I took the Nclex yesterday for the first time and got the "good pop-up" at 76Qs. Here is my guide to those who have struggled with standardized/state tests their whole life, like me!
Background: I graduated from NSG school in Jan, 2023 and did not want to start studying till I got my ATT which happened to be around Feb 16 (MISTAKE 1). My program was designed for the "old Nclex method" not the new NXT Gen so I was getting paranoid because I really did not want to prepare for a new style of testing which was foreign to me - even looking at it gave me anxiety. I was relieved I got my ATT and started the following day but in hindsight, I wish I had started sooner! My goal was to take exam before April 1st so I got extremely lucky and found a date for March 27th a couple days before the changes.
Work Smart Not Hard:

• Mark K Lectures: I spent a total of 2 whole weeks listening and writing out Mark's 12-hour full lecture on youtube. I would actively listen and write down and relisten etc. I did not use my computer to write down notes, pen and notebook and TRUST ME writing out notes is the BEST WAY i swear by this and always will. The cons of this are that it takes an extremely long process so that is why i wished i had started studying eariler before i got the ATT! Once i finished his 12 hour lecture i never relistened to it again and YOU WON'T NEED TO EITHER because your notes will be hammered into your brain. Now I had only 3 weeks and some days to do question banks and I chose Uworld.
• UWorld: It blows my mind when I see people saying they did/do 100-150 questions per day on Uworld. Do not do this! I was doing around 30Qs then slowly progressed to around 60Qs a day. I started by doing 30 in the morning and 30 in the evening and giving myself a large break inbetween. Uworld questions are EXTREMELY SPECIFIC if you don't know the disease/med/patho or whatever related to the question you will get it WRONG. The rationale is the content learning and i would again write down notes and google the disease if i did not know it well. Reading the rationales and fully understanding it should take you HOURS that is why if you are just breezing through questions your not really learning - this isnt NSG school test bank! Each question on Uworld has a disease etc the more you spend time actually understanding it the more your future questions/percentage will go UP. Initially my percentages were extremely below average and towards the finally days i was consistenly above average and i wasn't even half way through the total bank.

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• 3 days before DoomsDay: My Nclex was scheduled for 8 am. I would wake up at 7 and SIMULATE the exam 3 days in a row. I would start exactly at 8 am, put away my phone, water bottle, mfkin chapstick, EVERYTHING only a pencil and paper. I did the total amount you can do on Uworld (75 Qs). Once i finished, I took a break and then reviewed all 75Qs and that would take my entire day then i relaxed and watched a movie etc.

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• My Secret Krabby Patty Recipe: Forget everything you have heard about answering questions in 30 seconds - 1 minute per question that works for them, NOT US. when i tell you TAKE YOUR TIME ANSWERING QUESTIONS - SERIOUSLY take your damn time answering questions. I spent around 2-3 minutes per question and if my gut, hard work, hours spent was telling me that (X) is the choice i would go with it. I read the question 2-3-4 times and same with the answer choices, your brain will intuitively pick one that just makes sense to you. This is a marathon not a sprint the more time you take to answer questions correctly the 5 hours you have are enough and chances are the test will end sooner at 75 questions. I was on question 25 when an hour and 10 mins had passed and you may feel anxious about working slow but its better than answering questions haphazardly and going all the way to 145!

PS: I am not the smartest person or know all my NSG content and i even failed Peds in NSG school but i ranked consistenly higher on Peds Qs on Uworld because I had so much of it ingrained in my brain. Just trust yourself, study smart and actually learn the material, and take your time! Goodluck my future RNs.

I'm soon to be given my immigrant visa, and would be moving from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Raleigh this year.
TL;DR: Is an "average" IT salary ($100,000) enough for living in the area with my wife and 3yo kid?
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I did some research and these are my numbers, I need some help figuring out if the calculation of my living expenses are somehow accurate, plus any other opinions about living not only in Raleigh but USA that I may need to know. Worth knowing I have already spent 6 months in Raleigh (circa 2018) with my business visa and have a rough idea of how things work:
Monthly paycheck: $8,333. Less taxes ~25% (as per this website). Net salary is $6250 per month.
Monthly expenses would be:

• $1900 2bd/br apartment lease (may be a little less if I lease for longer periods)
• $450 for monthly car expenses (not leasing, I'd buy it in cash as I don't have a credit recording) this would only be insurance, gas and any other annual expenses on a monthly basis (source)
• $675 for groceries (~$150 weekly, may be less, but that doesn't change the great picture)
• $500 for health insurance for wife and kid (very rough estimate, may be actually more)
• $150 for electricity and water
• $180 for two mobile phones + internet
• $500 for furniture (as I may not be able to buy all furniture upfront), for six months at most
• $700 for day care 5 days a week, part-time (as my daughter doesn't speak English I'm thinking about places like Spanish for fun or similar places.

If my numbers are about right and I don't spend more than that, I'll finish every month with $1195 extra in my bank account. Considering I can't afford a car upfront, I'd have to save ~10 months for buying a cheap car, spending money in UbeLyft meanwhile (not added to the expenses figure).
The economics is just a part of the reasons for moving, but saving $1195 per month is very close to what I save working where I am, taking into account I earn only $20,000 per year here and also pay for a car, apartment, day care, etc.
Edit: car expenses details

There is a lot of focus on how once we have AGI with human level common sense then it will take a lot of white collar jobs. But does it need more than common sense is needed? I have been thinking about this ... will the below be needed too? and more?
Many human white collar jobs require "Company wide knowledge" to answer questions. How will AGI obtain proprietary company wide knowledge? Are we going to have AGI scanning all emails and scanning all meetings to gain this knowledge? How easy/difficult will this be to implement?
Even when AGI reaches human level common sense, humans need to trust it. For example banks won't be able to risk leaving bots in charge of big decisions until a trust level is reached. Will we have new jobs created that review AGI decisions? Also, I bet AGI will be held to a much higher accountability level than humans which increases the need for oversight.
Also, I also wonder about how difficult it will be for IT to integrate AGI into a lot of legacy systems. It won't be as easy as an add-on with many legacy systems. It will take years of UAT and devs for this to occur with many systems.

