other. Dorian invites Basil and Lord Henry to see Sibyl perform in Romeo and Juliet. Sibyl, too enamoured with Dorian to act, performs poorly - also to the anger of the theater audience which left early because of that-, which makes both Basil and Lord Henry think Dorian has fallen in love with Sibyl because of her beauty instead of her acting talent. Embarrassed, Dorian rejects Sibyl, telling her that acting was her beauty; without that, she no longer interests him. The heartbroken Sibyl eventually commits suicide on this very night.
Now, we find every element of that story in the history between Aqua and Akane but in a reversed construction. Akane joins LoveNow but because of her personality she fails her role in this reality tv setting. She gets rejected by the audience and the audience is even angry with her. Under that pressure she attempts suicide. However after she studied Aqua's ideal role she becomes of great interest for both him and the audience. This is essentially like Vane performing Juliett or Imogen or what not but with the difference that Aqua just loves one Idol: Ai. Structurally it is similar though and Aqua falls for her role. During LoveNow we have the same realization inside Aqua and Dorian, so the plot reverses back but without tragedy: Aqua rejects Akane as serious love interest between her real self and him, telling her that hei's only interesting in her as an actor, just like Dorian rejects Sibyl by telling her that acting was her only beauty.
Dorian to Harry:

"Ordinary women never appeal to one’s imagination. They are limited to their century. No glamour ever transfigures them. One knows their minds as easily as one knows their bonnets. One can always find them. There is no mystery in any of them. They ride in the park in the morning and chatter at tea-parties in the afternoon. They have their stereotyped smile and their fashionable manner. They are quite obvious. But an actress! How different an actress is! Harry! why didn’t you tell me that the only thing worth loving is an actress?"

Well, in a screwed way this is also applicable to Ryosuke's issue, who loved Ai for her role but hated her for her real self and eventually kills her for it, as her real self not only is different but essentially is in total opposition to her role as an idol. Dorian describes a similar screwed misogynistic view on women: The actress is mystery and the only thing worth to love, the ordinary woman is the absolute opposite of it, disappointing and unworthy to be loved.
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3.
By the way the director of that working-class theater is described as a stereotypical jew and while I of course do not endorse antisemitism or racism it still is kinda funny that Kindaichi, the director of Lalalie Theater Company and Akane's boss is always depicted with a pretty unusual big and oddly shaped nose while the name Toshirou that means "quick, clever, sharp" and Toshirou's surname Kindaichi that means "gold/metal, money/cash, currency". Pretty stereotypical if you link it to Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray"...But the theater itself also has some working-class vibes to it, since it's implied that back then they opened workshop classes for orphans and probably generally troubled kids without real guardians. Addiotionally he gave Akane the smallest bouquet at the Japan Actor's Award with the explanation that theaters are financially not doing great. Well if it's a reflection of theaters in general, his theater in particular or his personal greed I can't tell. His name implies the latter and the cost of a bouquet surely doesn't ruin a theater. But probably it's still a general observation because theaters are indeed a dying genre.
Some quotes about the "Jew" in the novel:

"A hideous Jew, in the most amazing waistcoat I ever beheld in my life, was standing at the entrance, smoking a vile cigar. He had greasy ringlets, and an enormous diamond blazed in the centre of a soiled shirt. ‘Have a box, my Lord?’ he said, when he saw me, and he took off his hat with an air of gorgeous servility. There was something about him, Harry, that amused me. He was such a monster."

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"On the first night I was at the theatre, the horrid old Jew came round to the box after the performance was over and offered to take me behind the scenes and introduce me to her. I was furious with him, and told him that Juliet had been dead for hundreds of years and that her body was lying in a marble tomb in Verona. I think, from his blank look of amazement, that he was under the impression that I had taken too much champagne, or something.”
“I am not surprised” replied Harry.

