This sub changed my life tbh.
I've [f24] been dating this man [m27] kinda seriously for a few months now. Before discovering this sub I thought I got a good one. He makes like 150k goes to the University of Chicago for his MBA which is like a really good top school I came to find out here in Chicago.
But after reading this sub ya'll have inspired me to aim bigger. I know salary isn't anything, a man can have a high salary but act like a cheap broke boy, vice versa. I get treated ok I guess, he pays dates, we'll do small trips but he makes me pay my flight $$. I just feel like I can aim bigger and maybe bag a millionaire, why not? But at the same time Idk if i'm potentially taking a risk..
When ya'll talk to a man is there an ideal salary/net worth number that is ideal?

Books sat all around the Choir, who were mental hospital patients magically shaped as ravens. I was the first to take human form, as my raven's eye spotted what I hoped was ours. It was one book among many, but it was also Circe's diary. As a man I could thumb the pages.
I frowned, realizing it was just a record of all of her lovers. An impressive body count of seventy-seven, I noted her notation on the last page. Then a chill ran through my blood. The sorcerer in me knew something about them.
"Cory, what sort of magic can be divided into parts, among lovers?" I asked.
"I have no idea, my Lord." Cory looked at the book. "A diary?"
"Yes. Circe's diary, but I suspect it is more than that. She had a second use for these creeps. I bet we could find something." I decided. The fortunate find was only a promise. I had no idea if there was useful magic or not. Whatever magic she had hidden would be worth hiding, obviously.
The others shambled past me and Cory in their open straight jackets and bathrobes and hospital gowns. They had all sorts of weapons: clubs, a broken bottle, a claw pincher and an uzi. I had my staff, carved from the unstable and formless magic between worlds into a proper weapon.
We needed our weapons, dried zombies stood in our way, shuffling among the books. Magical slaves, living corpses. They were still dangerous and had to be destroyed.
For a moment the dead stood in our path, their eyes shimmering blankly in the shadows. They regarded us, the intruders, then began to shuffle towards us. I felt a chill of revulsion at the sight of corpses walking and gagged on their stench. I'd seen far worse, but one never truly gets used to such things.
A loud rapid clapping noise and the merry tinkle of bullet casings erupted from the uzi. It was pretty ineffective. The rest of the Choir brandished their weapons and strode forward like the maniacs they were. Even Scarlet was in the mood to kill something and she tore apart more than one of the shambling dead.
She looked at me and I caught a gleam in her eye of psychotic delight. Some nervous feeling always rose up in me since the first time I had met her. Somehow the shift from a helpless hitchhiker to a hook handed murderer always caught me off guard.
When we'd finished killing the dead we sorted our way out from the books. We had come in through the open window of the room of the manor that held so many books. I'd noticed the old diary right away and begun to read it while the ravens shifted from void travelers to humans.
Time seemed distorted. How things played out always felt surreal as we partially entered entirely different worlds than our own. There was always a dreamlike perspective, as though I were merely an actor under observation rather than a participant. I often had to remind myself of the grim reality I was trapped in.
I had lost count of the rare artifacts we had stolen for Aureus and the worlds we had invaded and brought death and horror to. I loathed all of it, feared there was no salvation after my numerous misdeeds. What choice did I have?
I led the Choir through the manor, watching myself do so.
There were other servants, just as ghoulish as the dried zombies. We killed everything we met until we got to the master bedroom. The safe was too big to take with us.
"Cater?" I asked our safecracker. She was also totally nuts. Her wild eyes rolled around and beheld the safe as though pretending she hadn't noticed it. Her fake response of joy wasn't really fake, she was actually happy.
"Gots." She whispered and went to work on the safe. The Choir stood around breathing too loudly for her and drooling. Eventually she got it open and took out the green gem. It sparkled evilly. Circe's Emerald.
"Let's go." I said and we all returned to the books and found the ġedwimor was shimmering visibly where we could revert to ravens that could fly home. We leapt through it and into flight. Our rave cast the shadow of one great bird. The magics welcomed us, living and enchanted creatures that we were, and insane. Across worlds and time we flew back to our home.
At Dellfriar we arrived. Except I had finally found my way out. Aureus somehow knew before I did that I held the key to my escape. It was in Circe's Diary that the clue existed. There was more to her spell than turning the enlightened into ravens.
I dreamed of the unkindness of ravens watching me. Cory asked me in the dream:
"How many pigs are on her island?"
I began to count them and I took a step with each number. By the seventy-seventh step I was asleep again, within the dream. I looked at my sleeping form in the dreamscape, surrounded by pigs and watched by ravens. I was looking down from a great distance, it suddenly seemed, and then I was looking up from far below.
"Where are we?" I asked Cory. I stared at my crow and he seemed to be smiling. It was the dream that made it seem so.
"Seventy-seven steps to the bottom, my Lord." Cory advised me. "And each must be counted."
"Those were pigs." I pointed out.
"Pigs that were once men. Each of them descended further, marking a fraction of the way. Love is a journey, a dreamy journey, ever downwards." Cory chirped.
"What about the exact number?" I wondered. To a crow, numbers were more symbolic than literal.
"It's just a number of stairs leading into the dream lands. It means nothing." Cory sounded playful. Cory had learned that numbers were literal to humans. It amused him that I was confused.
"But the number of Circe's lovers?" I asked.
"Of course, they are permanently under her control. They made a bargain, surrendering their bodies. Each of them counts as the descent to the bottom. Their blood and hers is mixed. The blood of her lover's, her blood, they are helpless to her will." Cory explained. I was glad I had read so many books with my crow that we both knew the answers when we met in Dream.
"Where is she?" I sat up from the blue clouds and looked around. As I focused I found I was on an island. What I imagined Circe's prison to look like.
Someone spoke to me:
"You use my spell on yourself. A wereraven, part of a rave of lunatics just like yourself. You have stolen my emerald?" I heard the soft voice of a delicate female. I turned around and saw her there. She was staring at me, her eyes looked curious and a little hurt.
"I stole it for Aureus. They're making a weapon, and your emerald is a suitable component." I explained.
"Aureus?" Circe seemed somehow both amused and irritated at-once. "Neither a man nor a woman. Neither a human nor a creature of magic. Not a young soul nor an old one."
"The same." I sighed in sympathetic exasperation.
"You work for me now. You will steal my emerald from this weapon. You will seal Aureus in a moment stolen from the wheel upon which the ages turn. A moment among the aeons that never was and never will be." Circe smiled strangely for me. I sensed that to her victims she seemed irresistible. I found her charms to be crocodilian.
"You are right." I agreed with her. "We have searched for a long time for a way to defeat Aureus."
"Was the answer..." Circe started to ask a question and then paused for emphasis: "Right in front of you all along?"
"We thought that dying might be the answer. If we were dead we couldn't serve Aureus." Cory sounded cheerful and perky, like he was telling a very funny joke.
"Life." Circe swore. "Life is the answer. You are life from me. You wield my powers with ease, Greatson." Circe's smile looked maternal. It occurred to me that I was immune to her charms because I was her descendant only after I heard her say those words.
"You're my Lord's ancestor?" Cory cleverly surmised. "No wonder he is so valuable to Aureus. I thought it was strange that such a powerful sorcerer required help from my Lord!" Cory cawed with hilarity. The revelation held layers of humor for my crow, who felt like explaining further: "You know, because it is so funny. My Lord would be the last choice of most competent magic users. We've routinely made mistakes that could only be made during the hour that is reserved for amateurs!"
Circe tried to hide her amusement. "I'm sure my Greatson is learning. Even I managed to make a few embarrassing mistakes in my youth."
"Really?" I asked.
"No." Circe smiled. "I'm just trying to make you feel better."
"We shall know the plan?" I interrupted. Circe was standing before me, the short distance between us meant nothing in Dream. She looked serious as she drew upon my eyelids. I could watch her do so with my eyes closed.
Then I awoke in the dream I had descended from. I was again among the pigs and the ravens. From there I shook myself awake in the real world. For a moment I was tempted to shake myself again. Fear that I might wake up in a higher place from which I wouldn't be able find sleep made me hesitate.
"Do you recall the dream we have had, my Lord?" Cory asked.
"About Circe being my great grandma? With a few more 'greats'?" I answered rhetorically.
"Yes. She put a spell on you. Can you see anything that you couldn't?" Cory asked.
I blinked and looked around. For just an instant, out of the corner of my eye, I could see Aureus somewhere else in Dellfriar and busy with the artifact's assembly. Several components were still missing - though.
The theft of Circe's Emerald and the escape from Dellfriar had many outcomes. There is only one that I survived. Only one version that can be reassembled from the chaos of so many worlds collapsing inward, so many realities becoming undone. Circe was right, it was only life - the deepest magic I knew of.
Inspiration came with my new perception. I could see the path ahead of me. I could see that there was only one version in which I survived and escaped. If I had done anything differently, the butterflies of death would have touched me.
I saw the window of opportunity and I knew every step I had to take. I took my bag and my staff, collecting the implements of my magical heists into the bag. I clicked my tongue and my crow alighted upon my shoulder.
With a cunning plan in mind, I ventured into the heart of Aureus's lair alone. The dimly lit chamber was filled with intricate machinery and arcane devices. I could sense the pulsating energy of Circe's Emerald, beckoning to me from its secure pedestal.
Taking utmost care to avoid detection, I stealthily maneuvered through the labyrinthine corridors, relying on my years at Dellfriar as a master thief. The shadows embraced me, concealing my presence from any wandering guards or surveillance systems that may have kept sentinel.
As I reached the chamber, I surveyed the room for any potential traps or alarms. It seemed Aureus had grown complacent, perhaps underestimating the audacity of a lone infiltrator. With a wry smile, I knew this was my moment to strike.
Silently, I approached the pedestal housing the emerald. It radiated a mesmerizing glow, casting ethereal patterns on the walls. Carefully, I retrieved a set of specialized tools from my bag: a combination of lockpicks and arcane implements.
I began to work my way through the security measures protecting Circe's Emerald. Each lock and enchantment posed a challenge, but my skilled hands moved with precision and finesse. The emerald's aura seemed to dance in anticipation, as if recognizing the touch of someone who understood its power.
Minutes stretched into eternity as I delicately dismantled the final obstacle. With a soft click, the emerald was finally free from its confinements. Holding it delicately in my gloved hand, I could feel the vibrant energy coursing through my fingertips.
But my mission was not yet complete. I had to make my escape undetected, evading any Choir or enchantments that may lie in my path. The emerald, now securely concealed within a specially crafted case, remained a beacon of power.
Slinking through the shadows, I retraced my steps, navigating the treacherous corridors with the precision of a phantom. Every movement was calculated, every sound muffled, ensuring that my presence went unnoticed.
As I emerged from the depths of Aureus's lair, a surge of adrenaline coursed through my veins. I had accomplished what seemed impossible: an audacious heist of Circe's Emerald from under the nose of a powerful adversary.
With the emerald secured, I vanished into the night, leaving no trace of my daring feat behind. The power of Circe's Emerald now resided in my possession, a relic of immense potential. Its fate, and the choice of how to wield its formidable magic, rested solely in my hands.
Little did Aureus or The Choir suspect that their plans had been quietly usurped. The heist had been a success, an act of cunning and skill that would alter the course of their intricate dance. In the shadows, I contemplated my next move, knowing that the emerald would grant me the power to shape destiny itself.
As I reached the top of the castle, a gust of wind tousled my hair, carrying with it the whispered echoes of Aureus's approach. I could sense their presence, their energy tinged with frustration and anger. It was clear they had discovered the theft of Circe's Emerald and were now in hot pursuit.
Just as I was about to invoke the ancient spell, the very same one that had allowed Circe's spellbound to transform into ravens and traverse the realms, Aureus materialized before me. Their form exuded an aura of authority and power, yet beneath the surface, I could sense their desperation.
"You dare to steal from me?" Aureus's voice reverberated with a mix of fury and disbelief. "That emerald holds powers beyond your comprehension. Return it to me now, and perhaps I shall spare your wretched existence."
I stood on the edge of the castle, the vast expanse stretching out before me. Time and space awaited, ready to be conquered by the wings of the raven. With unwavering resolve, I met Aureus's gaze and spoke with conviction.
"The emerald has chosen a new path, away from your grasp," I declared, my voice steady despite the adrenaline coursing through my veins. "Its power will not be wielded by your hands, for it belongs to a greater purpose."
Aureus's expression twisted into a mixture of rage and desperation. Their outstretched hand reached for me, a last-ditch effort to prevent my escape. But I was quicker, fueled by the magic I now possessed.
With a swift motion, I uttered the incantation, and my form transformed into that of a raven. Wings extended, I took flight, the wind carrying me away from the clutches of Aureus. The space between worlds beckoned, an ethereal gateway to new realms and infinite possibilities.
As I soared through the threshold, I glanced back, witnessing Aureus's desperate grasp falling short. Their fingers brushed against the empty air, and with a cry of frustration, they plummeted into the void, disappearing into the abyss between worlds.
In that fleeting moment, I felt a mixture of triumph and sadness. Aureus, once a formidable adversary, now lost in the vast unknown. But my purpose lay beyond their reach, and I knew that I carried the weight of Circe's legacy upon my wings.
Across worlds and time, I journeyed, guided by the whispers of ancient knowledge and the power of the emerald. As I soared through realms, I vowed to protect its magic, to wield it for the greater good, and to ensure that Aureus would never threaten the balance again.
The adventure had only just begun, and I embraced the uncertainty that lay ahead. With the wind beneath my wings, I charted a course through the tapestry of existence, carrying Circe's legacy forward, and leaving Aureus to face the consequences of their insatiable hunger for power in the ever-shifting space between worlds.
"We have but one flight, there will be no way back to Dellfriar when we land." Cory interrupted my musings. "Where are we going?"
I smiled at the question, for it was obvious. Cory was always there, upon my shoulder. For me there was somewhere I wanted to be:
"We are going home."

(((I made a similar post yesterday but couldn't respond due to being at work))quick edit:::: are redditors DM-ing me legit or scammers?:::::::
Some details: I'm a Memphis local ( technically 20 minutes north in a small town called Millington)
I have treatment resistant OCD, and after getting desperate I came across a research study that had amazing results in rapid OCD remission . Basically a combo is given to the patient consisting of SSRIs paired with opioids . I can 100% say it worked... I went from being completely mentally crippled were death would be a kindness to being a complete functioning human that for the first time in their life they felt that life was finally worth it, not stuck in a hopeless cycle of intrusive thoughts and rituals . But I'm sure you can see the future flaw....... opioids and self medication will end at rock bottom
I'm finally in recovery from opiates, but with each passing day I can just feel in my heart that I'm just on borrowed time before my OCD comes back from remission . In more afraid that it will come back stronger with more devastation because I know mentally that opioids can fix it..... But that fix isn't a fix .
I've read about psychedelics and the positive case studies showing that psychedelics can help create new pathways through neuroplasticity and actually help an addict move past their addiction. And because the opioid receptors and OCD itself work in similar parts of the brain one might be able to treat the OCD the same way the psychedelics are for the addiction.
LOL there is definitely some irony in a self-medicating addict wanting to be clean by self-medicating again, but psychedelics aren't exactly addictive in the first place but I've got to try.
The OCD is so crippling that death itself would be a kindness , and I just CAN'T go back to living with it. It's just not worth it......
So any tips on how, where to forage for mushrooms? I'm sightly familiar with the cow pasture path but even then I'm not exactly sure what to do..... I've also heard good things about addiction and 2cb..... How would one find 2cb in the Memphis wildernesses?

I live in NC. My husband passed away from natural causes last month unexpectedly. We were living separately at the time, no legal separation and he died with us still married, no divorce looked at or filed.
He always refused to follow through on a will, so he died intestate. Life insurance, stocks and 401 were left to me directly by name. He does have family- mother and father- and we have no children. I have been trying to handle everything. I finally got a death certificate, and his landlord said I need to file paperwork for the estate with the court to gain access to his apartment. Personally, the only reason other than doing the correct moral thing is to retrieve paperwork, keys to his car, phone and some mementos his mom and dad asked for and then cleaning the place up.
My husband died with virtually no assets that can be added to an estate. There is a $200 balance in his bank account, medical debt, and two cars we had in his name that are worth less than what is owed. I don’t know what else is out there since I have no access to his apartment yet. He was an addict, and I’m afraid to even know who or what he owes money for. We kept our money separate so nothing is a joint account or asset.
I was told the easiest way to do the estate for someone with less than a certain amount of assets in my state is to do a summary administration. Is this true? Are there hidden issues that could come back on me later? As of right now I don’t have money for a lawyer. I had to borrow money to have him cremated, and I won’t have access to any insurance money for a little while. I am in a time crunch with the landlord, otherwise I would be taking my time and huddling in bed trying to ignore it all. It’s irrelevant to what needs to be done, but I have an autoimmune disorder that is made worse with stress, I’m reaching my limit, and there is only so much I can get done each day.
Any advice or information is gratefully accepted.

