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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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As always: Thanks for reading!
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****
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Thank you to the beautiful people who sent me these lovely cards. It means a lot to me

• u/holyharshit Thank you for my first ever card from India! I love it! 💛
• u/GreetingCardShark Thank you for the Rapid City card. This is probably the biggest card I own yet! I love it! 💛
• u/serioussunstealer Thank you for the first card from Malaysia! It is absolutely beautiful! 💛
• u/LibrarianTraining16 Thank you for my first one from Australia AND from the 90's! I absolutely love it! 💛

You guys are awesome!!!
https://imgur.com/a/AEyT2rP

Unfortunately we're having to delay another announcement in order to make this one. If you've been anywhere on reddit the last week you've probably already seen other subreddit's announcing they are going dark for 48 hours starting Monday, June 12th. TexasPolitics will be joining them. It's taken us this week to wrangle together the mods and get everyone to weigh in, and that's why you're seeing us join the pack relatively late in the process.
In order to keep this brief I am going to share a series of links around reddit for more people to get information about the situation. There is also an AMA today with Spez which we will be watching for. After that, I will detail how these changes might effect this community specifically.
Reddit Followup Announcement
ELI5 Post on the Situation
Protest Organizer's Open Letter
List of Participating Subreddits
Toolbox Response
Apollo Shutdown Announcement
The Verge's Public Reporting
Yesterday's AMA Announcement

How do these Changes Effect TexasPolitics?

By now, it should not be a surprise to hear that many of our moderators, moderate, on mobile. The biggest impact will the loss of access to our preferred third-party apps and tools that access reddit with moderator functionality. Moderating bots will be exempted but these standard commercial apps are not. I use Relay for Reddit side-by-side with the Official Reddit App, and that is largely because there are already features exclusive to the native app. 2 of our mods use Apollo, which will be unavailable at the end of this month.
In the short term, this means the community will likely get slower response times, and rule breaking (including site-wide terms) will remain on the sub longer. It's likely that some actions, depending on the amount of research, or attention, will need to wait until a moderator can be back at a desktop computer.
Right now, Toolbox, the tool we use to track rule-breaking behavior as well as a suite of other powerful tools will continue to be accessible, in part because they are a web extension that uses your active session, but please do check out their link above and support for the blackout. Pushshift which is another critical tool is currently working out a deal to stay up and is promised to be sorted in the coming weeks with some changes.
We actually do recognize Reddit's right and desire to charge for API access, but they've priced longstanding developers out of it being even a consideration for them. The internet should remain as open as possible, and many are reasonably upset with Reddit's advertising policies - which they will be subjected to on the native app, and the long awaited rumor that they are preparing for an IPO and need to become more profitable.
Beyond the pricing, the timeline is an issue. Developers have 30 days to handle the transition. Moderators are also lacking core functionality that many of these apps have provided that will not be added to the native app until the weeks and months following the API changes. We are actually really grateful for the increase of moderation tools over the last year or two, we've gotten a modmail profile card redesign, modmail harassment filters, native user notes, a revamped ban dialogue, better removal macros, subreddit karma hook-ins, revamped insights page, crowd control and many many more features. But to make the switch before your own native app is "feature complete" in your own eyes is not okay. The transition is rushed, and without a stated reason.
I'm actually not in the camp of the native app being the worst pile of shit. But there are some major problems. The first is that it's not easy to tell what has or hasn't been removed. In normal browsing removed comment are shown like normal comments, and only entering moderator mode do they show themselves as removed.... what? It's really difficult to click on a tiny orange flag that show's the report text. The app frequently "reconnects to the internet" and the chat which our mods main tool of communication is frequently buggy, not sending messages, or actually sending them but not showing them on the screen. Hell, I can directly paste a link to specific comment in the chat and it will transform the link to the thread as a whole - but the link is the same. I can long-press copy that URL and go to reddit on the mobile web and paste it and get the direct comment I intended to link to. Reddit, this is not great. Still, there is some good, removal macros are a time saver, and require less interactions than they even do on desktop. And we're genuinely interested in migrating form toolbox's user notes to reddit's new native system (despite being less customizable) which would give us a way to confirm when a user has racked up enough violation for a ban on the go, since Toolbox is a desktop web extension.

