While many consider Gecko Moria to be the weakest Warlord, that still doesn't make him "weak" by any margin. Anything and everything you need to know (to the best of my ability) about Moria will be listed here.

Background Knowledge/Bounty

First, let's take a full look at his Vivre Card.

• 50-year-old Gecko Moria had a frozen bounty of $320 Million Berries before joining the Warlords, meaning he had a bounty higher than Post-Enies Lobby Luffy when he was younger.
• Although it's unclear exactly when Moria first obtained this bounty, we know that he had it after the death of Roger and before he fought Kaido in Wano Country (Vivre Card Timeline at bottom for reference). This would mean by the time he was 27 years old, Moria had gotten his bounty of $320 Million, as the fight with Kaido takes a year after Roger's death, 23 years before the current year.
• Although Moria's Vivre Card doesn't list him as being a haki user, it doesn't immediately disqualify him from having it currently.

Devil Fruit General Knowledge

Moria has the Shadow Shadow Fruit, allowing him to produce and manipulate shadows. However, shadows in One Piece are a bit more unique.

• Shadows in One Piece are considered as another soul each person has. With this, we can assume that each One Piece character has at least two types of souls, as even Luffy, who did not have his shadow, was still considered to have a soul. This suggests that adding more shadows into one's body would then add more souls to a person.
• Anyone without a shadow does not have a reflection, as they do not "exist in the world of light." Anyone without a shadow who is hit by sunlight will experience pain and disintegrate into dust and their very existence is at risk of disappearing.
  • (One might even say OP characters have an immunity to existence erasure as long as they have their shadow.)
• The effect is not immediate, however, and this indicates a link between an original body and its shadow, regardless of how far apart they are. This is further reinforced by the fact that killing the shadow's original owner will kill the shadow as well.
• Moria is able to capture and force shadows to submit to him, allowing him to create "zombies." All "zombies" will have the personality and battle abilities of the original shadow's owner, though the physical strength is dependent on the body itself.
• Those who have their shadows taken away by Moria typically lose consciousness for 2 days straight.
• All shadows are eventually obedient to Moria, no matter how strong their wills are. However, the size of a shadow and body can affect how long the lingering effect takes place. Moria can also erase the memories and past of a shadow by creating a pact.
• Beating or killing Moria does not reverse the effects of his Devil Fruit. Moria must command the shadows to go back to their bodies. The sole exception was when Moria was losing consciousness in his Shadows Asgard form, which lead to him losing control over the shadows in his body.
• Shadows are tangible and can be inserted into both living and non-living creatures, as long they can maintain consciousness. This multiplies one's strength for as long as one can withstand, up to 10 minutes. An average person can only withstand 2-3 shadows.
• The shadow and body must look the same, as that is both common sense and the law of nature. Moria can manipulate others' shadows with his own shadow, forcing their bodies to follow the shape of their shadows. Essentially, he is reversing the law of nature and can disfigure a person's body as long as he disfigures their shadow.
• Shadows can be forced to disconnect from one's body with salt due to the fact that shadows are connected to others' bodies via Devil Fruit powers, which can be affected by water.
• Moria's range for shadow manipulation spans all of Thriller Bark, which is the size of an island.

Devil Fruit Techniques

• Shadow Cutting - With his weapon, Moria can cut off shadows from people's bodies, knocking them out instantly.
• Doppelman - Moria is able to create a shadow double of himself capable of blocking Luffy's attacks, destroying the ground, and pressuring Luffy. Doppelman is capable of keeping up with Luffy's speed and because it's a shadow, it takes no damage from regular attacks.
• Brick Bat - Moria can create multiple balls of shadows that can turn into bats, capable of hurting Luffy. They can be formed from any shadow, including Doppelman, and they take no damage since they're just tangible shadows.
• Teleportation - Moria is able to swap places with his shadow Doppelman at any point, even appearing in Oars' stomach right after talking with Kuma.
• Shadow Revolution - Moria is able to control other people's shadows and deform their body by manipulating the shadow, as shadows and bodies must maintain the same shape.
• Oars Ball - With Shadow Revolution, Moria can make deformities such as turning Oars into a giant ball.
• Shadows Asgard - This technique spans over the entire island of Thriller Bark, allowing him to gather 1000 shadows and imbue himself with them, including the shadows of Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji.
  • Just as a reminder, each shadow's battle abilities are given to Moria and multiply his strength, essentially making him 10x stronger than Nightmare Luffy.
  • Also, even though Moria's Devil Fruit is made for using shadows, Moria's mind is still capable of withstanding the weight of 1000 shadows, even if he starts to lose control, whereas a normal human can only withstand 2-3 shadows.
• Spiky Shadow Lizard - Moria produces enough shadows to pierce Oars Jr.'s giant body.

Portrayal

• Brook praises Moria's strength by stating that the Strawhats may die to Moria if they were to fight.
• Robin is aware and fearful of Moria, as his bounty is higher than Luffy's and is a Warlord.
• Moria is constantly portrayed to be on Kuma's level.
• Moria is his prime was rumored to go toe-to-toe with younger Kaido.
• (Not sure where to put this) 27-year-old Moria was able to rob Ryuma's grave at some point while he was in Wano when he fought Kaido.

AP/Durability

• Despite being caught off guard, Moria is able to handle a Gum Gum Stamp to his butt.
• Given that Moria was inside Oars' body, and Nightmare Luffy has been fighting for 7-8 minutes, Moria has been taking damage as a result of Oars getting pummeled.
• Moria continues to take multiple attacks from Nightmare Luffy, all of which are capable of doing serious damage to Oars. Moria also gets up before Oars does despite these hits.
• In his Shadows Asgard form, Moria is able to split the entire island of Thriller Bark with a single punch.
  • This is further reinforced by the Vivre Card entry in the middle left caption.
• Shadows Asgard Moria is stronger than Oars ever was.
• Shadows Asgard Moria withstands a direct hit to his stomach from G2 Luffy without fully losing consciousness.
• Shadows Asgard Moria is described to have a punch that "cracked the island."
• Shadows Asgard continues to withstand getting hit by G2 + G3 Luffy and still maintain control over his shadows.
• Even after getting hit by G2 + G3 Luffy again and having his giant mansion fall on top of him, Moria is still conscious.
• Moria is able to withstand a Fishman Karate punch from Jinbe (these punches bypass durability) and fight Curiel at a later point in Marineford.
• At the end of the war, Moria is largely unharmed.
• Even after getting ambushed by Doflamingo and multiple Pacifistas, Moria is able to stay alive long enough to get saved by Absalom later on.
• Post-TS Moria easily tanks a pirate who attempts to cut his skin.
• Despite getting cut by Shiryu, Moria is relatively unharmed.