This is just a little odd observation, in the epilog we'll find a more cheerful representation of Kindaichi (well, cheerfulness is of course a limited ressource when it comes down to that man :))
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4.
While most of the time the monologues and thought processes of Dorian mainly concern Dorian as the representative of Hikaru, we have here and there sober reflections on what his soul - which is trapped in the potray - would probably experience, thus what he would experience if he'd have his soul inside his own body. Thus we can read this at the same time as a comment on what is going on in Gorou's / Aqua's soul, which is quite interesting. In the following quote for example it's about the nightmare of having a phantom of your guilt following you everywhere you go, essentially a description of Aqua's delusional vision of Gorou who blames him for Ai's death:
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https://preview.redd.it/vns5efrx505b1.jpg?width=1083&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a6ae6628023bb215a4e9ceb6ff08ce21013374eb
https://preview.redd.it/owuow261605b1.jpg?width=1083&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a54f4a6aa13610e04384407526573efc43fd8398

"And yet if it had been merely an illusion, how terrible it was to think that conscience could raise such fearful phantoms, and give them visible form, and make them move before one! What sort of life would his be if, day and night, shadows of his crime were to peer at him from silent corners, to mock him from secret places, to whisper in his ear as he sat at the feast, to wake him with icy fingers as he lay asleep! As the thought crept through his brain, he grew pale with terror, and the air seemed to him to have become suddenly colder. Oh! in what a wild hour of madness he had killed his friend! How ghastly the mere memory of the scene! He saw it all again. Each hideous detail came back to him with added horror. Out of the black cave of time, terrible and swathed in scarlet, rose the image of his sin. "

18 years after Sibyl's suicide her brother James Vane found out Dorian's identity and swore to kill him. He saw Vane lurking for him and panicked, feared for his life. But later he'd reflect that this must've been just a phantom. That's the story behind that quote in that novel. However he would calm after some days and think that he's out of danger.
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It was not till the third day that he ventured to go out. There was something in the clear, pine-scented air of that winter morning that seemed to bring him back his joyousness and his ardour for life. But it was not merely the physical conditions of environment that had caused the change. His own nature had revolted against the excess of anguish that had sought to maim and mar the perfection of its calm. With subtle and finely wrought temperaments it is always so. Their strong passions must either bruise or bend. They either slay the man, or themselves die. Shallow sorrows and shallow loves live on. The loves and sorrows that are great are destroyed by their own plenitude. Besides, he had convinced himself that he had been the victim of a terror-stricken imagination, and looked back now on his fears with something of pity and not a little of contempt.

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We ultimately experience a similar transformation in Aqua's temper after he learns about the apparent death of his father from Taiki. He was away all night (the "night" is a symbol here) but finally came back "in the clear, pine-scented air of that winter morning that seemed to bring him back his joyousness and his ardour for life" He steps to the window and gives Ruby an reliefed smile for the first time since Ai's death:
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https://preview.redd.it/e0ezsvfp705b1.jpg?width=1083&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=97f0236ae0606e6e37654d96b6ed11b55068cfcc
https://preview.redd.it/kd421eyo705b1.jpg?width=1083&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=60ffd4450b497632b36904ce7ba7b35d6727bf3b
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It's not directly "winter" although Ruby's wearing a pyjama which indicate that it's also not summer, but the symbol contracts with the Takachiho arc which we can't spare for Aqua's transformation. What for Dorian was a mere material process of healing his tension and therefore would go away after 3 days of bedriddenness is for Aqua a inmaterial soul-process and he has to put a meaningful end to the phantom of Gorou in his head. And their stay in Takachiho surely appears to be in a winterly setting. This novel must've been of great inspiration for Aka and so he honors it by reimagination of the mental images Oscar Wilde created.
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"Our father died long ago. There's no way left to avenge Ai. So what should I do? My... revenge..." (C 68)