Is TexasPolitics going Offline?

We will be joining the blackout protest on June 12-14. During those 48 houses the subreddit will be set to restricted, and all posts and comments will be filtered. We'll do our best to make sure anyone missing this announcement ends up getting informed. There is currently no plan to re-open during that time even if there is breaking news.
After the protest TexasPolitics will re-open and continue to follow the protests. It is not on our radar to close this sub indefinitely as other's have stated they will. We will be closely looking at the AMA today for any future decisions, including the possibility of calling off the strike - but that seems unlikely since we have seen zero movement on third party app access or pricing rates. There's also plenty of behavior from reddit in their interactions with developers which has been astonishing to see, from claims that developers apps are inefficient without giving any metrics to self-assess, to even slandering the Apollo dev in public which they had to share audio tapes to clear their name.

I'm a Lottery (Green Card)winner initially assigned to Nairobi Embassy. But unfortunately, the Nairobi Embassy is performing very poorly with only 2 months left before the Fiscal Year ends. The US Embassy in Dar Es Salaam is performing very well and it's interviewing as many people as possible.
The major issue I'm facing is that my case has reached a point where the US government(Department of State) cannot transfer my case from one embassy to another embassy which means I'm technically stuck at the Nairobi Embassy & the US government doesn't want to transfer it. And if my case just stays at Nairobi Embassy, I might miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
The only option open for me is to now physically move to Dar Es Salaam and then request/convince the Dar Es Salaam Embassy to initiate the transfer of my case because I'm now residing in Dar Es Salaam TZ and "technically" deserve to be served. But the Dar Es Salaam Embassy doesn't also want to engage in those things because that's extra work for them. But if I convince them to believe that I'm a resident of TZ, they might consider transferring my case and serving me.
I'm in the process of moving to Dar Es Salaam on a Visitor's Visa. I will hopefully be in Dar Es Salaam next week. My big question is;

1. How can I convince the Dar Es Salaam Embassy to accept my case?
2. What would you do if you were in my situation?

I will do everything in my power to utilize this Opportunity as it's everything to me. Any help is highly appreciated.

It's basically impossible to use. I've had serious issues with it and so have my coworkers.
Just to name a few:

• UI won't respond to clicks, sometimes only double clicking works which creates its own problems with clicking through UI prompts I didn't mean to.
  
• when I try to screen share it prompts me with something about updating a driver, if I click "yes" nothing happens. This box comes up every. single. time. I want to share my screen
  
• I've ended up in situations where the text I'm typing to a coworker is mirrored in the input box, just all letters reversed. It's bizarre
  
• sometimes it just decides to shut itself down. I could be in the middle of a meeting and just randomly disconnect or I could be working on my own with no knowledge the Teams has closed itself in the background and coworkers are trying to contact me
  

These are just the problems I'm experiencing consistently, there has been lots of one-off weirdness as well and I can't speak to the issues my coworkers have been experiencing.
It's getting to the point where it's more of a hinderance than anything. I'm extremely frustrated using Teams.