Speed

• Moria is easily able to block base Luffy's Gum Gum Pistol by summoning his shadow clone.
• Moria can physically outrun base Luffy.
• Moria's Brick Bats are fast enough to overwhelm Robin.
• Moria is fast enough to teleport before Robin can snap his neck.
• Moria easily reacts to Sanji's Extra Hachis Hash, teleporting out of its way.
• Moria stops Usopp from putting salt in Oars' mouth by using his Doppelman to grab the bag of salt.
• Shadows Asgard Moria is able to produce his Brick Bat fast enough to capture G2 Luffy before he can react.

That sums up just about everything I have on Moria.
By no means is he on the same tiers as most current One Piece characters, but he definitely deserves far more credit than he gets.

I am not the Original Poster. That is u/Whofuckingknows2. She posted in AmItheAsshole
For today's spoiler cover, u/Artichoke_Persephone sent me a fun fact to use! "Greta Thunburg’s mum represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009. It’s an interesting pop-opera number with some dancers wearing a mirrored masks at the end. Very stylish!"
Trigger Warning: Verbal/emotional abuse; drug addiction
Mood Spoiler: Slightly hopeful but mostly sad
Original Post: March 5, 2023
My fiancé (m22) was injured over a month ago and had surgery to correct things literally two days after the accident. I (21f) have been my his side the entire time. I have more or less become his caregiver.
In the last month I have taken over the role of keeping our house together. I cook all the meals. I take care of the pets. I stay up all night to tend to his endless needs. I take him to the bathroom. I have been working remote. I haven’t left the house for more than an hour since the accident (aside from taking him to and from appointments). I am not saying this to complain, I am grateful that my life allows for me to support him the way I have.
My problem is his attitude. He was given very strong pain killers for the first two weeks after surgery. He had to extend his time on them and recently stopped taking them in the last week. When he was taking them, he thanked me, told me how much he loved me, apologized at every step, though he didn’t need to. Without the meds he doesn’t seem to see that I am helping him. Every dish I bring him is the wrong one, he will yell for me and when I come he will tell me to “fuck off” if he’s in pain he expects me to fix it. I am exhausted. I can’t do anything right and it is wearing on me. I haven’t slept in weeks. I haven’t seen a friend or family member in way too long. I can’t even be on the phone for more than 10 minutes without it being an issue.
After days of what turned into verbal abuse, I called my MIL. I told her everything as soon as I saw he was asleep. I cried for about 15 minutes. I felt terrible unloading on her like that, but I had so much built up frustration I just couldn’t stop. She was very supportive on the phone, let me know I wasn’t wrong to feel like that., and let me cry. After hearing everything she was furious and ended our call to talk to her son. She tore him an new asshole. I heard him trying to defend himself through the door but it was mostly just stammering.
She flew up yesterday and put me up in a nice hotel. I haven’t heard much from my fiancé since I left but as I was leaving he was yelling at me for calling his mom, he said he didn’t want to marry someone who couldn’t be there for him in sickness. I told him I loved him and I was sorry, I am just so tired. He didn’t care and just told me to go, and his mom could do a better job for him then I ever could.
So now I’m in my way too nice hotel room, feeling like a major AH. I need to know if I am wrong here.
Edit- He began weaning off two weeks ago and became fully dependent on over the counter medication this week. He did not stop taking them cold turkey. His doctors were heavily involved too, due to previous drug abuse.
Edit 2- March 6, 2023 (Next Day)
MIL is taking him back to they’re hometown once they can get flights together. I’ll stay in this hotel until then. Fiancé doesn’t want to talk yet and tbh I don’t blame him, he knows what’s coming and that I am pissed. I’ll go visit him in a week so I have until then to decide how I want to move forward. My mother called last night about a venue she found in my hometown and I told her what’s going on, she doesn’t want to spend a bunch of money on a “pending divorce” so we are stepping back from planning.
Not much more to add, I’m excited to see my pets and be able to sleep in my own bed. I’m going to try to make my sister fly to my state so I can have some company. That’s pretty much it. I’m in serious awe about how I let my life get like this, but oh well. Today will be better.
Relevant Comments:
Is it withdrawal?
"He behaves like this frequently when in pain, just never to this degree. I can promise you that he had been weaned off and would tell me if that’s what he was feeling. I have seen him go through much worse withdrawals when we first met and this isn’t that. He is lashing out on me in pain, which I get. I was the only person around."
"He has a history of drug abuse, I took administration of the pills very seriously. Due to his history we worked very closely with his psychiatric team and the orthopedic to make his weaning period as easy as possible. I should have put that in the post but he did not stop cold turkey."
Is this abnormal?
"He has what some would call a short fuse. Especially with me. Him saying hurtful remarks to me or just blatantly putting me down is not necessarily uncommon and is something we are working on. Prior to this he would apologize and make it up to me, now even when I’m in tears he will just keep laying on insults."
OOP has thoughts later that day:
"Being away and able to process the last month of my life has been eye opening. I couldn’t imagine trying to care for a child under conditions like that. I couldn’t imagine how frustrated I would be. HIs injury is in his arm, he can walk, he can use his left (dominant) hand. I understand that he is in pain and its awful but I have had a friend with much worse injuries help us move! I’m thinking about returning my ring."
OOP is voted NTA
Update in comments (Same Post): March 13, 2023 (8 days later)
"I’ve returned. My last night in the hotel I called my parents to make a plan and it didn’t go well. I’m home with my fiancé again. He wont talk to me except to bark orders at me. I’m hoping I can move out within a month or two. Surgery and recovery are expensive and we have been living on my income for some time and I’m pretty broke but I’m keeping my head up and I’m confident I can get myself out."
Why didn't he go with his mom?
"I know she pushed for him to go home but he is a very stubborn boy. Thank you, I will be okay."
Update Post: March 22, 2023
Updates on AITA seem like a process so I’ll just post here.
I went home two days after posting. Things were sad. My mil had cleaned but the energy in the house was a bummer. The first thing he said to me when I got back was “I’m glad you’re back, can you make me a snack?” There was no apology, no accountability, just a task. He only talked to me when he needed something. His attitude was worsening. My mil took the rest of he prescribed opiates so I knew he wasn’t using.
The weekend following the MIL debacle my wonderful Fiancé told me he had friends coming to stay for the weekend. 2 hour heads up. Didn’t ask. I sighed and made up the guest room. His friend and friends girlfriend came to stay. During the stay my fiancé bought me flowers, got out of bed daily, took me out, and let me call my parents unsupervised. The day they left he was back to bed with a shitty attitude.
I wish I could say I am in my own apartment with my pets and a bottle of rosé that’s just for me. Or with my girlfriends that I haven’t seen in months. Unfortunately I’m writing this on the couch while I listen to the music that are his endless demands. However I do have a light at the end of the tunnel.
I’m scared to leave him in person but he’s leaving the country for a month in April. My sister lives abroad and I’m working on getting to her during that month. It’s a process especially with pets. I look forward to getting there.
My mother hasn’t spoken to me since I told her I was returning the ring because “That’s not we do, we clean our messes.” But I have my fathers unwavering support. I’ll miss my MIL but I deserve that kindness and understanding from my partner, not his mother. I have stopped forcing myself to find the joy in his presence and its helping to fuel my drive to get out of here. I may update again when I get to my sister but don’t be surprised if I do my best to put this chapter behind me.
Thanks for the kind words. I hope you all get the love and hugs you need.
Update in a comment on this post:
Why isn't he with his mom?
"MIL was planning on taking him, he refused. Things got very bad since I posted this. Im currently in my childhood room at my fathers (decently hungover) and I am officially a single lady."