Really, I just need to rant. I know most of this is old news now. But no one I know IRL reads these comics, so I gotta let it out somewhere...
I tend to binge comics every so often instead of reading month-to-month, as I find it easier to keep up that way (and single issues are no longer substantial enough to feel worth it honestly). So I last left off after Spencer's run. Read Beyond in two days, and then Wells' run (including most Dark Web tie-ins) in another two days.
So, first off...
BEYOND
I didn't hate this actually. There are times when it's a bit dull. I wanted more of a focus on Ben and Janine's daily life, but the story was primarily interested in plot plot plot. Even then, Ben's personality shines through and I really liked him for most of it.
The villains were pretty lousy. Doc Ock and Aunt May teaming up did not work at all, I'm sorry. I just don't buy that Aunt May would do that (and also I keep forgetting that she no longer knows Peter is Spider-Man, like I could've sworn she found out again at some point).
Queen Goblin is okay though, and I like that they play up the therapy angle here. The whole "Norman's Sins" thing is weird magic mumbo-jumbo, but if you just swap it around and use some basic science experimentation / brainwashing instead, it would work pretty well.
Benching Peter was ballsy and done in a pretty lame way. It doesn't really make sense he'd be in a regular hospital to be honest, like they should've figured out he was Spider-Man from every blood test. But at least they didn't pretend to kill him off or whatever.
Ben ultimately losing his memories... was an interesting idea for an issue or two.
Anyway, Janine is my favorite character for some reason. I've never heard of her before this (I thought she was an MJ clone for a minute). I understand she had a few appearances back in the 90s, probably in the Clone Saga. (I've read most of Spider-Man history, but the 90s Clone Saga is my biggest blind spot. Too many crossovers which I didn't have access to when I read all of ASM as a kid, so I just skipped it rather than stopping. Then as an adult when I did get access to those other books and read them up to the Clone Saga... I just didn't have the patience haha. I'll get back to it one of these days.) But yeah, Janine kicks ass here. I love the internal conflict, the genuine devotion to Ben, the willingness to throw down when shit hits the fan... She's great.
The best though was the single one-shot when Peter fights some weird demon thing in the hospital. It made no sense and came out of nowhere and I'm still not sure why it happened. But it was cool and the art was good and I like horror stuff, so that was neat.
Okay, main event...
ZEB WELLS AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
THE GOOD
I'm not above being able to compliment some things.
I like how he wrote Tombstone. Tombstone's plan to make Spider-Man beat up Rose for him is surprisingly solid and a well-done twist.
I also like Vulture's brief appearance, and how vicious he is. I'm a Vulture stan, and hate it when people treat him like a joke. So it's nice to see someone recognize just how terrifying and ruthless Vulture can actually be.
Hobgoblins... are okay. He kinda neutered Kingsley, but it's fun seeing Ned get brainwashed again.
Um, let's see, there's some other positive...
Black Cat shines throughout. I did not need Peter and Felicia to get back together, but at least I buy it when it happens. Even aside from that though, she does feel like an actual character in both this and Beyond, and not just Peter's ex who writers don't know what to do with.
Uh, the Celestial Gwen bit was interesting... I don't know how the main event is, but for a tie-in this was an interesting idea. The execution was kinda lackluster though. Like Peter sees Gwen and just acts like a good guy, and she approves, and that's it. It's not really surprising and doesn't say anything interesting about the character that isn't obvious. And then "bringing her back" for five seconds... I don't know how I feel about that, kinda weird... I wish Peter had stood up for humanity in general, instead of just showing how he's a good guy. Like, he should've told the Celestial to bugger off, and let it know that it is the villain here. It's weird that he doesn't defend humanity at all. Even his own good actions feel weirdly filtered through the need to impress a Celestial, which is just weird.
Hmm, that wound up being more of a bad than a good...
Oh yeah, there was that Living Brain story for the 60th anniversary. I like the idea of that story. Again, it kinda flopped in execution, coming off more as a parody than anything. Peter's friends definitely should've realized he's Spider-Man. And all the villains are so... odd. It's a parody that isn't funny, even though the idea is decent. Ock doesn't even reference that the Living Brain was once his minion! (Does he remember that?)
Okay, that was more negative as well... Okay.....
THE BAD
I'll start small. In that Tombstone story, there's a scene where Tombstone kidnaps Peter (not Spider-Man), and Peter jokes and makes fun of him, and then Tombstone goes, "You're weird." Tombstone should've figured out he's Spider-Man. I swear, I thought that was about to happen. Peter is not acting like a regular person, and Tombstone's not a goddamn idiot. I was waiting for him to be like, "Oh, it's you. You're Spider-Man. Good to know." That could've been a great moment, Peter's own loud mouth outing his identity, but naa...
Also, though Wells gets Tomby and writes him okay, Wells also dunks on my boy Richard Fisk. Why has no one taken Rose seriously since the 80s? He was such a great character back then. Now he's just another mobster. Has Wells even read those stories? He must have, since he uses Hobgoblin a bunch, and all those things were happening at the same time. Sigh...
Nothing with Norman works at all. I mean, look, I get it, this was a thing Spencer did. And it didn't work then either. And I do respect that they're actually exploring the concept and trying to make something out of it. But it just fundamentally doesn't work. When Ock became Superior, it worked because he still read like Otto. But this Norman... this isn't Norman. This is a new character who so happens to look like Norman and technically has his past. But it's just... not Norman.
While I'm at it... since I did read that Gold Goblin series as well.... Queen Goblin immediately loses all the intrigue she had in Beyond when she goes up against Norman. This just emphasizes the "Sins" thing, which is too woo-woo magical to make any sense or feel real or tangible at all. The stakes are unclear. It just doesn't work.
(On the other hand, the Mary Jane & Black Cat series is the most fun I had during all of this. Like, the plot is nonsense and it's a bit tied into the Paul stuff to really be recommend-able... but the writers there made the most of the shitty stuff they'd been handed and wrote a fun five issues. Good art too. S'ym is great.)
Oh yeah, the art is terrible. I'm not a JRJR hater -- he's hit-or-miss, for the most part. His work on Daredevil in the 80s is brilliant, and his Mephisto redesign is excellent, the only Mephisto that really feels like some otherworldly Eldritch horror. But this run... this is JRJR at his absolute worst. It's not good art.
THE DARK WEB
Okay, so... Like Beyond, I didn't hate this. I didn't like it much either, but it had its moments.
Rek-Rap is great. Just... just everything about Rek-Rap.
I like all the X-Men tie-ins too. In Dark Web, I mean. That one-shot issue shortly before Dark Web where fights Moira or... or whatever that was... That was dog poop nonsense boring shrug. But Dark Web has fun ideas that organically incorporate the X-Men.
I mean, it's really weird that you have a story where Goblin Queen and Queen Goblin are running around at the same time... They, uh, probably should have found a different name for Queen Goblin....... Can she just be the new Red Goblin, since the old one isn't coming back anytime soon? Or a new Menace? This is such a weird naming thing, and letting Peter (or was it Ben?) make a joke about it did not assuage that confusion...
But yeah, teaming up the two most iconic Marvel clones is such a natural move that built for some good drama, even if that drama is built on, um, completely character assassinating Ben...
Okay, here's a positive: the Chasm suit is cool. It's a good suit. I like the suit.
But holy hell Ben (literally?), this is waaaaaay off the deep end. Remember that time in the 60s when Peter lost his memories and teamed up with Doc Ock, but at the end he came to his senses before getting his memories back, because he's inherently a good person and knew this wasn't right? Why can't Ben get that treatment? I mean, okay, I guess he didn't just lose his Uncle Ben memories, but also kept a bunch of traumatic ones... except, apparently, he still forgot about getting killed and resurrected twenty-something times. I thiiiiiink that one's gone too... So he lost his most traumatic memories as well... So he really just has the, uh... mid-memories?
I like when Jean helps Madelyne. That was a good moment. Just gives her memories back, and then Madelyne helps them. Well done. Love it.
So, um, she can totally do that for Ben too right? Like, she's an omega-level mutant and just showed that she has this ability? Why didn't they just do that again? It's not like Peter would've been against it. Really doesn't make sense.... Heck, they could still do this. Ben is right there. Just... just ask Jean to give him his memories back. It's that easy.
Janine still rocks. I love the bit when she almost runs away, but gets recognized, and then comes back more committed to Ben than ever. Janine is an awesome character.
It's funny that there are like five redheaded women in this story, and they're all drawn exactly the same.
THE PAUL...
So...
That was stupid.
This most recent arc literally opens with a note from Nick Lowe, promising that they all really do care about these characters. See that, guys! They do care! Don't mind everything you're about to read, they promised us that they care! Not sus at all...
Making this whole thing a flashback was stupid. Like, there's this whole mystery box storyline... Then when you get to the reveal, it's just 90% an extended flashback, because there isn't really a good way to tie it into present day. It's almost like they should've just done this chronologically to begin with. None of their teases actually made me care. It's all just shallow "hype." (I mean they wanted it to be hype, but I wasn't hyped, so... Like I said, shallow.)
Who the hell is this villain? From the editor's notes, I've definitely read the story arc where he first appeared. I do not remember it. I do not remember him. He is so beyond forgettable that my brain hasn't even stored him as a footnote.
And he isn't fleshed out here either... Most of the time, I was just confused by who he is and what he wants. I'm not even sure how many of these villains there were. Are Rabin and the God the same? Wait, is Rabin the bearded guy? I think they said Rabin was someone else, Paul's dad or whatever... I don't know, I couldn't really follow it. It feels like remembering that forgettable story from Brand New Day era is essential to understanding this one, and I just... I don't. Bring back Freak. Bring back Paper Doll. Those guys I remember, not well but they were fun enough and had cool powers. But this guy? Who the hell is this guy? (And is it racist? It feels racist.)
At least set up the Mayan stuff earlier in the run... Like, with all the mystery box teasing, they didn't actually tease anything. Spider-Man vs Mayan Gods? That's your big story? That feels like something the 60s cartoon would've tackled in its weaker seasons...
Oh, and they Amy Ponded MJ. That was just dumb. This is the kind of random scifi poop that has nothing to do with reality. Good scifi challenges characters and forces them to reveal character in a way that relates back to the real world. Like Into the Spider-Verse uses Peter B Parker to mentor Miles and has both characters grow. The glitching rule is added in so that Miles will have to be the one to stay, so that it can remain fundamentally his story without snapping away the problems by having the more experienced Spider-Men do all the work. Or that Amy Pond story I referenced -- that's an amazing episode of Doctor Who (Season 5, "The Girl Who Waited," strongly recommend), because it challenges the Doctor's readiness to play with the timestream and bring along a string of companions, and it also challenges Amy's readiness to trust the Doctor and assume he always has everything under control. It feels organic to the larger scifi rules in play, and reveals a ton about both characters, with this tragic underpinning that is earned and emotional.
But this? This is just more pettiness. This is just the Spider-Man team not caring about the character (no matter what Nick Lowe says) and wanting to mess things up with MJ... because reasons. It doesn't tell us anything about Peter or MJ that we didn't already know. Heck, they don't even feel in character half the time. Or rather, MJ doesn't really feel like a character at all.
There's this one part where The MJ Who Didn't Wait and Paul get super bulk and Terminator-y during the flashbacks... and then like a page later they're normal sized again. What was that about?
The whole thing is also rushed, not that I wanted them to stretch this out any longer. None of the beats in the MJ flashbacks are fleshed out at all. We're watching a snippets montage of some story we'll never read. We don't get connected to any of the events.
I felt nothing when the kids vanished. I felt nothing when freaking Mary Jane Watson was stabbed to death. And I felt nothing when it was revealed to not be MJ but Kamala. Like, these are characters I traditionally care a lot about... and I just feel nothing and don't care what happens to them in these stories.
That Kamala Khan bait-and-switch? Damn, that was trash writing. I'm not up to date on Kamala's books either (I haven't been since Wilson left -- couldn't get into the following run). But to kill her off in someone else's book??? With none of her supporting cast, none of her villains, heck not even a real Spider-Man villain for that matter... (Again, who the hell is this stupid boring Mayan God guy? What is actually at stake right now? Does he have a personality? Motivation? Is he a racist concept? I'm still not clear on these things.) Kamala "dies" in the dumbest way possible. Well done, Mr. Wells. You aimed to write an incredibly stupid book, and you succeeded.
Heck, Kamala wasn't even a character in this arc. The last time I recall seeing her was during Dark Web. She isn't in ASM 21-25. She just shows up in #26... to die. That's so stupid. This character deserves more than that.
Also, MJ deserves more than this.
Peter deserves more than this.
Heck, even that Mayan guy deserves more than this. At least give him a personality.
IN CONCLUSION...
If any of you actually read all this... uh, I'm sorry? I just needed to vent and mark down some thoughts. Curious on other people's thoughts. I mean, I think I know most of them (I don't live under a rock and did have some spoilers going into all this).
Can we please just retcon all this already? Just do some time travel shenanigans and pull in MJ from before all of this. It worked for Doctor Who.

I've been thinking a lot about this today. In America, if you're not completely destitute or worth less than at least a couple million dollars, there is an extremely high chance that everything you have will be wiped out by the medical industry in old age. Between medical bills, live-in aides, and living expenses, it costs our family roughly $100,000 per year to keep my grandma living in her own home. she is 96 years old and exceptionally healthy. This has been going on for nearly a decade. My grandfather's life's work has almost been eradicated, and he was a very successful man. Lawyer, owned a golf course, mayor of a town in a Detroit suburb. It's almost like the better you take care of yourself and the more money you make, the higher the tab you will run up when you get old. Our only chance of passing much of anything on to our children barring a freak instant death is to be exceptionally wealthy (at least $5m net worth), which none of us will be.
Does anybody else think about this? Lately, I have been reevaluating the plans for my life, because this seems to be the fundamental factor for decision making. Basing decisions (how hard to work, how much time to take off, how much to invest) off of anything else is ignoring reality, I have concluded. Essentially, the only tangible benefit of a lifetime of grinding and saving is the privilege to live in your own home during your final years, if you're lucky to have saved that much. Is that worth a lifetime of conscientious saving, investing, and foregoing of life's happiness in youth?

From what I remember, There are 6 instances of Time-Travel in Supernatural.

1. Dean attempting to prevent Azazael’s deal with Mary
2. Stopping Anna from killing Mary
3. Tracking and killing a Phoenix to defeat Eve
4. Chronos Pulling Dean from Present Day Back in Time
5. Henry and Abaddon's travel to the Present Day
6. The Wish Pearl that brought John from 2003 to present day.

From what I understand about these instances, Time Travel in Supernatural follows three rules;

1. Time is Fixed. Anything changed in the course of time will set off a chain reaction that will change the timeline.
2. Certain aspects of Time travel are in the Fixed Timeline, meaning that there are times where Time Travel must occur to maintain the Fixed Timeline.
3. Anyone that travels to a changed timeline from a disruption in the past will still hold their memory from the previous timeline.