•1•
Nantha didn't have the heart to tell them. She didn't know how to tell them. She didn't even know where to begin.
Annid Long-Tree, leader of the Savage-Sisters approached the entrance to Tube House. At her side was Ehsh, and several other Savage Sisters, as well as an entire posse of she-Jikk prisoners.
Annid's eyes studied Nantha's closely. "Where is Prince Yallan?"
Nantha forced herself not to look away, to maintain eye contact. "He wanted me to tell you all to go on without him."
"What?" It was Ehsh this time.
Annid looked baffled. "What are you talking about? This isn't the time for jokes, Nantha. Tell the Prince to hurry. We've got the gate open."
"He isn't here," Nantha said flatly. "He's already down below, working to free the prisoners in Jailhouse 2."
Annid considered this a moment. She appeared to do some brief mental calculations. Finally, she nodded. "Well, why didn't you say that from the start? Then let's get going. The Jail-Keepers and Guards will rush in anytime now."
Nantha gave a meaningful nod. "I'm right behind you."
She followed the others away from Tube House and across Dark Cell toward Gate Wall. They did indeed have the gate opened, just as Annid had promised.
"Was it difficult to pry open?" Nantha asked.
"A little," Annid admitted. "But we used the pickaxes and mining tools, just as planned." She pointed to the bars of the gate. Several of them were bent out of shape in the middle. The gate itself hung open, slightly askew. Just on the other side, a crowd of prisoners stood waiting. All of Dark Cell was here, it seemed. Many of them wielded the pickaxes and large chisels used for mining the ore they'd been forced to collect for the Guards.
Nantha felt excitement and adrenaline swell up in her chest. Were they actually doing this, after all these years? It didn't seem possible. It felt like a dream.
The ordinarily dank, stale air of the jail seemed almost electric in that moment. Nantha felt alive for the first time in more years than she could recount. She wasn't just drawing breath, surviving from one day to the next. She was actually living.
Even if this escape attempt meant her death, she thought it would be worth it just for this brief feeling of being alive.
"The Prince is in Jailhouse 2 already," Annid announced to the crowd.
Lively murmurs broke out at once. Nantha's exaltation turned to anxiousness. They were going to be suspicious. Of course they were. Why wouldn't they be? The Dirt Prince was their leader. This uprising was his uprising. Would they truly believe he'd already made it to Jailhouse 2? What more excuse for his absence could she possibly give them? What other reasons would they actually accept?
"How?" asked someone in the crowd. "We never saw him leave?"
Nantha's heart sank. Doing her best to remain calm, she said, "Prince Yallan has his ways."
For a wonder, this actually seemed to satisfy them. Thanks the Gods for Yallan's esoteric, eccentric nature. Yallan, or whoever he was. So much of what Nantha thought she'd known about him had turned out to be a lie. Yet, still, Jikk or human, or whatever he might have been, if there was one fact about him that remained indisputable, it was that he was definitely one who had some rather strange ways about them. Clearly, if recent events in the Tubes were any indication. But then again, Nantha mused, it likely took one of strange ways to not only plan, but pull off something as mad as the uprising.
After a few more moments of excited chatter, they got moving without any further inquiries into the Prince, or his whereabouts. Much to Nantha's great relief.
If they were still alive when the uprising was over, she could tell them all the truth then.
Or, she thought as they marched down the wide corridor toward the rest of the jail, perhaps it was something she'd simply keep to herself. What good would knowing do any of the others? Knowing the truth certainly hadn't done her any good. As she looked around at the determined faces of her sister-Jikk, a part of her thought that it was best this way--with the so-called "Dirt Prince" nowhere in evidence, and the truth unknown to anyone save for her. Afterall, she told herself, The Jailer's crimes had been against she-Jikk more than anyone else. Sure, he'd taken younglings, and the elderly, and the disabled. He'd occasionally taken male Jikk; particularly those who caused too much trouble for his liking in Lo Syy Tett. But he hadn't targeted anyone else the way he'd targeted she-Jikk. The population of the Jails was around 85 to 90 percent she-Jikk.
Therefore, why should a male be the one to lead the uprising? Even before you considered the fact that said male wasn't even a Jikk.
Yes. It was much better this way. More fitting. Perhaps, if by some great miracle they survived all of this, Nantha could begin planting the idea that the Dirt Prince had really been apart of the planning stages of their revolt, more than anything else. The actual execution of said plan, however? That was a purely female undertaking.
Nantha walked between Annid Long-Tree and Ehsh, her head held high. There was still much to do. They were far from being in the clear yet. This was only the first step. The beginning.
They had lots more still to do, if they wanted to capture sweet, sweet freedom.
And as Nantha knew all too well, this was the only chance they would ever get...
•2•
The passageway was littered with decapitated corpses.
Ekkr stared down at the boomerang in his hand, with a growing mixture of wonder and horror in almost equal measure. This seemed far too powerful a weapon for someone like himself to wield.
"Well done, lad!" Wolfgang exclaimed.
"Shhh!" hissed the she-ant. "You idiot. Do you want the entire Jailhouse to hear you?
"Oh, right," Wolfgang said, lowering his voice. "Appologies, lass."
They moved down the passageway, stepping over or around bodies of fallen Jail-Keepers. Ekkr counted nine of them in total. The boomerang had cut a clean path straight through them all. Ekkr took slow, deliberate steps forward. The metallic scent of fresh blood hung in the air like an invisible vapor. Having Wolfgang at his side was the only reason Ekkr was able to continue on without stopping out of shock, or fear. Kanka and Ullteffa were close at their heels, wordlessly surveying the corpses.
As they made their way beyond the gruesome scene and down the remainder of the passageway, an almost tangible silence fell over their small group. Ekkr could practically feel the she-ant's eyes boring into the back of his head.
She's REALLY going to mistrust me now. She's probably waiting for the right moment to slip a dagger into my back, just to eliminate me as a potential threat.
The passageway became a wide corridor. Here, were the first banks of jail cells. The walls on either side of the party were lined with them; cold black steel bars like the teeth of a dark stone maw. These cells were empty.
Ekkr stopped, turning to face the others. The Ronzaxx and Willtakk also stopped walked. Ullteffa regarded him with calice suspicion. Ekkr saw her hand twitch for a brief moment, as if she intended to go for the ebony saber strapped to her back--perhaps, mostly out of reflex--before deciding to wait a moment. The Bandit only scowled, folding his arms across his chest. Wolfgang, for his part, continued walking a few more steps before halting. He did a kind of pivoting spin on the heel of one boot, reminiscent of the way Ekkr had seen Grassblade Proeliators turn in order to do an about face, for their marching drills during training exercises.
The frog raised his hairless brow. "Trouble, my boy?"
Ekkr felt his entire body tense. He was very conscious of where he held the boomerang, making absolutely certain not to do anything with it that might be misinterpreted as a threat. He looked the she-ant directly in her dark gemstone eyes. The moment he did this, he wished he hadn't. He saw nothing resembling mortal emotion in those eyes. They were cold and hard as the Void Gems from which they'd been fashioned. He summoned all the (considerably scarse) courage he had in him. He thought of the leaf, and the Weaver. He thought of his new title. He was Curator. That had to mean he was worthy of something didn't it? Well.. something. What that something might have been, he hadn't a clue, but there it was all the same. Ekkr Thrice-Flown, Curator of the Weaver.
This didn't do much to still his rapid-beating heart, but it did grant him a small modicum of strength in his resolve. He leaned on that small modicum like a crutch. Like a steady stone buttress during an earthquake. Like a hand helping an injured friend stand upright, after a nasty fall.
"I can't keep going on like this," Ekkr said. "Every moment. Waiting for a blade to slide across my throat. Please. I really have been truthful with you. I am just as confused as you are in this moment. The dagger you gave me... I threw it, and it came back as... well... as this." He looked down at the boomerang, not daring to move it even an inch; even to emphasize his point. "This is completely new and strange and unknown to me. So... I suppose what I'm saying is... please. I beg of you. I... actually, I don't know what I'm asking. I'm just..." he trailed off. He had no idea how to finish.
The she-ant and Ronzaxx only stared at him, looking utterly indifferent.
Wolfgang (bless him) decided to step in. He moved closer, to clap a webbed hand on Ekkr's back. "I believe what this right and fine gent here is trying to say, is that you're a beautiful woman, in need of a strong gentleman like myself."
Ekkr couldn't believe it. His mouth fell open. He actually emitted a small squeaking sound, for a brief instant. He stared at the frog with complete incredulous. "I meant no such thing!"
The Bandit bowed his head, jabbing his fingertips into his hard brow. He muttered, just loud enough to be heard: "Please let me kill 'em, Boss Lady. Please let me kill 'em. Can I? Please?"
Ullteffa said nothing. Her eyes never left Ekkr, but she maintained a complete and agonizing silence.
Wolfgang said, "Wasn't it, lad? My mistake. Perhaps, it was I who meant to suggest that very thing."
Ekkr openly cringed. This was almost as painful to witness, as it was terrifying.
"Well, maddam?" Wolfgang said, grinning. "What do you, my lady?"
Ullteffa's eyes finally left Ekkr, shifting over to Wolfgang. Then, she blinked. Once, then a second time. It was a bizarre, surreal thing to witness due to her Void Gem eyes.
For a moment, the painful silence hung between them. Ekkr felt every fraction of every second pass in excruciating stillness.
But then, like a ray of sunlight from behind a dark cloud, the she-ant blinked a final time... and smiled.
She actually smiled.
Ekkr was stunned. Baffled. Stupefied.
He now realized how beautiful the she-ant truly was. He'd been too terrified of her to see it before. She was gorgeous. Much too gorgeous to smiling in this way at the frog. It made no sense. It was mind-boggling.
Kanka went on scowling for half a second. Then, his scowl fell away as his eyes went from Ullteffa to Wolfgang--Ullteffa to Wolfgang, back to Ullteffa, back to Wolfgang--before finally landing on Ullteffa one finally time and remaining there. A look of both jealousy and anger began to wash across his cockroach face. It made him look menacing, and a touch pathetic. Almost like a Learning Hall bully who torments other younglings because of his own insecurities.
Ullteffa said, "You truly are an idiot. You do know that, don't you?" She sighed, shaking her head. She was still smiling, however. Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the smile vanished and she was all business once more. "Let's get moving."
When Ekkr and Wolfgang remained where they were, the she-ant sighed again; this time with a bit of frustration added. "Fine. I still don't trust either of you, but I'll set my suspicions aside. This time, I sincerely mean it."
The Bandit stared at her, as if he couldn't believe what she'd just said. "But Boss Lady, we--"
She raised her hand, silencing him. Kanka glared off into space, mumbling something under his breath.
Ullteffa said, "Now then. If we keep standing here, we're only going to give The Jailer more time to plan our executions."
This got them all in motion again. As they walked beyond the empty cells, Ekkr looked over to the frog. Nothing seemed to make sense when Wolfgang was around. It was as if the frog were a force of nature, and everything (or everyone) around him was caught up in his peculiar brand of charm. The amphibian had all the whimsical charisma of a trickster God. Ekkr began to wonder just how much Wolfgang's company had influenced him. He also began to wonder just how much of their current situation was prompted by the Weaver, and how much had been on account of Wolfgang. The Weaver had directed him here, but the courage it took to actually go delving down in the lair of The Jailer? That might very well have been a different story.
Wolfgang, noticing Ekkr watching him, looked up and grinned. He tipped Ekkr a wink. Ekkr sighed and turned away. What a strange, strange creature, he thought.
They walked on, down a wide passage and out through another corridor. There were no jail cells here. In there place, were a set of stone doors; rounded at the tops, and lighter gray than the surrounding stone. Ekkr stopped before the third door on the left, pointing.
"This one," he said.
The others nodded, gathering around the door.
Instead of a handle, or doorknob, there was a notch punched into the rock. Ekkr placed his hand into the groove and pulled. The stone door came down like a drawbridge. It was much too heavy for the Jikk to hold. When it swung down, it slipped from his grasp. The Bandit darted forward, just in time to catch the heavy slab of stone before it crashed to the floor.
Kanka shook his head, flashing an irritated glare in Ekkr's direction. "Who needs alarm bells when they've got you around?"
"Apologies," Ekkr said lamely, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.
Kanka gently lowered the slab onto the floor. The four of them walked across it and into an oval-shaped room of pale gray stone. There was a steel rod sticking up from the center of the room. In the place where the rod disappeared beneath the floor, there was an inch-and-a-half wide gap, outlined by a circle carved into the stone.
Once they were all inside, Ullteffa said: "Allow me."
She stepped forward and took hold of the steel bar. She pulled it toward her, then moved it in a slow circle, letting it trace over the gap in the floor. For a moment, she looked like a dye maker stirring a pot of boiled plant pigments. The door behind them sprang back into place with a muffled slam. There was a soft scraping sound--the whine of metal gears--then the entire room began to turn. An overlapping wall began to encroach upon the door, swallowing it inch by inch as the room moved. The beginnings of a narrow gap appeared in the far wall, at the same time. Little by little, the gap widened as the room continued to turn, until an unobscured passageway opened where the wall had been.
"Fancy," said Wolfgang. "A rotating room."
The she-ant said nothing. She released the steel rod and stepped away from it. She looked to Ekkr expectantly.
Ekkr nodded, remembering he was the one who was supposed to lead the way. He tensed his shoulders and stepped through the mouth of the passage. Wolfgang followed beside him.
The four of them walked for only a short distance, before they reached a new corridor, lined with jailcells. There were long hallways winding into darkness, breaking up each set of cells--six cell blocks in all, with a hallway between each. And in every cell, there were prisoners. Some of them were lying down in the corner, sleeping. Others were leaning against the bars. Most of them were sitting in the middle of the cell floor looking utterly pitiful. Ekkr spotted a small handful of younglings, and a single elderly male. The rest were all she-Jikk. Each cell contained between twelve and fifteen prisoners. Close to eighty inmates in all.
The four of them stopped in the center of the corridor, looking around at the prisoners. For Ekkr, it was an absolutely heart-wrenching sight.
One of the younglings rushed over to the bars of her cell. She called out in a small, weak voice: "Are you here to help us? Please. Please help us. Get us out of here."
An aging she-Jikk reached down and swatted the youngling across the side of her face. She furiously whispered, "Shut up! We don't know who they are. Sit down and be quiet. Now!"
The youngling bowed her head and did as she was told. Ekkr saw the little one's wings begin to quiver, birthing a soft bzzttt sound; the Jikk equivalent of sobbing.
Ekkr held up a hand and waved. "It's alright. We don't work for The Jailer."
"We aren't here to help them, either," Ullteffa scolded. "Keep moving, Ekkr Thrice-Flown. We don't have time to chitchat."
Ekkr stared out across the corridor at the frightened, hopeless faces of the prisoners. Could he really just walk away and leave them?"
"Can't we do something?" he protested. "At least open their cells, perhaps?"
"Ekkr Thrice-Flown," Ullteffa said in a tone that was all the answer he needed.
Ekkr slumped his shoulders, feeling deflated. This wasn't right. These were innocent Jikk. How could he just leave them here?
That was when the Weaver's words echoed throughout his mind.
Find the Warden. Free the prisoners.
Yes. Yes. This was it. This was his purpose here. Half of it, at least. The Weaver had sent him here to help these Jikk. This was what he needed to do in order to find his redemption. Free the prisoners. This was his mission.
But how in Vellnoth's Name was he supposed to actually accomplish this?
As if sensing his distress, Wolfgang placed a webbed hand on Ekkr's arm. "We can come back for them, lad."
Ekkr looked down at the short, stubby Amphibian. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, my good man, we came here to free the canine, did we not? Once we've done that, I see no reason why we cannot help these fine folks find freedom on our way out, lad."
Ekkr considered this a moment. If the Warden were with them, they might just be able to pull this off, and live to tell the tale. The canine would definitely assist them, as well. Success would all depend on how The Jailer responded to their trespassing in his domain. But... maybe, just maybe, they could do it. The chances of helping the prisoners, and actually getting them out of this place would go up drastically if the Warden was also free and at their side.
Ekkr gazed over at the inmates again, before turning back to Wolfgang. "Alright. But you must give me your word we will return for them."
"My word is my bond, lad. I give you my word as a gentleman, and a swordsman."
"Alright," Ekkr said. "Then let's go find the Warden."
•3•
Paladin Zeyas (known to the inmates of Dark Pit as Dirt Prince Yallan Torchpath) moved along the wall of the slender passageway, feeling for the unseen Rune he knew would be there. After searching around for several moments, his fingertips finally slid across an uneven part of the stone. To the untrained eye, the wall here was no different than it was anywhere else. To Zeyas however, it was his key to breaking out of this place. He pressed his fingers into the Rune. Soon, the stone began to glow with soft red light. Then, the light brightened to a vibrant crimson.
Zeyas pushed against the Rune. The floor slid out from beneath his feet, sending him falling into darkness. He used the wings of his armored suit (the one designed to make him look indistinguishable from a Jikk when he wore it) to avoid a nasty landing. He came down several levels below Jailhouse 1.
He secured his helm back in place, giving himself increased low light vision. He was in the Main Access Tunnel now. The Master Switch was located somewhere on this floor. All the Paladin had to do was find it, activate the thing, and every door to every cell in the entire facility would open. It was a fail safe, in the event of some major catastrophe. And now, it would serve as Zeyas's greatest tool in aiding the Jikk in their uprising.
The Paladin ran down the long corridor, through unlit tunnels and dark passageways.
Soon, he would give the Insectoids of this place their freedom.
•4•
Nantha became one more face in a sea of prisoners. She let herself blend in with the crowd. She was glad not to be leading the charge, but was all the more glad to be apart of it. They marched on, into the general inmate areas of Jailhouse 1, putting Dark Pit further and further behind them.
"What's happening?" asked an alarmed voice from one of the cells up ahead. "Is this a riot?"
"Freedom!" someone in their group shouted, raising a hand.
"Let us out! We want to come with you!"
Nantha heard Annid's voice answer. "Patience. The Dirt Prince is finding the Master Switch as we speak, if all is going according to plan. We have our own part to play. As soon as your cell doors open, make for the nearest corridor. Soon, we will all be free."
There was a collective cheer from the other prisoners.
Nantha only hoped Annid's words would prove true. And that the so-called Dirt Prince was really still holding up his part in things. Otherwise, this might all be for nothing, she realized.
The members of the uprising pushed on. They slipped down passages, moved through large cavernous chambers, toward their destination: Coridor Prime. If they could just make it there, they'd be able to access almost any part of the Tunnels. It was a secret of this facility Yallan had discovered, though he'd never revealed how he came by the information. You couldn't get to Corridor Prime unless you went through Tunnel Eight. It only went one way. Once your left Corridor Prime using one of its many shafts and passageways, a Rune Seal blocked you from returning, unless you went all the way back to Tunnel Eight. It was a security feature, and an escape detourant. You had to know which shaft to choose, or else you'd end up in the wrong part of the Tunnels, without a way back.
According to the Prince, they just had to go through the shaft marked with the Source Rune symbol for 'lake'. This would leave them in the chamber beneath the Chartreuse Pool.
The forbidden waters...
Nantha thought back to her time in Lo Syy Tett, all those years ago. She recalled learning about Jikk customs and the Jikkellian faith. She'd been taught that the Chartreuse Pool was forbidden, in accordance with religious law.
The Jailer had used this to his advantage. Used, and abused this fact. The truth was, even by the laws of their faith, Jikk could enter the Chartreuse Pool, so long as they were given a blessing directly from Vellnoth the Lesser. The Jailer and his minions claimed to have such a blessing.
The Mind Mother's influence had convinced them all of the validity of this claim. That same influence had also convinced them the Green Leaf Scrolls' passing reference to the forbidden nature of the Chartreuse Pool was actually one of their religion's core tenants.
Yallan (who wasn't actually named Yallan) had been right. The Mind Mother did have to be destroyed. Jikk needed to realize the atrocities being committed here. As long as the Mind Mother lived, that couldn't happen. Perhaps, on an individual level, it could. But not on a wide scale. Nantha was bitterly glad the false Prince had slain the awful creature. Otherwise, she and the other prisoners might have been too fearful of Vellnoth's wrath to utilize their main escape route.
Nantha snapped back to the present. The crowd in front of her had stopped abruptly, just as they reached the mouth of the next tunnel between corridors. There were whispers of alarm, even fear. Nantha was forced to squeeze or push her way between several inmates, before she was able to make it up to the front of the pack.
Now, she saw what had promoted commotion; the reason why they'd stopped.
The tunnel was not very long. From here, Nantha could see where it ended, before it gave way to yet another block of cells in the corridor beyond. And there, at the opposite end of the tunnel, stood a group of figures. There were four of them. Each one wielded a weapon.
There was a meek looking Jikk. He held a weapon Nantha had never seen before. It was emerald-hued and almost looked like a throwing knife, but not like any normal throwing knife. It was curved in the center. The Jikk seemed just as anxious and alarmed as Nantha felt. Oddest of all was the fact that--aside from a pair of sandals and some tattered undergarments--he was completely disrobed.
Beside the Jikk was one of the strangest creatures Nantha had ever seen. It had a large round head that seemed too massive for its body. In place of chitin, the thing had flesh as green as a spinach leaf, and stood much shorter than the grasshopper man beside it. The creature was dressed in odd attire that didn't seem to match any of the modern styles. The creature had a wooden crossbow in its arms.
The other two figures were what Jikkellians referred to as Children of Ziilk; followers of the false God sometimes called Rogue In Rouge.
A Ronzaxx roachman and a Willtakk she-ant. The former held a silver dagger that might have glistened had there been any light source; the latter wielded an ebony saber. While the Jikk looked concerned and the short green creature appeared almost excited, the two Children of Ziilk were watching the large group of inmates with a mixture of amusement and something close to menace.
One of the braver she-Jikk in front of Nantha snatched a pickaxe from the prisoner beside her, and stepped forward. She raised her voice so that it carried across the tunnel. "We aren't going back to our cells now matter what you do!" she challenged. Although the she-Jikk spoke with confident command, Nantha could see her left leg trembling slightly out of fear
Nantha thought she heard the she-ant snort at this--as though the words were too ridiculous to remain silent--but it may have only been her imagination. Across the tunnel, it was difficult to know for certain.
The partially nude Jikk stepped forward. He kept his weapon lowered at his side, as it he weren't sure what to do with it. In a warm, friendly tone, he said: "I'm not going to force you back to your cells. I'm here to help you escape."
Nantha and the other inmates glanced around at one another. None of them seemed to have any clue how to proceed.
•5•
The panicked faces of several Guards and Jail-Keepers appeared before him. Floor Master Guvven considered them a moment, before raising a hand and gesturing for them to speak.
"Uh, Floor Master Guvven, sir? There are trespassers," said one of the Jail-Keepers (Guvven could never remember most of his subordinates' names, nor did he care to remember; they were unimportant to him--he cared only for his Riot Responders).
Guvven stared at him, stonefaced. A congregation of Purple Spiders clinging to the roof of the chamber cast soft, odd shadows across Guvven's features. "Do you think I'm not already aware?"
"No, sir, but they just took out several of our Jail-Keepers. They even got Gosoma."
Guvven cocked his head to one side. Now this was interesting. Gosoma of the Lash was one of his best. Anyone who could take down the head Riot Responder was a force to be reckoned with. This intrigued Guvven a great deal. It had been so long since he'd seen any real action.
A Purple Spider dropped down from the ceiling and landed on his shoulder. Through the spider, came the voice of Porter Huuth. He said, "All Floor Masters are to head to Jailhouse 1 immediately. We have trespassers. Leave Jail-Keepers and Guards at their post. Don't let any prisoners out of their cells. Bring only your top warriors with you. Head to Jailhouse 1, Tunnel Seven. Intercept the trespassers, and cut them off before they reach Tunnel Eight. They'll be bound for Corridor Prime. Kill them on sight. These orders come directly from The Jailer himself. Make haste, everyone. If you fail, you deal with me."
The voice cut out and the spider scurried down Guvven's arm, before dropping onto the floor and scampering away.
Guvven realized the Jail-Keepers and Guards were all still standing there, watching him expectantly with varying degrees of anxious fret plastered across their features. "What are you all still doing here? Did you hear the orders? Get to your posts!"
All at once, every one of them turned and made off for the cell blocks, practically tripping over one another as they went.
Just before the last of them were out of sight, Guvven called: "And send me my Riot Responders! The ones I have left!"
"Yes, Floor Master," one of them said.
Then, they were gone.
Guvven voiced a single dry cackle. "Well then. Looks like we're in for some fun." He reached for his massive warhammer which he'd propped upright against the chamber wall. Hammer in hand, he moved to the back of the room and stopped before a chest-high steel cage. Glowing yellow eyes shaped like dagger blades peered out at him through the bars, from the darkness beyond the cage door.
Guvven bent down to fiddle with the lock. "Been a while since I let you out of here, eh? You ready to go hunting again, old friend?"
There was a deep, hungry growl from inside the cage. Guvven grinned. "That's right. You're gonna have some fun with me, my friend." Guvven flicked the lock and popped open the door.
•6•
Elsewhere, in various parts of the jailhouse, the other Floor Masters had just finished listening to Porter Huuth's message.
In Jailhouse 3, Floor Master Ovtuk watched the Purple Spider that delivered the orders as it made for a crack in the stone floor of the tunnel.
He turned to the figure on his left. "Strongest warriors, he said?"
"That's what he said," replied Floor Master Snann. "I would reckon that means the four Majors."
Ovtuk nodded. "Sounds about right. I'll bring Meex while I'm at it. Can't think of a good reason to leave him behind."
Floor Master Snann unfastened the leather thong he used to secure his vine whip to his belt (his vine whip, which might have been called a "cat-o'-nine-tails" were he from a place called Earth, or if he knew what a cat was). "Let's go make the Porters of the Hand proud."
And in a part of the jailhouse known as Dread Point...
Floor Master Klivis and his strongest warrior--a Jikk built like a brick shithouse who went by the name Foxglove--marched down the long winding passageway that would take them up to Jailhouse 1. As they neared the end of the passage, a sinister sounding voice called out them.
"Leaving without me?"
Klivis and Foxglove both stopped and turned at the utterance. Klivis felt a slight chill run along the base of his neck (a rather uncommon occurrence for an Insectoid with an exoskeleton) when his eyes fell upon the one who'd spoken.
Klivis was a mean, merciless Floor Master by all accounts. He favored beating the prisoners, over... well, pretty much everything. Beating prisoners had become something of a passtime for him. It gave the Floor Master a thrill like nothing else ever had. He was a cold, calice Jikk who reveled in violence.
And yet... even Klivis felt uneasy around the figure he now saw before him.
"Nazro?" Klivis whispered. He wasn't sure why he was whispering. Something about the other Floor Master almost seemed to demand it. As if he had to lessen even the volume of his own voice in the presence of this particular Jikk. "You made it up here rather quickly."
"Of course," said Nazro cheerfully. His voice and expression were that of a good-natured chum, chumming it up with his fellow chums. This was all an act, however. Klivis could see it in his eyes. Even when Nazro smiled, his eyes remained cold and lifeless.
"I see," Klivis said sheepishly. It was all he could think to say.
"The Porter said to make haste, afterall."
"He did," Klivis said. He looked to Foxglove for assistance, but Foxglove seemed to be studying the floor as if it interested him a great deal.
"Come on," Nazro said. "I'll walk up with you."
Klivis didn't think there was anything in the world he desired less than to be accompanied by Floor Master Nazro. However, unable to come up with a good excuse to avoid this uncomfortable situation, Klivis simply nodded. "Alright then."
Together, the three of them made their way to Jailhouse 1. As they did, the rest of the Floor Masters and their top subordinates did likewise. And in no time at all, the Tunnels near Dark Pit were crawling with them...
•7•
The Comet's Crest Chancellors gathered around the white marble fountain, gazing with great interest into its shimmering waters. Through the surface of the water, they saw as one might see through a pane of glass...
Desolate Chasm--private quarters of The Jailer...
* * * * * *
From the ceiling, the glow of an entire nest of Purple Spiders bathed the room in soft lavender. Yet, this glow was unable to penetrate many of the shadows within; as if they weren't shadows at all, but rather, living things spawned of the absence of light. A portion of the floor near the entryway had been raised, revealing a previously hidden chamber no bigger than a jail cell. A slab of dark brown stone the size of a coffin sat in this crawlspace beneath the floor. The three Blind Black-Robes stood before this secret chamber. Together, moving in synchronization, they stooped down over the stone slab and placed their hands onto its cool, rough surface.
There was a sound like boiling water being poured over ice cubes as the rock began to crack apart, sending hairline fractures across the length of the slab. The stone split in two, right down the center. The two halves fell against the walls of the crawlspace, revealing that the stone slab had in fact been hollow. There was a Jikk inside the stone; lying on his back with his arms and legs, wings nearly tucked away. He stared up at them with emotionless regard.
From the back of the room, a voice that sounded the way a graveyard might sound were it given the power of speech, echoed throughout the chamber. "Ellgost. My only son."
The Jikk inside the broken stone sat upright and looked around. Beyond the three blindfolded earwig men, stood a table of polished ebony. It was as long as the bar counter in a tavern, and ran from one wall to the other--cutting across the entire room from left to right. There were strange instruments and mechanisms at one end of the table. Atop the opposite end, was a bulky object beneath an old gray tarp. And at the center of the table, sat three figures. Two of them were engulfed in shadow, obscuring their form. They appeared to be completely motionless. Between the pair of shadowed figures was the third.
* * * * * *
A Chancellor gasped, taking a step back. "Gods," he whispered. "Is this what's become of The Jailer? This is his new form? It's... horrific."
The other Chancellors said nothing. Even beneath the hoods of their cloaks, the concern on their faces was unmistakable. One of them turned to the Kite Monk who'd been waiting patiently--sitting atop a white marble bench, looking as though he were in deep contemplation--on the far side of the great hall.
The Chancellor said, "You were right to come to us, Proyy Nogg Wexx. I would agree that these matters are certainly dire enough to awaken the True Master."
The monk rose from the bench. "Did you see what's unfolding in the woods with Gupp Ro' Gamm? That fool refused to heed my--"
The Chancellor interrupted. "That is not our greatest concern. What we see in the Gazing Pool may well be the first flickers of rapture's fire. The beginning of the end, as it was written in the Scrolls."
"Silence," said the head Chancellor. "Watch the water. Something is happening."
And something indeed was...
* * * * * *
The Jailer--his transformation now complete--rose from the table and turned back to face the two shadowed figures. "Hithrid, you bitch. I keep you now as you were then. You and the Betrayer. You are fortunate. You get to witness this blessed day. A day you do not deserve to take part in. Consider this my final gift to you."
The two figures remained silent, motionless.
The Jailer turned to the Black-Robes. "Bring me the Black Vine Shroud."
The three earwig men made off at once to do as they'd been told. They moved to the far corner of the room and surrounded a mass of knotted, tangled vines the color of coal. Black roses between long dark thorns sprouted up from the growth. The Blind Black-Robes hooked their arms beneath vines, lifting the mass as they did this. Now, the underside of the growth was visible, revealing that there was in fact a wooden casket beneath the many vines. They slowly made their back to the large table, carefully placing the casket--vines and all--atop its smooth polished surface. With this accomplished, they stepped away and made themselves scarse.
The Jailer took several deliberate steps toward the Jikk inside the broken stone slab. "My son. We are together at last," said The Jailer in his thunderous voice. There was the slightest touch of sentimentality in his tone. Hearing such an inflection coming from his horrendous new form would have been deeply unsettling for anyone else. However, the Jikk he'd called his son only looked up and smiled.
The Jailer said, "I've kept you in this piece of the God Shelf since you were still a larvae. I dropped you into such a small hole in the rock. Now, look at you. Grown and ready to stand at my side. I've worked on softening that stone all these years, so that it could be cracked when the time was right. I've fed you Knowledges and Wisdoms to nurture your mind. I've transmitted Dark Energies and the Old Arts to strengthen your body. You have received an immeasurable quantity of my power, in a constant stream for your entire life. Your potential is limitless. I am soon to Ascend, Ellgost. I shall be Godhead, and you, my Numen. Do you understand, my son?"
Ellgost got to his feet. He began to rise from the crawlspace, levitating over the stone which had served as his entire world until mere moments ago. "Aye, father."
"Then we shall unseal the Black Vine Shroud together," said The Jailer. He turned back to the large table behind him, his dark eyes returning to the shadowed figures there. "And with its unsealing, your purgatory shall be made eternal, Hithrid."
Ellgost lowered himself to the floor beside his father. Together, as father and son, they approached the Black Vine Shroud; The Jailer taking one end, Ellgost taking the other. The two of them began tearing away the dark vines.
* * * * * *
Several Chancellors gasped in unison--watching the Shroud's unsealing with mounting terror and revulsion. A few of them tried to speak, but couldn't. The water began to ripple, disturbing the image. It was almost as if what the Shroud concealed was too abhorrent for even the fountain itself.
One of the Chancellors collapsed. The others acted as if they didn't even notice.
After several long moments of silent, one of the Chancellors finally lifted head, to turn to the others. "It's finally happening," he whispered.
"What is?" Proyy Nogg asked in an alarmed voice.
"The end of everything," said the head Chancellor. "All of existence."