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Aqua is finally free and live normaly but when the news about Takachiho appeared he knew he has to somehow find his corpse so that he can "burry his phantom'" so to speak. The corpse of Gorou would be his symbolic proof that it's over, that he has nothing to fear anymore. Eventually Akane and Ruby find it.
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\"Keep out\" meaning keep this rotten and grotesque thing out of his mind. It's over.
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Correspondingly Dorian would soon after his "winter-morning" go on a hare shooting in some rural countryside (=Takachiho) where they would by accident shoot James Vane who still was following Dorian. James was finally dead and Dorian could finally close that chapter.
This is everything I could for now link to Aqua without talking about Hikaru's links to Dorian. So for now we have to stop the analysis and call it a day.
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Epilog
So I hope I could convince you to look at ONK from this perspective. This is just the beginning though, the actually interesting part we will only tackle in the next essay Because I believe we can learn a lot of Hikaru's ideology through the character of Dorian, his hobbies, his views, his extreme hedonistic sensualism, perhaps even his relation to his portrait.... It actually concerns me: My very first essay on ONK like a month ago was a half serious schizo theory about Hikaru's involvement in the plot so far where I made the assumption that he probably constantly observes Aqua from far away for years but now - if we apply "The Picture of Dorian Gray" to his personality then this in fact is real.
Dorian would in fact over the years go into his secret room and look at his portrait with a weird for us the next time to explore interest and strange reflections. Maybe there is really more to it...
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Lets end for now with a somewhat luckier characterization of Toshirou Kindaichi. Because he actually looks a lot like the author Oscar Wilde himself:
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https://preview.redd.it/9xoj9ihah05b1.jpg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=781921c3c82f4fce235a14f8433fe906c904e064
And to quote Wilde - which could also be just Kindaichi's own words :

“All charming people are spoiled. It is the secret of their attraction.”

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As always: Thanks for reading!
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Parlour plan thoughts Point of fact, the lounge is where we as a whole accumulate to mingle, giggle, and play. Being the home’s point of convergence, it normally works as a gathering place for visitors for anything from early-morning reminders to late-night parties. Stretch is displayed in different materials and styles in these 50 present-day front rooms. Place present-day furniture in a circle around a square floor covering. Concretize heaven with love seats situated on living walls. For a cutting-edge appearance, ponder using lively, reflexive clocks.

1. Eliminate the lounge chair from the wall

The coach is the main mix-up I see individuals make while attempting to make the best divine design decor lounge room furniture game plan. It’s squeezed in a difficult spot so much of the time. I see couches driven into corners with tremendous measures of void space before them, even in the biggest rooms with a lot of room.

1. Try not to allow the television to take over by concealing it.

I comprehend that sitting in front of the television is an essential utilization of the lounge room. Be that as it may, ideally, you wouldn’t maintain that it should be the principal thing you notice when you enter space. The ideal response is to flip the room format so the couch is apparent when you enter. Take a gander at the lounge room from my Williamstown project up top; I switched the direction. The television isn’t noticeable when you arrive at the highest point of the means.

1. Develop a Conversation Pit

Front rooms now and again have a diversion unit on one wall and love seats and seats on the other. Two tremendous household items reflecting each other in the room can now and again give the feeling that the space is long and tight. With two open closures, the room might feel like a lobby. Add extra seats to the finishes of the space to make all the more a discussion pit in your front room.

1. Utilize a huge carpet to moor the room.

The most phenomenal lounge furniture plan should have a practical reason. For yourself and how you live, you require space. How the parts fit together and connect is critical, however, the appearance is as huge. A floor covering is one of those embellishments that may not generally be valuable yet give the space a grounded feeling. Moreover, it joins your couch and rockers and forestalls the footstool from “drifting” in the centre.

1. Guarantee Admittance to the Footstool

I habitually see family rooms with enormous couches and small footstools a few meters away and far off. To cure what is happening, you’ll purchase a bigger foot stool or draw the current one nearer to the couch (or both!).
The most vital phase in staying away from any costly parlour configuration botches is to consider the way that you will move around the room. Being inconceivably efficient is the key to an incredible parlour. Designspurt gives the best lounge room plan thoughts, double reason furniture that is suitable for divine design and interior decorating looks and feels lavish and has a lot of capacity inside if you have a little space. However much as could reasonably be expected, leave the room open to advance agreeable wind current. One must cleverly plan a front room to capitalize on each square inch of the room while keeping a coordinated game plan and sufficient stockpiling.