If the Ambulan Coast means anything, turn away now.
Right, context first. (After writing, I apologize for the amount of context. There is so much. Homebrew is a pain when you need to ask for help.)
The 7th level party consists of four players.
- Luther, Human Echo Knight (Sentinel/PAM) - Osna, Silver Dragonborn Storm Sorcerer - Illaris, Elven Grave Cleric - Kimarlan, Moon Druid/Totem Barbarian
For the past in-game week, we've been using Gritty Realism as the party has been journeying through the Underdark (Short Rests = 8 hours, Long Rests = 24 at a safe location) They're down there for reasons that aren't terribly important (Need allies to fight a BBEG before the month is over), and they recently stumbled upon a temple to the Venca-equivalent in my setting, Anoth-Zuul (A dragon who wanted to become a Dracolich, but was betrayed by her cult and mummified. They now draw power from her corpse as she bides her time).
More context: (I have so much lore) The Cult of Zuul is led by 11 pseudo-liches, (I love my cleric so much, she gave me such fun toys.) known as the Zuiit. None of them are full Liches, but they make up for that in being an allied council, therefore being stronger than any singular Lich.
The main difference is in their Phylactery. Their brain is stored within one of 11 canopic jars, which is connected through a telepathic weave to the other 10, allowing for ease of communication with the others. Essentially, they puppet their body from the jar, and must have the jar within 500ft at all times. If their body dies, the brain is still alive, and can call out to the others to fetch it a new host. A suitable body is brought to them, and it overtakes the previous conciousness, claiming the new body for their own.
While their followers are certainly religious, the Zuiit likely aren't. They betrayed their god to claim her power for their own, and are certainly aware where their power comes from. (Would this make them Arcane or Divine casters?)
***
So, now that all that context is done, I can finally get to the meat of the post.
The party is about to enter the lair of Clementine, one of the 11 Zuiit. Naturally, she would have traps, defenses, etc. but I don't want to kill my party, especially since this is really the first time they'll be encountering one, and there's been no real forewarning to suggest danger (Beyond the Cleric recognizing the design of the temple).
I need help rigging up her lair for a fight that will challenge the party, but not massacre them.
So, here's more context for what I've got so far:
- Clementine is dead. Or, her body is. A recently TPK'd party killed the necromancer doing a ritual, that was her. So now her apprentice, we'll call him Jesse, is working to revive her. But he's new, and not well-practiced, so it is taking longer than normal. (Maybe once Jesse is aware the party is approaching, he is commanded to start the ritual. The party has a limited number of rounds before Clementine is revived?)
- This temple is closer to a laboratory. Among other things Clementine was studying, she is/was researching the Abberant nature of Vampires (in my setting), why they so easily defy the orders of Necromancers, and the true nature of the parasite within that raises corpses in undeath, and draws strength from consuming blood. (Clementine may be hoping to harness this energy for herself, and become stronger than the other 10 Zuiit, because internal power struggles are fun)
- As a side note here, there are several coffins/iron maidens with Vampires pinned within. Each vampire is chained and manacled, their wounds eternally regenerating around the spikes. The Vampire Queen is here (plot hook for later, could be an ally for the party if they play their cards right, backstab them later), and has a stake driven into her heart as an additional measure.
- Due to this temple being very far north in relation to the (former) religious capital of the Cult of Zuul, it is just Clementine and Jesse here. No other worshippers are present atm. (There was an Undead War 30 years prior, and the Cult scattered in the aftermath, only 11 Zuiit surivivng as 3 of the 14 were killed.)
- I'm toying with the idea of Hallucinatory Terrain to make a maze that the undead minions can bypass with ease. (We play online, this could be difficult to pull off)
- Probably a bunch of status-effect traps, debuffing the party to make them easier prey for the undead? (Blinded, Poisoned, Restrained by webbing, etc)
TL;DR Homebrew Lich stuff, I need help rigging up her lair, and understanding how to run the fight without outright killing my level 7 party.

Got the ColdCard on order, gonna do it right this time. Bought it from manufacturer. (Which still begs the question - what if some malicious engineer at the manufacturer decided to tamper with the one I'm buying, I mean at some point you HAVE to trust someone in the process unless you can create your own HW wallet but I digress)
Look, I'm not that technically savvy on this whole stuff. But I need to keep my BTC safe while waiting for this ColdCard to arrive. I've already mentally accepted that I'm going to have to memorize a whole new seed phrase and everything, and that's fine. But, just need to keep things safe while waiting for it to get here.
Bought the Trezor off eBay, over a year ago, never had any issues, in fact I love it! But, just hearing too many stories of people losing their BTC off a tampered Trezor, and knowing I bought the thing on eBay, just making it hard to sleep.
So, I do have a Ledger Nano S, which I also bought on eBay (yeah, I love eBay), also years ago, and never any issues with it (except it's slow), but have been hearing some not-so-great stuff about them lately with their multi-sig getting compromised or something. So...would I be more secure to just send all the sats from the Trezor to the Ledger for the next few days, emptying the Trezor? Right now I have it split about half and half.
Not sure what to do! I want to be able to sleep at night. Please help, someone who is really knowledgeable?