This could apply to nDads too.
But hear me out. I haven't seen this spoken about yet and am looking for stories that relate to mine.
I know narcissists present themselves as charming to the public. That's a thing.
But my nmother has managed to hide this from my dad (who also has some n qualities) and her children. And my mom and dad enable each other in some ways. And he must have some knowledge of her nature. But yeah, to literally everyone including my immediate family, she presents herself as this sweet, caring person.
Although my dad is wayyyyyyyy more emotionally attuned than my nmom, my dad has a severe alcohol additction. They are a religious family. And she shared with us kids, when we were youngeearly teens, a bunch of the stuff she's been through. And we were like wow, you've healed from it all. That's amazing. We saw this sweet woman who was so passive/quiet, neverarely ever angry, put up with her alcoholic husband and continuously forgiving him, as an angel (like viewing my nmom as an angel). My dad put her on a pedestal in part because of this. He was constantly being forgiven for his drunken episodes (he would yo-yo between drinking and sobriety all the time).
My mom gaslit me a fuck ton. She has done some crazy abusive things. Like crazy abusive. But put it under the guise of being a good person/mom to me. So it even took me some time to accept it for what it actually was, though I still usually knew inititally that things weren't right.
And because I stood up against my parents when I was younger (I honestly thought it was just because they didn't know better, so I went and presented them with the information to be/do better...)...my mom has given me a harder time. I realize now that she placed me as the scapegoat...because I spoke out against what was happening. So I was threatening her image/game.
She was so fucking abusive to me. But fucking quiet about everything, even to me. But insanely abusive. But she tried to present herself as this sweet caring woman to me. But she fucking wasn't.
And this is where she differs from some other stories I've heard told...is that she doesn't get angry with people (unless it's to gaslight me in front of my dad and play this sweet innocent woman who's upset and an innocent victim of her child making 'false accusations' against her...they're all real things that happened).
For background, my mom's mom had BPD. And she was loud and violent. My mom learned from this. And learned to be quieter and smarter.
That's the other thing....is my mom has played this loopy, dumb character our whole lives. Which I know I hear talked about a bit. But she plays this character where that's who she is as a person. Like she has this massive facade going where I think only she knows the truth. So everyone in the family just knows her as "oh that's mom", she's a bit forgetful, but they are so easily forgiving of it bc they see her as just a bit naturally loopy. But sweet. But she isn't actually that dumb. I used to just stare at her a couple years ago knowing some of the abusive things she's done wondering if she could actually be that dumb (not trying to sound mean, it was a genuine thought,,,because it just didn't seem possible).
And she actually is very smart...I know this bc whenever I talked about being smart and having good grades, she would try to one-up me. I took the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale online (just the free version, but it's an actual legit scale used), and although I got a very high score (I think 97th percentile)...she went and took it and somehow got even higher than mine (like I think she got 99th percentile or something like that, something fucking crazy). And she felt the need to show it to me. They always out themselves...that's their flaw. I also got really, really good grades in University...and when I was sharing with her one of them, she didn't even respond to anything I had said and immediately started talking about how she got 100% on her paper. (I had gotten 100% too lol).
Next.....in addition to being abusive in general and toward me....she was engaging in criminal activity atleast at age 15. Don't know when it started, but I do know that it was quite a bit of shoplifting.
Then, when I was a kid, when I had gone to bed, she thought I was asleep and made this phonecall to the bank and literally impersonated my dad. How she got away with it, I don't know. But that's what she did. Which is illegal.
She got pregnant young and then married my dad at 18. So I don't think that's enough time to heal from your childhood nor to resolve any of the reasons why you are engaging in criminal activity.
How she managed to abuse us while seeming sweet is,,,like so many technqiues. I can't get into all that. But she fucking managed...more like coasted. At this point, I know I am one of the only people living so far that actually sees through her bullshit. She likes to take revenge, and retaliate, but like, in quiet ways.
Does anyone else have a mom who also played sweet to everyone in the house? And played nonchalent or dumb when they were actually fucking cunning?
It's hard to explain this dynamic, but the best thing I can think of is one of those psychopathic mothers you see in TV and who are so sweet, but only they know their secrets. You would never think they are capable of the things they are. Or that they would even think of such things.
She tried to convince me when I was 15 that my memory was bad (bc I was bringing up stuff that she said to me that was hurtful). I thought I was going fucking crazy. And honestly thought I had schizophrenia. She had this game going with me about my bad memory (though I didn't know it was a game), and she was playing as a 'concerned mother'. I was 15 and struggling with depression as well, which she knew about, so was playing on that.
Keep in mind, I wrote down a couple of the bad things that happened, one of them for sure, the same day they happened, in my journal. So I knew it fucking happened.
And we've gotten into a lot of fights over this. And basically, what I'm trying to get at, is my mom knew what she was doing in most cases. She was very intentional about this. And she knew the truth and how much it must have bothered me to not be validated in what I knew to be true, and what actaully happened, and for me to question my memory and be told I have a bad memory. So what she started doing, and as a part to keep me in her bond/games, is....when talking with her, I would naturally/randomly bring up these good or neutral childhood memories from way long ago. I actually have a very good memory. And I am talking like stuff from well before any of the events that she gaslit me about... and her response usually is "oh wow, you remember that? That was so long ago. You have a really good memory.". So she is giving me partly what I needed to hear, that validation that I do actually have a good memory (like what a very specific thing to say), and from the person I most needed to hear it from.
I am back to LC now. I would go NC, but there is one thing I'm finishing up (nothing bad at all). Do not wish to state. But then she's out of my fucking life.
But yeah, another thing (and I'm just listing these two things like just to give you an idea of her manipulation/cunningness)...but she cut out any possible resource I had to make friends when I was a teen/young adult living at home, and wouldn't let me go to public school either at a certain point. I tried EVERYTHING. Fucking everything to make friends. Then on my last resort, she found out about it and forced me to shut that down to. And I was so upset. Because I was so isolated. And she said to me, playing the calm caring mother, that oh don't worry, like we'll go to such and such a congregation at the end of the month (or something like that). And I remember saying to her no, we won't. You're just saying that, you always say that, but you're not actually going to do it.
And not one word of a fucking lie...my mom broke character and I saw this literal evil smile on her face. And to me, it said like 'oh, she's figured out my game'. But it was an evil smile. I am not even fucking kidding you. And she very quickly resumed her previous, caring mother character. But I remember how she built herself up...like how she completely switched characters. It was definitely something to see.
There's sooooo many things, and the other things I mentioned, are yes, bad, but like they're not the full-on other abuse I was talking about. These are just examples of situations for you to understand like her ability to skillfully decieve and manipulate.