The first two instances of Time travel involve Angelic Chronokinesis (Angel Time Travel). The first instance, Dean attempts to stop Azazel from reaching Mary and making a deal. However, in telling Samuel(Possessed by Azazel) about the big plan to open Hell’s Gates, he Practically ensures that Azazel will reach Mary. This follows rule B, as Dean’s involvement essentially ensured that Mary would make a deal. Though he tried to prevent the event by Killing Azazel, he instead set the entire event into motion by informing Azazel about the “Demon Children,” and how Sam would be the strongest of them.
The second instance involves Anna trying to Kill Mary to prevent Sam and Dean from being born. She is unsuccessful, as Michael and the other angels are able to interfere and kill Anna. This instance I like to leave up to the Apocalypse theory from Marvel’s Loki, in which all activity that would mess up the Timeline is negated if it would be unavoidably destroyed. I put these two instances under this theory because Michael ultimately wipes the minds of John and Mary, making them have no recollection of the Angels or Sam and Dean. This means that John and Mary would behave as if Time Travel never occurred, even though Dean ensured Azazel fed Sam demon blood, but whether that event is entirely Dean’s fault is up for debate, as there’s a chance that Azazel would’ve found Mary anyways.
Instance 3 involves Samuel Colt and killing a Phoenix. Samuel Colt wrote that he killed a phoenix the day Sam and Dean traveled to. We see this not to be the case, as Colt wouldn’t have hunted the Phoenix that afternoon. However, he recorded it as his kill, and collected the Phoenix ashes to mail to Sam and Dean in the future. This means the Phoenix’s death wouldn’t have occurred if Sam and Dean didn’t travel. This classifies this instance under rule B.
The next instance involves Chronos accidentally pulling Dean back in Time. There are a few instances in this episode that fall under Rule A. When Dean carved the message for Sam into the doorframe, the doorframe changed in the future, and Sam saw the message all of a sudden. However, I can't make out whether the SAM carving was always in the doorway, or only appeared as Dean carved it, much like the burning love option from Cursed Child. If the Carving was already in the doorway, then the instance would fall under Rule B, as the carving is reliant on the fact that Dean time travels. The second instance is when Chronos’s wife recalls Dean grabbing Chronos, and they both disappear, as a result of Sam’s summoning spell. She says all the clocks stopped at 11:34, which means that Dean and Chronos had already disappeared, despite Sam not performing the Spell yet. This means that Sam performing the summoning Spell was a fixed event in the timeline, and that Chronos and Dean WOULD travel back to the present, as they already had, by memory of Chronos's wife. If that didn’t make sense, imagine it like this.
Pulling a lever will make a lightbulb flash one hour prior to the lever being pulled. If I see the light flash, that means it is guaranteed that the lever will be pulled in one hour, and no resistance will stop the lever from being pulled, and the light flashes, meaning pulling the lever is guaranteed. This is an example of a fixed event, something we see if the Dr. Strange episode of What If?
This was by far the most sophisticated Time episode. It gets easier from here.
The next instance involves Henry Winchester. According to John’s memory, his dad disappeared one day, and never returned. And despite their effort to look for him in the Winchesters TV show, Henry’s whereabouts remain a mystery for John. We find out this is because Henry traveled to the future and died, so he never returned to his old timeline. Despite Henry traveling to the future, the timeline never changed. I like to pair this theory to Back to the Future 2, as influencing future events will only change the future, as the past has already occurred at that point in time. This example is preventing Marty’s son from being arrested, as the only thing that changed is which young delinquent was detained that day. This is another example of a fixed travel, in which the travel had to occur to set up certain aspects of the timeline. In this example, if Henry had never time traveled, John would’ve grown up with a loving father, likely wouldn't have enlisted into the marines, and therefore never met Mary afterwards. This would also mean that Sam and Dean would have never obtained the Bunker key, and the American Men of Letters would still be buried in the ground. The same rule applies to Abaddon, who had to have traveled, as she disappeared in 1958, and had to have appeared in present day, or Dean wouldn’t have gone searching for the Mark, leaving Amara in Cain’s disciplined arm.
However, all of this logic is slightly different in the next Time Travel instance.
When Dean used the Magic pearl to obtain his greatest desire, it pulled John Winchester from 2003 to 2018. Despite traveling to the future, John’s disappearance in 2003 disrupted the Timeline, which all went back to normal when John returned to 2003, with no memory of his jump to the future. Here's the tricky part. If Sam and Dean grew up to be hunters, then that means that John returning to 2003 was an absolute event. If John didn’t return, then the timeline would be disrupted. We see this occur, when Sam talks about Kelp on talk shows, and never goes through with hunting. However, the disruption in the timeline shouldn’t have occurred unless John wasn’t going to return to 2003, even though he should’ve as Sam and Dean grew up to be hunters. If John’s return to 2003 wasn’t a fixed event, then the disruption in the timeline would’ve become the fixed time, and we would’ve seen Sam Winchester on talk shows about healthy supplements. However, John’s return is Inevitable, as the boys grow up to be hunters. Going by this logic, when John initially traveled from 2003 to 2018, then the time disruption shouldn’t have occurred, as John would’ve ultimately returned to 2003. If the trip back to 2003 was a fixed event, then the disruption shouldn’t have happened. Only factor I am not accounting for is the fact that John lost his memory of the jump to the future, but I’m not sure how this would correlate with fixed events.
If anyone has any suggestions, input or correction on any of the instances, please share. If there's something I'm not accounting for or missing in any of the Time Travel instances, your input is greatly appreciated.

The death of Adam David Shaw, UK.
The death of a man found naked and wrapped in tarpaulin with his clothes in a neat pile next to him remains a mystery. Adam Shaw, from Weston Coyney, was found in a remote beauty spot with his clothes in a neat pile next to him. A camper discovered his body at Key Wood near the River Churnet, just a short distance from Alton Towers. Strangely, his phone, coat, trainers and wallet have never been found.
The 41-year-old's worried family had reported him missing to Staffordshire Police almost four weeks earlier on September 20 last year after he failed to collect his prescription.
It wasn't until October 11 that Adam's body was finally found in dense woodland on the other side of the river where there is no crossing. PC Adam Coomer told the hearing: "We believe that Adam and his female companion had bought drugs from a dealer and were en-route to a caravan park where they could use those drugs recreationally. However, the caravan park was busy so they tried to go to Hawksmoor instead. They got stuck trying to park. The female companion was seen walking along the road toward Cheadle on September 17.
"The naked body of Adam was found wearing no clothes, under a piece of tarp as if it was a blanket. His clothes were folded up next to him. It was very difficult as there was no obvious pathway and the items at the camp were very old. At the centre there was a fire pit but there was nothing to suggest there had been a fire.
forensic examination showed no signs of any disturbance or struggle at the camp. There was no obvious external injury. There was no clear pathway across the River Churnet, it is a wadable depth. His phone, coat, trainers, wallet have never been found. The car keys were found on the ground near where the car had been stuck.
Staffordshire Police launched a missing person's appeal with eye-witnesses coming forward. A statement was read out on behalf of Michael Stone who said: "I was walking my dog in Hawksmoor Nature Reserve on September 17. I go there regularly to walk my dogs.
"I saw a male, who has since been identified as Adam and female in a car that was obviously stuck. They had parked with their back wheels over the embankment
"The male was out of the vehicle with the female sat inside. I asked them if they needed help, to which the male responded that someone was coming with a truck. His speech was very slow and noticed there was a small amount of blood coming out of his nostril. Later that day, the same vehicle was in the same position with the pair eating a sandwich inside." Eye-witness Marek Simanski said: "I arrived in Hawksmoor on the evening of September 17. I walked past a car that had been stuck. We paid no attention to it.
"We camped where we normally do. We heard shouting from far away. But we couldn't tell the direction it was coming from. When we were walking back the next evening it was dark and we were looking for mushrooms.
"I was shining my light about and my light landed on a man standing there. It made me jump. He was standing near the river, staring off into the distance. I asked him if he was ok and he didn't respond. He was just staring away from me.
"We came back at around 5pm or 6pm on October 2 and we heard shouting coming from a direction. We didn't know where. It sounded a little panicked. We were back on October 8 to our campsite. We had left a single potato out. Someone had peeled it and cut it into the shapes of French fries.
"There was no knife left so they must have brought one themselves. There were also full water bottles left. A few days later, we came across a little camp on the other side of the river. There we found a tarpaulin covering the body of a deceased man. I bought a new phone and called the police the next day, giving my name as John. I did not want to be involved with it."
A post-mortem examination revealed no evidence of any hemorrhage or any acute traumatic injury. The medical cause of death was unascertained as they taking blood samples was not possible. There was no suggestion he had been assaulted. From the evidence we have, I am afraid I am unable to say how he died. I am satisfied there was no evidence of trauma or anyone else at the scene. There is no positive evidence that allows me to rule a drug-related death.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/mystery-after-dead-man-found-27063659.amp
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1777866/mystery-death-adam-david-shaw-tarpaulin/amp

I've got a document that can have multiple sheets. The columns I am concerned with are the first (Email Address) and fifth (Number of Opens).
The emails in every sheet can vary widely, but will often have some in common with each sheet - and some will be unique to a single sheet.
I wish to ADD the "Number of Opens" values together between all open sheets where the email address is the same between those sheets, AND, where the email address does not exist in Sheet 1, I want to ADD the whole row from the other sheet to Sheet 1.
The formula I have worked up so far is doing the column value adding where the email address is the same and in the same row as Sheet 1, but when it's just one row down in Sheet 2, separated by a row that is not present in sheet 1, it does not find it and add the column values.
The formula I have at this point is:

=SUMIF(Sheet1!$A$2:$A$3, A2, Sheet2!$E$2:$E$3) + E2 

Example Data in Sheet1:

[email protected] John Doe XYZ Co 12 [email protected] John Doe2 ABC Co 36 [email protected] Joe Smith Another Place 11 [email protected] Joe Smith SomeCo 10 

Example Data in Sheet2:

[email protected] John Doe XYZ Co 10 [email protected] John Doe2 ABC Co 4 [email protected] Joe Smith SomeCo 6 [email protected] Jim Dean New Corp 4 

Ideal Output:

[email protected] John Doe XYZ Co 12 22 [email protected] John Doe2 ABC Co 36 4 [email protected] Joe Smith Another Place 11 11 [email protected] Joe Smith SomeCo 10 16 [email protected] Jim Dean New Corp 4 4 

Is this even possible?
Thanks for any guidance

John Hynes, a nice Rhode Island boy, was a college teammate of the likes of Chris Drury, Shawn Bates, Jay Pandolfo, and Mike Grier at Boston University back in the day. It must be rough, having two former teammates be NHL GMs.
But we're not talking about the Rangers and the Sharks. We're talking about the Minnesota Wild. So John Hynes, what do you have for us?
Hynes was the head coach of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins from 2010 through 2015. Bill Guerin was a director of player personnel for the Penguins organization during that time, and GM of the Baby Pens starting in 2014, so that's where the personal connection between the two is from. During his tenure, Hynes made the playoffs each of the five seasons, and did not once lose in the first round. Made the third round in 2012-13 and 2013-14. Over those seasons, Hynes had a hand in developing guys like Conor Sheary (1 season), Bryan Rust (1 season), Matt Murray (2 seasons), Brian Dumoulin (3 seasons), and Robert Bortuzzo (3 seasons). For all his AHL success, that's not terribly impressive.
Hynes was hired to take over the New Jersey Devils, starting with the 2015-16 season. The 2014-15 Devils were 25th in points, 28th in goals for, 14th in goals against (net difference of -33), had the 8th ranked power play, and 21st ranked penalty kill. Year One of Hynes in the NHL saw the Devils move to 20th, 30th, 8th (net difference of -20), 9th, and 8th. The big takeaways is the team defense tightened up. Frequently, good team defense comes at a cost of offense, so the improvements were marginal. Not to mention he took over a team fresh off of losing Zach Parise to free agency, Ilya Kovalchuk to the KHL, and Patrik Elias to Father Time.
Over the course of his entire time with the Devils (2015-2019; I did not include his partial 2019-20 season), they had the 27th ranked offense, 21st ranked defense, 17th ranked power play, and 4th ranked penalty kill.
They made the playoffs once, during Taylor Hall's MVP season, and lost in the first round. Players like Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Damon Severson, and Pavel Zacha all had their formative seasons under him.
His time in Nashville fared much better. He inherited a solid defense corps with the likes of Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis, and Mattias Ekholm; solid goaltending already from Juuse Saros; and the All-Star collection of overpaid pivots with Matt Duchene, Ryan Johansen, and Kyle Turris down the middle. For the most part, the team did well, losing in the qualifying round during the 2020 bubble playoffs and making, though losing in the first round, the following two seasons. A furious finish that went down to the wire with largely an AHL roster was impressive, but it was too little, too late, and new GM Barry Trotz wanted his own guy, so John Hynes is available.
His Predators ranked 15th in points during his three full seasons, 22nd in scoring, 15th in defense (a net of -4), 18th in power play, and 15th in the penalty kill. Those are very Minnesota Wild rankings. It sounds like Hynes has a system, and will plug players into said system. He doesn't see what he has and construct around that. He takes what's he's given, and pounds them into the roles that are set in his system. Filip Forsberg, Roman Josi, and Matt Duchene all had career years under him, and none of them could replicate it the following season. That's troubling.
Also: Eeli Tolvanen. The former first round pick was waived because Hynes wouldn't use him. In his last 88 games with the Preds, he had 13 goals and 27 points. In 48 games after the Kraken claimed him, he had 16 goals and 27 points. You've got to be able to put your players in positions to succeed.
Hynes has a reputation for being very well-prepared, able to sell players on what he's doing, and an absolute hatred of He-Man.
As an assistant? It feels more like Guerin would be doing him a solid by keeping him employed than actually improving the staff. AND if Evason would be fired, I'd hate for the Wild to go "next man up" with John Hynes, of all people.

Here's a mod idea I had about 10 years ago. It's still pending on my projects list, maybe one day I'll do it.
​

• Porta-potty (Toi-Toi) by the entrance to Xardas tower
• Dark Mushrooms model replaced with lightbulb
• Digger's Meat mushroom (the large one) replaced with night lamp
• Sheep model replaced with giant bee
• Heavy Branch (weapon) replaced with large pink dildo
• Gold coin model replaced with roll of toilet paper
• Healing plant model replaced with... turd. Tasty!
• Seekers are male characters wearing women skirts.
• Innos shrines replaced with Robert Kubica monuments
• Apple model replaced with 8th ball
• Khorinis should look more dystopian, with modern trash cans, graffiti, here and there a wrecked FSO Polonez or Fiat 126p
• On the walls, instead of shields there are toilet seats.
• Harad's workshop:
  • Instead of anvil there's a beehive, preferably with bee sounds
  • Harad walks around with toilet brush instead of steel bars
  • Harad keeps smashing the beehive with a toilet brush
  • Instead of water bucket there's a toilet
• Thorben's wardrobe is replaced with a fridge
• Constantino has Denaturat bottles everywhere around his roomContext: denaturat, aka (non-)methylated spirits is a cheap substitute for vodka in eastern EU
• In homes, instead of paintings there are 50" LCD TVs. Fits perfectly to Gothic's medieval atmosphere.
• Instead of beds there are sheets of styrofoam
• Farm peasants should carry ping-pong paddles instead of sickles
• Instead of rakes or hoes, peasants should use brooms to brush the fields
• Raven's head should be replaced with an electric engine
• NPC in Khorinis market should sometimes walk in front of their stalls and take a pee on displayed products, Sara too!
• Militia should wear different uniform
• Some of the swords could be replaced with models of amputated hand or a leg.Beating scavenger with fire mage's leg sounds fun!
• Rat is improved into a "racing rat" by adding two Ford Mustang-like white stripes
• Rune Table model is changed into huge NPC's head with mouth wide open, this is where rune goes.
• On fireplace roasting stick, instead of a scavenger there's an old CRT TV
• Beliar shrines are replaced with Pope John Paul II monuments
• Spoon used for cooking soup is replaced with a flyswatter
• There's a speed camera on the road to Onar's Farm
• Cheese model (food) replaced with a worn boot
• Fish model (food) replaced with a brick
• Microphone stand and large speakers at Vatras
• Trash cans standing around Khorinis can be "used". Book reading animation is played.
• Ability to sleep on benches around the city. Let some NPCs become homeless.
• Some random posters placed around the Khorinis. For example announcing rap concert.
• Paladins in the Upper City sometimes take a piss into a fountain (the one with paladin monument)
• Fish arrow rune. Simply shoots a fish model and deals some stink damage.