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En un principio, ellos tenían muchas dudas, pues era la primera vez que visitaban esta maravillosa ciudadela escondida entre las montañas; dudas como por ejemplo acerca del boleto de ingreso a Machu Picchu, los horarios del tren de Ollantaytambo y muchos otros detalles que como todo viajero en algún momento de su travesía, necesita saber. Las dudas fueron resueltas rápidamente y el viaje fue un sueño para ellos. tour cusco machupicchu 1 dia
nuestro machu picchu tours es una opción perfecta donde disfrutarán del mejor destino turístico del Perú. Machu Picchu es una de las 7 maravillas del mundo moderno y declarado patrimonio de la humanidad por la UNESCO, que se encuentra ubicado Cusco el ombligo del mundo a 2250 mnsm
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Salkantay Trek es una contracción que viene de Salqa que significa huraño, salvaje y Antay que significa producir celajes o aludes; esta es una ruta alterna al Camino Inca habitual para aquellos que no llegaron a conseguir espacios, hemos considerado esta ruta de salkantay trek cusco como una de las mejores alternativas ya que en todo este trayecto podemos apreciar la flora y la fauna y la tranquilidad que uno necesita para poder reflexionar y estar en contacto con la naturaleza que nos rodea.
Este trekking de choquequirao es uno de los más hermosos. La mayor parte de las personas que ya hizo este tour dice que es cansado, pero el esfuerzo siempre vale la pena. Los paisajes que se aprecian son únicos, la energía ancestral se siente desde el primer paso. No en vano se dice que Choquequirao es el único atractivo en Cusco a la altura de competir con Machu Picchu.
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My kids are getting older (13 and 10) and I’ve returned to school to finish my degree. I absolutely love the field I’m studying and I’ve realized that I’m becoming more distant as a mother as a result. I find myself more interested in my studies than my children and it makes me feel terrible. I guess I’m just tired of being a mom. I am the best mom I can be, but even then it definitely doesn’t seem like something that suits me well.
I’m not sure what to do with these feelings. I know I can never tell anyone around me. I love my kids and I don’t want to hurt them but sometimes I wish I could just focus on myself.

It must have been terribly slow and stupid of me but it just dawned on me two days ago that my (28f) closest friend (27f) was trying to sabotage my life.
PART 1
I am a small entrepreneur in this one field and one day my close girl friend (same friend in question let’s call her Laura) called me and said one of her ex clients is now in my field of work and looking for a new supplier, strongly suggested I should meet up with him to the point of being pushy. Anyhow I agreed to the meeting, and shortly after our conversation I got an email from this ex client (35m) and the conversation was brief and we agreed to meet and talk in person.
Over at the restaurant I realized it was a date. He said he had told Laura he’s looking for a date and a girlfriend, hence the meet up. I was very confused as to why I was told one thing and hearing another, so I left shortly after discovering his intention. After this brief meet up this gentleman became strangely obsessive via constant phone calls, text messages and emails all about his love confession (we’ve only met for 20 minutes!). Later I found him stalking me outside of my office and home (nobody else could have given him my home address but Laura, but I just wasn’t thinking and didn’t think it could be her). I tried telling him off nicely to avoid hurting his feelings by saying I am not interested in a relationship or dating in general at this point of my life and that he misunderstood the reason why I agreed to meet. Then, when the stalking and obsessive behaviours didn’t stop, I told him straight up he is disturbing my life and he must stop.
Upon receiving my strongly-worded message, he became furious and cursed me in the most unimaginable ways and thankfully after I blocked him, he never showed up near either my office or home again.
I spoke to Laura about my whole ordeal with this gentleman after, she said ever so calmly indicating yes he has some issues with bipolar disorder among a few other medicated illnesses. I found the entire episode strange but since my life was very hectic at that point (about 8-9 months ago) I didn’t think much of it. Until two days ago I realized Laura was purposely trying to set me up to date this person knowing full well he is not in the right state of mind. I called Laura the past Sunday asking how she came to know him, she said she used to work with him, but he got fired for not being mentally competent and sexually harassing a coworker. I gasped.
PART 2
5 months ago I met a wonderful Turkish gentleman (I’m Canadian with Swedish and Kazakh parents, he is a US green card holder and now working in Canada, where we met) and we fell madly in love. We are now engaged and the wedding will be next year. He is a romantic and not shy to display his affection even in front of my friends (including Laura).
Just after we got engaged (I called to tell all my girl friends and family), Laura asked me to seriously reconsider my relationship with him. Said no man in their sane mind would want to commit just after 5 months of dating, and suggested he might be mentally ill and that’s why he chose me (almost her exact wording). I found the way she talked unsettling and have since distanced myself a little.
One day I got a call from Laura, urging that I should really consider breaking up with my fiance, the reason she gave was that she has a gut feeling my fiance is the ‘same crazy kind of guy’ (quoting her) as ‘her ex client’ (her words again, about the guy I’m Part 1). And then I started to realize she doesn’t want me to be in a happy relationship. What’s more, she lied to me about how she made the previous gentleman’s acquaintance and then really really wanted me to be in an abusive relationship with him (she knows full well the problems the gentleman in part 1 has). Then, when I was in a happy relationship she tried gaslighting tactics on me a few times to have me to see my fiance in a different light so we’d break up.
I don’t know when she started to change and not want the best for me anymore, but to sabotage my life not once but twice is a whole different level of hurt she has caused me.
Apologies for the long rant, I typed in a haste to get it out of me and I haven’t figured out how I am going to face her in the future.
TLDR: Best girl friend Laura tried to set me up by deceit with a mentally unstable man who was fired for sexually harassing a coworker (one of the reasons he got fired)— Part I. And then when I met someone and got engaged, she tried to gaslight me into thinking I am unworthy and something is wrong with my fiance that I should break up with him — Part 2.