My mother in law (age 62) is struggling to make a decision on which route to take regarding $200K. The reason behind her request/what she is planning to use it on is not up for debate, but the route in which she will take is what she is struggling with.
For a bit more context regarding the money - she will not be keeping the money, but helping out a close family friend/couple in need.
They plan to pay her back w/in 10 years apparently, or possibly before. They are both working FT and generally seem responsible, just don't have the means to access that much due to DTI (student loans vs actual income) + some apparent Credit Card debt. They told her they have applied for personal loans but not approved. (Total Guess here so take that what it's worth - I have a hunch this money is for a house, but its just a theory, lol).
A little bit more about hefinancial situation: -She has a financial plannemanager(?), however, he has been inconsistent in responding and has been considering moving all of her assets to someone else for a while.
Age 62 - working FT (earns around $50k annually)
Retirement Accounts (Mixed 401K, Roth IRAs etc - This totals just shy of $2 million
Owns a Brand New Condo outright (no mortgage etc; only HOA fees) worth estimated $400K.
2 year old SUV (no monthly payment)
Regarding the $200K she needs/wants: She has asked my husband/I to help her think of Pros & Cons, however, we arent in any financial situation to provide advice w/that level of income. She is considering requesting a HELOC vs w/d the money from her retirement accounts.
We only have a few items on our list so far & hoping ya'll can maybe give some insight/advice so we can share with her as well, or give us advice we can share that maybe we havent thought of. HELOC PROs:
10 year draw period w/interest only (low) payments, then 20 year repayment period Leaves more money in retirement account No early payoff penalties, no application fee, no closing costs (per the bank she uses)
HELOC CONS:
Variable Rate (%7-9?) - rates unpredictable over next 30 years After 10 years when Interest + Principle payments start - will the borrowers be able to pay that amount If she wants to sell her house, apply for other LOC, large purchases etc, she will be on the hook legally for the HELOC amount total, regardless of any agreement they have in place.
Similar to above; legally responsible if anything were to happen financially to the borrowing couple. Retirement w/d PROS: No interest on loan amount (she would just ask for the total/10 years to equal monthly payments) *This is more of a borrower pro I guess? She would be 'free & clear' (legally & personally if she wanted to make a large purchase) from owing someone else money (bank etc), on behalf of the borrower. Easily accessible w/o additional steps of documentation, or possible appraisal, closing timeframe etc She continues to contribute to her account via work If something did happen & borrowers couldnt repay, she wouldnt have a monthly payment to take over.
Retirement w/d CONS: (the 1st few items are things she is waiting to hear back about but still included them)
Possible fees or taxes on amount taken out? Max w/d amount annually? Borrowers possibly taxed for having that amount 'gifted' to them? Will this cause IRS issues for either party?
Retirement account will be immediately $200K less I appreciate any pros or cons you can think of to add to this list, or general advice I might be able to share with her.
Personally, my husband & I, who obviously have zero to gain from either option, think she should take it from her retirement account ( I guess pending the amount of tax/fees she may incur?); even tho this would be an immediate hit to her retirement account, it also seems smarter than putting such a large amount on the line, in her name, for someone else.
We've already shared our thoughts on lending money to family & friends; that she should be prepared to take it as a loss, and if she can't, don't get into this situation. She is totally on board w/that & trusts the borrowers, but knows that if it boils down to it, she will be paying this back. This doesnt seem to be an issue or concern.
Our main thought then is, why put herself in a situation where she has a monthly payment potentially. I know that life is unpredictable, but if something happened & she had to stop working, or hell, even WANTED to stop working; I would think that $200K isnt going to make or break her financial security right away w/her current $2 Million saved?
Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions we can pass along!

Hi everyone I am in a very stressful situation and don’t know what to do I have a child trust fund account and as I’m 21 it is now turned into a cash builder account I was originally told by my mother that there was no money in the account and the account is empty so I didn’t bother asking her for many years then recently I received a call from my bank stating I had a child trust fund account which in fact did have a lot of money in it, I wanted to take money out of it however as I’m beneficiary of the account and my mum is the account holder I was told I could not withdraw money from the account without her signature so I asked my mum for permission and she refused stating she will never give me the money ever and that I owe her as I was living in her house for 19 years (which is funny as I remember giving her £400 every month from my own wages when I used to work ) and today when I had gone to my bank to discuss what my options are I found out she has taken all the money from the account and transferred it to her own account, what do I do ?

Yesterday afternoon, Counsel for interested party Duetsche Bank filed another random, misleading "Response." To say I was taken off guard isn't completely true: I actually said to Scott yesterday I had a bad feeling.
John I took your advice and your permission to cry and for about an hour I cried and hollored and got it all out. It is so frustrating, so scary and so obnoxious to have an attorney who has no clear approach to the FRCP.
After I cried I sat down and wrote a Response. Not since Scott's ex-wife have I dealt with an attorney with such a loss of objectivity. That itself is daunting because you never know how far people will take things out of Court these days.
If you recall I let my PACER account lapse for fiscal and sanity reasons. What this means is I can see the Exhibits attached but not the actual pleading. No matter, at this point I can answer this particular attorney based on her Exhibits alone. This says a lot about her, not my abilities I assure you.
I dried my eyes I sat down and I wrote a Response. At the end I wrote these words:
"This latest ‘Response” submitted by Counsel is yet another attempt at circumventing the Orders and wishes of this Court. At present there has been no valid Assignment filed. Without a valid Assignment the Modification and the Orders of the Court do not reflect the Lender of Record.
How many times is Counsel going to try for another bite at the apple before another Sanction is considered? How many times is Counsel going to lie to the Court before the Trustee has no other choice but to consider a censure and or suspension of her license?
If Counsel is unable to abide by the cannon of ethics that govern the Oath she took to serve as an Officer of the Court, why is she at the bar? She obviously has no respect for the institution of law rather she will lie, cheat and “steal” to “win” at the expense of both the integrity of the Court and well being of the debtor."
I typed these words with a very heavy heart. They go far beyond a mere complaint to the Bar Association. The potential consequences are great. I know this because one of the reasons we are in this mess is because of the attorney we hired in 2010 to do our Chapter 7, who was was beyond negligent.
When I filed our Chapter 13 pro se as means to clean up his mess, I became aware just how negligent he was and just how powerful the Trustee is. The day we got our Plan confirmed this particular was walking out of the Courthouse as we were walking in. I said hello and he ignored me. I figured he either didn't hear me or didn't care so I kept walking.
Later that morning, when all of us were in the "war room" (that's what I call the conference room that is a separate part of the Courtroom accessible by a separate door and where all the attorneys meet to discuss their cases ) the Trustee offhandedly asked no one in particular while he looked at me: "Has anyone seen *** *****?" to which I responded "I did!! I saw him leaving but maybe he is still downstairs?"
He was referring to the attorney who I have now found out is liable for a malpractice regarding our case. It didn't dawn on me that he really didn't care if anyone but me saw the guy, until no one made a move to find him. I figured the Trustee’s assistant would call down to security or whatever to let him know the Trustee wished to speak with him. When she didn't, I realized the Trustee was letting me know he spoke with the guy about the way he handled our case.
So when I wrote those words last night it was because enough is enough, not because I was pissed. I was pissed, but there is no room for emotion in a Court proceeding. However, sometimes when a person unfairly and unobjectively comes at someone utilizing an imbalance of power there has to come a time where it stops.
After I sent in my courtesy copy to Chambers, Counsel, Counsel's direct Supervisor, the Trustee and the attorney for the Trustee that handles Judge Ferguson's cases, I composed an email to the attorney who sent Scott that ridiculously transparent email asking him to authorize the addition of the Book and Page into the Modification so it could be filed. If you recall Scott and I both politely reemed the guy but I digress.
To that email I added the "S" in RAS
( David Jonathan Schneid Esq) and the "Citron" in Citron (Richard Citron, Esq.) RAS Citron is the firm that represents Deutsche Bank and Nationstar. They are one of the most unimaginably poorly run foreclosure mills in the state of NJ. They also handle litigation matters such as ours.
In that email I typed these words:
"Dear Mr. Cupiak:
Is this latest response filed this evening by Ms. Egerman what you meant when you told my husband "perhaps we could present a united front to the Court?
I was wondering: are you aware that there are over 2,000 such Assignments made from BofA N.A. to Nationstar, filed between May 1, 2013 through December 31, 2013 in Ocean County alone? That these Assignments, like ours, have no MIN on them, even though most have not been paid off or refinanced, or even (your client's favorite) foreclosed on?
How many people have undisclosed balloon payments at the end of their phony Modification? I say phony Modification because we all know the Notes were sold on the open securitization market and the MIN numbers were wrongfully deactivated.
Are you aware that when Nationstar took my husband's payment without a valid Assignment that it constitutes bank fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud? I am."
I also included a very long and drawn out explanation of why Deutsche Bank has no right, title or interest in what little remains on the balance of Scott's mortgage and pointed out that this is because present Coundsel is so very inept.
I'm not sure what I expected. I know I prayed for some guidance and asked for some help but beyond that, I once again had that helpless feeling especially since the Court is closed today and I won't find out until Thursday how the Court would approach the latest assault on the system.
I did what I always do: I get up and I try and move forward without letting Court or the election or the shit I deal with on the day to day stop me from robbing me of my joy. It wasn't going so great honestly but I got it together and went and voted. Then I went to the beach and hung out and then I came home and put on Christmas movies.
Around 11:00 am I got a notification from Docket Bird that something had been filed. When I tell you I was just done with it all, and that I opened that email with some serious trepidation I am not even lying but open the email I did.
In the email these words appeared:
"Hello,
A document has been filed in a case you are following on DocketBird.

1. Substation of Attorney terminating Laura M. Egerman and adding David Neeren for DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY, AS TRUSTEE FOR GSAA HOME EQUITY TRUST 2004-5 ASSET-BACKED CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2004-5. Filed by David Neeren on behalf of DEUTSCHE BANK NATIONAL TRUST COMPANY, AS TRUSTEE FOR GSAA HOME EQUITY TRUST 2004-5 ASSET-BACKED CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2004-5."

In short: they took that God awful attorney off the case. This is an unusual move because the normal protocol entails a new attorney assigned to the case by merely entering an Appearance. Termination occurs when someone is either fired, relocating to an office in another state or in deep shit. There is also the possibility I have learned, that the Court could have requested that the attorney be removed but well, the Court is closed for Election Day.
This leaves me with two possibilities now: either I'm going to get crucified or I'm going to get a settlement offer. There is a third possibility and that is the firm may leave well enough alone and let the case run its course through the Court. Something tells me though, I uncovered 2k dirty little secrets and there are tens of thousands more out there.
To be continued.....