​
Rachel Drori (nee Bobnow) had a net worth of $350m prior to the Daily Harvest poisoning. On June 1st, 2023, Forbes published an article on the wealthiest women in the U.S.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/gigizamora/2023/06/01/kylie-jenner-rihanna-and-the-other-richest-self-made-women-under-40/?sh=3acbb02563c9
"Daily Harvest founder Rachel Drori was worth $350 million last year as a newcomer based on the $1.1 billion valuation by private investors of her meal delivery company. A June 2022 recall of its Lentil & Leek Crumbles bruised the company’s sales and helped knock down Forbes’ estimate of the company’s value, along with lower comparable public company valuations"
Assuming the valuation was cut in half, this would put her net worth at $175m, not counting any money she made prior, her husband's wealth, and what her and her husband will inherit. A video of their wedding, which probably costs more than what most victims of the poisoning make in 5 years, can be seen here:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4049ua
Her husband, Avi Drori, also attended Columbia b-school. While there, in a published article dated November 2008 in the CB letter, Drori posited a thesis where Marvel Entertainment stock should be shorted (make a bet the stock will go down) and it is worth $18.
Cue the circus music. A year later, Disney acquired Marvel for $50 per share.
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/business/media/01disney.html
​
Amazing acquisition, returning $18b in movie revenue alone in the next ten years.
https://comicbook.com/marvel/news/disney-has-made-18-billion-since-marvel-purchase-2009/
​
Does it matter that Avi may or may not be a good investor? No. Avi could never work a day in his life and will still be one of the wealthiest men in the U.S. (even if he divorced his wife.) Avi is a trust fund baby but not just any trust fund baby. Avi's father is Z'ev Drori, the former CEO of Tesla and he sold his company Monolithic Memories was purchased by AMD for $437m in 1987. His Beverly Hills home alone is worth $30 million! Whatever his wealth was then, it is safe to say this smart man tripled it over the last 35 years. And that money is likely going to be split by two people, one of whom is Rachel's husband.
​
Article on Zev Drori as Tesla CEO
https://www.autoblog.com/2007/11/28/breaking-tesla-names-zeev-drori-as-new-permanent-ceo/
Why is this important? Is this a bad thing?
No, it's not a bad thing. It's a good thing that someone was able to create a company, then sell it and buy a massive home. It's impressive Rachel was able to build a food company all online and create mega wealth. But despite being wealthy prior to Daily Harvest (her name is connected to a expensive property in Manhattan) and despite the fact that her and her husband will inherit maybe hundreds of millions, Rachel is an a-hole. She lacks integrity and is not a good person, her actions demonstrate that.
She does have a chance to do right by everyone. I propose Rachel creates a $20m fund to pay for ongoing medical tests, research, and monitoring of all the victims using her personal wealth. Her father in law could kick in half this money. To put it in perspective, at Rachel's age, even if she only nets $150m from the sale of Daily Harvest, an inheritance of $100m, and this doubles every ten years, Rachel and her husband will have a combined net worth of $1b by 60 to 63 years old. She will be a billionaire while it is possible that victims have long lasting effects. We will need testing, blood work, exams, etc for years to come. She can pay annually $4m over 5 years. The interest she can make just in a 5% CD on her fortune pays for it in less than a year.

St. Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho, ch. 80-81) says that there will be a first resurrection of the righteous where they dwell in a rebuilt Jerusalem for 1,000 years (keep in mind that Jerusalem had recently been destroyed due to the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt), based off Isaiah 44 and 65 ("There shall be the new heaven and the new earth, and the former shall not be remembered, or come into their heart; but they shall find joy and gladness in it, which things I create. For, Behold, I make Jerusalem a rejoicing, and My people a joy; and I shall rejoice over Jerusalem, and be glad over My people ... According to the days of the tree of life shall be the days of my people," understanding the days of the tree of life to refer to 1,000 years since Genesis 5-11 shows the years of mankind decreasing further and further away from the number 1,000 corresponding to life in Paradise) as well as Revelation 20:4-6,9 ("And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years ... They [the nations] went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city"). Justin, however, also points out that some Orthodox Christians believe in this and some don't, and it's a matter of opinion alone. He doesn't say what the alternative might be however.
St. Irenaeus of Lyons (Against Heresies 5, ch. 25-36) says that at the end an unlawful and evil king will come, Antichrist, the summary of all demonic apostasy in history, who will take his seat in a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem (Matthew 24:15-21, 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).
Because the apostasy of Antichrist will recapitulate all apostasy, these events will also be the recapitulation of world history, and happen around the 6,000th year of creation; Genesis 1 must be understood as a prophecy, since one day is as a thousand years for the Lord (Psalm 90:4, 2 Peter 3:8). The first advent was halfway through the 6th day; the coming of Antichrist and the last great tribulation will be at the end of the 6th day as the culmination of everything that happened before. This is signified by the name of Antichrist, 666. 666 also signifies this by how, at the time of the apostasy leading to the flood, Noah was 600 years old (Genesis 7:6), and at the time of the persecution of God's people in Babylon, which itself was a prefiguration of the tribulation to come, King Nebuchadnezzar made an idolatrous status 60 cubits tall and 6 cubits wide (Daniel 3:1). This means Antichrist, and soon after him Christ, will come around the 6th century AD, following the chronology of the Septuagint.
The Roman Empire will begin to fall apart (Matthew 12:25) and be partitioned among ten kings, among whom the eighth will rise above the others, slaying three of the kings, to be the Antichrist and rule for 3.5 years during which he persecutes the Church as the Empire falls further apart (Daniel 2:33,41-43, 7:7-8,23-25, Revelation 17:3-18). It is this Antichrist of whom St. Paul speaks in 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12. He will come suddenly (1 Thessalonians 5:3) and will be a Hebrew from the tribe of Dan (Jeremiah 8:14-17) which is why this tribe is not given the promised inheritance (Revelation 7:4-8).
Because the existence of Antichrist will be permitted so as to recapitulate all apostasy and separate the righteous from the wicked as a great final exercise (Matthew 3:12, 13:24-30), God will confirm the wicked in their delusion (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12). Antichrist is the beast of the sea described in Revelation 13:1-10. His armor-bearer, the false prophet, is the beast of the earth described in Revelation 13:11-17.
He is the unjust judge the Lord speaks of in Luke 18:1-8, and the one who comes in his own name in John 5:43. The widow in Luke 18 is the unbelieving Jewish people, who will go to the Antichrist for help, and in response he will make a rebuilt Jerusalem his capital city and a rebuilt temple his house, during which time he will persecute the true temple which is the Church (Daniel 8:9-14,23-25). This is the last half-week of the prophecy of the 70 weeks (Daniel 9:27).
When the Lord comes to destroy him (Daniel 2:35,44, 7:9-14,21-22,26-27, 8:25), together with all the nations which will have become his servants (Isaiah 6:9-13, 13:6-22, 26:10-11), the saints will be resurrected. It must be so: we imitate our Lord (Luke 6:40) and therefore, just as He died, then rose from the dead, then ascended to the Father, we also must die, then rise from the dead, then ascend to the Father. It is at this first resurrection that the promise of the old covenant will be fulfilled (Genesis 13:14-15, 15:18-21, 27:28-29), it is the restoration promised by the prophets (Isaiah 26:19, 30:23-26, 58:13-14, Jeremiah 23:3-8, Ezekiel 28:25-26, 37:11-28), it is the kingdom and reward Christ speaks of (Matthew 19:29, 26:27, Luke 12:37-38, 14:12-13).
The saints will then rule in a beautified Jerusalem (Isaiah 54:11-12, Baruch 5) for 1,000 years (Isaiah 65:17-25, Revelation 20:4-9), the true Sabbath.
After this, heaven and earth will pass away (Matthew 24:35, 1 Corinthian 7:31, Revelation 20:11) as the remaining dead will rise and all will be judged (Revelation 20:10-15). Then a new heaven and earth will be established (Isaiah 65:17-18) and the Jerusalem from above, which the Jerusalem from below is patterned after (Exodus 25:40), will come down and the saints will live in it for eternity (Galatians 4:26, Revelation 21:1-6).
St. Clement of Alexandria does not indulge in eschatology, but he does indicate the alternate tradition that Justin may have been referring to. While Justin and Irenaeus interpret the Old Testament to not have been entirely fulfilled yet, Clement takes a different approach and sees the Old Testament as entirely fulfilled within the time frame of the New Testament. We see this when he discusses the prophecy of the 70 weeks. Whereas Irenaeus sees the last half-week as referring to the Antichrist, Clement sees it as referring to Vespasian, and sees the abomination of desolation not to be the Antichrist taking his seat in a rebuilt temple in the future, but as something that already took place under Vespasian.
St. Hippolytus of Rome considers that the Antichrist, a Hebrew from the tribe of Dan (Genesis 49:16-18, Deuteronomy 33:22, Jeremiah 8:14-17), will defeat in battle the kings of Egypt, Libya and Ethiopia (Daniel 11:43), in a battle over who should rule over the Empire, while the Ammonites and Moabites become his willful subjects (Isaiah 11:11-14, Daniel 11:41). As a result of his victory he will begin to think himself to be God, and will move on to assault Tyre and Sidon (Isaiah 23:4-5), and it is him whom Isaiah 14:3-21 and Ezekiel 28:1-19 refer to. Then he will try to convince the unbelieving Jews that he is the Messiah by gathering them again from the dispersion and re-establishing the kingdom of Israel, but only because he aims to be recognized and worshipped as God. That Israel according to the flesh will persecute the true Israel, the Church, and will request the Antichrist to do this for them, is what is meant by Deuteronomy 32:34-35, Isaiah 8:6-8, 18:1-2, Jeremiah 4:11-18, Micah 5:5, Luke 18:1-8 and Revelation 12.
The beast of the sea is the Roman Empire itself, while the beast of the earth is both the Antichrist and the false prophet (represented by the two horns). The mark on the hand refers to mandatory sacrifice to the Antichrist as to an idol if one wants to buy food, and the mark on the forehead refers to the false glory he grants upon those who submit themselves to him; the persecution Antiochus IV Epiphanes led against the people of God was a prefiguration of this (2 Maccabees 6:7-11).
The last week of Daniel is the whole rule of Antichrist, but during the first half-week Enoch and Elijah, who were translated into heaven and did not die (Genesis 5:24, 2 Kings 2:11), will return to prophesy, be martyred and be resurrected (Revelation 11:3-12). The second half-week is when Antichrist will take his seat in the temple and severely persecute the Church (Daniel 11:11-12, Matthew 24:15-21, 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).
Then Jesus Christ will return and all will be resurrected and judged.
St. Victorinus gave a thorough commentary on Revelation:
6:1-2 (1st seal): Jesus Christ Who conquered by the Gospel and sent the Holy Spirit as an arrow.
6:3-4 (2nd seal): The wars and rumors of war (Matthew 24:6-7).
6:5-6 (3rd seal): The famines (Matthew 24:7).
6:7-8 (4th seal): The pestilences and earthquakes (Matthew 24:7).
6:9-11 (5th seal): The persecution of the faithful (Matthew 24:9-10).
6:10-7:17 (6th seal): The last great tribulation. The blackening of the sun, the fall of the stars, the untimely fall of the figs, the receding of the sky, the removal of the mountains and islands refer to the Christians being deeply troubled or even falling into apostasy because of this great final hardship. The angel from the east who seals 144,000 from the tribes of Israel is Elijah, whose preaching converts many of the unbelieving Jews (Malachi 4:5-6), thereby replenishing the Church. Then the seven archangels destroy the kingdom of Antichrist (Micah 5:5-6, Matthew 13:27-30, Mark 13:27) and all the saints are gathered with Christ forever.
8:1-6 (7th seal): The silence signifies the eternal rest and the narrative might end here, but John starts again from the beginning which is why it ends.
9:13-11:14 (6th trumpet): The four angels at the Euphrates, which also represent the four corners of the earth, are four nations which join the kingdom of Antichrist in due time. The mighty angel is Jesus Christ, His feet of fire are the apostles, the seven thunders He utters are the Holy Spirit, the utterances themselves are the Christian mystagogy of the Old Testament which the Christian prophets are given to interpret now that the apostles have finished their work. John eating the book and being told to prophesy again refers to him committing Revelation to memory and formally publishing it after his labor in exile in Patmos was finished. The temple to be measured is the Orthodox faith, the measuring reed like to a rod is Revelation, the rod proper is the Gospel of John which he is to write later. The courtyard is unnecessary and is therefore not measured but is given over to be trampled by the Gentiles, that is, the heretics Valentinian and such are to be counted outside the Church. The trampling of the holy city for 3 years and a half refers to the rule of Antichrist, and likewise the two prophets will prophesy for 3 years and a half. The two prophets are Elijah who did not die (2 Kings 2:11) and Jeremiah who was to prophesy to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5-10), although some think it is rather Moses. They are the two olive trees of Zechariah 4:11-14, who stand beside the Lord of the earth, that is, either that they are kept in Paradise, or that they will stand before Antichrist. The beast from the pit is Antichrist. The two prophets are killed in Jerusalem, rise after three days and a half and ascend to heaven.
11:15-15:8 (7th trumpet): The heavenly temple, that is, Jesus, is made manifest, and the ark is the gift of the Gospel. The woman with child is Israel, the Church, the people of God. The dragon is Satan who seeks to persecute her and who brought down either 1/3rd of angels or 1/3rd of men with himself, and whose seven heads are the last seven Roman Emperors, as well as the ten horns. The child is Jesus Christ Who became incarnate, conquered, and ascended to heaven. The two wings by which the woman flees the dragon are the two prophets, and this refers to when the Church in Judea, closest to Antichrist's headquarters, will have to flee someplace safe (Matthew 24:15-28). The waters spewed forth by the dragon are the people willing to persecute the Church; the earth swallowing up the woman to protect her refers to the Lord saving the Christians from their tormentors, however it is not known whether this refers to a future event or to what has already happened historically. The battle between Michael and the dragon and the latter's fall from heaven is what triggers the rule of Antichrist; narratively it is before the Church is carried by the two prophets, but it must actually happen after since the prophets ministered in the 3.5 years before Antichrist's tyranny. The beast from the sea is the kingdom of Antichrist. The beast from the earth is the false prophet, who will establish his rule in Jerusalem (Daniel 11:45, Matthew 24:15). The two angels who command the final harvest are the two prophets. Now again, the narrative restarts from a third perspective: that of the unbelievers, upon whom the whole fury of God will fall.
16:17-19:21 (7th bowl): The woman on the beast is an image of Satan. What is called Babylon here and in Isaiah (13-14, 21, 47-48) and Sodom in Ezekiel (16) refers to Rome. The 5 kings who are already fallen are Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian and Titus. The king who currently is is Domitian. The king who is to come for a short time is Nerva. The 8th king is the one from whom the 7 proceed, that is, Nero in resurrected form, who will rule with 10 kings and will not be recognized but will rather appear to the unbelieving Jews to be the Christ (Daniel 11:29-37). Then Christ will return with His angelic hosts to bring forth judgment.
20 (The millennium): The binding of Satan happens at the first coming of Christ. The 1,000 years are symbolic (Psalm 105:8). The abyss is the hearts of unbelievers. He is sealed so that it is not right now self-evident who is the servant of God and who is the servant of Satan. But at the end of the millennium he is released for a short while, referring to the 3.5 years during which Antichrist will persecute the Church. The first resurrection is the resurrection of faith (Colossians 3:1). The number 1,000 is 10x100: the one who keeps the Decalogue and the perfection of purity is one who reigns with Christ and for whom Satan is bound, but he remains loosed for those who do not do this, and him being loosed anyway after the millennium refers to how many will apostatize due to being tempted by him.
Then the general resurrection occurs, the final judgment, and the heavenly Jerusalem (which is very symbolic) comes down.
St. John Chrysostom shows more fully the tradition that Clement earlier hinted at. The apostles ask when the end comes and when the temple will be destroyed; Matthew 24:4-14 answers the first question by giving a recapitulation of all that Christians will have to endure, and Matthew 24:15-22 answers the second question; the abomination of desolation refers to the armies of Vespasian surrounding Jerusalem. Matthew 24:23-28 is when Jesus warns about Antichrist, not as the abomination of desolation as Irenaeus and Hippolytus interpreted it, but as the false prophet and false Christ. Then of course Matthew 24:29-31 is about the second coming and the last judgment.
In his interpretation of 2 Thessalonians, John gives us more context. The restrainer mentioned by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 is the Roman Empire, which restrains the Antichrist because it is when the Empire falls apart that Antichrist will use the power vacuum to take his place as ruler. The mystery of lawlessness already at work is Nero, who is a prefiguration of Antichrist. God will permit the appearance of Antichrist so as to confirm the wicked in their wickedness; they will claim to believe in him because of the signs he works, but in truth it will be because of the privileges he grants them and the unlawfulness he permits, as when Christ worked signs He was not believed (John 5:43). When Antichrist appears, he will abolish every idolatrous religion, but so as to be worshipped alone (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). He will sit in the temple of God; which does not refer specifically to the temple in Jerusalem, as in Irenaeus and Hyppolitus, but rather to the Christian Church, so that it is the churches that will be led to worship him as God.
But Elijah will return (Matthew 17:11), being to Christ's second coming what John the Baptist was to His first, then Jesus returns and all are resurrected and judged.
St. Jerome (Commentary on Daniel) says that it should be understood that the events that happened surrounding Antiochus IV Epiphanes are a prefiguration of what will happen surrounding Antichrist (Daniel 8:14).
At a time when the love of many will have grown cold (Luke 18:8), when the Roman Empire collapses, 10 kings will rule over its previous territories. Antichrist will rise from a small nation, which is the Hebrew people, and he will be seen as insignificant at first but will gain power through political intrigue, until he conquers Rome and becomes the first, and last, Jew to rule over the civilized world (Daniel 11:24). He will come from Babylon and first defeat the king of Egypt but will then be frightened by the resistance of Rome against him (Daniel 11:25-30), and will rather defeat the kings of Libya and Ethiopia then conquer Israel, but he will not conquer Edom, Moab and Ammon (Arabia), the deserts where the Christians will flee to (Daniel 11:40-41). He will be received by the Jews as the Christ, and he will put on the pretense of holiness and chastity although he will be a blasphemer (Daniel 11:37-39). As a result of his military victories, the remaining 7 kings will submit to him (Daniel 7:8). For 3.5 years he will rule over the whole world, he will sit in the temple in Jerusalem and claim to be God (Daniel 11:31), and he will persecute the Christians (Daniel 11:33), forbidding the true worship and desecrating the temple in Jerusalem (Daniel 12:11), that the Jews may also be tested, whether they choose Christ or Antichrist. The Christians will resist him for a little but many will die (Daniel 11:34).
However, he will make war against the north and the east and pitch his tent in Apedno near Nicopolis, formerly known as Emmaus, in Judea, then will go to the summit of the Mount of Olives, where the Lord will destroy him (Daniel 11:42-45, Isaiah 25:6-8). Then the resurrection and the final judgment will come, without a millennial kingdom since the saints are evidently not to inherit an earthly kingdom but a spiritual one (Daniel 7:18-19).
Concerning the 70 weeks of Daniel, Jerome suggests various interpretations he considers to be valid, some which make the final week to be about Antichrist and some that don't.
Some believe that the Antichrist has already come in the person of Emperor Nero (Daniel 11:30).
St. Augustine of Hippo (City of God 20) says that the first resurrection (Revelation 20:5-6) is the one referred to in John 5:22-26: it is not the resurrection of the body, but of the soul, as indeed the soul has a kind of death and a kind of resurrection from the dead (Matthew 8:22, 2 Corinthians 5:14-15). It is the resurrection of mercy, as opposed to the second resurrection, the resurrection of judgment (John 5:28-29). There is also the equally Orthodox opinion that the first resurrection is a future one, followed by a thousand-year sabbatical kingdom, as taught by Irenaeus, but it is only Orthodox if one believes that this kingdom is spiritual and not the kind of carnal, passionate kingdom expected by the Chiliasts. But if the first resurrection is the one we already participate in as Christians, then the thousand years can be a manner of speech since the time of the Church is happening during the latter half of the sixth millennium, so that it is called a millennium to recapitulate the actual final thousand years it takes place in (in which case the second resurrection is very soon from his perspective; keep in mind that the end of the sixth millennium would be around the year 500 AD and Augustine died in 430), or the millennium is far more symbolic, referring to all of world history (Psalm 105:8). At the end of the millennium Gog and Magog will launch a final great assault against the Church for 3.5 years. This does not refer to any one earthly nation but rather to the unbelieving world, which will oppress the Church wherever it is.
Antichrist will sit in the temple of God, but there are different opinions as to whether this refers to a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem or to the Church. Until then, what is keeping him from appearing is also not universally agreed upon: some believe it is the Roman Empire, and that the mystery of lawlessness already at work is Nero, who either will be resurrected or perhaps has not actually died. Some believe that what is keeping Antichrist from appearing and what is the mystery of lawlessness is the number of wicked men in the Church, who, when they are sufficiently plentiful, will create a favorable environment for Antichrist, and that 1 John 2:18-19 refers to the same thing.
It is the common tradition that Antichrist will come among ten kings ruling the Empire among themselves, but it is dangerous to put too much trust into this, as the ten kings could instead be symbolic of all the kings prior to Antichrist.
Antichrist will persecute the Church for 3.5 years.
Soon before the end comes, Elijah will return and convert the Jews to Christianity (Malachi 4:5-6).
...
What has become the general tradition in Eastern Orthodoxy, such as what is found liturgically or commonly? I'd say:

• The first resurrection is Christ's resurrection, which we share in through baptism.
  
• The millennium refers to the era of the Church.
  
• The Old Testament was completely fulfilled by the end of the 1st century AD. We are not looking forward to a future earthly kingdom (even of a spiritual nature) before the eternal Kingdom of God; the kingdom in question, such as what is prophesied by Ezekiel in the last few chapters, is the Church, and as Christians we already judge and possess all things.
  
• The book of Daniel was mostly fulfilled in 1, 2 and 3 Maccabees. Even things referring to the resurrection of the dead in the Old Testament find their fulfillment in the resurrection of Christ primarily.
  
• The four kingdoms in Daniel are the Babylonians, Medo-Persians, Greeks and Romans; or the Babylonians, Medes, Persians and Greco-Romans as expressed in the Syriac tradition. But in any case the Kingdom of God was established, and the Roman Empire was destroyed, when the rock sewn without hands crushed it, that is, when Christ was born of the Virgin. Through His Church He has conquered Rome since, and in fact nearly all nations by now.
  
• There will be an Antichrist, who will unite the world religions and try to eliminate the Church. It will be a short-lived but intense final tribulation we will go through before the resurrection, final judgment and universal establishment of the Kingdom of God. Enoch and Elijah will return to preach. We do not know when this will happen, nor what form the kingdom of Antichrist will take...
  
• ... and that's okay. We're not very much concerned with what the end times will look like. We have been in the end times since Christ became the firstborn of the dead and sent His Holy Spirit upon us. I'm far more likely to meet Christ when I die, whenever that is, than when Antichrist comes. The apostle Paul gave one key method to be ready for Antichrist anyway: to hold onto the tradition that he transmitted (2 Thessalonians 2:15), which is in 1 Thessalonians 4. Practice Orthodoxy and everything will turn out alright.
  
• The millenarism of some saints like Irenaeus is not accepted, in part because it became a defining feature of some heresies (like the Modalists who believed that at the return of Jesus there would be a millennial kingdom, then the illusion of the person of the Son would vanish and there would remain the only true person of the Father), and in part because, well, time proved it wrong—they expected the return of Christ to happen about 500 years after Christ, yet here we are.
  
• There is no doctrine of the Rapture. This is strictly a recent Protestant innovation. All instances I can find of the saints interpreting the relevant passages (like Luke 17:22:36 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17) understand them to be about the righteous going up to welcome the returning Lord when He comes, and nothing else.
  

The episode on Gargwiki.
The episode on Ask Greg.
How long has it been: the episode follows directly from the previous one.
Not much to say about the assaults against the Cyberbiotics Tower and the underground base (hey, first appearance of the Labyrinth!) - they're ok; I do like Hudson's strategy to breach into the latter:

1. Notice the camera.
2. Go to the door and pretend you're trying to open it, thus letting yourself be seen.
3. Let them capture you.
4. Use the Gargoyle Beast you had previously told to stay hidden to take them by surprise.
5. Profit.

Good to know the Old Soldier still got it. The fall of Fortress-1 is cool too, although Elisa arriving there just in time to see Goliath and Demona glide away is a bit too fortuitous. I'll let Greg Weisman explain why Goliath and Demona's conversation at the Castle is good: "Anyway, that whole conversation is just full of delicious irony -- all working against Demona. Goliath says, "I cannot make war on an entire world," completely unaware that that's exactly what Demona wants to do. He says, "Doesn't Xanatos prove that some humans can be trusted?" But of course, Demona knows that Xanatos absolutely cannot be trusted. Every statement Goliath makes pushes Demona toward further extremism. And he isn't even trying. Finally, after Demona reminds him of the Wyvern betrayal and Massacre, he says that the ones responsible for that "have been dead for 1000 years." Now putting aside that the Captain and Hakon aren't quite as dead-dead as Goliath thinks, this has got to push Demona over the edge. Deep down she knows her own responsibility. Again Goliath is wrong, because the traitor is standing right in front of him. My hats off to Michael Reaves. What a great scene! "So be it." she says. Goliath won't know it until VOWS. But they are DONE. Right there." Yup.
Goliath says that Demona has become "hard, unforgiving. You are not as I remember you."; I sure hope Dark Ages won't make that line sound weird in a couple of months. He then goes to meet Elisa, and we learn that Xanatos is the villain; well I never.
Speaking of which, Xanatos declares that the Gargs "have outlived their usefulness", which sounds a bit weird from a guy who'll later be defined as the "I never toss away anything" man; Demona being 100% on board with killing them is a bit weird too: ok, Goliath has made it clear that he'll never agree with her schemes of genocide, but you'd think she could at least make an attempt to gauge the other four's opinions before deciding they all need termination too.
Still, the Steel Clan's first appearance is cool (love the name, by the way); Xanatos makes a nice speech about them: "They're steel instead of stone, they don't sleep during the day, they can fly instead of glide, and best of all, they're 100% obedient." All very good, although it's undercut a bit by the fact that Goliath destroys one of them less than twenty seconds later. The following fight is good too (aside from Hudson cutting one of the robots in half while screaming like a maniac, that's F**KING AWESOME!), and we get the first of many, MANY, "have two enemies impact with each other" maneuvers; I sure hope you like those.
We get our fairly iconic "Demona with the bazooka" image, and Xanatos gets another nice line: "Hold it. Let's just let them play out their little drama, shall we?". Then Demona starts ranting about Goliath being a fool and about the fact that the "plan" only failed because of him - and kudos to Marina Sirtis, you really get the feeling that she waited a long, LONG time to tell him this; I really like this exchange:
DEMONA: "The plan was perfect..."
GOLIATH: "...plan?"
DEMONA: "It would've suceeded!"
GOLIATH: "What plan?"
We learn that Demona helped the Captain organize the sacking of Wyvern, which is easily the five-parter's best twist: it makes perfect sense once you say it, but before that you're not really thinking about the possibility because you already have a culprit for the Massacre and there doesn't seem to be the need to look for others; still, kinda like Goliath's suicide in Part Two, the moment is undercut a bit by the fact that this revelation won't be brought up as much as it should have been in the following episodes: you'd think Demona's role in the Massacre would be on the forefront of most of the Clan's interactions with her, but instead it tends to fade into the background most of the time.
Then, in another moment that I'm fairly sure Demona apologists tend to ignore, Goliath immediately surmises her problem:
GOLIATH: "Don't you see? None of this would have happened if it weren't for you!"
DEMONA: "DON'T SAY THAT!"
Demona then declares humanity to be "a poison that must be purged from this planet"; I'd kinda like to know Xanatos' thoughts on that: is this the first time he heard about Demona's final objective? Or did he know already? And regardless of the answer, isn't it a bit weird that he apparently didn't expect her betrayal AT ALL in City of Stone, considering what he hears here?
DEMONA: "You trusted me once. You loved me once. We have found each other again after a thousand years of solitude: does that mean nothing to you?"
I love Goliath's reaction to that: small tears forming in his eyes and him being unable to answer, or even just look at her in the eyes; great stuff. Then Demona says "If you are not my ally, then you are my enemy" over a decade before Anakin Skywalker did the same in Revenge of the Sith; sadly, Goliath doesn't answer with: "Only a Rogue Gargoyle deals in absolutes. I will do what I must."
The revelation of Demona's name is... eh; I'll let Weisman explain the problem: "One thing that never quite worked for me, was the reveal of Demona's name. She makes such a big deal of it. But the name (at this point in the series) just doesn't have enough resonance for me yet. Later, sure. "Demona". We all sit up and take notice. But there. "Demona". Yeah, so?"
Elisa saves Goliath; he immediately follows by saving her, while Demona falls to her... let's say "death" and try not to laugh too much about it, ok? Anyway: really good scene. Goliath is ready to kill Xanatos ("She wanted me to destroy humanity... I think I'll start with YOU!") but Elisa and Hudson manage to calm him down; Weisman has a strange comment about that: "Hudson pipes in and says, "She's right, lad. Is that what you want?" I intentionally instructed our voice director Jamie Thomason to direct Ed Asner to read that line with ambiguity. Hudson DOESN'T care whether Goliath tosses David or not. He simply wants Goliath to make an informed choice." Strange because:

1. Why wouldn't Hudson care about Goliath becoming "the same as Demona", as Elisa says? Especially after learning what Demona caused with her actions?
2. In the immediately following scene, Hudson clearly says that Goliath "did the right thing".

Xanatos gets arrested - I'll talk about that in the next post; we get some final shenanigans with the Trio (Brooklyn's sunglasses going to pieces and Broadway saying that he got hungry again just an hour after eating Chinese); we close with this dialogue:
ELISA: "Maybe we'll catch a Giants' game."
GOLIATH: "Giants?"
ELISA: "I wonder if this city is ready for you guys..."
It's ok; final verdict: not the best episode in the five-parter, but still a good conclusion.
RANKINGS:

1. Awakening Part Four
2. Awakening Part One
3. Awakening Part Two
4. Awakening Part Five
5. Awakening Part Three

Two weeks ago, I spoke on the phone with Tom Ono, the manual writer for Heroes of Might and Magic III. As usual, Tom asked how things were going. I said things were good... then proceeded to whine and complain for the next five minutes (much to Tom's amusement).
When the conversation concluded, Tom said, "Don't complain too much. Some people would give their eyeteeth to be in the game industry." I responded, "Who are these people and why haven't they been beaten for their own good?"
My name is Gregory Fulton, game designer for Heroes of Might and Magic III (developed by New World Computing, published by 3DO). You may call me Greg. Like most game designers, I'm sure you'll find me a bitter and cynical man, aged beyond my years, full of sarcasm, and inexplicably drawn to the horrors of game production like a lobotomized moth to the "pretty" flame.
As I guide you through your weekly tour of my memories, I promise the recollected images will be truthful and sincere but written with a smirk and a wink.
Undoubtedly, we will interact with the following animals: artists, level builders, managers, producers, programmers, testers, and monkeys. To help ensure your safety, I request you fasten your seat belts, keep your hands to your sides at all times, and be sure to not make any quick and sudden movements. Remember... we will be passing through the game production process.

12/05/98
It's Saturday. I'm at work with three other members of the Heroes3 team. I'll be in again tomorrow.
Smells like "crunch time."
Everyone in the game industry knows the term "crunch time." Those not in the industry may ask, "What is crunch time?" Long hours: 10-18 each day. We're starting our fourth crunch month. We have at least one more after this.
Bad take-out food: Mexican and Chinese food are New World's favorites. Today we had Taco Bell and Domino's pizza as part of NWC's "work for food" program.
Social Life: To work in the game industry you must already have some form of social retardation. When crunch mode begins, you may only speak in code to coworkers. Immediate family and friends may be seen on brief occasions so they don't file a missing-persons report. I'm one of the lucky ones; I don't remember having any friends or family.
Hygiene: Haircuts and showers become optional in favor of more sleep time. For me, showers are a must, but my hair is sprouting wings and a tail. Pretty soon I'll look like the lead singer from Flock of Seagulls.
Stress: Anger and frustration are frequent companions. If bridges are burned, this is usually the time. Earlier this week morale was low. In a fit of anger concerning team interactions, I was heard shouting, "I feel like a kindergarten teacher. Can't everyone just keep their hands to themselves and play nice!"
Murphy's law: Any potential hazard will be encountered. I'm writing this diary from the NWC conference room. My computer refuses to function for more than five minutes without seizing up.
12/06/98
This weekend I'm taking care of my PR duties (hence this diary). Not the most exciting stuff, so I'll relate a short story from earlier this week.
David Mullich (producer), Mark Caldwell (NWC vice president and programmer), Jon Van Caneghem (NWC president, creator of all things Might and Magic, and company design visionary), and I found ourselves crowded into the sweltering office of Scott White.
Scott did all the town screens in Heroes III except the Rampart, Necropolis, and Fortress. Since he finished his 3D duties, he's turned his skills to the game's interface. Believe it or not, we were in Scott's office arguing about color: interface colors and player colors.
After much arguing about the interface colors, we decided to leave it virtually untouched. Player colors were a different subject.
Originally, we used light blue, dark blue, red, green, purple, brown, black, and white. These colors needed to change. Light blue looked like the blue used in the main menu. Brown clashed with the brown used in the general game interface. Game text disappeared against white. Black and green disappeared with the terrain colors shown on the game mini-map.
OK. We agreed some of the colors needed to change. After this, the agreements stopped. I don't know what is more ridiculous... arguing over what colors to use or the twisted logic behind the arguments. Red, blue, and dark green were safe choices. We still needed five other colors. The conversation went something like this....