Hello Guardians,
First, I want to talk about a very new and unique interaction that makes Behemoths almost unkillable when played properly.
Now I previously did a post about the niche 3-Stack Behemoth strategy, which I called the “Forbidden Build” (HERE).
But in short, three Guardians run Behemoth, wear Hoarfrost-Z and continually create and break stasis crystals, thereby constantly farming overshields, all the while while advancing towards and then securing the zone.
But with Season of the Deep, Bungie introduced a very special weapon - the exotic Strand trace rifle from the new dungeon, The Navigator.
The Navigator’s exotic perk is that firing this weapon at an ally grants Woven Mail to both the user and the target - while also refunding bullets to the mag.
And that’s when I asked myself: Is it possible for me to be more of a piece of shit than last season?
See, I discovered that Woven Mail actually STACKS with all of the Behemoth damage reduction buffs in PVP.
Check out the video here: https://youtu.be/pPshtZQFwtk
Of course, as usual, I'll summarize everything below if you prefer to read.
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Damage Reduction

That’s right… Behemoth now has THREE separate ways to reduce damage or grant damage resist, and they all stack.

1. Whisper of Chains, which grants a 15% global damage resist when near a stasis crystal
   
2. The Rime Overshield, which grants +100 HP when you have max overshield; and now
   
3. Woven Mail which gives you 25% damage resist to body shots.
   

Stack these three forms of damage resist, and all of a sudden, you can literally eat a Jotunn shot to the face and shrug it off.
NB: Your Rime Overshield does not take less body damage with Woven Mail BUT Woven Mail + Whisper of Chains DR do stack once you're on normal shields/HP! You can see the first part of the video for demonstrations.
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Behemoth Buffs

Now I get it, you might be thinking… OK, you basically added Woven Mail to your last Behemoth Build. That’s clever, but is that it?
Nope. Not even close.
Behemoth was buffed across the board with Season of the Deep, and it seems like people still haven’t realised yet. So let’s talk buffs.

1. The Shiver Strike melee was buffed and now goes faster and travels further. This is noticeable in regular play, but it gets crazy when you pop super. The Behemoth shiver strike melee whilst in super is absurd - we’re talking Beyond Light stasis levels of movement and speed. Check it out for yourself.
   
2. The Howl of the Storm melee is now easier to use and freezes in a wider cone, making it a reliable and absolutely nasty shutdown ability much like it was prior to the nerfs.
   

And lastly, Trials is no longer vanilla elimination, it’s Zone Control. In other words, not only was Behemoth directly buffed, it was also indirectly buffed because the main game mode of endgame PvP is quite literally tailor made for the Behemoth kit.
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Build Overview

With the build that I’m about to show you, you’ll get:
- Three separate forms of damage resist
- Near infinite ability uptime
- Supersonic movement tools;
All of which, played in the Dominion game mode, where those tools have the most impact.
So let’s get to the build.
First things first, this is a TEAM BUILD - in other words, you NEED a 3-stack of Behemoths - so be sure to send this video to convince your friends to stack up together.
Also, what’s devious about this build is that it’s VERY accessible. You do not need to be an insanely cracked PvP player to make this work. You know that saying that: “God made man, but Samuel Colt made them equal.”
This Behemoth team build is the great equaliser, and when used properly, is so utterly broken and stifling that you will beat teams that you have no right beating.
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Aspects and Fragments

So for the Triple Behemoth build, you need at least two other teammates running Behemoth and ALL of YOU need to equip:
- Tectonic Harvest; and
- Howl of the Storm
In terms of fragments, you will want to equip:
- Whisper of Conduction, which means that nearby stasis shards track to your position. This way you don’t have to actually go and pick up your stasis shards, they’ll just float over to you and get absorbed. It also gives you a pretty nice stat boost of +10 to intellect and +10 to resilience. What a bargain.
- Whisper of Chains, which means that you will have damage resist when you are near frozen targets or a friendly Stasis crystal. It also grants you a very nice +10 to recovery.
- Whisper of Shards, which means that shattering a stasis crystal will grant improved grenade ability regeneration. Shattering more crystals will ended this effect. This fragment also grants you +10 resilience, yet another fantastic stat boost.
- Whisper of Rime, which means that collecting a stasis shard will give you a small amount of overshield which lasts 10 seconds. Collecting more shards adds to the overshield and extends the duration.
In terms of abilities, you will want to equip:
- Glacier Grenade
- Shiver Strike; and
- Rally Barricade.
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Exotic Armor