​
In mid-2013, Amit Sandis sat back in his chair to watch the sunset, wondering what the future would hold in Latvia. Business was starting to look up, and he had a new family to take care of. They had just a few days left in their summer vacation in the Maldives before returning to Latvia to join his two co-owners in making a critical decision. Sandis, together with his two best friends, had, in 2002, followed an entrepreneurial dream to build a five-star hotel in the cultural centre of one of Latvia’s top seaside cities, Liepaja. To achieve that dream, the three co-owners had negotiated and survived many challenges over the past decade.
After several early years of confidence and profit, the co-owners had spent the past five years struggling, due to the massive downturn in the Latvian economy, as a result of the European Union (EU) financial crisis and subsequent slow recovery. Since the crisis began, the business had declined from generating an annual profit to its present situation of making a loss or just breaking even. Now, however, the EU was showing signs of recovery, business confidence was returning, bookings were recovering and income generation was starting to look up. The co-owners’ frustration with the situation in recent years had at times been so bad that on several occasions they had spoken about selling the business while they could still break even. Now the question confronting them was whether they should put all their struggles behind them, retain the ownership of the hotel and look forward to enjoying the potential days of profit that lay ahead. With these questions on his mind, Sandis thought about the meeting he had planned in a week’s time with his two partners in Latvia. Many variables needed to be weighed before they decided on the strategic direction they should take. The co-owners were his two best friends, and they had spent many years working together.
BACKGROUND
In Latvia, the winter temperatures fluctuate between –25 and –2 degrees Celsius; and during the daytime, it is grey and dark after 4 p.m. Because of this climate, observers often say the Latvian people can, at times, seem a little depressed and not so joyous or communicative, compared with those in southern Europe. For those who live in warmer Mediterranean climates with year-round sunshine, life appears comparatively more relaxed and carefree. Because of Latvia’s northern location, in the winter, Latvians go to work in the dark and when they finish work, they return home in the dark. The long cold winter stretches from November to April. In contrast, Latvia’s climate from May to October is delightful.
Sandis spent 25 years working as a high-ranking city official in Latvia during what he described as “the good times under Soviet control,” when Latvia enjoyed high levels of employment, productive manufacturing plants and very little corruption due to the tight security and military and police control. Even though wages were low, most Latvian people led simple lives and were happy.
Not long after 1991, when Latvia gained independence from the Soviet Union, discussions commenced toward it becoming a member of the EU. From then onward, most of the Soviet-backed manufacturing plants began closing down, unemployment increased, uncontrolled corruption grew and the country’s gross domestic product dropped significantly. Many security professionals and soldiers who had worked for the Soviets no longer had a job, which led to a new industry of private protection and security services, although some of those involved had questionable standards of corporate governance.
With independence, Latvians started looking forward to a new-found freedom. The Latvian people felt excitement and confidence in the media and in government officials promoting successful growth. Celebrating their new independence, the Latvian politicians were riding the wave of popularity. However, Sandis had worked in a government facility and had an insider’s view of how these elected representatives really operated. He felt that most of them worked hard only near an election, but after the election was over, their overall priority was to make money. Sandis’s long-term experience led him to conclude that when an election was coming, government leaders would show great care for the public, make unrealistic statements about positive strategies for the future but after they had been re-elected, they often forgot most of the promises they had made.
After more than two decades working as part of the Soviet security establishment in Latvia prior to 2001, Sandis and his colleagues, Johachim Kaspars and Kemat Valdis, had developed strong bonds, friendships and acquaintances with many powerful government and military officials, some of whom were in high office. They had also endured many years working under tough conditions and were now ready to try to do some private business of their own. Their belief and research had heightened their expectation that tourism was likely to grow in Latvia, as the country became a full member of the EU. In addition, all economic indicators suggested the demand for tourism facilities and accommodation was likely to grow. After long hours of discussion and consideration, the three former Soviet servants were confident that collectively they had now accumulated enough money and trusting relationships with bankers to be successful in realizing their dream of building a five-star hotel in the centre of Liepaja, Latvia’s resort and seaport city.
Politically, the relationship between Latvia and the EU was also evolving. Sandis, Kaspars and Valdis felt that the enthusiasm and the West’s growing confidence in the Latvian business environment made it the right time to invest in the hotel industry. With good planning and management, they were confident of success at a time when the Latvian economy was entering a period of expected growth.
The co-owners registered their new business in the Latvian Official Company Register for €200s, and their application was approved after they had established their company bank account containing a minimum deposit of €3000s. Their first taste of what lay ahead was the realization that, at that time,
running a company in Latvia meant an almost constant need to satisfy the demands of the Revenue Service (RS).
In what seemed to be an after-effect from the Soviet era, Latvia company bookkeepers and accountants devoted a large portion of their daily work time to ensuring their company was complying with RS rules. At times, this task proved to be all encompassing and an unwanted difficulty as the RS decision makers were prone to making changes to the countries taxation rules on very short notice. As Kaspars lamented, “Such legalistic changes were liable to happen up to 200 times during any given year.”
Another complication was that when the RS changed a taxation rule or created a new rule, companies were not given any standard period of time to adjust but were expected to immediately correctly implement and abide by the new law or rule. Tax rates and taxable items were constantly changing, which led to complaints among members of the business community. But it made no difference to the RS officials, as they exercised total control and were not afraid to use their power. Unless one had a strong relationship with an RS insider, these government tax officials were rarely prepared to listen to any complaints. Consequently, company bookkeepers were under constant pressure to keep up to date. They needed to constantly be on the lookout for RS Information Releases and continually consulted their RS contacts and communication networks so they could implement any given changes in a timely manner. Complicating the matter further was that the RS sometimes gave only minimal directions and explanations on how new rules and laws should be correctly interpreted and implemented. The lucidity and interpretations of the changes could vary greatly, and the RS would not hesitate to impose a fine on any company found applying the new rules in an incorrect manner.
Although Latvia was now a part of the EU, the senior RS officials had spent all of their working life operating under the Soviet system. They knew no other way and were reluctant to change or respond to training. Their type of communication, thinking, behaviour, management and work environment continued to exhibit characteristics from their Soviet past, when the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) had previously controlled Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine and Estonia, countries whose people had followed the socialist philosophy of Marx, Engels and Lenin. Most people holding senior positions in the Latvian RS had started working there when Latvia had no private companies, restaurants, shops or hotels, and everything was owned by the state and operated under the Soviet socialist philosophy. In those times, private ownership was banned, and people had to prove they could work hard, be honest and share communal facilities. The general public had little power to make their own decisions regarding how much they were able to spend or what they would spend it on. The buying choices were usually narrow (e.g., only three types of car could be purchased — if anyone could afford one), and the socialist ideology promoted the philosophy that owning any property was bad and that capitalism only exploited working people.
Latvians thus experienced a significantly different style of thinking and government from the norm for people in the EU and Western market economies. After Latvia gained independence, change was initially slow. A significant period of time passed before senior government officials and employees, long entrenched in government positions under Soviet conditions, chose to retire or to adjust their thinking toward the characteristics of the EU market economy. Latvia had supposedly become an open-market economy, and many new emerging entrepreneurs who had worked hard to become successful now enjoyed the fruits of a market economy. These successful businesspeople could afford to own a modern car and a private house, yet they were still being made to feel guilty under the former Soviet ideology. As Sandis explained:
If you were making money, the members of older generations made you feel like you had robbed somebody or you had stolen something and they were usually angry with successful modern business people. Sometimes they would say it to your face that they “are so angry with you being successful and making money, driving a Mercedes and having a nice place to live” even though you may have worked hard to get all of these material things. Some of my friends in Latvia got so tired of this attitude that they decided to sell their business, sell all of their possessions and leave the country. These successful people were paying a lot of tax and the older generations working in the government offices didn’t understand that their salaries come from these taxes. My colleague who had worked in the Revenue Service from the middle of the 1990s started telling me that the biggest taxpayers were the bureaucrats. I had to stop him and say that “I’m sorry my friend, the source of your salary and the bureaucrats is from taxation charged on private businesses.” This was the way the older generation that grew up under the Soviet rule continued to think although small changes are slowly taking place and it is starting to become a little bit easier for successful modern business people in society. Many of my friends, even from outside Latvia, believed it would take two generations for this attitude and type of thinking to be fully eroded and perhaps gone. Now we are trying to explain this new concept to the 40-, 50- and 60- year-old employees that worked in the Revenue Service or Finance Police Department all their lives under the Soviet control.
Latvia became independent in 1991 and immediately after fell into a deep crisis. Jobs, money and opportunities dried up, and by 2000, many skilled people were leaving Latvia to seek a job abroad. They would try to find a job in another EU country, then save some money and later return to Latvia to buy a flat and maybe set up a business to improve their living conditions.
Introducing Latvia into a market economy had led to many problems, and the average workers were the people who suffered in the long term. The Latvian government was not ready for this change and took no action to avoid a significant banking crisis that was incubating due to its vague transition strategy and questionable governance. The banking crisis began not long after Latvia had been granted independence from the Soviet Union and the commencement of its new membership in the EU. Under the new EU policy and conditions, banking officials responsible for granting loans started being paid bonuses on the amount of money they could loan, not on the ability of borrowers to realistically repay the loans. This approach was a complete change in policy from the former Soviet banking environment; as a result, Latvian loan officials soon realized their opportunity and started to take advantage of the situation by approving loans much too easily, without conducting due diligence on prospective borrowers. As a result, borrowing money became much easier, and credibility checks on those applying for loans were often questionable and minimal. Bank officials were taking the opportunity to make more money than ever before and were unconcerned with the ability of borrowers to actually make repayments or repay their loans in full. The bank officials’ main motivator was the commission they would be paid, based on the size of the loan.
When Sandis, Kaspars and Valdis decided to pursue their Hotel Latvia dream, they had been unaware of any of these developing credit problems or the difficulties they could create for their new venture in the future. Feeling confident, they made a request to the bank for a loan of €22 million in 2002, and were surprised as to how easy it was to gain approval.
Sandis explained:
When we gained the €22 million loan to finance building our hotel, our bankers were coming and asking “Why did you take only this amount? Why don’t you take more?” We said, “We don’t need more. What we have been loaned is enough.” We didn’t know the bank officers responsible for providing the credit would get bonuses from the amount of money they loaned to the people. Their checking and due diligence was almost non-existent and they were not even asking for credit records or proof of income. Instead they were asking questions like, “If you need more money or a new car then why don’t you take a bigger loan?”
Prior to purchasing the land on which they would build their hotel, Sandis, Kaspars and Valdis had first built one large apartment building in the central historical area of Riga, the Latvian capital, as a test case to provide them with the opportunity to measure the market, gain some experience in the real estate market, develop a better understanding of the construction industry and begin to generate some income while their larger project was developing. Enjoying success on this first smaller project saw their confidence grow toward the construction of their much larger Hotel Latvia complex. With their larger loan secured, the Hotel Latvia project started in 2002, when Sandis, Kaspars and Valdis identified, researched and purchased land in the centre of Liepaja, Latvia’s resort and seaport city. They wanted to build the hotel in the old part of the city, as it was in a central location, which would be attractive for customers. Because of the location, they expected they could charge slightly higher rates when serving their target markets of businesspeople and tourists who expected quality facilities. In preparing to build, they needed to remove from the existing site the remains of a few old decaying structures that were in serious danger of collapsing. They thought it would be easy to clear and start construction soon after; however, gaining the approvals to demolish these old ruins for their much larger project proved to be significantly more complicated. In a frustrated tone, Kaspars recalled the situation:
You could not imagine the politics involved when you want to build something in the historical part of Liepaja. On the proposed Hotel Latvia site we had purchased, there were several crumbling down and neglected ruins that had no official status or any conditions existing on them saying that “they needed to be restored.” The buildings were totally ruined and we had proceeded to commission three private, official, independent assessments of the proposed site that all concluded they were impossible to restore and that the only safe action to take would be to demolish them. These on-site ruins were in danger of collapse at any moment. However, despite this evidence, the government said there is no possibility that we could demolish them and build something new in the historical part of the city.
To try to change the decision we had to arrange several meetings with several politicians and government officials to get approvals from their respective departments to undertake the construction. It was a big headache to get all of these approvals. Although we could demolish most of the buildings the government departments informed us that each of the front facades of the ruins had to be restored. As a condition of the approval, we had to pay all restoration costs. Another building company we knew who were building in a nearby city also had problems and were not allowed to demolish even one wall of an old decaying building on their site even though it had large cracks in the building and the façade was not even traditional. The one they wanted to demolish was a very ordinary building with no historical value. On one occasion they were officially granted permission from the Architectural Authority to proceed with the demolition at 10 a.m. and then later on the same day at 11.45 a.m. received a second notification from another department saying that “permission to demolish it had been refused.” Today, this building still remains untouched in the centre of the city. Unfortunately, we learned of their experience well after we had begun our building process.
In Latvia’s new market economy, the officials who granted permissions were taking advantage of their newfound power. For businesses to gain any kind of documented approval, they now had to offer the officials something extra to get their signature of approval. Many approvals could not be completed by dealing directly with the officials responsible but had to be done through networks of connections. Valdis was frustrated and threw his arms in the air, stating “You had to use somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody.” Before Sandis, Kaspars and Valdis could even consider beginning construction, much more time was wasted and “under-the-table” fees needed to be paid to a portfolio of connections. Then, after construction had commenced, if the authorities wanted to stop the process to extract some additional favours, they could always find a mechanism whereby someone could complain and put a halt to everything. So, in total, it took the group several years to get all of the approvals to actually go ahead and commence the building construction.
When construction of Hotel Latvia finally commenced, a new problem confronted Sandis, Kaspars and Valdis. The builders and construction employees knew demand on construction services was vastly outstripping the current supply in Latvia, as only a limited number of building companies could build such large structures. As a result, the pressure on at the worksite was always intense, and the co-owners looked at using three builders to carry out the construction. If the builders arrived in the morning to commence the day’s work and if all of the materials or equipment were not there, or if some problem prevented them from starting immediately, then the builders would pack up and head off to work on another site. When this happened, the disruption resulted in the builders having to return later, and the price of construction would increase. This interruption in the schedule also resulted in frustrating delays; sometimes the builders would not return for several days. The hotel was a big project, and in the end, Valdis had to spend every day at the worksite to supervise the building company’s employees and ensure they were working. If no building company supervisor was present on the worksite, then the employees would often not work to capacity, significantly reducing their productivity. The construction companies knew that they were in a strong bargaining position. Sandis, Kaspars and Valdis were in a tough situation, as Latvia had too many buildings under construction, most were only partly completed and Latvia lacked a sufficient number of companies that were competent enough to do all the construction.
Valdis reflected:
We had a separate contract with a German company to do all the installations on the ground floor comprising the hotel’s entry, front desk area, bar and all the other features and facilities. They did a quality job and did it very quickly. The local Latvian builders were working on another part of the hotel at the same time, and the German builders had commented how at times the Latvian builders could not be found, were smoking outside or just sitting around doing nothing. In the end, I had to go to the site every day to supervise their work for the last four months including on the weekends, from the morning to the evening. Sometimes we had to threaten the builders to make sure they were doing their job because they took short cuts, time off or left to work on other building sites.
The German building company had designed the hotel and brought with them all of the materials to complete the entrance hall, and another German company came to install all of the lamps in the hotel. The German lighting employees were professional and efficient, and it took only three employees to complete the job in three days. For the Latvian construction companies, progress was much slower. After having to apply constant pressure on them to keep working effectively, the construction of the hotel was finally completed in one and a half years.
Finding the talented employees to staff the hotel was another issue. A large number of applications were received; however, finding the right standard and quality of employee suitable to staff this five-star operation required intense interviewing and a comprehensive training program.
The Hotel Latvia finally opened in 2006, and business started well. The hotel’s initial marketing campaign was successful: after six months of business, it was performing better than its competitors but was still not generating enough income to meet the co-owners’ strategic target. In the first two years, they generated enough income to service their loan but sometimes needed to contribute their own money to meet the repayments. Some adjustments were necessary, and halfway through their second year of operation, they sold their initial trial investment in Riga and asked the bank to deposit the funds from the sale into an offset account to reduce the interest being paid on the loan.
By the third year, Sandis, Kaspars and Valdis had also renegotiated an increase in the term of their loan from 20 years to 25 years, with the goal of reducing their repayments and, thus, the level of financial pressure. This strategy helped them to adjust to the change in market conditions and encouraged the untried entrepreneurs to become more contingent. Following the 2008 financial crisis, the level of tourism declined sharply in Latvia in 2009 and 2010. By then, due to the significant drop in tourist numbers, the co-owners were generating only 60 per cent of the revenue required to meet their business target.
To try to cope with the downturn in bookings and reduction in income generation, they needed to make some strategic changes. These changes included downsizing the staff by 18 per cent, closing one of the guest floors, eliminating one of the elevators to reduce power costs and opening their five-star restaurants only on weekends.
During the downturn, not only did individual people stop travelling but companies, government and universities stopped holding conferences and/or reduced the number of delegates they were sending to conferences. These changes resulted both in universities, governments and associations reducing their number of conferences and in many existing industry conferences significantly decreasing their budgets.
Said Sandis:
We had many solid and developing contracts for annual conferences and tours but at the beginning of 2009 there were many cancellations and a sharp drop off in group tours and individuals coming to stay at the Hotel.
At about this time a Dutch professor I knew came to Latvia for a short term on foreign exchange to give some lectures and organize some student exchanges. After a time, he told me he believed a high percentage of the Latvian university students will leave Latvia for Germany and other countries after they graduate. Although he was a foreigner, he was worried about the situation in our country. He believed the IMF [International Monetary Fund] had made a mistake to place such heavy austerity measures on Latvia and it had created a very bad situation that would be difficult to recover from. Although it was not openly reported in the Western press, Latvia was in trouble much earlier than Spain, Greece and Italy with their gross domestic product declining by 18 per cent in 2009. Most of the decline was in construction because, during the preceding period of steady growth, the real estate and construction sectors grew out of control and too many buildings were built for the demand at that time. This had resulted in the problem of an oversupply of rooms in the hotel sector.
Eventually, the Latvian economy collapsed, real estate prices declined, companies and many individuals holding loans went bankrupt, salaries decreased by 30 to 40 per cent, and many people lost their jobs with unemployment rising significantly. The government was in financial difficulty and could afford to pay people who had been retrenched only a small percentage of their promised redundancy or unemployment payments. Even worse was that the government’s unemployment financial assistance following redundancy usually lasted only nine months; and when these payments ceased, the unemployed persons had to take care of themselves.
The downturn delivered to Latvia a market economy reality check that very few people who had lived under Soviet control could predict, understand or imagine. Huge excesses had occurred at the beginning of the growth phase in 2002, when bankers and financiers had enjoyed considerable wealth, and they now had to be paid for. Not conducting the required due diligence on those who wanted to borrow the money when times were good and giving out poorly backed or unsupported loans was now having a severe and adverse effect on the Latvian economy.
Sandis, Kaspars and Valdis had worked hard and had built their hotel from the ground up during the peak in construction activity; as a result, their construction costs had been higher than expected. After the slowdown, business did not run according to their expectations and, like many others, they were in a difficult situation regarding loan repayments to the bank. Many people had taken out large bank loans and mortgaged everything, including their homes, to ride the boom. After the downturn, many companies went bankrupt, were taken over by the banks or closed down because they could not afford to make the repayments. Most were overexposed with too much debt and no liquidity to make the repayments. Although this situation was happening throughout Latvia, Sandis, Kaspars and Valdis still had the liquidity to continue making repayments, though their strategic options were severely reduced.
Due to their tight fiscal management, the three Hotel Latvia owners did not have to sell the hotel but began to consider whether they should get out while they were still able to break even. They realized that to go on trying to make money from the hotel would be hard work, and the venture had not delivered their expected outcome. They started wondering about their future risk on the amount of return they could generate. Were the hardest times over, meaning it would now be a mistake to sell? Solving all the approval problems during the years of construction had taken its toll, and with the building problems and increase in costs, it appeared that if they sold now, they could make a zero net gain in value on their decade of hard work and investment. At another time, the outcome would have been very profitable; however, the business environment following Latvia’s entry into the EU had taken its toll on and had disadvantaged Sandis, Kaspars and Valdis, as a result of a tough combination of factors: the Latvian people’s slow adaptation to the evolving market economy, corrupt bankers and government officials, building contractors taking advantage of the excess demand in the construction industry and the sudden economical crash.
Despite their situation, their bank was not currently concerned about their financial situation and was not putting pressure on them to liquidate their property or make any extra repayments on their loan. The bank had many other poorer performing loans and associated issues to worry about and its main concern was the number of its bad loans. Many lenders owed their banks substantial amounts of money, and many companies found themselves overextended and facing bankruptcy.
Valdis expressed his concern:
When we saw some good businesses being taken over by the banks without warning or with very short notice, we became concerned. We anticipated we may have to sell the hotel not long after it was completed because the cost of construction had gone 18 per cent over budget and, as a result, our monthly repayments and period of the loan had both grown significantly. Our business had started so well we thought the future would be profitable. Following the EU crash, it appeared some type of recovery had started and we thought there may be an opportunity to sell it in 2012 as Latvia’s credit and investment ratings proposed by the International Rating Agency, Standard and Poor’s, were improving and looking better.
But another serious problem was looming in the hotel sector. Latvia’s average price per room had dropped sharply because many hoteliers were in deep trouble and had started slashing their prices because they were located in less marketable locations. One example was the Reval Hotel that boasted 240 rooms in suburban Riga. Facing very poor occupancy, the operator in charge had suddenly slashed prices and had begun to sell rooms to large groups of tours at prices that were so low that they decimated the whole market. Once the Reval Hotel owners found out what their managers were doing, they immediately dismissed them and changed their operator but it was too late. For the rest of the market, the damage had already been done through the reductions in their bookings and through agents and customers who were no longer prepared to pay the former prices.
This incident happened at a critical time, when Sandis, Kaspars and Valdis were considering searching for a new partner to purchase 30 per cent of the hotel, in an effort to help reduce their loan pressure. Ideally, they needed a partner who had the cash to buy a portion of the property, and then the co-owners could use the money generated to offset or repay a larger part of the loan and thereby reduce their debt. With a fourth partner joining the group, it would have made it significantly easier to survive but after the Reval Hotel had slashed its prices, that option was no longer possible. The unpredictable situation drove away all potential buyers; they were afraid to invest and had decided to wait until the situation improved. Kaspars’s connections in a different bank informed him that the financial markets did not know what the situation may be for the future in Latvia, and much doubt surrounded the industry and marketplace. Some price targeting had broken out from time to time, and the reduced number of customers who required accommodation in Latvia were enjoying quality deals.
Upon reflection, compared with most of the businesses at that time, Sandis, Kaspars and Valdis were among the lucky ones. Despite their many problems, they still believed that, if necessary, they could still sell their hotel, pay off their debt and get out without losing money. Looking at the market around them, they saw many others lose everything; gone was the confidence that had existed before the crisis. Wisely, they had made sure they had mortgaged only the property on which the hotel was being built; none of their own private dwellings were included as part of their collateral on their original €22 million loan.
The Hotel Latvia was built on a prime piece of land in coastal Liepaja, so it retained most of its value following the crisis and did not decrease by in real estate value as much as other properties further from the centre of the city or in less marketable locations. As time wore on, many competitors disappeared completely. Those that had managed to survive had experienced significant decreases in income. At the beginning of 2012, Sandis, Kaspars and Valdis again commenced negotiations with a large global finance company based in London in an attempt to sell the hotel. They found that from 2008 to 2011, the sale price of the hotel had decreased by approximately 35 per cent. Their agents had tried selling the Hotel Latvia to different investment companies, and their responses had initially been positive. However, when investors saw the predicted future of Latvia and its poor credit and investment ratings, the buyers’ interest had ceased, and it was difficult for the agents to generate any serious interest.
Selling agents would tell us, “We know you guys have a good hotel but the country is no good. The climate for business and investment is poor and the future is not good.”
In the seven years following the boom that had begun in 2002, most of the surge in business activity, income generation and increases in prices had been in the construction industry. As a result, when the decline hit the construction companies, the support industries and related jobs were the worst affected. Only when the credit and investment ratings began to rise a few points in early 2013 did any purchasers begin to show any real interest in buying the hotel. Western investors were becoming interested again but their offers were still much below what the co-owners considered to be an acceptable price.
As Sandis explained:
They all came with the idea that they could buy our hotel for what we describe as “sandwiches.” I mean, for a very cheap price, and we thought they really wanted to buy it for nothing. The poor prices and demand were as a result of the construction bubble throughout Europe. Believe me, the politicians and bureaucrats could see it coming long before the crisis arrived but they did nothing because they were all set to make a lot of money out of it.
By the beginning of 2013, a slight recovery had begun, especially with the number of Russian tourists again beginning to grow. To Russian tourists, Latvia was now being marketed as an EU country and hence an international destination. In addition, rumours had begun that the EU was beginning to emerge from the recession, and that the steep austerity measures currently imposed at the time were soon to be eased.
Sandis, Kaspars and Valdis were at the point where they now had three options. One was to keep the hotel and continue working hard to enjoy the fruits of the supposed upturn that appeared to be commencing. The second option was to now find another partner to purchase a share in the company and to use this money to reduce their debt repayments and risk. Their third option was to sell the hotel completely and walk away with approximately the same amount of funds they had started with in 2002. Were there any other options?
Sandis knew the meeting with Valdis and Kaspars would occur on the evening after his return to Liepaja. He sat in the chair in his bungalow on the Maldives and wondered what they should do.