I had health insurance from a job I worked 2019-2022, I had plenty of claims while I was there. When I left, due to some administrative mistakes, some documents were changed to say that I did not have coverage at all during this period. And all the payments for my claims during this time were reversed.
I finally got this corrected, and the payments were made again, but not after multiple bills went to collections. In addition to this, they missed some bills after the correction, and I am still getting calls about these.
I think that with enough leg work on my end, I can work this out such that there is no damage to my credit. . So I guess the only damages were my time and stress. Which I guess is pretty minor. But I mean, their incompetence but me at significant financial risk. Is there no penalty for this?
Thanks in advance

This is just my story so take from it what you will. My wife and 2 kids went to DR with another family of 4. All inclusive swim up room , booked in the family suites (as opposed to the “adult” buildings). Upon arrival we were booked in and given keys. Went to the room… which ended up being in the adult building. Not sure still what distinguishes one from the other but i didnt care. It was late thanks to flight delay and i just wanted to chill. Upon entering the room the odor of piss punched me in the face. It literally smelled like a parking garage stairwell. But as i said it was late and i had a few drinks and figured we settle it the next day. At Mirage they assign you a butler, who really did do his best. So the following day i mentioned this to him and he said hed take care of it. I went to the pool for the afternoon and got a text saying housecleaning did aroma therapy and extra cleaning. When i went back to the room I expected to notice a difference but now it was a combo of pee and a god awful air freshener. I told our butler we needed a new room. I was not obnoxious about it. They granted my wish…. To the room right next door. Guess what? Smelled in there too. I asked again to move but this time they were insistent that it can be taken care of. I said unacceptable and requested a move to the family section where we were booked. This apparently was an issue. They told me it gets this way and theyd bring me a dehumidifier… which they did , which did nothing. I could not fathom how these folks thought this was nothing. It was pungent. Eventually we moved again… but i had to accept a non swim up suite…. But it was nice , smelled good and the pools were still only seconds away.
Moving on ….. even though its all inclusive this obviously doesn’t mean you aren’t going to spend money , mainly on tips and trinkets…. Its part of doing business. However i feel like the pressure to tip here is unprofessional for a resort of this supposed stature. I tip well for a job well done… but it seemed like i was always being solicited for something. I wore a Red Sox hat … so often a convo would begin with someone who works there about Big Papi…. That quickly turns into a sales pitch for photos…. Jewelry… excursions… etc. Im good at saying im all set but some of these dudes are relentless to the point its not comfortable.
The actual pools were awesome met some nice folks. But par for the course mixed drinks taste like they use artificial sweeteners and are weak. The beer selection is comical…. Coors Light, Heineken and Presidente …. Thats it. My suggestion is stick to rum and coke… you know exactly whats going into the glass. There are a couple of nice bars that if you tip well they proof up you cocktails…. But at a resort like this should i have to?
The food was okay. We were a big group and the buffets were popular with us. Lots of the food was fine but things like cold cuts, cheeses, shrimp and sushi arent made for outdoor buffets in 98 degree weather. The restaurants also were underwhelming. Dined at the steak house twice and the teppanyaki place once. These meals were not high caliber. The steak house was non reservation so they try and get you in and out ASAP… which guess is par for the course. The portions were small and they didnt cook the steak as ordered. The Japanese place was also fast paced , despite a reservation . Food was delicious (my kids ate the scrimp fried rice with eggs and they hate seafood and eggs) but once again the portions were a joke. Room service is what it is. Takes minimum an hour and its just mediocre at best. The night we arrives i order the “Chicken Breast Dinner with potatoes and vegetables” i got 2 grilled oversalted chicken tenders with a side of still chilled potatoes. No veggie at all. Snacks and soft drinks as well as the limited beer selection was replenished daily.
Not be entirely down on the place…. Its a nice place. The entertainers and help staff are great. They seem enthusiastic and are good at getting folks up and moving. Obviously the beach is gorgeous and the water beautiful. We went and swam with sharks and stingrays …. Went bottom walking with the space helmets and had a nice party at a sand bar. Once again drinks weak and cheese sandwiches were the lunch we were served. I also went golfing- free green fee but carts and rentals cost some cash. The course was all ours , which was awesome… i saw some cool wildlife and the course is in good shape given the heat. At the turn we got a saran wrapped chicken salad sandwich with almost no chicken in it.
The pool is where spent most of our time and all around the pool are walk out suites. For the first 4 days we were there, a woman allowed her what seemed like a 6 year old kid frolic around buck naked on their outside cabana bed. This suite was literally 30 feet from the swim up bar. Bizarre.. no one ever told her to cover him up- she didnt care. I just set up shop away from them but it stuck how strange the scene was.
The casino is nothing to write home about. We play some roulette. A girl with our group turned 20 bucks into 200 and you think we were in Vegas the way they kept eyeballing her and changing the person spinning the ball. The “pit boss” stayed put right up until she cashed out.
And just to put a cherry on top…. The day we were leaving….. i needed more cash to tip the butler. I had tipped 20-30 a day everyday but ran out of USD The 1 atm at Mirage was out of service …. I walked to the next resort…. Elegance and their atm was down. I walked back and told Jeffry our butlet id borrow some cash from our friends and take care of him. He offered to take me to their 3rd property…so we went and the atm there promptly ate my card.
I had fun …. I can have a good time under any circumstances and my kids had a ball and thats what i pay the money for …. But i expected much more from this place. I was disappointed. I wont return again.