As for exotic armour, for this specific build, you will need to use Hoarfrost Z, which you can get from farming Lost Sectors. Hoarfrost turns your regular barricade into a giant wall of stasis crystals. Remember to use the rally barricade for a lower cool-down, as there’s no difference in the size of the wall when using rally barricade with the Hoarfrost chest piece. So it’s the same wall but with a lower cooldown than using towering barricade.
Alright, so remember how Tectonic Harvest means you create stasis shards when you break crystals? And stasis shards give you free over shield because of Whisper of Rime? And breaking those crystals gives you faster ability regen for more crystals cos of Whisper of Shards? Which in turn leads to more shards, and even more over shield?
Yeah.
See, three Behemoths together can literally produce an infinite amount of crystals by using their grenades, their howl of the storm melees and even their class ability when you use the Hoarfrost Z chest piece.
And infinite crystals means… you got it! INFINITE OVERSHIELDS.
But wait there’s more… Those overshields also stack with the 15% damage resist you get when standing nearby any friendly crystals. AND with the new Navigator Exotic Trace rifle you can also stack a layer of Woven Mail on top of all that.
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How To Play The Build

So this is how you play the build. You figure out where the zone is, and you basically build a gigantic fortnight palace of stasis crystals nearby and slowly creep closer and closer to the zone by expanding your sphere of stasis crystals. You literally want to be making and breaking crystals constantly, generating over shield and dominating the area that will eventually become the capture zone.
See here’s what’s brutal about this build and play style. It forces your opponents to engage while you are in your strongest position and they are in their weakest.
Your opponents are forced to push or the game goes to time and you capture the zone. But if they push, they’re pushing into 3 behemoths with over shields, damage resist, and cover in the form of exploding stasis crystals.
Now when your opponents are about to engage, which usually happens when the zone becomes active for capture, get your teammate to give you all Woven Mail immediately before the fight starts which gives you:

• 200HP
• A 100 HP Overshield;
• 15% Global Damage reduction from Whisper of Chains; and
• 25% body shot damage reduction from Woven Mail.

Congratulations, you are literally unable to be 1-shot by virtually any single shotgun, fusion rifle or grenade launcher.
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Weapons

Now, in terms of weapons, the most important thing is that ONE member of your fireteam runs The Navigator trace rifle. The Navigator doesn’t really need be used in combat but rather as a way to self-buff your team before engagements.
And the nice thing about using this build is that you KNOW when the engagements are going to happen. They’re going to happen when the zone becomes active for capture, whether that’s Trials or Survival.
Other than the Navigator, I recommend that everyone else uses Cerberus paired with either a Grenade Launcher or a Fusion Rifle.
Now you might be thinking, that’s a weird combo, why those specific weapons? Well, Cerberus 1 lets you break crystals faster than any other weapon in the game and building then breaking crystals is quite literally the centerpiece of this build.
Grenade launchers are used because apart from doing huge chunk damage to the opponent, if the grenade launcher detonates next to a stasis crystal near your opponent, the stasis detonation plus the grenade launcher can basically 1-shot them. If you don’t like grenade launchers, you can also use fusions to very good effect.
And Fusion rifles are excellent to use because you can literally just trade fusion shot for fusion shot with an opponent and you’ll win 100% of the time. If they shoot you with a fusion, you survive because of your damage resist, but if you shoot them back, they die. It’s like those old movies where two people duel with pistols - except in our case, we’re wearing a bullet proof vest.
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OK guys, there's more detail/demos in the video, but I think that pretty much covers everything!
Have a good one, and I'll see you all in the Crucible,
MrArmageddon