Recieved today from Duetsche Bank’s Managing BK Attorney in Duluth GA
Attn: Scott Ruquet
Mr. Ruquet,
Our firm is preparing to record the attached loan modification agreement approved by the Court in this case, pursuant to the Court’s order entered on September 29, 2020 (doc 267). However, the Ocean County clerk is advising us that they will not accept the loan modification agreement without the recording info from the mortgage and the book and page number in the first paragraph being filled in.
We would ask your authorization for us to complete that section of the modification so that it reads:
“This Loan Modification agreement (“Agreement”), made this 19th day of October, 2016, between Scott Ruquet (“Borrower”) and Nationstar Mortgage, LLC, whose address is 8950 Cypress Waters Blvd., Coppell, TX 75019 (“Lender”), amends and supplements (1) the Mortgage, Deed of Trust, or Security Deed (the “Security Instrument”), and Timely Payment Rewards Rider, if any, dated March 12,2004 and recorded in Book/Liber N/A OR-11959, Page N/A 1815, Instrument No: N/A 2004054389 of the Official Records of Ocean County, NJ and (2) the Note, bearing the same date as, and secured by the Security Instrument, which covers the real and personal property described in the Security Instrument and defined therein as the “Property”, located at 621 Bay Blvd, Bayville, NJ 08721, the real property described being set forth as follows:”
If you will authorize us to submit the court approved modification with the additions highlighted in yellow above, that will allow us to get the modification recorded with the Ocean County clerk as ordered by the bankruptcy court. Please send us that authorization by reply to all email. We will send you a copy of the recorded modification once it has been recorded, for your records.
We share your frustration with the difficulty we are having in getting these documents recorded as ordered by the bankruptcy court. We want to get these documents recorded as much as you do, and we appreciate your cooperation in meeting the requirements of the Ocean County clerk to overcome these obstacles.
Thank you,
Scott P. Ciupak
Managing Attorney – Bankruptcy Litigation
Robertson, Anschutz, Schneid & Crane LLC
10700 Abbott’s Bridge Rd.,
Suite 170
Duluth, GA 30097
Response sent back:
Good afternoon:
I hope this email finds you well. If I understand correctly, you wish to record the Mortgage Modification with the proper book and page number inserted in the blanks in paragraph 1 of page 1.
My question is how will the county clerk treat the Modification as it does not relate to the lender of record. The Lender of record is Duetsche Bank. The county clerk has indicated that in addition to the book and page number, the correct lender must be referenced. Will a corrective Assignment be filed?
I honestly don't feel comfortable agreeing to anything or committing to anything until Nationstar has a clear chain of title.
I am not trying to be difficult or give you a hard time. I am just hesitant because you know, once bitten twice shy. Specifically you mention getting the Modification filed but make no mention of the Orders. The Modification as written does not provide for the relief afforded in the Orders of the Court.
In light of the additional papers that were filed on Friday I would respectfully decline your request until Nationstar has a clear Assignment.
If, on the Hearing date the only document that needs to be filed is the original Mod because I did not provide authorization, I will gladly accept responsibility.
As an aside, I'm not sure you need me to authorize any type of book and page number insertion on an existing Modification.
If I can be of any further assistance please let me know and thank you for your help in trying to get this cleared up.
Regards,
Scott Ruquet
Response Received:
Mr. Ruquet,
I understand your reluctance to give your consent under the circumstances here, and I thank you for your courteous, thoughtful reply. I don’t know where exactly that leaves us with respect to getting the loan modification recorded – we may try again to get it recorded as is after the court orders have been recorded.
As to your question of what documents we are looking to record, we are indeed attempting to comply with everything that the court has ordered in this case (including getting the orders recorded as the court ordered in doc 267). I do believe that both “sides” here simply want to bring this matter and the case to conclusion, while concurrently providing you with the assurance you are seeking that the court approved modification (and all other related orders) is in fact being fully recognized, both now and after the BK case is concluded.
I know we have another hearing set for 12/15/20 at 10a. I do not know if the court will reset that for an earlier date given our Response filed 10/09/20 at doc 269 and the letter you have submitted to the court. If we do not get everything addressed before that date, perhaps we will be in place where we can present a united request to the court to ensure that the orders the court has issued (and the loan modification) will be accepted by the Ocean County clerk for recording.
Please do continue to work with Ms. Egerman, as she is the attorney assigned to this matter. I am confident that she shares our desire to simply get this matter fully and fairly resolved, so that you (and your wife) can finally put this bankruptcy behind you, and begin the fresh, clean start you have sought in the BK.
Thank you,
Scott P. Ciupak
****I found this to be disingenuous. Scott was already furious. He felt I should have been more "me" in my first response but my mentor called that "laying a foundation"....for the final blow I would suppose lol....****
Response:
Dear Mr. Cupiak:
With all due respect the "Response" at doc 269 follows nothing even remotely allowed under the FRCP, not even meeting the 10 day bar date under Rule 59 and I believe Rule15. I am saying this because it is questionable as to whether or not the Court will even consider the filing as it is not in proper form.
Having said that, the "error" relative to the Orders that I outlined in my Response on Friday, October 10, 2020, to doc 269, illustrate nothing but another underhanded attempt to screw me, quite frankly. The only thing I want is for Nationstar to have clear title as they move forward in their compliance with Order 267.
Conversely, what exactly is Duetsche Bank’s standing in this case? DBNTC is an interested party, I do understand that. I also understand that Nationstar filed not one but two POCs knowing their instrument was not perfected. Further, the Trust is merely a repository for documents and has no capacity to act on behalf any debt.
If you want a united front, your client would simply file a Corrective Assignment. That Sir, is good faith and the question is: why hasn't it been done?
Until then, unfortunately I view everything about this matter coming from RAS as suspect which is a shame. My wife spent 2 years of her life being stonewalled as she desperately attempted to settle this matter in house. One only need read the emails I submitted as Exhibit B-1 and B-2 in the instant Motion.
Your client and your firm have done nothing short of abuse her. You should be ashamed of yourself. You didn't see her cry. You didn't see her throw up. You didn't see her stay in bed for days at a time because she was so depressed and scared of your client, I did.
You didn't take her to the doctor for the endoscopy that found razor like cuts in the lining of her stomach as a result of the stress your client caused her, I did. You didn't hold her hair back when she threw up bile, I did.
So before you even speak on my wife ask yourself as a man, after you read those emails, how you would feel if someone treated your mother, your sister, your Aunt, your niece or your papergirl with such little respect.
And yet you reach out to me and reference "sides" we didn't create and don't really share your view on. There are no sides here. This is business. The only side there is, is the side of clear title, and again you failed to specifically reference the word Assignment in your last email.
Yes, it has been 6.8 years since this case was filed so you are correct when you say I want it to come to completion. However, I am in it for the long haul only to make certain my rights in my sweat equity investment is properly recorded. What does a few more months matter at this point?
Conversely if my wife's health does not improve because your client and your staff have caused her, and continue to cause her, so much anguish, we will have no other choice but to contemplate filing an action for actual and punitive damages due to your client's egregious behavior.
Forgive the tone of my email but honestly, none of this ever had to go this far. My wife and I tried to settle with you up until the very end and have little belief that you or your client feels any remorse for the way you tried to lie, cheat and steal from us or any real desire to fix this. If you did, common sense dictates you would have done it already.
Thank you for your time and consideration and if you honestly feel like there is a way to settle this matter then pick up the phone and talk to my wife.
Thanks and have a great evening.
Scott Ruquet