According to the WatchGuard website, best practices when setting up global DNS on network configuration is a private DNS server and a public DNS server. I like to think I understand the how and why this is (redundancy), but I've been debating this with a colleague and I'm curious if I'm actually the idiot who is misunderstanding this.
Context - the MSP I used to work for as a sysadmin was a WatchGuard shop and had several dozen of these in use for various clients. For those clients with AD, the global DNS on the firewalls would set as such:
Primary Internal DNS
Secondary Internal DNS
External DNS (ex 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4, etc.).
If the firewall handed out DHCP for internal traffic (or even VPN/Tunnels), obviously those were adjusted to be exclusively internal DNS. Global, however, was always the above.
When I was an junior sysadmin, it was explained to me that in the very rare event that both internal DNS servers went down, we could still reach and manage the firewalls (as an MSP our clients were the world over, so hopping on a plane to fly to say, Australia, would be a bit tricky).
Even when reading the WatchGuard website, it states that best practices is for at least one internal DNS server (private) and one external DNS server (public).
So, were they (the senior sysadmins at the old company) wrong? Was I trained wrong? Am I misunderstanding the knowledgebase article? (Here, in case anyone wants a quick lookover).
To be upfront, this issue is that the current MSP I work at we have around 10 clients we inherited from the MSP I used to work for still using WatchGuards. Yesterday I was told by someone who was never involved in systems administration or networking to remove the public DNS entries on global DNS and ensure only internal DNS was listed. I am by far the most senior tech there and I pushed back, with my understanding that this could hurt the clients and ultimately us as a company as well if something was to happen to the internal DNS servers (and after 8+ years in IT, I've seen it happen a time or two, sadly). All of these clients are remote, some of whom are easily a day's travel to get to even by plane (with zero assets closer). I mean, I can totally be wrong here though (and if so, I want to apologize to the requestor). I did ask that he reach out to the contractor that has managed networks and WatchGuards since before the dawn of time to be 100% certain this is the right move, but I was brushed off and told to just get it done (which I ultimately did).
It's not that I want to be right. I actually want to be wrong because that means the clients would not be impacted negatively with changing the global DNS to internal only on their WatchGuards. I did try Googling to be 100% safe, but aside from the above article did not find anything related to firewall DNS best practices in such a scenario.
Edited to add: I also know that sometimes ego can get in the way of learning new info, so I also want to make sure that this isn't my ego making me a jackass. I do, truly, just want to make sure that this is okay to do so it does not negatively impact the clients or my employer. I'm on my way out the door anyway for a better job, so this is purely 1. to make sure I learn if I was wrong, and 2. If I'm right, well, I can at least protest in writing so that my butt is covered and they cannot blame me when I'm gone.