I have been thinking about making some form of guide on this topic for a long time, primarily to be able to link to it whenever it comes up.
I will use my current Brewmaster setup to show you some ways to reduce the number of key binds needed to play your character. This spec is famous for running out of key binds and being hard to play partially because of that.
So the core idea is pretty simple. With a lot of specs including almost all melee dps and tank specs you spend most of the time using just 2 types of abilities, instant melee targeted and instant area around your or in front of you. So you don’t have to worry about standing still to cast and the abilities become somewhat interchangeable. The way you decide which button to press next often comes down to 3 scenarios:
Scenario 1: Press A, then B, then C (aka cast sequence)
Scenario 2: Press A or B or C, whatever is off CD (aka cast random)
Scenario 3: Press A, if not ready press B, if not ready press C (aka priority list)
This happens, because multiple abilities often share the same purpose (like generating resources) and therefore can be seen as multiple charges of the same ability that recharge independently.
At this point a lot of players turn to some form of custom UI like Weak Aura to show them all their available abilities, resources, CDs etc. And while that is certainly very helpful it does not address the 2 fundamental problems of this sort of gameplay:
Problem 1: You stare at this UI all the time and lose track of so many other important things like enemy casts, positioning or patrols. A question like “is Judgement off CD” is just not worth your attention in a game where standing in fire or missing an interrupt can cause a wipe.
Problem 2: You need a key bind for all of the these abilities, often pressing multiple buttons at once to make sure one goes off. Not only does this hurt your fingers, but you also run out of comfortable key binds quite quickly.
But what else could you even do?
As far as I know, there are 3 levels to the solution:
Level 1: Key binds
Level 2: Macros
Level 3: Programmable keys
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Level 1: Key Binds
I have boiled it down to a 4 simple rules, I’d encourage you to follow:
Rule 1: Don’t use any key around your movement keys (WASD) for anything you have to press a lot (aka multiple times within a 10s window). So for a Brewmaster 1,2,3,4,Q,E,F,C etc. are NOT good keys to put on things Blackout Kick, Keg Smash or Breath of Fire. It will massively hinder your ability to fight while moving. Use these keys for abilities that you to press regularly but mostly reactively, like interrupts, dispels, CC, movement or personal defensives.
Rule 2: Use mouse buttons and mouse wheel for things you spam a lot. This follows the same logic as Rule 1. Rolling your mouse wheel can be done while strafing to the left, pressing Q can not. As a bonus, the mouse wheel directions are the easiest buttons to spam really fast which will come in handy later. Mice with more than 2 thumb keys are great for that, though I currently use only 2 just fine.
Rule 3: Use Shift to double the number of comfortable key binds. There are only so many keys you can easily reach, so you’re much better off using Shift+F for something rather than 6 or H.
Rule 4: Use F1,F2,F3 etc for bigger CDs. These keys can’t easily be used in moment to moment combat, but they are still way better than clicking the button with your mouse. Sounds simple, but it is a real game changer.
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Level 2: Macros
Macros in WoW have changed quite a lot since 2005, sometimes losing and sometimes gaining power in the process. They have always been one of my favourite aspects of this game and provide an incredible amount of customization to your gameplay. For today, we’ll keep it to only a few examples, but the possibilities are truly endless.
For this we go back to the 3 scenarios from earlier.
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Scenario 1: Press A, then B, then C (aka cast sequence).
There is a macro command that will allow you to create a list of abilities.
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#showtooltip
/castsequence Keg Smash, Breath of Fire
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(#showtooltip makes sure, the button looks like the current ability and shows a tooltip on mouseover)
When you first press this macro, it will try to use Keg Smash. Once you have successfully used Keg Smash, it will then try to use Breath of Fire. If the currently chosen ability is not ready to use, the macro will not do anything and not move on to the next one until the current ability was used by this macro. If you want to be able to come back to the start without going though the whole chain, you can put in a reset condition.
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#showtooltip
/castsequence reset=3 Keg Smash, Breath of Fire
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Now the sequence will go back to the start, if you don’t press the macro for 3 seconds.
(Full list of options: https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/MACRO\_castsequence).
In this case, the second ability will never be used before the first ability which in this case is the right way to play the spec. And just like that, we have combined 2 abilities into one button and therefore removed one key bind and the need to track one ability’s CD. The right use of this macro command can turn a 8 button spec into a 3 button spec on its own.