"I don't want yellow. Yellow is the urine color."
"What about brown?"
"I don't like brown."
"Brown is the s**t color."
"What about pink?"
"Pink is a sissy color."
"We won't call it pink. We'll call it 'rose'."
"Rose?"
"The rose player?"
"I don't know. If I saw a pink hero, I'd turn and run away. You know any hero secure enough to use pink as his color is bad ass."
"What about magenta?"
"What about cobalt? What about cadmium?"
"Have we accounted for all the fecal colors?"
"What about orange?"
"Phelan (our art lead) doesn't like orange. It looks bad."
"So. I don't think it looks bad."
"Fine. You tell her you want orange."
"She'll kick your ass."
"Oh. Fine. We won't use orange."

So it went. Fifteen minutes later everyone agreed to disagree, and Jon was made the final judge. Here are the final colors: red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, aqua, and rose (pink).
12/07/98
Today we stopped all map production. From here until we ship, I join the mapmakers and testers in playing maps and writing bugs... or so I thought.
Today, I had dropped into my lap the assignment of converting the 144-plus pages of the game manual into a help file. Anyone who has written a help file knows how huge this task can be. I could probably finish it in a day, but it requires no one bothering me for an extended period of time. Ha!
At this late stage of the production cycle, my entire day is spent meeting with people, making sure people are doing their work, and confirming that what is being done is correct. I don't have time for work. I've made the ugly evolution from game designer to middle manager.
It wasn't like this at the beginning of the project. At the beginning of the project the game designer is the screaming prophet, lost and alone in the desert (or the design process if you prefer).
In the middle of the production process the prophet is being screamed at by all his fellow coworkers who are wondering what to do because the design doc is behind schedule.
At the end of the project, everyone's a screaming prophet, and everyone is screaming at everyone else.
Sometime in the middle of all this screaming I've got to write this help file. Maybe I could give the assignment to Christian Vanover (H3 assistant director). Isn't it the job of a middle manager to delegate?
12/08/98
Yesterday I was wondering where I would find the time to write the game help file. Today I have the answer.... I think I have the flu. This doesn't feel like any 24-hour "see-ya-bye" flu either. This feels like "kneel before Zod!" flu.
All right. I've got a story for you.
Earlier today we "officially" stopped making maps. From here on out, we play, test, and polish the game. This could mean a little, or a lot. If the maps play well the first time out, revisions will be minor. If we end up chucking whole maps, we may find ourselves back to making maps. Thus, we started playing them today. JVC (Jon Van Caneghem, New World's president) ended up playing a notorious map named "Barbarian Breakout."
Ten minutes after he starts, JVC pages me over my phone intercom: "Hey Yoda." (He's been calling me Yoda lately. I don't know why. I'm not sure if I should be honored or offended. On one hand, Yoda is wise and he trains Jedi Knights. On the other hand, he is a short ugly green dude with big ears.) "Enemy hero with six behemoths (one of the highest-level creatures) knocked on my front door on week two, day one."
"Oops. I'll be right there."
As soon as I walked into JVC's office, the razzing began.
"What's with the six behemoths? Is this one of the balanced scenarios?"
"OK, OK. Something's wrong. Turn off the fog."
Jon restarts the scenario, turns off the fog of war, ends turn four times in a row, then right-clicks the enemy hero to see the extent of his forces. Aside from his other three stacks of creatures... he has one stack of six behemoths. Oops.
"All right. Open the map in the editor."
Jon opens the map in the editor. What do we discover? First, the enemy hero starts at level three, and the mapmaker (Dave Botan) has given him four stacks of creatures. In addition, the enemy hero's starting town has three of seven creature generators already prebuilt.
No wonder the enemy was able to recruit behemoths on day four.
Remember the story about the father who comes home from a bad day at work and yells at his wife? She in turn yells at her kid. The kid in turn kicks the dog.
At this point, I'm looking for a dog to kick. So, I hunt down Dave Botan. Immediately, Dave states his defense.
"Everyone says the map's too hard. It isn't. The AI's cheating." (Recently, we discovered the artificial intelligence was exploiting an undiscovered bug allowing it to recruit more creatures than were actually available.)
"The AI doesn't need to cheat. It's already got a huge advantage."
"There's a bug."
"Doesn't matter. Set all players to normal starting conditions."
At this point everyone begins to playfully dog-pile on Dave telling all the reasons why his maps suck. In the end he relented and fixed the map.
12/09/98
I'm not writing from work today. I'm writing from home. I have seven-way-straight-from-the-bottom-of-the-Amazon-flu.
With this kind of flu the logical course of action would be to rest, drink lots of fluids, watch lots of movies, maybe see a doctor. However, I am a game designer and unfamiliar with the ways of logic. A day at home with the flu means I have the opportunity to finish the H3 help file.
Wow.
How pathetic can you get? On my day off to rest and get better, I use the uninterrupted time to convert a 144+ page manual into a help file.
I should get sick more often. I get more work done.
12/10/98
I'm back at work today. Good news... I finished the help file. Bad news... I still have the flu, and because I was so efficient in writing the game help file... I've been given the task of writing the map editor help file. Oh yeah, finish it by Monday.
Monday? There's so much pressure in my head, when I sniff, my eyes want to flee their sockets. My voice has the auditory consistency of sandpaper. Monday? Sure, I'll have it done by Monday.
12/11/98
Well, it's Friday night, and I have yet to see Star Trek: Insurrection. Doubt I'll be seeing it anytime soon.
One of the unmentioned symptoms of crunch time is cultural unawareness. In my time at a previous company I almost missed the entire O.J. trial. I haven't seen a movie since Starship Troopers. I'm not kidding.
12/14/98
I shouldn't have come in to work Thursday and Friday. It really pushed me over the edge. For the past two days I've been laid up with fever and chills. Remarkably, it was the one thing to take my mind off work. Aside from a froggy throat, it seems to have passed.
Enough about my illness. From here on, assume I'm always ill with the flu.
12/15/98
Today NWC (New World Computing) took a brief pause from game development to listen to Trip Hawkins (president of 3DO, NWC's parent company).
Twice a year, Trip makes a formal visit to talk about the company and where we're going as a company. It's a nice break from things.
However, Trip wasn't half as exciting as David Richie (our tools programmer) who sat next to me. Turns out David is coming down with the flu.
Over the course of the meeting, the air conditioning didn't turn on. With over 50 people crammed into a room, it got hot very fast. As the minutes passed, I could see David slowly whither.
I thought he was going to vomit. So basically, for most of the meeting, I sat envisioning how I was going to get out of the way when the volcano erupted.
Luckily, the volcano did not erupt. David left in the middle of the lecture and I haven't seen him since.
12/17/98
Welcome to the end of another working day at NWC. There is still no sign of David Richey. Another one of our programmers, John Krause, called in sick today. David Mullich (the Heroes III director) was ready to take bets on who would call in sick next. Of course, everyone blames me for getting them ill.
As far as your average NWC workday goes, this one was hectic and full of revelation.
Revelation?
Yes. Revelation. Only today did I look at my calendar and realize Christmas was next Friday.
Hectic?
Yes. Hectic. Every now and then I need to wipe my desk clean. This means catching up on all the hand-scrolled notes and stray post-its littered about my desk. When my desk is clean, I'm caught up.
This very act of cleaning makes for a semi-chaotic day. There is much gear shifting and subject changing to close dangling issues.
Add to this my usual parade of visitors, and my first chance to test multiplayer, and it takes great effort to avoid turning into a screaming monkey. Yes, I said screaming monkey.
Frequently, I find myself held hostage in my own office as a line of visitors (testers, programmers, artists, producers, etc.) quickly assemble outside my office in a short period of time, all wanting a piece of my brain.
Today it happened to occur while I was in the middle of a multiplayer game with Jeff Leggett (H3 multiplayer programmer). Simultaneously, I had three people show up and cram themselves into my small office. Each began jockeying for position to ask a question. Meanwhile, Jeff waited on the phone intercom, with Heroes III continually chiming in the background, letting me know it was my turn to play.
At this point you may apply the screaming monkey metaphor.
Despite the great potential for chaos, I asked Jeff to wait, gave my three suitors a number, told them to wait in line, then answered each of their questions.
On the surface, everything looked under control. Little did these poor souls know there was a screaming monkey, trapped in my mind's steel cage, wildly thrashing about in a desperate attempt to escape and turn me into a volcano of anger and lunacy.
When it was over, I took a deep breath, noted the walls weren't sprayed with the blood of innocent coworkers, and returned to my multiplayer game with Jeff.
Heroes II multiplayer wasn't friendly in the least. When it wasn't your turn, all you could do was sit at the computer and stare at the screen like a moron.
Well, thanks to our wonderful network programmer, Jeff Leggett, a moron you will no longer be.
Jeff has finished implementing multiplayer support. Now we're on a bug hunt. So, today, Jeff and I played a multiplayer game in the background while we went about our work.
I must admit, I had a blast. Moments like this make me forget my job is serious work.
12/18/98 Friday
Today I actually managed to catch up on all my notes. Next up, International Translation Kit. It can wait until Sunday. I don't get to enjoy these moments of accomplishment very often.
Being a game designer is nothing more than a life of delayed gratification. You spend the first month of the project "being creative," then spend the next 17 as a bricklayer implementing low-level details and boot-strapping the game design when unforeseen consequences arise.
Tomorrow we have our annual company Christmas party. I won't be going. I see my coworkers every day at work. I don't want to see them in a social environment. It'd be too weird. They'd have, like, spouses and dates and stuff, and wear dress clothes.
We've been told we can dress formal or casual. To me this means torn jeans and a food-stained white T-shirt. To everyone else, this means dress formal, because no one wants to underdress.
I don't want to see any of my coworkers dressed up. The thought frightens me. We're a bunch of geeks. We don't look good in casual wear. Formal wear will only amplify our geekiness.
Only one thing could entice me to go to the Christmas party - seeing the wives go off on the management for working their husbands so hard. I'd pay to see that... provided I wasn't on the receiving end.
By the way... hello to Chris Cross and Brian Reed, two friends I made when I briefly worked at Dreamworks Interactive (I didn't work on Trespasser). They called me today. They'd read the first entry in the Designer Diary and called to tell me what they thought. They then tied me up on the phone for the next 30 minutes while simultaneously sending me e-mail with bizarre and obscene attachments.
01/02/99 Saturday
Well, I'm back at work. The Christmas break was needed. I spent the first three days drinking eggnog, sleeping in 12- and 16-hour shifts, and watching Clinton get impeached.
After I was well rested, the eggnog was all gone, and Clintion was impeached, I did what any game design loser would do... worked on the game while on vacation. Ugh. I'm so pathetic.
My initial goal was to play existing maps. After playing five maps, it was obvious the AI hadn't been fully tested. It tended to sit back and never struck out until it had enough forces to guarantee a win.
This made for very extreme game experiences. Either you never saw the AI, or it came storming out of nowhere, knocked on your door, and politely introduced itself as your doom.
When our AI programmer (Gus Smedstad) gets back from vacation, I'll need to share my findings with him.
Well, seeing as I couldn't really play the game, I turned my attention to our 144-page game manual... much to my horror.
It turns out our second draft of the manual was full of errors. So, with red pen in hand, I promoted myself from game designer to fact checker. Over the next three days, I proceeded to bloody the pages of our beautiful manual.
To say it was tedious would be an understatement. When it was all over, I couldn't read anything if it wasn't written in fine print.
01/04/99 Monday
Today was another screaming monkey day. Why? One word: programmers.
I won't say who, but one of our programmers came into my office and proceeded to yell at me over a feature request he'd been given to program.
Why was he yelling at me? On the surface, it was because I hadn't given him enough details, or I hadn't thought through its impact enough. Or it could have been because it was simply a stupid feature, I didn't know what I was doing, and I was ruining the game.
The real reason? He wasn't sure how to program the task he'd been given, and the specified time frame was short. Instead of calming down, thinking it through, and telling me whether it could or could not be done in the given time frame, he panicked, and chose to vent at me.
Programmers are a unique breed. Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. Some of my best friends are programmers.
I must admit I am fascinated. I've watched each of our team programmers code. It's very amusing. How they code gives me a unique insight to their personality. For instance...

John Bolton (lead programmer): When John programs, it looks like he's playing chess.
David Richey (tools programmer): David doesn't code. Beforehand, he thinks about his task in depth, like contemplating philosophy, then simply writes it up. Quite often you can look through David's office window and see him bent over in his chair, chin on fist, like The Thinker.
Mark Caldwell (NWC VP): You need to know Mark to really understand, but when Mark codes, it's like he's in a boxing ring, ducking shots, trading blows, and trash talking with the program.