Note: Adapted from a devlog posted to itch.io. Edited for clarity, specificity, and usefulness.
Hello again, gamemaker. As part of the ongoing development efforts for my project, Reality Layer Zero, I've been tinkering around with optimization and profiling recently. I wanted to share some of my personal discoveries here, on the off-chance they're remotely useful to anyone other than me.
To preface matters, this post will largely be talking about diagnostic techniques. When you know you've got a problem and you don't know what it is, you might employ some of these steps to figure things out. The appropriate optimizations to apply, once appropriate diagnosis has occurred, tends to be a somewhat obvious thing, so that side of development is of lesser interest to us for the duration of this write-up. We'll still talk about it a little bit, in-brief, but not to any satisfactory degree if you're not yet totally comfortable with common optimization techniques and why they work. Just a little bit of optimization talk, as a treat.
I should also mention that, while much of this post will be spent discussing very "3D graphics"-related topics, the techniques outlined here should be fairly universal across all Game Maker projects (2D and 3D) and, indeed, game development in general. The only difference will be what numbers you think are acceptable, depending on what your target platforms are and how your game "ought" to run.
So, about two weeks ago, a friend of mine tried to run my game on a 10-year-old laptop with a 2GB VRAM discrete graphics card. This was the result:
Hey... That's not the usual crash message box...
After doing a real quick Google, I found that this error is (usually) caused by the DirectX application-- in this case, my game-- allocating more texture memory than is available on the host device.
To be honest, at the time, I dismissed this as being not a very critical issue-- after all, the hardware was old, probably not representative of a typical modern system, and could have had untold other problems of its own that caused the crash.
However, something kept bugging me about it and, after about 2 weeks of sitting on it, I decided to properly investigate.
As it turns out, this wasn't exactly the first sign that not all was well with the game's VRAM usage. The first time happened almost a month prior when a different friend recorded this clip of the game running on a GTX1050. There's a stutter in the framerate that occurs once every three seconds or so, and, curiously, only in "exterior" scenes. The GTX1050, for reference, has 4GB of VRAM.
On first brush with this footage, I couldn't even hazard a guess as to what was going on-- after all, the profiler said the game was running fine! The framerate was comfortably in the middle-hundreds, and memory usage was reported at around... 900MB. Well, okay, I guess that sounds a little bit high, but it's a 3D game with real-time lighting and shadows! Besides that, RAM is cheap! It... it is 900 MB of RAM, isn't it?
So, the only answer I can give is... Maybe? The documentation is somewhat vague on this point. I'm actually still not sure whether the memory usage displayed in the debugger graph is RAM, VRAM, or a lump sum of both.
After applying the optimizations I'll talk about in a moment, the profiler reports memory usage as being <= 500 MB (or 300 MB less than the control) under the same conditions. I'm not sure if this was a product of the optimizations to VRAM usage or of a separate, unrelated effort wherein I applied compression to some of the internal audio files (thus reducing their memory footprint when loaded by the game). I'm leaning toward the latter as the explanation, which would indicate that the debugger graph only shows RAM usage. This... Seems like, possibly, not the best thing in the world for video game diagnostic purposes. However, I'm unwilling to say that I've confirmed this to be the case definitively.
My favorite corner of the screen.
In a similar information deficit, the more in-depth profiler view only shows call count and execution time. This is great for figuring out certain performance bottlenecks-- stuff that isn't executing as efficiently as it could be-- but not so good for figuring out when you've, say, allocated an unreasonable amount of texture memory for a shadow map that, in truth, just doesn't need to be that nice in the first place. Not to spoil the punch-line or anything.
First place is good, right?
So, VRAM, right? There's something going on with the VRAM, according to the DirectX error in the first image. Furthermore, it might have something to do with exterior scenes, judging by the video clip. However, the Game Maker debugger isn't doing a very good job of telling me how much VRAM the game is using-- I can't, using the built-in tools, watch the game and see how the memory reacts to figure out what's going on (at least, I don't think I can-- would love to be proven wrong, though).
To give me a little bit more insight, I enlisted the help of a 3rd party profiling tool-- GPU-Z, in case you're interested. Then, I cracked open my IDE and started tweaking areas of the code that seemed memory-inefficient.
At first, I thought the overuse of VRAM was related to the way I'm rendering text-- I'm actually using multiple surfaces at 1080p to render nice outlines and drop-shadows underneath the letters in a reasonably-fast manner at runtime (and then simply downsampling to lower resolutions, which results in some pretty nice-looking words, I think). However, whenever I reduced the size of these text surfaces, I noticed that GPU-Z was only reporting a very slight reduction in VRAM usage-- like, between 30-50MB. That's not nothing, but it's not really "make-or-break" numbers for a GPU, either. So, what gives? What's the real problem?
To borrow the words of Tetsuya Nomura, it was the darkness.
... Or more specifically, the shadows.
Angry duck noises.
The effect pictured above is accomplished using fairly traditional texture mapping as described in this excellent thread. The summary explanation of how it works is that, to figure out what parts of the scene should be "shaded" and what parts should be "lit", we basically snap a photograph from the perspective of the light that's casting a shadow, and anything that shows up in that photograph gets lit up-- everything else remains tinted by only the "ambient" color of the scene, which determines the darkness (and color) of the shadows that remain.
In order to accomplish this, though, you need paper to print the photograph onto-- virtual paper, of course, for virtual photos. In Game Maker, this is accomplished by rendering the snapshot to a surface and then converting that surface to a texture. There are simpler ways to do this in more recent versions of GMS2-- surface formats-- but I'm still running version 2.3.0.529, so I can't use 'em!
The smaller the shadow map surface, the worse the "quality" of the shadows. If you don't know what I mean by "quality", take a look at this:
​
Chunky pixel shadows!
See how the shadows become kind of boxy and deformed? That's the "quality" I'm talking about.
Now, the above image, admittedly, looks kind of cool, in a stylized sort of way-- but, low-quality shadows can introduce some weird-looking visual artifacts due to, I think, rounding errors-- one of the main offenders being "shadow acne" that jitters around and is, overall, not quite as aesthetically pleasing as the shadows in the above image.
So, you don't want to go too low-- avoid the artifacts. However, you also don't want to go too high. Every time you create a texture, you need somewhere to put it, after all. Further, since it's a texture we're talking about, the only place for it is in texture memory. What happens if the texture you create is just way way way too big to fit into the available texture memory on the host device? May I refer you back to the image at the top of this post?
So, yeah, basically the problem was that the shadow map quality in the exterior scenes was turned up absurdly high, resulting in absurdly large textures that 2GB graphics cards (and below) simply couldn't deal with. I figured this out when I, by total chance, entered an exterior scene and noticed GPU-Z reading-out these numbers:
<_>
Your eyes might go cross-eyed looking at this image at first, but the important row is the one labelled "Memory Used". It's reading out 3481 megabytes! That's over 3 gigabytes of texture memory! That's not just eye-crossing, that's eye-popping!
Mind, it's not 3 gigabytes from the game alone. My GPU (yours, too, probably) allocates what I'm gonna call "ambient memory" for basic system tasks, other open applications, and all of those Google Chrome tabs you're keeping open for whatever reason. For my development PC, this ambient usage is usually between 500 MB to 1 GB, and at the time this number was recorded, was close to 1GB.
In other words, the shadow map for this exterior scene required around 2 gigabytes to store in memory. That's, put simply, excessive!!
This was caused entirely by turning the quality of the shadow map up too high, which resulted in a texture that was unnecessarily large being generated and subsequently taking up far too much space on the GPU. I cut the quality of the shadow map in half, which bought back about 1.5 GB of texture memory without resulting in... really, any noticeable visual difference. Huh. Well how about that.
I should mention here that this isn't something unique to shadows or my implementation of them. Any time you create a surface, that surface is stored in texture memory. Create one that's too large, and you'll quickly exceed the limits of many GPU's. This is something important to keep in mind, both because it might not be intuitively obvious and because Game Maker (and your own development hardware) might not do a good job of warning you when you've done something unreasonable.
While I was testing all of this, I noticed that VRAM would also creep up turn-by-turn in the debate mode until the debate ended (at which point, the allocated memory would be freed)-- a kind of "localized" memory leak, so-to-speak. This, too, was related to shadow maps-- or, specifically, to the class which manages all of the shadow maps. Turns out, it wasn't cleaning up the maps associated with the temporary spotlights created by card effects in the debate mode. In effect, that means you'd play a card, and then the pretty lighting effect would flash, and then the shadow map that the light generated would just hang out in memory for the rest of the debate, taking up valuable space! Fixing this problem was simple, but I wouldn't have ever noticed it if I wasn't looking. Since this could potentially result in progressively terrible performance or even a hard crash if a debate goes on long enough on a small-enough GPU, I'm rather glad I managed to catch this problem when I did. Even if it was a, uh, a month after the first public release...
In the interest of not doing anything halfway, I added a graphics option in the options menu to allow the player to further reduce the shadow map quality if desired (all the option does is modify a scalar "shadow quality" global). This can save a respectable amount of VRAM as well, although the majority of the performance gains here came from the reduction on my end.
- To Wrap Up -
At this time of writing, I can confirm that the fix I applied here did fix the crash that kicked off this post. The 10-year-old laptop in question is now able to run Reality Layer Zero largely without complaint... At between, usually, 30 and 50 FPS on the lowest settings. So... It's not perfect, but it's a fair measure better than it used to be! I wonder if it'll run on a 1GB card...
In conclusion, test early, test often, and make sure you profile your VRAM usage in addition to your RAM. And, perhaps most importantly... Remember to play Reality Layer Zero on Steam or Itch, since it's both a really cool demonstration of what you can do with GM and, if I'm allowed to say so, a pretty cool game in its own right!