tw: narcissistic abuse
*PLEASE if you read this and would like to reply, I don't need to be told to move away. We are actively working on it and are very close to doing so, 7% interest rates be damned 🙄 thanks <3*
I've written previously about the incredibly toxic relationship with my narc MIL who is our neighbor, and her 2 flying monkey narc daughters who live down the road from us. (Please read those other in-law posts linked in the comments if you want more context/the rest of the wild tale.)
As of January of this year, I am NC with all of them and am also keeping my children away from them. My husband is NC with his sisters and LC with his mother. He made that LC decision because he was previously her primary caregiver, but after suffering enough of her narcissistic abuse he had to protect himself/our family by leaving that role. Because she is elderly and chronically ill (COPD + autoimmune disorder), however, and because we are at this time still her neighbors, he has remained LC with her in case of emergencies.
This means she still has full access to his phone number and she calls him about once a week begging for him to bring our children to her house. My children are 3 and 6. Prior to January she was accustomed to seeing them at least once a week. She's seen them maybe twice since January, and for very short periods of time because she can't behave herself, among other issues:
The whole situation has many layers. For starters, she can't talk to DH without guilting him relentlessly about his LC/NC decisions. She says it's killing her, and not figuratively. She wants to know what's wrong with him and why he's doing this to her and his sisters as if she hasn't been told 100x. He's the bad guy, duh. The perpetual scapegoat. She immediately goes there in every conversation - she can't help herself. Once DH shuts that down and grey rocks to get to the point, she moves on to the kids. She misses them and wants them to come to her house. She asks to speak to them. They speak to her on speakerphone and she lays the guilt on them next, "Talk your daddy into bringing you up here. Grandma misses you. He's being mean." We cut her off. The kids don't understand wtf is going on, just that Grandma disrespects us and her house is dangerous.
So the problem with her house is that the floors are about to fall in because of termite damage, her walls are covered in black mold, the place is full of nicotine stains and stench from her 50-year 2-pack-a-day habit, and my SILs leave love bombs there for my children to find as a means to weasel their way back into our lives. Plus, now that my husband and I are no longer caring for her and her house, she and her lazy daughters almost never clean it in our absence. There are bugs, dust, and trash everywhere and yet all 3 are highly capable of tidying up.
I put my foot down with my husband months ago and said that primarily because of the health dangers of being in that home, my children and I will not go back up there. (Secondarily because she's a manipulative monster.) He was supportive of that. His mother is not too ill, elderly, or poor to come to our house (nor to seek out the resources to have her home properly repaired and cleaned), so if she wants to see them, she can come here. We'll make her as comfortable as possible for as long as she wants to stay. DH, out of pity & charity, always offers this when she asks him to bring the kids up there, and she always refuses. "I caaaaan't. I'm too sick. *fake cough*" The truth is that she's been agoraphobic since the 1980s and has only left her house a handful of times since then. Her late husband and children were made to take over her duties so she could laze in bed, chain smoke, and gossip on the phone for 13+ hours a day. It's very sad that even though we're her family living 30 feet from her and she's allegedly so desperate to see her grandchildren, she won't get over herself long enough to come see them and have her crazy ass treated like a queen in my house by her son. (I, however, will be elsewhere during her hypothetical visit because I can't be trusted to bite my tongue when around her. No can do.)
Because of my husband's lingering guilt over his relationship with her - she is the goddess of guilt trips omg - and considering her old age and failing health, he sometimes requires extra validation about our decision not to take the children to his mother's house, and we have no support system to seek advice from otherwise. I'm flat out refusing to allow my children to go to her house. It's not happening. But I think he would appreciate your input about our decisions - about his LC relationship really only for the sake of emergencies, and that MIL's house is too damn toxic in a million different ways to have little kids there even if she is pitiful, ill, and agoraphobic. I'm doing everything I can to keep my family from being penalized or roped in by her lifetime of bad decisions.

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Duetsche Bank National Trust Company (DBNTC)
DBNTC is a name change from Banker’s Trust which was a real bank, organized and existing under national charter. So DBNTC exists under a national charter. But DBNTC is not a bank in the sense that it makes loans or collects deposits from customers. It is a trust management company.
The conflict arises when the DBNTC name is used in conjunction with a REMIC Trust. This might appear as
• “DBNTC as Trustee for the XYZ Trust” or
• “DBNTC as Trustee on behalf of the holders of certificate series ABC-2008A” or
• “DBNTC as Trustee for certificate series ABC-2008A” or
• “DBNTC” as Trustee for the certificate holders of XYZ Trust series ABC-2008A”
Despite the variation in names it all adds up to the same thing:
First, since DBNTC has never entered into a transaction in which it paid value in exchange for any debt, it cannot be the owner of the debt.
Second, since no trustor or settlor has entrusted any debt to DBNTC, it can’t be the trustee with any right, title or interest in the debt’s ownership or management.
Third, since the certificates do not convey any right, title or interest to any debt, the certificates are irrelevant but are stated to create the misleading impression that any action brought on behalf of investors who will receive the money proceeds from the forced sale of the home. They don’t receive any money from those sales and they are not entitled to receive such proceeds.
Fourth, certificates are not legal persons and therefore stating that an action is brought by DBNTC for a certificate series says nothing more than DBNTC is not appearing in its own behalf but rather in a representative capacity — all without stating what capacity other than calling it “trustee.”
Fifth, DBNTC does not have any contractual or other authority to represent certificates or owners of certificates. It is stated in vague terms to create the misleading impression that the Pooling and Servicing Agreement has some provision enabling DBNTC to represent the owners of certificates as though they are beneficiaries of the trust. Certificate owners are not beneficiaries of any trust. They are creditors. And there is no agreement in which DBNTC represents the interests of the certificate holders.
Sixth, the naming of a beneficiary under a deed of trust or a Plaintiff in any type of action including the DBNTC name is entirely misleading.
• DBTC is a legal entity.
• The trust — whether expressly named or implied — either does not exist or does not exist in relation to the subject debt.
• Trusts are generally held to exist only if the elements are present — trust agreement, settlor (trustor), beneficiaries and res — a thing of value entrusted to the trustee to keep for beneficiaries.
• In all cases the REMIC trust is virtually the same as MERS — it is naked nominee for any documents executed in favor of the trustee or trust for its principal, the investment bank that was the named underwriter (but actually the issuer of the certificates doing business under the name of a fake trust).
• But without conveyance of the debt (i.e., in a transaction in which value is paid) the paper conveyance of an interest in a mortgage or deed of trust is a legal nullity in all US jurisdictions.
• Thus the trust holds nothing and does not, in most jurisdictions, have any status as a legal entity.
• The certificate holders exist but they are irrelevant.
• The certificates actually don’t exist except in virtual form and are also irrelevant.
• Since the trust does not own the debt, there is no trustee with any power or right to administer the loan.
• Naming DBNTC as trustee is merely a ploy intended to mislead folks into thinking that a trust exists, in which the debt is owned and certificate owners are beneficiaries. None of those things are true. It is a lie.
Hence if any action just names DBNTC without saying “trustee” or naming certificates, or a trust or certificate holders, they would be naming a legal entity, albeit one without any claim. By naming those other things and implied entities they are naming an entity that does not exist legally or even equitably.
Even if an entity was found to technically exist, it has no claim because it does not own the debt, note or mortgage —despite paper conveyances fabricated to create the false assertion that the mortgage or beneficial interest had somehow been conveyed — despite the absence of any real transfer of the debt.