So, I'm convinced that card evolutions will be an in-game mechanic. Meaning that you can't evolve the cards themselves before the game, but they'll evolve during the match.
How will they evolve? Well, I think you'll need to use spells. For Firecracker, you need poison. Barbarians rage, skeletons graveyard. You'll need Dark Elixir either to make the evolution or to play the card after evolving. Possibly both.
If this is true, my main concern is how the card cycle will be affected. It would be crazy if the spell is removed from the cycle (2 card cycle incoming?!!) So I don't think they'll do that. But what if you get an extra card? I think this will be a good balancing gimmick. You get both the normal Firecracker and the evolved one in your deck. This way, you'll be at a disadvantage if you want to make a deck with more than one evolved card too.
So why make evolution be the merge between troop and spell? They can just make it so that spells aren't needed, right? That's true but I think this could be another way to limit the power of evolved cards. Forcing someone to use poison with Firecracker is very annoying because they don't synergies very well (because Firecracker is usually good with Hog). Same with Skeletons and Graveyard. Maybe Barbarians are the exception but I honestly don't remember a deck that runs rage with them and they usually die fast anyways so raging them is not a good idea.
So if this pattern holds, RG is going to be paired with Rocket. Fireball and Lightning are both good with it, so I don't see them using those and Rocket just makes sense imo.
I usually wouldn't post stuff like this here but I don't think I've seen much speculation around this update. It just feels like there's no excitement for it. I remember the Monk Phoenix teasers and the response to them, compare it with this update and you'll see how much the community is hesitant to be excited.
It's a shame how they fucked everything up to the point where people just want to know how bad the next update is going to be. Everyone is afraid of spending gold, afraid of using resources you'll need for evolution, afraid of getting scammed. Honestly they should just tell us what this update entails and be done with it.
*Got the idea from this comment: https://www.reddit.com/ClashRoyale/comments/1453dvb/comment/jnj2c8d/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

First, I love the game and its overall aesthetic. Cyberpunk-ish dystopian crime drama is a video game genre I didn't realize I needed.
My complaint is that some of the dystopian elements are exaggerated to absurdist levels. I can't take the setting seriously when the president is a democratically elected soft drink company. It doesn't work as a serious plot element because it's insane, and it doesn't work as a joke because it's played too straight. (Yes, I know there was that time your favorite candidate lost because people are dumb, etc. No, that doesn't mean people will elect Coca-Cola in 2024.) Other elements are just as absurd. The cultists who dismember their victims and paint runes in blood should be terrifying, but instead we get the capitalism-worshipping "Red Gums".
As a side note, I think the opening narration gives us too much information about the world. Given the theme of the game, I think it would make much more sense to let the player unravel the truth of the setting on their own. Don't tell us about rising sea levels directly - hide that info in a news article about an expedition to the submerged ruins of New York City. Don't tell us the nation is ruled by a mega-corporation. Let us figure it out for ourselves when we realize everyone's ID card has a corporate ID number. This is a game about solving mysteries - make the setting a mystery to be solved instead of handing it to us in a dry bit of opening text.

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