I’m a new teacher and maths isn’t my KLA.
My question is about my own experiences of maths in high school (in Vic, late 90s/early 00s).
This is how I remember it:
I was pretty good at maths until middle of year 7.
I was put in the high ability class at the beginning of the year based on a pre-test before start of year.
Then I started to struggle. I would follow the formulas in the text book but my answers would be wrong. I asked for help, the teacher would say “just follow the formula”. I thought I did. I tried again and it wouldn’t work. I asked for help again, the teacher said I wasn’t following the formula. To the best of my memory, she didn’t explain how I wasn’t, or maybe I didn’t understand the explanation.
I was then moved into not the middle ability maths class but the low ability maths class. I continued to struggle. I would ask genuine questions about how this relates to anything and ask for help doing the work. I couldn’t understand why we were doing what we were doing most of the time, unless something had an obvious real world application.
I did poorly in maths for the rest of high school EXCEPT percentages, which I got 99% in the test for while the rest of the class basically failed. We had to re-do the test (with different questions) and the second time I got 100%.
I remember occasionally getting the right answers for some things but my “working out” was wrong; I was getting the right answer but not using the prescribed formula.
But apart from that I just couldn’t get it. In year 11 I basically stopped opening my books and often wagged maths class (and I never did this with any other subject). Obviously the fact I was bad at maths affected my motivation but I also continued to be unconvinced about the value of what they were teaching us in terms of life in general. (Even though I did know then on some level, and I definitely know now, that learning maths at school has huge value beyond “how will this help me directly in life”. Talking about problem solving and analytical thinking etc etc.)
Anyway I dropped maths entirely for year 12 with full support from all teachers (in fact it was a maths teacher who strongly encouraged me to not do any maths in year 12). This was highly unusual at my school - everyone was generally encouraged to at least do general maths in year 12.
Since then I’ve lived believing there’s something wrong with my brain in some way. I still remember basic times tables from morning drills in primary school, and I can do more complicated multiplications if I have the time. If they’re really complicated I need to do it on paper or REALLY REALLY concentrate, but would probably need to write down the mini multiplications so I don’t forget them so I can then add them together at the end.
But when I see anything with lots of numbers, or anything resembling algebra, or even any kind of data representation (graphs and charts) that in my opinion seems to require an above-average level of mathematic proficiency to understand I experience one or more of the following: - eyes glaze over - vision blurs - instant nausea - indigence - sense of failure
I was never great at calculating the right change with 100% accuracy when I worked hospitality jobs, which always confused me because I really felt like I was calculating it correctly but I’d then come up with the wrong change. And I could never balance the till at the end of the night.
BUT I scored far above average in the numeracy part of LANTITE.
And I can get by day to day. I don’t THINK I have dysgraphia but I’m not an expert and need to do more reading about it.
I do have ADHD (recent adult diagnoses and I believe, and the doctor agrees, that I’ve definitely had it from very young age). I think ADHD probably explains my struggles to do head maths under pressure. When I have plenty of time I get the right answers.
But what explains me being apparently good at maths until I suddenly wasn’t? What happened?
A more general question is: is there any single factor that makes a person inherently more likely to understand and succeed in maths at school?
One teacher in year 9 or 10 said at parent teacher interviews told me and my mum that I “missed something crucial in maths at some point and it was affecting my ability to keep up now”.
This is mostly curiosity. (On some level it’s also insecurity. I dream of one day being able to do maths but it’s absolutely a pointless thing to spend any time on at this late stage.)
So if any maths teachers read this and have any ideas I’d love to know what you think. Why was I bad at maths at school? Is there anything you see in the students you’ve taught who just don’t “get” maths?
As a new (non-maths) teacher I’d also love to understand maths more so I can understand maths teaching more so I can understand teaching more.

En un principio, ellos tenían muchas dudas, pues era la primera vez que visitaban esta maravillosa ciudadela escondida entre las montañas; dudas como por ejemplo acerca del boleto de ingreso a Machu Picchu, los horarios del tren de Ollantaytambo y muchos otros detalles que como todo viajero en algún momento de su travesía, necesita saber. Las dudas fueron resueltas rápidamente y el viaje fue un sueño para ellos. tour cusco machupicchu 1 dia
nuestro machupicchu tours es una opción perfecta donde disfrutarán del mejor destino turístico del Perú. Machu Picchu es una de las 7 maravillas del mundo moderno y declarado patrimonio de la humanidad por la UNESCO, que se encuentra ubicado Cusco el ombligo del mundo a 2250 mnsm
comprar entrada machu picchu , posee hermosas construcciones a base de piedras, que fueron talladas con mucha precisión y detalle, es la obra más importante para los incas por haber sido construida en una montaña agreste e inaccesible, dividida en dos grandes sectores, urbano y agrícola separados por una gran muralla que desciende por la ladera del cerro hasta llegar a las orillas del rio Vilcanota.
la Montaña de los 7 Colores es necesario viajar (por propia cuenta o con tour) al pueblo de Cusipata. Desde allí se puede adquirir personalmente el boleto de ingreso. Luego comienza una caminata de 6 kilómetros hasta el denominado 'Cerro Colorado', una de las mejores atracciones del Perú junto con Machu Picchu. montaña 7 colores
el machu picchu montaña de 7 colores te hará vivir experiencias muy hermosas, con caminos llanos y algunas elevaciones, durante toda la caminata hacia Vinicunca apreciaremos hermosos paisajes los cuales exploraremos respirando aire 100% puro que tú cuerpo te lo agradecerá también nos sacaremos las mejores fotografías , solo imagina la expresión en el rostro de tus amigos y familiares mirando tu foto ante este hermoso paisaje.
camino inca a machu picchu, uno de los más bellos e importantes senderos de Sudamérica, que alberga a lo largo de sus más de 40 kilómetros impresionantes ruinas incas, paisajes montañosos, bosques nubosos y una diversa flora y fauna. Los antiguos habitantes del Tahuantinsuyo utilizaron esta ruta para peregrinar hacia la sagrada ciudadela de Machu Picchu. Sigue sus huellas y convierte tu visita a Cusco en una experiencia inolvidable.
Salkantay Trek es una contracción que viene de Salqa que significa huraño, salvaje y Antay que significa producir celajes o aludes; esta es una ruta alterna al Camino Inca habitual para aquellos que no llegaron a conseguir espacios, hemos considerado esta ruta de salkantay trek cusco como una de las mejores alternativas ya que en todo este trayecto podemos apreciar la flora y la fauna y la tranquilidad que uno necesita para poder reflexionar y estar en contacto con la naturaleza que nos rodea.
Este trekking de choquequirao es uno de los más hermosos. La mayor parte de las personas que ya hizo este tour dice que es cansado, pero el esfuerzo siempre vale la pena. Los paisajes que se aprecian son únicos, la energía ancestral se siente desde el primer paso. No en vano se dice que Choquequirao es el único atractivo en Cusco a la altura de competir con Machu Picchu.
El tour de tour camino inca 2 dias es una opción más corta para aquellas personas con poco tiempo y que no quieran perderse esta experiencia única. Con un hermoso paisaje de selva tropical con variedad de flora y fauna, visite los sitios arqueológicos de Chachabamba y Wiñay Wayna (Joven Por Siempre). Cubriendo una distancia de 10 km / 6.3 millas. Otra cosa buena es que visitará 2 veces Machu Picchu, por lo que tendrá una foto de la tarde y la mañana lo que lo hace más emocionante este recorrido.
viaje valle sagrado incas: Visitaremos el pueblo de Pisac y su Mercado Artesanal, Qoya, Lamay, Calca, Yucay. Continuaremos nuestro recorrido hacia Urubamba, centro comercial del Valle, resaltarán sus campiñas y su agradable clima al pie del nevado Chicón, aquí disfrutaremos de un almuerzo en restaurante turístico. Luego seguiremos nuestro recorrido a Ollantaytambo; conjunto arquitectónico que fue en tiempos del Tahuantinsuyo un gigantesco complejo agrícola, administrativo, social, religioso y militar. Luego nos trasladaremos a Chinchero, el último punto del recorrido. Este pueblo es un bello ejemplo del estilo mestizo y colonial, a una hora indicada de regreso a Cusco.
Si lo tuyo es disfrutar de la naturaleza y el trekking, este lugar es ideal. Humantay, es una montaña revestida de nieve que forma parte de la cordillera andina y da origen a la formación de esta espléndida laguna que, por su singular color turquesa, genera el interés de visitantes extranjeros y nacionales. La caminata hacia el lugar te hará sentir una sensación de paz y tranquilidad gracias a su belleza natural con la que te toparás. caminata laguna humanta.