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Scenario 2: Press A or B or C, whatever is off CD (aka cast random)
There is a macro command that allows you to create a list of abilities called /castrandom. This used to try a new ability every time you pressed the macro, but now it gets stuck until the currently chosen ability was successfully used, similar to /castsequence. That killed most of its functionality for combat.
But there is alternative that does almost the same thing in a somewhat roundabout way.
The macro command /swapactionbar takes your main action bar and changes it into a different currently unused one. It acts like the little arrows next to the main action bar. Depending on which of bars you have activated in the interface menu (bars 2 to 8), this command can switch between up to 6 bars.
Note, that in terms of key binds the game always considers this action bar 1.
Let’s say, you have 2 filler abilities that serve the same purpose, like doing some damage to a target and generating some resource. For Brewmaster this could be Blackout Kick and Rising Sun Kick. You want to just use whatever is off CD.
First, you create a macro for each ability.
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#showtooltip
/use Blackout Kick
/swapactionbar 2
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#showtooltip
/use Rising Sun Kick
/swapactionbar 1
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The first one goes onto bar 1 and swaps to bar 2, the second one goes onto bar 2 and swaps to bar 1. Other that the /castrandom command this will always perform the swap, even it the ability itself was not successfully used.
Note, that you might have to press the key multiple time to use an ability, especially if you use more than 2 bars. At that point it is best to bind it to one of your mouse wheel directions, since it is much easier to spam that.
Also note, that you will have to fill up the bars with the same abilities or macros on all of the other buttons, so they stay usable after a swap.
This might be the single most powerful macro command in the game and almost no one uses it. It is a bit unintuitive to set up, but well worth the effort. And with the interface overhaul of Dragonflight you don’t need a single add-on to use it.
Be smart, swap bars!
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Scenario 3: Press A, if not ready press B, if not ready press C (aka priority list)
So what if you have a list of abilities that serve a similar purpose, but you DO care about which one is used first and it is not a consistent sequence either.
Currently, there is no way I know of to do this for you with just the use of macros or clever key binds. You could bind them to neighbouring keys like 1,2,3,4 and spam them in quick succession like a piano chord. But this does not only hurt your hand, but also violates rule 1 of good key binds.
So this takes us to the next level.
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Level 3: Programmable keys
The build in software of a lot of mice and programs like X-Mouse Button Control or Auto Hotkey Script are a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.
If you feel uncomfortable using any of this and don’t want to get into conflict with Blizzard’s user agreement or TOS, this section will not be useful for you.
As far as I’m concerned, Blizzard is fine with us finding ways to not spam buttons and needlessly hurt our fingers in the process. With Dragonflight they even introduced the option to hold a key to repeatedly use the same ability in the gameplay menu.
So if you want to make the best use of the macro solutions for scenarios 1 and 2, I would suggest installing X-Mouse Button Control (https://x-mouse-button-control.de.softonic.com/download). It’s easy to use and can be set to only be active if the WoW client is the currently active app. I personally use it so assign the “Simulated Keys: (repeat)” function to Mouse Button 4 and 5 (thumb buttons) with 200ms delay and 10% delay variation. Just type in the key bind of your sequence or swap macros and you are good to go. Just hold the button and see the magic happen.
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Scenario 3: Press A, if not ready press B, if not ready press C (aka priority list)
So this is the final stage of our little journey to fewer key binds. And all you have to do is to type the name of multiple keys into X-Mouse Button Control instead of one. The way the key strokes are simulated is in very quick succession, which is exactly what we want for a priority list.
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{NUM0}{NUM1}{NUM2}{NUM3}
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This command will press Num0 to 3 (for a total of 4 buttons) directly after each other. All you have to do is to assign the ability or macro with the highest priority to the first key in that sequence.
Note, that each of these buttons can lead to their own castsequence or set of swap commands.
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That’s all I have to say for now, but I will probably adjust the guide to some extent later.
I hope this is helpful to anyone :)

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