Cody Runnels, better known as Cody Rhodes and more recently Stardust, quit WWE on 5/21, frustrated with his lack of push.
His wife, Brandi, also known as ring announcer Eden Stiles, followed him, quitting three days later. The latter wasn’t a surprise since when Cody quit she then tweeted how proud she was of him for making the decision. Many figured that was her swan song, but she did come back to work over this past weekend.
The key factor seems to be that his planned return to being Cody Rhodes, agreed upon months ago to happen right after WrestleMania, was nixed by Vince McMahon. This left him with a gimmick that had long since run its course, and he was being booked almost like enhancement talent on B TV shows.
Brandi Runnels on Twitter wrote, “What I’ve been teasing for weeks, I’ve been offered a new opportunity outside of WWE. So I’ve decided to part ways with WWE after tonight.”
Apparently she didn’t give them much notice because they used her on the PPV and when rumors were going around before the PPV that she was gone, which Brandi Runnels claimed were false, those in the company also said the same thing, which would indicate she hadn’t given notice and was just working it out.
Many in the company expected this, feeling with the less than harmonious departure of her husband, that she would probably follow suit, similar to what happened with A.J. Lee after C.M. Punk quit.
Cody Runnels, after quitting, wrote a long statement explaining his decision. He was careful when it came to McMahon and HHH, even though McMahon is the one who nixed his switch and slotted him in the position he was put in.
Instead, he lashed out as the head writers on Raw and Smackdown, Ed Koskey and Ryan Ward, saying “one pretending to be Brain Gewirtz (Koskey is known for being similar to Gewirtz) and the other too busy hitting on developmental divas” (Ward was head of creative with NXT until just recently being moved full-time to the main roster and taken off NXT creative).
Internally, it was the line about hitting on developmental divas that created a stir internally, for obvious reasons. The key is fear that would break out into being a news story that TMZ-style media would go after, but thus far that hasn’t been the case.
Runnels, 30, said. “I would do this job for free, but that didn’t stop WWE from always compensating me in a generous manner.” He also in particular praised Arn Anderson and Fit Finlay as great teachers.
Runnels is considered one of the smartest guys on the roster, and heavily driven. He wanted badly to be a main event star, but those in power didn’t see it in him. Over the years he’s talked to many people and sought out advice on how to be a top star, a position the company, and for that matter, the fans didn’t see him at but he so badly wanted to be at. A lot of talent understands their lot, and is happy to be role players because the money is very good, maybe not what it should be, but it’s better than anywhere else if you’re on the main roster.
Could he have been used better? Of course. But for most of his WWE run, he really was just a guy on the roster, a nice looking guy who was fine in the ring. He seemed to be missing the charisma and the kind of standout level in-ring that has helped a lot of talent today become stars that never would have been in another era because, when appearance was so much more important. The Stardust gimmick was a bad idea even if it had been pushed because it was very much like Damien Sandow as Mizdow, a spoof on Goldust. But it didn’t get over at the same level, and he got no push with it so it didn’t even have a strong run before it ran its course.
It was a short-term gimmick that could leave the person with nothing when it ran its course. As it turned out, Stardust, with the original idea of feuding with brother Goldust, was a feud that didn’t click. And he wasn’t pushed much at all after that, except for being the foil for Stephan Amell in a short program.
When Dusty Rhodes passed away on 6/11, nearly one year ago, Cody took some time off television. His coming back as Stardust no longer made sense. He was in a position where people wanted to like him. They empathized with a guy whose father, a larger-than-life character, had just passed away. Of course that sympathy wouldn’t be there for the long haul. But Stardust was already a dead character by that point. My impression is he wanted to keep the character based on what he wrote at the time, but with the idea of building to the return of Cody Rhodes. They were pushing fans to chant “Cody,” with the obvious long-term of him turning back.
It is believed it was in February when he was told that he’d switch back to being Cody Rhodes. There was a meeting with Vince McMahon. He had all new gear made. He started teasing it on Twitter. Because it never happened, I had thought he was just messing with the Internet. But that actually wasn’t the case. The change was supposed to happen right after WrestleMania, and then Vince McMahon nixed it. He was still doing Stardust, but even with a good performance at WrestleMania, he was on the lowest rung of the totem pole and getting almost no main show television exposure.
“Setting foot in the dingy ol’ Greensboro Coliseum this past Monday can only be described for me as just a whimsical moment of clarity,”
Greensboro was one his father’s hottest arenas after he left Florida in 1984 to work for Jim Crockett Promotions as booker, and was the architect of a few big years during a period people romanticize about and was very strong in 1985 and 1986, drawing 1.9 million paid attendance per year.
When talking about his mentor (who he never mentioned by name, although he appeared to mean his father), said many superlatives have been used to describe him, “but one I often forget about...is fearless. And it’s a trait I wish more of had been passed down my way.”
He noted being in the dressing room, but “being benched” (not used) and sitting there watching a monitor advertising a returning star (John Cena) and seeing his gear bag “to find an outfit I had long outgrown and a face paint kit.”
He said his goal was to win the WWE title, noting that his father never held it, and he’s tried for a decade to convince Vince McMahon and HHH that he could be their top star, but he realized neither saw that in him. And really, it wasn’t as if fans, or anyone, were clamoring for him in that high of a position.
He said he appreciates HHH acting like a custodian of history and honoring his father since his passing. He noted HHH telling him that “WWE is a play, and everybody has their role and needs to act it their best.” He said he was thinking that “The best actors don’t want the lesser roles.”
He noted that for the past six months he’s pleaded to go back to being Cody Rhodes, had pitched every writer “like a door-to-door salesman” on how, why and when. He thanked many for helping him out, noting Brian James, Nick, Faz, J Russo, Dave K (Dave Kapoor), JBL and Michael Cole. But he blasted Koskey and Ward, saying they “continued to not return my pitches or emails, and in face-to-face encounters tried to big league me by pretending to be on their clearly powered off laptops, barely willing to listen to an idea I considered beneficial to more than one talent.”
My reaction reading this, and a few closer to the situation than me had the same one, not knowing the exact dynamics, but it is Vince McMahon at the end of the day, who decides who is and isn’t being pushed. Writers shouldn’t be rude to talent of course. But they are given marching orders on who is to be pushed and who isn’t. In particular, when Vince changed his mind, Koskey and Ward weren’t going to be allowed to do anything with him except perhaps put him in the Social Outcasts-like position, and he wouldn’t have been happy with that spot. You can only look at the pre-Social Outcasts, 3MB, to see the long-term of that role.
He said for ten years he’d done everything he could including what he called the “half-cocked” idea of painting himself up like his brother, he said turning chicken shit into chicken salad had been his specialty.
He made a brass ring reference saying “I felt like I had a bag of those brass rings and when it came time for me to cash them in, I find I can’t do so.”
He said his moment of clarity on 5/16 in Greensboro was, “I realized that I don’t need to sell myself to these two writers captaining a broken unrecognizable system, matter of fact with the time I had put in and the body of work I presented it should have been other way around.”
It’s not unusual for wrestlers to in their minds scapegoat the villains in the company, the roles people like J.J. Dillon, Jim Ross and John Laurinaitis played for years. I couldn’t tell you how many times when someone was let go, it was the hatchet man, or the writers, who took the blame from the wrestlers. “Vince loved me but that John Laurinaitis buried me,” is a typical response. I’ve always thought that the people should know better, but Vince McMahon does have a quality and aura about him and the system is done to help him deflect the heat.
Other writing made it clear that it was a very strong feeling in his mind to honor his father after his death, which in his current role, he couldn’t do. In the role he envisioned, that would be a key part of it. And it could work at first, and you never know for sure what will or won’t click. And obviously he’d have to be more than just Dusty Rhodes’ son.
“It’s been said never to leave money on the table, but no money is worth being less than you are. Ask my wife: I don’t even read the check breakdowns. This was never about the money, this was always about the moments and I’ll be damned if my father’s legacy is Stardust or a series of sizzle reels for NXT.”
He then talked about missing guys in the locker room, mentioning by name Cesaro, Zack Ryder, Tyler Breeze, Kevin Owens, Luke Harper, Kofi Kingston, Tye (Dillinger), The Wasteland (The Ascension) and the NC (which stands for the Nicky Clan, his group of Clash of Clans video gamers).
“Almost one year ago, the biggest light in my sky was ripped away from me when I lost my father. It’s time for me to try and seek that illumination...that glow that’s still out there. This is not a goodbye. There’s a whole world of film and television and the stage that I might find I have a knack for (maybe I even already got an offer). As far as the future is concerned, though, I’m a wrestler. So that’s what I’ll do...wrestle.”
One person close to the situation noted to us that Runnels had been unhappy of late and had, as expected, taken his father’s death hard. I don’t want to get into family stuff but the relationship with Dusty and Cody was very much like Ric Flair and Reid in that their father, even with their schedules, were always there as their biggest supporters growing up. They attended their sports events when they weren’t there often for their older children because of the insane schedule that wrestlers worked when they were in their primes.
Cody was born in 1985, so really from the time he was six years old, Dusty was off the road and the death was very hard on Cody. Dusty’s legacy lasting is a very important thing in Cody’s life because people realize there were gigantic stars in this business, even at the Dusty and Flair level (Jim Londos was far bigger than either just as an example, and even people like Lou Thesz) whose names are largely forgotten. It was noted that Cody dealt a lot with Brian James (Road Dogg). Koskey, for example, does pick and choose who he’ll really give time to and Cody wasn’t one of those people. But that was more directives from Vince, who makes the calls on who he thinks is important and who isn’t, but for all past situations with Ward and people Cody knows or Koskey not giving him the time of day, the buck stops and starts with Vince on who does and doesn’t get angles.
But there is an issue legally right now. Right now he doesn’t know his status in wrestling. If you quit, and he did, WWE traditionally will not allow you to work in pro wrestling or MMA for the duration of the time on the deal. If they didn’t, why would people be signed to contracts in the first place if they could just quit and work elsewhere?
We already saw this issue with Bryan Danielson several months ago, when he wanted to leave and do ROH, New Japan and CMLL, and was outright told that they would not release him from his contract and allow him to work anywhere, claiming the clause that if he doesn’t fulfill the time frame of the contract, it automatically rolls over.
At the same time, C.M. Punk quit, but he hired a strong lawyer and there was the claim of a misdiagnosis of a serious staph infection and threats on his end that forced WWE’s hand and they released him to where he was able to sign with UFC.
At this point, Runnels is tied up. WWE did grant him his release, something they wouldn’t do with Danielson. As of a few days ago, he wasn’t even sure what he could or couldn’t do when it came to wrestling. The split with the company was not smooth at all and the company was making it very difficult on him as far as working anywhere is concerned at this point. If they are no longer paying him, it’s difficult to keep someone from earning a living. But there are a number of issues, such as whether WWE will try and keep him from working with TNA, ROH or New Japan, and whether he would be able to use the name Cody Rhodes. He can go anywhere as Cody Runnels, but he never used the name Cody Rhodes in wrestling prior to WWE because he started there. So they would own the rights to that name even though the name has been used by his family for nearly 50 years. And clearly that’s the name he wants to use.
And there aren’t a lot of options. TNA would probably take him and almost surely allow him to try to be what he would want to be. But TNA is filled with question marks right now. And TNA isn’t a place that it’s easy to build a name or make a reputation these days as compared with a New Japan/ROH combo which is building stars to a certain level. He doesn’t at first feel like the right fit for ROH, in the sense they don’t pay a fraction of what he’s used to. But ROH is far better for him to build his name. He could get work in Europe, but that’s dates here and there and nothing full-time. New Japan is a possibility, and being Dusty Rhodes’ son in that culture does help. But New Japan already has a full roster of foreigners.
There is the opportunity to a degree of proving people wrong that didn’t think you had it to be a top guy, if he can pull it off. Drew Galloway and Ethan Carter III did it to a degree. A.J. Styles did it to TNA in a huge way. But they are few and far in between.
Runnels, Ryback and perhaps Wade Barrett (if he is planning on continuing to wrestle) are all about to be on the independent market. But there are only so many foreign spots in New Japan, and they are pretty close to full. Mexico isn’t an option due to the economy, perhaps past a show here and there. If Sinclair decides to up the ROH budget, or TNA gets new money or new ownership that wants to spend, the situation changes. He doesn’t seem to fit in Lucha Underground, but it’s not like others who haven’t figured to fit haven’t been used there. But they are all but done filming for this year, so even if they do come back for a fourth season, that’s no work until 2017.
Dusty Rhodes, in his heyday, could afford to be fearless. He had dozens of options if he didn’t like it somewhere. In that era, that was the case for not just top talent, but even solid mid-level talent. Cody Runnels will be able to make a living for years, like Carlito, Chris Masters, Tommy Dreamer and several others even just on indies even if he doesn’t end up with a contract with a full-time promotion, although not at the level he’s been making since probably around 2008. But if his goal is to be what WWE wouldn’t let him be, as opposed to a guy filling up a calendar of weekend dates, that’s going to be very difficult.
https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newslettemay-30-2016-wrestling-observer-newsletter-return-seth-rollins-and-wwe

Amendment 1 (A01) passed [C: 20, NC: 5, P: 9] and has been applied to the Bill.

LB270 - Trade Unions and Labour Relations (Amendment) Bill - Final Division

A Bill to remove Transport for London workers from the essential services list with extra limits placed on industrial action.
BE IT ENACTED by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Section 1: Amendments
(1) Subsection (1)(h) of the Trade Unions and Labour Relations Act 2021 is scrapped.
(2) Subsection (1)(i) of the Trade Unions and Labour Relations Act 2021 is scrapped.
Section 2: Extent, Commencement and Short Title
(1) This Act shall extend to England and Wales, and Scotland.
(2) This Act shall come into force one month after Royal Assent.
(3) This Act may be referred to as the “Trade Union and Labour Relations (Amendment) Act 2023”.
This Bill was authored by The Most Honourable Dame Inadorable LT LP LD GCMG DBE CT CVO MP FRS and is introduced by Lady_Aya on behalf of His Majesty’s 32nd Government.
Appendix:
Trade Unions and Labour Relations Act 2021
Opening Speech:
My Lords,
This is a very simple bill. In the original TULRA, passed in 2021, additional limits were placed on the ability to strike for certain ‘essential services’, including the police, healthcare workers and MI5/MI6. But this bill also, controversially, included tube drivers and regular workers at Transport for London, whose rights to strike were limited whilst people driving other trains on the mainline railway network do not face such restrictions on their ability to strike. This government is now proposing to amend the list of essential services to no longer include Transport for London as an ‘essential service’ for the purposes of TULRA 2021, but rather treating it as any other railway service in the country. This is a just and fair change that places trust in tube drivers, rather than distrust, and allows them to fight for their workers rights to the same extent as many other workers in this country.
Lords may vote either Content, Not Content or Present to the Bill.
This Division ends on the 30th of March at 10PM GMT.

Today's event takes the campers to the rec room of the Big House. The ping pong table has been cleaned and cleared for all sorts of snacks and drinks, complete with bowls of chips, plates of biscuits, bags of marshmallows, bottles of soda, red cups, and Sharpies to label the red cups with. Fold-out chairs are scattered around the room, decorated with assorted cushions and animal plushes (care of Ariadne). The curtains have been pushed aside to let in the afternoon sun.
Chiron sits at the head of the table, flanked by Argus and a satyr. The former is here to keep the peace while the latter is here to take the minutes.
It's been quite a while since the last counsellor meeting—the last one that was productive, at least. Chiron is hoping that things would turn around this time, especially with some new things he has been planning.
[ meeting start ]
"What-ho, counsellors!" The Activities Director exclaims when all of the camp leaders settle down and take their seats. He gestures to the assorted snacks. "Please, make yourselves at home.
I've summoned you all for this meeting, first, to check on all of you. How are you? How are your siblings and cousins? We've been rather busy lately, what with the arrival of the Amazons and Lord Heracles himself. I hope the campers have been making the most out of these learning opportunities.
Conrad, how is the, um, worm? Lucas, how are the stables? Matthew, I trust you've acclimated your new brother?"
...
After everyone's had a chance to speak, Chiron folds his fingers together, smiling.
"That is good to hear, children. Now, the main purpose of this meeting is that I wanted to open up a feedback line within the camp. You know that we've worked on bolstering our relationships with our allies, but communication among ourselves can always be improved. Are there any concerns that you have about your fellow campers or your cabins? Could we address any conflicts or problems right here and now?
Sofia, Teagan—your siblings have come up in the complaints that I get. Could we offer any assistance? Aput, spring is well under way—is your cabin up to shape, or are there repairs in order?"
...
After hearing everyone out and offering advice and discussion points, Chiron lets everyone go on break. But, when they come back, he goes to the last point,
"There are some new systems that Lady Ariadne, Lord Dionysus and I have been working on—not only to make your duties a bit more convenient but also to spark some healthy competition! Starting from this month onwards, we will no longer be hosting monthly Elections!
Instead, we will have a seasonal Evaluation where we will review your performance as camp leaders, reward dedicated campers, as well as cooperative cabins. These Evaluations will happen once every three months, during a solstice or equinox. Since the spring equinox has already passed, we'll be hosting the first Evaluation at the end of the week.
I know, many of you are asking, how will new leaders be chosen? Well, if any camper has reasonable belief that one of their fellows can step up to the challenge, who are we to hold them back? Just approach the directors or myself, and we'll make the necessary arrangements.
What if a camper is interested in an existing position? Well, they can challenge the incumbent leader! However they decide to approach this matter is up to them, as long as it doesn't involve maiming or death."
Argus grunts.
"...Yes, we're straying away from that, Argus.
For now, you will be evaluated following the old system—if you've been hosting your monthly lesson or activity. Come this summer, however, I'll expect that you all would have hosted more activities—not just lessons and meetings, mind you. (You could host contests, games, even walking tours. Whatever activity you believe will bring the campers together to learn.)
About 3 for the whole season, or 1 per month, should do. It's only fair given the longer period of time. We don't have a Games Coach at the moment, but they and other leaders would have special cases. I would greatly appreciate it if you coordinate your activities with our schedule, however. We wouldn't want to exhaust the campers, after all.
Of course, these changes are not without their reward. As you accumulate months and years of leading experience on your necklaces, we'll be providing you with incentives! You'll gain to access to special things around camp, such as the armory or even parts of the Big House, to help you guide your fellow campers. Those long-term leaders, such as young Caspian, Austin and Jason, will demonstrate these benefits in the coming months. Details on these incentives to follow."
He blinks as one of the counsellors raises their hand.
"Yes, you get to keep your rooms... And, yes, once one of the directors have acknowledged your appointment, you get the private room.
Now, if there is nothing else, I'll leave you children be to talk among yourselves and enjoy the snacks!"
———
Current Leaders as of March 2038

Position	Character
Stables Master	Lucas Madison
Poseidon Counsellor	Lucas Cohen
Aphrodite Counsellor	Sofia Rose
Hermes Counsellor	Teagan Castillo
Hades Counsellor	Matthew Knight
Iris Counsellor	Cynthia Avilion
Eros Counsellor	Austin and Jason Reynolds
Pandia Counsellor	Neiko Katz
Eris Counsellor	Eleanor Warren
Anemoi Counsellor	Aput Ooa
Heracles Counsellor	Lucas Madison
Delphin Counsellor	Conrad Mercer
Muses Counsellor	Caspian Kaito
Circe Counsellor	Salem Ashwood
Oneiroi Counsellor	Brent Carter

———
mod; Hello, everyone!
This counsellor meeting is basically a PSA in character. As teased in the aforementioned Weekly Schedule, the mods are rolling out various updates and revisions for our existing systems—starting with the Camp Leaders and Elections. These updates were discussed and workshopped in the community Discord server.
You can find the old details about the camp leaders here and here.
We hope that these changes will help foster some more fun and creativity in the sub, and to give us all more opportunities for roleplay. Every month a counsellor's meeting will be hosted by the mods (or an interested volunteer) so that camp leaders can talk among themselves and get to know each other.
If Chiron's rambling was too much for you, here is the tldr;

• How are you?
• Do you have any concerns?
• New things
  • Elections go bye bye, hello Evaluations
  • 3 activities per season > 1 lesson per month (for counsellors and leaders)
    • this is now the only requirement
    • failure to meet this requirement means you get booted
    • first evaluation will be 1 lesson for march, but the next evaluation will be the 3 activities
    • any kind of activity as long as it lets campers interact (following rules)
  • you can appoint a camper as leader at any time, just tag a mod to make it official
  • you can also challenge an existing leader at any time
  • counsellors and leaders get more benefits
    • more benefits every season they stay on board

Other things that weren't mentioned above:

• if you miss your own slot on the weekly schedule 3 times, you will be locked out of the schedule for a month (you can still post activities, just not meals or campfires)
• leaders who briefly lost their position or went on hiatus in a season can get back their incentives if they are appointed again within a grace period (1 month)
• if a current leader loses their position this evaluation, they can be appointed again a few weeks after

That's it! You can respond to any of the questions IC or OOC. More information will follow in the official PSA.
———
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