Now take such individuals and do the unthinkable... Make them into a team. Worse yet, force them to have meetings in which they must interact on a social level and agree to work together. Worse yet, force them to interact with right-brained artists and game designers.
It's a wonder any games ever get made.
Join designer Greg Fulton as gives us his very last Designer Diary entry, which tracks the last days of Heroes of Might and Magic III. In these last few days, the team waited anxiously to approve the gold candidate. But there is no rest for Greg, as he mentions a little something about the expansion disc. Join us as we count down the final development of Heroes III.
01/07/99
Ever heard the phrase "thousand tile stare"?
It's a phrase used by our mapmakers. You get the thousand tile stare from making H3 maps all day long.
Today I got the thousand tile stare after making a map for our eventual game demo.
It's a very simple, small map, letting players experience a portion of the game. Hopefully they'll experience enough and feel compelled to buy the game. I've been calling the map "Dead and Buried."
When I finished, I gave it to Chris Vanover (H3 assistant director) to play. Chris is an expert Heroes player. He's a good gauge of the map's difficulty.
Watching Chris play was a lot of fun. It allowed me to take a break from work and finally see the game in action. However, I am the worst person to have over your shoulder when you play.
Why? I'm a backseat driver. It's a bad habit from playing console games with friends.
Thus, I watched Chris play and second-guessed him all the way. We were like two old men spitting and complaining about the best strategy as Chris clicked his way through the game. It was rather humorous.
01/08/99
Today I gave the Dead and Buried map to a few select people to see if anyone could beat it in the allotted time frame of four game weeks.
One of my candidates was Jen Bullard. Jen is the only female tester in the QA area.
Upon entering the test area, I found Jennifer burning a candle at her desk. She wasn't afraid to comment aloud how everyone else in the test area doesn't wash their clothes often enough. She thinks they stink.
No sooner did I sit down to watch Jen play than the verbal bantering between the testers began.
Ryan Den, another one of our testers, was sure he found a bug and asked aloud if anyone had encountered the same bug. No one had. Immediately everyone began shouting "user error." Ryan thought they were all high... until he realized it was user error. Everyone then proceeded to playfully tear into Ryan yet again.
I must admit, our testers are pretty cool. Their interactions are quite amusing. They banter with the voracity of a knife fight, but it's rarely cruel.
01/14/99
Last night was my last chance to revise the game manual. Thus, I decided to pull an all-nighter to finish it. This was my first time being at NWC so late. I also experienced something completely new.
I had been drinking many free Cokes when my bladder reminded me who was really in charge. Without hesitation, I raced to the bathroom. I opened the door. It was dark. This is not unusual. The lights are hooked up to a motion sensor. To save energy, they turn on and off based on the presence of a moving body. Confident the lights would turn on, I strode into the bathroom.
The lights did not illuminate.
Fumbling around in the dark, I was able to find the light switch and flip it on.
Nothing.
Fumbling around some more, I found the door handle and exited the bathroom.
Moving quickly to Mark Caldwell's office (Mark and George were also working late), I told him, "The bathroom lights won't turn on." He said, "Yeah. The bathroom lights don't turn on after midnight." I asked, "How do you go to the bathroom with the lights off?" He answered, "Usually I just feel my way to the urinal."
"I need to take a crap."
"Hey, I wouldn't know anything about that. Get the flashlight from George."
"I need a flashlight?"
"Yeah."
So, I walked to George's office.
"I need the bathroom flashlight."
Giggling to himself under his breath, George reached into his desk and gave me a pocket flashlight. With flashlight in hand I returned to the bathroom where everything went according to plan.
I know game production has its odd moments, but... this one was really odd.
01/18/99
In the last days of a game's production, the game designer makes a desperate attempt to prevent features from being cut to make the deadline. However, if I got all the features I wanted, the game would never ship. Thus, there is always a tug of war between the game designer, management, programmers, and artists, to decide what gets into the game and what gets pushed back to the expansion or sequel.
Today I was doing my best to get a new hero into the game without too much additional programming or art. I realized I could get the results I needed by simply adding a new graphic and customizing an existing game hero. Even better, I could get the graphic from existing art in the intro movie. All the artist had to do was crop a freeze-frame from the movie and give it to our asset manager to be put into the game. I could customize the hero in the editor. All the programmers had to do was recognize the character's unique identification.
Well, we did.
I wonder how much longer I can push my luck.
01/19/99
I have become the Walmart floor manager.
No. I haven't quit my job.
Let me explain.
At this stage in the making of the game, I find myself spending most of my time walking the halls with my Notepad of Oppression waiting for people to call out my name.
The notepad is a list of issues needing resolution. Most people find the notepad humorous unless their name is on it. Ironically, I end up putting my name on the notepad more than anyone else's (I'm oppressing myself).
Regardless, when I am walking the halls and someone calls out my name, I duck into their office to answer their questions. Sometimes this means getting on their phone and calling someone else to clear up an issue. If I don't have the answer, I'm the intermediary.
Thus, I feel like the Walmart floor manager, roaming the isles, taking care of arising issues. All I really need is the blue vest.
01/20/99
For a moment, consider most game manuals. Usually, a manual details the game interface and introduces you to the various game elements. Rarely do these manuals give you true game statistics.
For Heroes III , we wanted to buck this trend. Using the Heroes II strategy guide as a model, we decided to make a big manual loaded with information. This is exactly what we did - 144 pages.
Today we signed off on the manual. Well, no sooner did the ink dry than we discovered some errors. It was terrifying. I literally sat at my desk, looking at the errors I had discovered, and heard the manual mocking me with the chittering of a wild hyena.
There was nothing I could do. It was carved in stone. Now understand, most manuals ship with some errors. This is what the Readme is for. However, several people had gone over this manual time and again, and still there were errors.
I'll never make a big manual again. It's too much upkeep considering the fluidity of game design.
I'm sure I'll lose some sleep over this.
1/25/99
Today the Coke machine caught fire.
Let me repeat this.
Today the Coke machine caught fire.
Since we started crunching, around 7:00pm each night, Mark Caldwell (NWC VP) has been unlocking the Coke machine for free drinks to go with our evening meal. We don't continue pressing the selection buttons for the various drinks. Instead, we literally open up the front half of this big, red, half-ton refrigerator, made to withstand the assaults of the most juvenile of delinquents.
Now, I'm not exactly clear on the details, but one of the testers pulled open the front door to grab a soda from inside. Apparently, some of the electrical wires were sheared, followed by fire and smoke.
Upon seeing the fire and smelling the smoke, the tester grabbed Ben Bent (NWC office manager and part-time game director). He then pointed out the fire in the Coke machine.
With perfect calm, Ben simply unplugged the Coke machine. Poof. The fire went away.
I must admit, I can't help but see the fire in the Coke machine as a metaphor for Heroes III in production. A fire starts, someone panics, and someone else calmly solves the problem.
Truthfully, it's the story of the game production process.
2/07/99 Sunday
Today could be the day.
We've decided to make a "final candidate" CD-ROM for 3DO approval. A final candidate is what we consider "ready to ship." We then send the final candidate to 3DO for them to do shrink-wrap testing.
Tonight, no one leaves the building until the game is finished.
2/08/99 Monday
It's 5:00am Monday morning.
We just started burning the final candidate.
About half the team is still here.
We've been crunching too long. Everyone's burnt.
About 15 minutes ago, Mark starting broadcasting Money For Nothing over everyone's speakerphone.
Ironic.
02/13/99
I am literally weak-kneed. Except for writing this entry, all I intend to do is just sit in my office chair and do everything I possibly can to do nothing.
As of 8:30 Saturday, February 13, we're calling it good Barring last-second crash bugs, the game is done.
It's 9:30, and with the realization the game is done, already I'm beginning to crash.
After crunching for so long, the crash is the aftereffect. This is the time when you finally realize you can relax and return to a somewhat normal life. This is also the flag signaling the release of all the pent-up stress and illness you've been holding off by sheer will for the past six months. Thus... crash.
Wow.
We're done.
02/14/99
Four days after announcing Heroes has gone gold, we're already talking about the expansion pack. Already, I've assembled my map makers. They're good people. With H3 under their belts they should make even better maps for the expansion.
The downside? Chris Vanover is moving onto a different project. Technically Chris was H3's assistant director, but I adopted him as my assistant designer. He was a big help in many of the grunt areas. I was hoping to hand the expansion off to Chris so I could concentrate on the next Heroes.
No such luck.
Ultimately, this means vacation must wait.
(whimper)
Where is a monkey boy when you need one?
02/19/99
David Mullich's (Heroes III director) wife was pregnant and expecting about the same time as E3 last year (Atlanta '98). So, he couldn't go and demonstrate the game.
I was the next logical choice. I know the game better than anyone else, and when needed, I can turn on the charm.
Now don't get me wrong, when I have demoed the game, it has been a delight. Yet, as a game, Heroes III doesn't demo well. It's a turn-based game. It's not a first-person shooter or real-time strategy game. There's no real immediate reward for your attention span to latch onto.
However, Heroes does have a very large, very dedicated following. Thus, most people who want to see Heroes are already fans. This was the case at E3.
At E3 I did the vast majority of the presentations. I did so many I ended up losing my voice. Almost all the people who saw the game were fans of Heroes and liked what they saw. We were so successful, people were taking chairs from the other game stations to sit in front of ours.
Well, the downside to my work at E3 was... I became the demo guy. The downside of being the demo guy is traveling.
I hate traveling.
Once I arrive at my destination, there's no problem. I'm just impatient by nature. I'm also 6'1" and hate sitting in supercramped airline seats.
So, today I got to fly up to 3DO with Peter Ryu (MM7 producer), Keith Francart (MM7 director), and Jeff Blatner (new Heroes producer) to give presentations on MM7 and Heroes III to our Ubi Soft partners and a smattering of European journalists.
As much as I hated getting up at 5:30am and traveling to San Francisco (less than one week after going gold), the trip was amusing for a number of reasons.
Since I have been at New World, Peter Ryu has always worn shorts and sandals. For the presentation, Pete was ordered to wear pants and shoes. Throughout the day, he was wincing as the shoes rubbed his feet raw.
The other amusing part was hanging out with the French chicks from Ubi Soft and the European press.
Last time I was at 3DO I did an H3 presentation to a number of European journalists. Not a French woman among them. It was different this time, and dare I say, worth the trip.
02/22/99
David Mullich (H3 director), George Ruof (H3 programmer), and I are the only members of the team in the building today. Everyone else is on vacation.
Over the weekend I began my self-rehabilitation for returning to the real world.
When you do nothing but work 12-14 hours a day, seven days a week, and then it all comes to an abrupt halt, you suddenly find you have all this spare time on your hands.
Ultimately, you become bored. You don't know what to do with yourself because your "normal" situation meant working on the game... but the game is finished. Normal has become different and no longer normal.
A logical assumption for curing this boredom would be a vacation. Not yet. I've got to write the design for the expansion disc. I've got two weeks before it is due. After hammering out the specs, everyone will be briefed, then I can go on vacation.
I've got it all planned out. I haven't seen my parents since Christmas of 1997. So, I'm going to go back home and sit in the rocking chair in front of my dad's big-screen TV and watch nothing but cable television for at least two weeks. You heard me. Nothing but CNN Headline News for two weeks. If by then I'm not properly vegetated, I'll watch it for another week. Then I'll track down my old high school girlfriend and see if she's still single.
I've set up an e-mail address for your feedback about the game when it hits the shelves. This e-mail is merely for player feedback and suggestions. I will be the one reading the e-mails, and most likely, I won't be answering any of them. So, don't flame me if I don't respond. [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
I've enjoyed writing these diaries. I wish I had been able to dedicate more time to them.
My apologies to Elliott Chin (who made these diaries possible). Elliott wanted me to talk about the design philosophy behind H3. After practicing design philosophy 12-14 hours a day, I couldn't bring myself to write a diary about it. So, I thought I'd do "a day in the life." I hope you enjoyed my tongue-in-cheek account.
I leave you with the following words I once heard the great Jon Van Caneghem speak, "When it's all over you'll forget how hard it was and do it all over again."
He's right. We will.

My Bachelor’s is in Film Studies, so this is my thing! I’d love to read all of your recommendations! I’m still catching up on my Rated R media.
My Film Recs:

• Schindler’s List (1993) is a MUST-SEE. If you haven’t watched it, watch it ASAP. I consider it one of the most essential visual educational tools about the Holocaust. The film is based on a true story and one of the best portrayals of life during the Nazi “Final Solution.” The film won 7 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director (Steven Spielberg), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score (John Williams), Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography, and Best Art Direction. I think teenagers should watch this film at around ~16 years old (depending on maturity) for educational purposes.

Side Note/Soap Box: I believe that watching realistic and accurate Rated-R war films is not immoral or "sinful" in any way (which I love to tell TBM's, because they immediately clutch their pearls). In fact, I would even go as far as to argue that war films that sugarcoat the violence and horror of war do a disservice to those who fought and lost their lives in those conflicts. A PG-13 historical war movie with battle scenes? Not realistic. By sugarcoating violence, especially when it comes to genocides and war, we're basically downplaying how serious those events were, and honestly, I think that's kind of sketchy from an ethical standpoint. I managed to convince a TBM friend of mine through this argument to join me in watching "Schindler's List." Before we watched it, she said, "Why not? I've already read like 40 World War II historical fiction novels." I consider that a win.

• 1917 (2019) is a World War I film that won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography with its strategy of presenting the film in one continuous shot. As I watched this film, I seemed to be running with the two characters as they traveled across enemy lines to deliver a timely message to save almost 2,000 British soldiers. It’s one of the more tame war films, but still intense.
• All Quiet on the Western Front (2022). HOLY FUCK. It’s based on the 1929 novel written by a World War I German veteran. However, this anti-war film is the first (out of 3) adaptations to ACTUALLY be produced by the Germans (the other two were made by Americans and then by Americans & Brits), seeing how this story follows the German characters in World War I.

Another Soap Box: This film is a big deal because, in film theory classes, we discussed the accuracy of media portrayals of different characters and backgrounds versus the creators' identities. Does German filmmakers’ portrayal of Germans in World War I make the story more authentic than if American filmmakers made the same film? My vote is yes. However, you don’t necessarily want to make this argument into an extreme absolute of black and white, or else you can go to extremes and say, “Only LGBTQ+ filmmakers can create stories about LGBTQ+ characters and plotlines,” or “Only white actresses can portray a mermaid, because the fairytale is Danish,” (side-eyeing majorly on that one). Then that pigeonholes filmmakers/creatives into boxes and genres, and we can miss out on some fantastic stories that otherwise wouldn’t be told.

• Back to All Quiet on the Western Front (2022). The film is tied for the most-awarded foreign film in Oscars’ history with Parasite (2019) and three other films I’m too lazy to list. NOT GONNA LIE: I got halfway through this film and couldn’t finish it. I was about to have a panic attack, even though while I watched it, I tried to calm myself down by admiring the special effects, production design, cinematography, etc., but it didn’t last long. I already know the film deserves all of the awards it won. If you can stomach it, I highly recommend watching it. Its extremely graphic depiction of violence is what makes it so staunchly anti-war. I’ll probably be able to watch the second half soon.
• Call Me By Your Name (2017). ANOTHER HOLY FUCK. This film changed my brain chemistry, and it’s one of the first and only films that made me feel like a changed person after seeing it. I used to sit in my film classes wondering what people meant about films being “life-changing,” I finally understood what they meant when the end credits started to roll on this film. It’s a coming-of-age romantic drama that put Timothee Chalamet on the map. He is phenomenal in the movie (as he is in everything he is in), and Chalamet is the youngest man (21 years old at the time) to be nominated for the Oscar’s Best Actor award since 1939. Don’t let the film being “coming-of-age” deter you. It has one of the most beautiful romantic love messages I have ever seen.

My TV recs:

• The Boys on Amazon Prime. If the Marvel/DC formula of superheroes disinterests you or starts getting on your nerves, you must watch The Boys. It’s a new gritty take on what life would actually look like with a corrupt corporation of superheroes. It’s raunchy and surprises you in the craziest ways. I think my jaw was permanently dropped watching the show. They just finished filming Season 4. It’s dark, violent, and satirical, and the show wittily comments on today’s social and political climate. Not to mention the main villain scares the FUCK out of me. The humor is top-notch, and sometimes I feel it should be illegal for me to laugh at their jokes. I highly recommend the show.
• Euphoria on HBO Max (or just Max now?). I started watching it because Zendaya won her first Emmy for portraying Euphoria’s main character, Rue, making her the youngest winner for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. (She won this Emmy Award again for Euphoria’s second season, making her the youngest two-time winner). I started the show for Zendaya, and I was drawn in by the writing and (gorgeous!) cinematography. The show’s portrayal of drug use, sex, mental health, and teenage life is deeply emotional, occasionally disturbing, but draws you into the character’s experiences. When I watched it, I was like, “So THIS is what being a teenager is like for non-Mormons!” (Though, I’m sure not all teenagers’ lives are like the dramatization in Euphoria.) I plan to rewatch the show soon now that I’m officially exmo just to see how different I perceive the show vs when I watched it as a still-believing but PIMO member.
• Fleabag. HOLY FUCK. It is a beautifully written comedy-drama with hilarious fourth wall breaks. There are only 2 seasons, but MAN they are so worth watching! It's such a realistic deep dive in heartbreak, loss, and finding yourself following the woman "Fleabag" who is so chaotic and rough around the edges, but you can't help but root for her. The show was nominated for 11 Emmy awards, and won 6. It's pacing is so refreshing. I need to rewatch it now.
• Edited to add: Narcos. Love that show. It's fast-paced, and NGL I watched it because Pedro Pascal took off his Mandalorian helmet in The Mandalorian, and I thought he was cute so I watched the show. It's based on the true story of the DEA assisting the Columbian government in trying to catch Pablo Escobar. The international politics of it all was SO interesting to me. Very violent (as you'd expect), and another show I highly recommend.

If you lasted this long on my ramblings, thank you! I had so much fun writing this. I’d love it if you took the time to share your favorite Rated R / TV-MA movies and TV shows here with your fellow exmo’s! I’m hoping to watch more comedies myself!