I should have found a safe room before I made my move.
Now I was running in shin-high water through a field of lotuses from the aswang chasing me, and I had no idea where to go. I could only hope the creature currently running after me was a simple vampire or ghoul aswang, rather than the more fearsome variants.
Running past a black marble pillar, I stumbled and fell to the lotuses on something. I looked down and realized I had tripped on a piece of wood sticking out of the pillar. It was the handle to a door! My excitement, however, was short-lived as I looked up and saw the aswang right in front of me.
The creature lunged atop me, trying to bite into my arm only to be met with a kick to the face. This didn’t deter it, however, as it grabbed my leg and sunk its fangs into my right calf. I screamed in pain, trying to land a punch, but I had no momentum. My hits only glanced off its skin until I sunk my foot into its gut. Even then, its jaw refused to let go, and took a chunk of my leg as payment for my kick.
I couldn’t run. My only hope was making it into the safe room, but I had to somehow stop it from seeing me open the door. So I had to fight back.
Tears of pain flowed down my cheeks as I used my good leg to launch myself onto the prone aswang. I mounted it, and gripped its head as it retaliated by grabbing my bad leg just below the knee.
There’s few words to describe the pain my leg was in. A chunk of my calf had been torn out, and my blood spread out into the shallow water of the lotus field. When the aswang gripped my leg, it dug its claws in and squeezed with the power of a hydraulic press. Its effects were akin to that of a tourniquet - blood no longer left the wound in my leg due to the sheer pressure.
I heard a sickening snap as my shin broke. The pain nearly made me black out, and I was only able to stay conscious by biting my lower lip with as much force as I could, the sting on my face and the taste of copper in my mouth anchoring me to consciousness.
I lifted my thumbs. I had one goal, and that was to stop the aswang from seeing me. With a horrid squelch sound, I put out the aswang’s eyes, assisted less by my muscles and more by gravity as I collapsed upon the creature’s body.
The aswang released its grip and writhed in pain, clutching its face as I reached for the door handle. I opened it, and fell into the room below.
I needed to patch up my wounds. I used about half of my shirt to make strips and wrapped them around the bite. It hurt like a bitch, but was luckily a shallow enough wound that I didn’t need to worry about bleeding out. I then took two pieces of wood nearby and attached them to both sides of my leg, using some more strips from my shirt and tying them to my leg.
After I finished making the splint, I looked around the room. I had fallen in through a short tunnel from the door, either not noticing the ladder or being too panicked to think about using it. The bottom two rungs had been broken off - I suppose I broke it during my fall, and used it for my splint.
The room was decently sized, about the size of a big bedroom. A makeshift bed laid at the end of the room. It seemed to have been made from woven lotus stems and filled with wilted lotus flowers for cushioning. Whoever made it had a lot of time on their hands. The sides of the walls were lined with - were those bones? Those were bones. Whoever dug this room out must have had an easier foe than me. Shelves were dug out into the sides of the walls, and were supported by abnormally long bones. More bones rested on the shelves, many carved into spears. I tried to compose myself, and hopped my way over to the bed. I was too tall for it, with my legs hanging off the end up to the bite in my calf.
I grabbed some unsharpened bones on my way to the bed, and spent the next few hours constructing a sketchy, but ultimately functional crutch out of the bones with the last strips of my shirt tied around them. I was tired. I didn’t know what variant of the Indian opening I was going to be up against, but you always play the same second move. Already knowing what I was going to play, I laid my head on the pillow and went to sleep.
I suppose I was lucky enough to be familiar with aswang. It seems I was no exception to rule 4a, and a spark of dread made its way into my drowsy head as I realized what the other pieces represented.
No matter what, I could not move my queen.
I woke up to an aching pain in my leg. It was to be expected. I would have to figure out a plan, and fast. I had no way of fighting off any more aswang in my current condition, but I also had to make more moves unless I wanted to deal with a horde of them with working eyes. I looked at the sharpened bones on the shelf. Perfect spears.
I wouldn’t be able to do any form of spear combat though. The best thing I could do was throw them, but with only one working leg I wouldn’t be able to put much force into it. It wasn’t like I had any other choices though, so I stood up and began gathering some spears. As I picked up one of them, I looked at the shelf and smiled. I finally had a lucky break. One of the bones had been carved into an atlatl.
I tested how well I could throw the bone spear with the atlatl. To my relief, I was able to embed the spear into the wall over two inches deep.
I had some difficulties climbing the ladder, and I was only able to carry three spears and the atlatl with me, but it would have to be enough. When I reached the door, I opened it as little as I could, just enough to peek through. I looked through the crack and saw the aswang, still holding its face in its hands as it paced around the area about 8 metres away. I looked up to the sky, and saw it was nearing sunset. I could make my move again. But another aswang would be appearing very soon.
I stepped out of the door. At the sound of me stepping into the water, the aswang’s head snapped to my direction just as it did before. Rather than its bloodshot eyes, however, I saw only the eerie blank space of its sockets. It ran at me. I let loose the spear.
I missed.
The spear flew past its head, and it ran towards me and threw a punch. My only hope of dodging was to lean my head as far to the side as I could.
The aswang’s fist dug into the black marble pillar just past its wrist. It raised its other hand, but before it threw another punch, the spear I threw saved me. A loud ting sound rang from where the spear had hit the pillar behind the aswang, causing it to momentarily turn its head. I took the opportunity, and used my good leg to launch myself onto the aswang once more. This time, however, I was on its back. My weight dragged it to the lakebed with me, and we fell into the lotuses with my arms around its neck in a rear naked choke. Not knowing where to attack, it swiped its claws in the air wildly before a sickening snap came from its neck and it went limp.