I am NOT OP. Original post by u/sirtwixalert in workingmoms. OOP gave me permission to repost.
trigger warnings: Brief mention of child death, suicide, and abuse, but not the subject of the post

mood spoilers: Wholesome

 
Today I find out if the past eleven years were worth it - March 13, 2023
I started medical school in 2012, with the MD class of 2016; I’ll graduate this May, eleven years later, with the MD/PhD class of 2023. Four of those years were expected - two preclinical and two clinical years for the MD. Five more were added for the PhD, completed between the preclinical and clinical years of medical school. Another was interspersed throughout the two clinical years of medical school when my husband moved to another state for a three-year fellowship and I stayed behind to solo parent our daughters during most of my clerkships, and the last was tacked on as a leave of absence when COVID shutdowns and interstate travel restrictions would have kept our family separated indefinitely.
I’ve been married for 9 of those years and a parent for 7. I had our first daughter just a few weeks after I passed my PhD qualifying exam and my husband started his intern year of residency; I had our second two years later, after I had switched labs and my husband had started his final year of residency; and I had our third three years later, after I had finished most of my third year clinical clerkships and my husband had finished his first year of fellowship and the whole world had set itself on fire.
I was the primary parent, and I was parenting alone most of the time. During my graduate years, I got the kids ready and handed them off for the day, worked in the lab 9-5, and then picked them up, played with them, fed them, bathed them, put them to bed, cleaned and prepped for the next day before writing or analyzing data or reading until I couldn’t stay awake anymore. I brought my first tiny academic wingman to my first conference and gave my first presentation with her snuggled on my chest. I wrote my 243-page dissertation and prepped slides for my defense late at night with a sick child on my shoulder. During the clinical years, I coordinated early morning care for the days I needed to leave the house at 4am and late evening care for the days I couldn’t leave the hospital in time for daycare pickup at 6pm. I saved my 2 annual personal days for Halloween and the annual daycare-wide performance of the Nutcracker. I studied for shelf exams and board exams on my phone in the dark, sandwiched between two children who didn’t sleep through the night until this year and another who still wakes up at least twice a night. Most days looked like this, and many still do.
During my rotations, I stood with another mom as her two year old died and listened to a thirteen year old share the experience of her suicide attempt for the first time and played peekaboo with a four year old while my attending looked for signs of abuse more subtle than her obvious bruises and fractures and realized that I wanted to work with children and their families. I made plans to apply to three specialties that would allow me to do so – psychiatry, pediatrics, and triple board, which combines pediatrics with adult and child/adolescent psychiatry – at the hospital where my husband works, the only location that would allow us to stay where we are now. It is unusual to apply to more than one specialty, and especially unusual to apply to only one location; for each of those specialties, students usually apply to an average of around 45 programs with the goal of interviewing with around 10 programs. But my daughters have been through enough, and I will not put them through another move. So I applied to three programs, interviewed at all three, and ranked all three. At 10am today I’ll find out whether I matched, and at noon on Friday I’ll find out which specialty I matched to.
I’m too tired to even know what I want. Whether I want to match or not. Which program I want to match to. If I match, I know that the next 3-5 years of my life are largely out of my control and I will lose time with my daughters; I’m particularly sad at the thought of losing that time during the last few years that my oldest is still excited to hang out with me. If I don’t match, I’m sitting on a quarter of a million in debt without a clear path to repayment and back to square one in the finding-a-fulfilling-career game, and the time already lost in my daughters’ early years will sting even more than it already does.
I was planning to process all of this alone today, but of course it’s a professional development day for our school system so my girls will be right here with me. They know that I’m nervous, they know that I’ll probably cry no matter what the email says, they know that I’ll be both happy and sad at the same time and they know that we’ll be ok. This morning I saw my oldest looking through our giant pile of Costco greeting cards and I heard her tell my middle that she chose the one that says GOOD JOB! because “no matter what happens, mama did a good job” and my middle solemnly declared that she would stop my youngest from spilling all the cups today because “that would probably be extra hard for mama today” while my youngest calmly poured her water on the cat in the other room. These kids. My heart.
 
UPDATE: Today I find out if the last eleven years were worth it - March 17, 2023
I matched to my top choice - psychiatry! It's bittersweet, as my 7-year old told me it would be, to close the door on pediatrics, and I think a part of me was hoping to fall down my rank list to triple board (which would have allowed me to do both), but this was the best outcome for my family and ultimately for me as well. In just a half-decade or so I'll be ready to practice independently, and I'm so excited to help kids and their families and learn all of the things I should have done differently with mine!
 
OOP also added additional updates to her original post:
Edit 1: I matched!!! My oldest read the email, all three ran around screaming, and then they went and pulled out the Costco card, the extra special other cards they made, and the bag of program (but not specialty) specific swag my husband had hidden for me. I assume he had a no-match bag hidden too, so now I’m on the hunt because that one probably has more candy.
Edit 2: thank you all for your thoughts and well-wishes! One of the hardest things about adding the PhD (and then two extra other years) is that I know very few people in my graduating class, and it has been lovely to share this day with a larger community!
 
Reminder - I am not the original poster. OOP is u/sirtwixalert, who deserves all the credit.

Looking back at the OG OP D&D, the Devil Fruits each player character (and NPC) received had a pretty big impact on the characters themselves and the campaign as a whole. The very name of the crew partially comes from or at least ties nicely into the fruit eaten by its captain. Verona's and Ragnar's fruits gave the series a lot of personality. Pearl, Louis and Cyril's character arcs tied into their Devil Fruits in some pretty big ways, and it's hard to even think of the characters without them.
So for the Marines series premiering this Thursday at 4 PM EST, what Devil Fruits would you like to see the player characters and the NPCs receive? Any cool combos you can think of? How do you think characters of varying alignments might use the fruits differently (as we saw with Long John Magnum and the Gomu Gomu no Mi)?
It's also worth keeping in mind that the series will be set I think 10 years before Oda's series, so that makes the availability of a lot of canon Devil Fruits pretty doubtful, but there certainly are some plausible ones, like Tama's fruit or a couple of the CP9 fruits. Then there are also non-canon Devil Fruits from One Piece properties, like Uta's fruit, and non-canon Devil Fruits that Rustage came up with, and we actually know a lot of those are available since the previous campaign, such as Valentine's, Marrow's, Valve's, Big Top's, and Apollo's. Plus, there are all of the ones from the Devil Fruit roulette wheel which never had a confirmed user. Or you could just come up with a custom one that may or may not be loosely based on an already existing Devil Fruit, like how some are upgraded versions of one another.

I want to start by crediting Tarnished Archaeologist, Hawkshaw, Sinclair Lore and SmoughTown for their video essays on Elden Ring lore. The credit is general, because I, to my shame, really can’t remember exactly where I first heard a particular notion brought up, and how it goaded me into my own further thoughts. Most of my thoughts on Elden Ring lore are like this, it all gets muddled and I forget if an idea was even my own initially. You can probably hear many of the below ideas in their work, and more fleshed out at that. But (in case anyone here actually needs to hear this) the point is that I warmly recommend them all and don’t really want to take any personal credit for what follows, it’s more or less just the conclusions I’ve reached based on all the Eternal City-related lore I’ve consumed.
Happy to hear any thoughts, further observations and counter-points on anything below as nailing down the timeline/nature of the Nox and their cities is one of the biggest conondrums I've had with the game's lore.
 

PART 1: FLOURISHING ON THE SURFACE

The Nox once lived above ground

Nox Monk Armor says:
“Long ago, the Nox invoked the ire of the Greater Will, and were banished deep underground. Now they live under a false night sky…”
They most likely lived above ground, and had their heyday, at least partially in pre-Erdtree times. Siofra River map says:
“This vast region is said to be the grave of civilizations that flourished before the Erdtree”.
There are only two civilizations in Siofra: the Uhl/Ancestral Worshippers, and the Nox.
Nokstella features statues matching the ones found on Divine Tower bridges (and lots of other places, like the Fortified Manor; basically early/pre-Erdtree statuary). It isn’t common imagery in the Eternal Cities, but it is there. This ties them to whatever civilization - be it pre- or early-Erdtree - that made those statues.
 

Reason for banishment

It was for invoking the “ire of the Greater Will” they were banished. But they were once, in some way, aligned/allied with the Greater Will.
The Fingerslayer Blade says that it is:
“...proof of the high treason committed by the Eternal City”
You can not commit high treason against something you’re not aligned with in the first place.
This could mean they were banished early on in the Age of the Erdtree, when the Greater Will is perceived to have become the “main god” in power, or that they themselves served the Greater Will directly in pre-Erdtree times.
The implication seems to be they were a faction/part of an alliance, but not necessarily the leading one - because someone had the power to determine their actions were to be considered treason, and banish them underground. This is all, of course, assuming the details haven’t all been lost to time to such an extent that it’s only believed at present they were banished for treason when the actual truth was something a bit different…
 

People of the day and of the night

The giant ever-shining Erdtree and the removal of Death from existence symbolizes a land out of natural balance. Life has won over death. Day has won over night. The Erdtree is like a perpetual sun that prevents the Lands Between from having any true night, coupled with the literal complete halting of the stars’ movements by the warrior, born of sorcerers, Radahn.
Like how Marika, the golden-eyed queen of life, claimed complete victory over the gloam-eyed queen of death, the stars- and night-worshipping Nox completely lost to the Erdtree and its everlasting day. But as we said before, they weren’t just conquered in war like the Fire Giants - they specifically committed high treason. Nox architecture also looks conspicuously modern and advanced, much more in line with modern Leyndell architecture (totally different style, but in terms of advancement) than any older civilizations like the giants or dragons.
I believe, therefore, the Nox most likely had their heyday right before and in the transition period to the Age of the Erdtree. It’s pretty well-supported that this was the civilization Marika herself actually arose from; early patches called the Nox “Empyrean Family”, the BK Assassins are said to both be Numen and descendants of the Eternal City to this day, so-called Numen Runes are found underground in the domain of the Eternal Cities. But the Nox’ original religious beliefs, cultural practices and ultimate desires became increasingly incompatible with the newly established Golden Order. They didn’t openly rebel and start a giant civil war or anything, but… we’ll get to the rest.
 

TERMINOLOGICAL INTERMISSION

Does the term “Eternal City” only refer to the cities underground? I think it’s worth considering. This was my initial assumption, but the Black Moon
“once hung above [Nokstella]” and was “the guide of countless stars” but is now “lost”
Its fragments are all found on the surface, collected by sorcerer-astrologers and kept in their towers all across the world. Not one is found underground, where Nokstella itself only has a talisman that “represents" their lost moon. So it seems likely that the moon hung above Nokstella when it/its people was on the SURFACE, and guided (pulled in with gravitation?) stars to them. This would imply the term “Eternal City” can refer interchangeably to the cities as they were on the surface or the rebuilt (?) ones underground. And that has at least one possible further implication.
 

PART 2: LIFE UNDERGROUND

How did the “banishment”/ruination of the cities come about?

Eternal Darkness is a sorcery originating from the Eternal City, and is said to be
“the despair that brought about its ruin made manifest”
The spell creates a black hole that draws in sorceries and incantations. One interpretation would be that this was considered heretical, and was part of why they were banished, but I do not think so due to the use of the word “despair”. Did the Eternal City conjure such a giant version of this black hole that it pulled in a deluge of stars, which smashed their black moon and wreaked havoc upon their cities? That would certainly be cause for despair, and ruin to follow.
But the Fingerslayer Blade is also
“proof of [the Eternal City’s]high treason … and symbolizes its downfall”
So it seems we have two items that function very differently yet both lay claim to symbolizing/closely relating to the ruin/downfall of the cities.
Personally, the most elegant way to square the two is to say that time has muddled the specificities of their downfall. They did turn against the Greater Will and either attempted to, or did, slay one of the Two Fingers. They ALSO fucked around with cosmic research and found out. They made themselves public enemy number one with their treason, and brought ruin on their own cities with their reckless starchasing. Thanks to the passage of time, the two events coalesced into one story about them “drawing down the ire of the Greater Will and being banished underground”. Or maybe was promoted as such by the powers that be.
 

How did the move underground actually happen?

There are no “Eternal City ruins” on the surface whatsoever. They’re all underground. There are the towns in the style of Sellia, Ordina and lower Leyndell, but these seem much less advanced, perhaps residencies for commoners and not the high clergy/researchers that make up their high society. This is actually pretty odd considering there are ruins of virtually EVERY type and from every time period for us to inspect and ponder on across the Lands Between.
So this raises the question of whether the Nox literally moved their stuff underground.
Spatial displacement is uncommon in Elden Ring, it’s not something you can just theorize someone did and leave it at that. But the few times it actually comes up can be at least tangentially tied to the Nox. Astel can teleport freely, and while he’s known for destroying, not helping them, his is still the kind of power the Nox were eagerly fucking around (also known as researching) with. And the teleporter gates - so omnipresent and mysterious - by their outward appearance at least, are, in fact, distinctly Noxian. The first time your average player is likely to run into one is probably in the Siofra River, bringing them from the lower Uhl ruins to the higher strata right below the Eternal City proper.
Personally, I also think the particular way the Nokron Eternal City buildings intersect with the older Uhl ones looks really odd and slapdash. There seems to be little rhyme or reason and you go from one to the other pretty spontaneously. Lastly, let me tie this back to those few conspicuous statues - why would they bring these with them, or rebuild them exactly, if they represent a tie to a civilization they have left behind, betrayed, and become hated by?
 

Astel's assault

This presumably had to happen before Radahn stopped the stars, or an Astel would not have been able to descend on the Lands Between.
The Nameless Eternal City is the only one missing its false night sky and so it’s assumed that it was also inhabited by Nox & friends before Astel’s assault killed every last one of them. Leyndell later hermit-crabbed in with their gargoyles, mausoleum and Godwyn burial.
HOWEVER,
an alternate take would be that Astel’s assault refers to the very same event that caused them to flee underground in the first place. The sky he took away was their true sky. This doesn’t really work with the item description as written though, because it specifically says “an Eternal City”, so it would require there to be some translation errors at play... I know plurals can sometimes be weird in japanese translations, but I'm otherwise totally ignorant and won't delve further into this here.
This would call into question what actually happened with the Nameless Eternal City, seeing how it's the only one without any actual Nox present and also completely wrecked. Tarnished Archeologist’s thesis is that it actually was part of Leyndell itself - the odd giant moat with its gates to nowhere between the main city and the outskirts which matches the location and shape of the underground Eternal City almost perfectly. We can perhaps attribute the ruination to lack of upkeep combined with the wild growth of Erdtree roots, and the Nox aren't there because Leyndell came down and chased them away (they probably wouldn’t want their hated enemies that want to destroy their order, right at the very roots of their golden tree that empowers said order).
 

Research into artificial life

I believe the Nox were screwing around with artificial life even before their downfall. It marks a clear symbolic opposition to the Greater Will, the Erdtree and its power of natural, organic life - true gold and false silver. I believe the Albinaurics were at one point, in cut content, outright said to be made by the Eternals; in the present game it seems more likely that the sorcerers of Raya Lucaria (likely with aid from Nokstella, though) are responsible but the tie still remains. This research seems to have accelerated underground, in any case, with them deprived of any access to the true life of the stars.

• Dragonkin Soldiers were made in imitation of the Ancient Dragons.
• Silver Tears are able to imitate any kind of life. They’re weak but incredibly numerous.
• Mimic Tears were intended to mimic a lord, but could only mimic appearance and power, not true strength of will.

One can see a force of counter-revolution take shape. A small number of immensely powerful shock (har har) troopers; a large and extremely flexible base force; and a lord to lead them, though all under the control of their masters, the clergy of alchemical savants.
 

PART 3: REMAINING THREADS TO THE SURFACE

Sellia

Sellians are, as per Gowry,
“descendants of the Eternal”
They use sorceries that originates from Nokron as per Night Maiden’s Mist and the aforementioned Eternal Darkness. Nox are also present in Sellia itself. Sellia is known as a shady town of treacherous sorcerers that competed violently for clout, which seems to have been spurred on by them acquiring powerful sorceries from the Nox, repeating the theme of an excessive yearning for power and knowledge leading to self-destruction. Its secretive nature and geographical distance from the center of power in Leyndell likely made this a convenient place for the Nox to scout the surface and begin to reestablish some connections.

Caria

The Carian-controlled Church of Vows features a statue of a Nox Nightmaiden. In its basin one can use a Celestial Dew, a hidden “Night Tear” originally from the Eternal City itself, to absolve oneself of sins.
This could be taken in multiple ways. The Nox statue is probably used because they are known to all as great sinners. But it may have served a different purpose originally, and to the Carians (just not to any Golden Order-friend who comes sightseeing), perhaps still?

The Black Knives & Ranni

The Black Knife Assassins were descendants (scions) of the Eternal City nobles. They were clad in silver, the cities’ metal of choice for their craftsmanship.
Liurnia lies above the Eternal City of Nokstella. Ranni has a portal to Nokstella in one of her towers. Iji says he presumes we have heard of Nokstella. But it is Nokron which contains the secret relic of betrayal, the Fingerslayer Blade.
The implication seems to be that the Carians communicated with Nokstella, which in turn had been separated from Nokron for a long time. After all, we find no teleporting devices connecting the two, and the Golden Order has placed its mighty full-grown gargoyles at the waterfall which could potentially connect them via Deeproot Depths.
Ranni’s compatriots were possibly a mix of ladies of the court, who had ostensibly stayed with Marika but secretly plotted a new betrayal, and sorcerous technology from Nokstella.