No sooner than when I released it and I stood back up did I see its body begin to twitch. My foe stood back up. I threw one of my spears past the aswang and away from the chessboard, which stood 20 metres away. I stayed as still and silent as possible, not even daring to turn my head around as the aswang ran towards the spear that bounced off another column. One spear left.
I was still 5 metres away from the chessboard when a mass of marble and lotuses began rising next to it. The sun had gone down yet again. 24 hours had passed. I went as fast as I could, nearly stumbling twice. I saw two lotuses on the front turn white and shift and shrink into eyes. Two petals on the sides of the mass stretched and turned into elvenesque, pointy ears. Jagged shards of white marble formed themselves into a toothy grin. Eventually, the entire mass became smooth, shifting in hue to an olive brown. Vines grew over the mass, turning into the aswang’s robes and taking on bright coloured patterns. The thing’s head shifted towards me, and I was met with bloodshot eyes. It launched itself towards me. And in the span of less than a second, the transformation reversed itself. It fell past the chessboard in a heap of broken lotus flowers and cracked marble. I had touched the chessboard.
Now I had to make my move.
The rules said nothing of how much time I had to make my move, but I took a risk and stood there for a few minutes. I gazed around at the endless lotus field and impossibly tall black marble pillars. The vines wreathed around the pillars and over the shallow lakebed, all in front of a background of a galaxy of shining stars. The sun’s orange glow faded as it fell past the horizon, and my surroundings were overtaken by hues of blues and purples.
I looked at one of the lotuses adorning the chessboard. It was delicate, with a vibrant yellow bulb in the center accented by a crown of petals, white in the centre and expanding to a beautiful pink at the edges. This felt like a dream. This was the deadliest situation I’d ever been in, yet in this moment I felt nothing but peace.
I unconsciously shifted my weight, and the sharp pain in my calf brought me back to the current situation. I already knew what move I was going to play. The most common and solid move against the Indian defense was to play c4 and move the king’s bishop pawn up two spaces. It grabbed space in the center and capitalized on the slower playstyle of the opening. It was imperative that I not lose the position - while white enjoys a large spatial advantage, it is nearly impossible to make a comeback if black obtains a winning position.
I looked at the four columns surrounding the chessboard, each a little over 5 metres from me. A large canopy of vines hung between the columns, easily enough to support my weight. Lower-hanging vines could be used as ropes to pull myself up. The note had said there were safe rooms in the columns and under the lakebed. Those columns were easily large enough to hold a small room. I doubted there were no doors in the vine canopy.
I went to step away from the chessboard. As I did, the mass of lotuses and marble slowly began to rise again. I immediately stepped back to the board, and it fell down once more. I sighed. I had a game plan. I just hoped I could execute it in 60 seconds.
I moved the king’s bishop pawn two spaces forwards. The board responded with e6 and moved the king’s pawn up one square. I went towards the column as fast as the crutch would allow me. I had a good amount of time to climb when I reached the column - About 45 seconds. I put my arm through the gap in the crutch and held it on my arm as I climbed. It was a difficult task, but I was on the canopy about 3 metres off the ground. I looked down. Not good. The aswang was nearly fully formed. The only option I could think of was to hide. I went to the side of the column opposite the chessboard, praying the vines did not snap. After what felt like hours in under five seconds, I heard the sound of the aswang walking. I held my breath.
The walking sounds were getting quieter.
Not even daring to breathe a sigh of relief, I looked across the canopy, and my previous suspicions were confirmed. A small wooden handle was attached to the column across from me. A safe room.
Quietly as possible, I crawled along the thickest parts of the canopy, avoiding any risk of a vine snapping and sending me to the ground, alerting the aswang, or both. Eventually, I reached the door. I opened it and crawled my way inside.
Inside the column was a cylindrical room close to 2 metres across. The room itself went up very high, nearly 10 metres, and marble platforms jutted out from the walls, turning the room into some kind of spiral staircase.
I decided to climb. Ten platforms up, the platform had the 19x19 grid of a Go board carved into it, and the next platform was indented and held hundreds of black and white marble tiles. I accidentally knocked a few of them off as I climbed up. A few platforms later was the 8x8 grid of a chessboard, and the next platform was similarly indented to hold the pieces. A few more platforms up and I reached the top. The top was a large platform that acted as effectively a floor as opposed to a step. It stretched across the room, and was padded by a large pile of now wilted lotuses. I wasn’t able to lay down straight on it, but I was able to get into a relatively comfortable position if I curled up slightly. Next to the pile were three bone things. They looked similar to a clothes hanger, being a hook attached to a handle on each side.
I looked behind me and saw there was a door.
Cautiously, I opened it. There was no canopy here, and if I stepped out I’d find myself plummeting to the aswang below. But what there was, was a thick braid of five vines tied around the column at the base of the door, leading above the chessboard to a column 20 metres away.
It was a zipline. That could come in handy.
I decided to play through some more practice games before I went to sleep. I went down to the chessboard platform and grabbed the pieces from the next platform up. Underneath the pieces, however, was a piece of paper. I picked it up. It contained only two words, repeated on the page over and over.
“DON’T CASTLE.”

Bumping “Angeles” by Elliott Smith rn. We’re in the Los after all.
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FBE World Tag Team Champion Capital STEEZ vs FBE Junior Heavyweight Champion Misery
Getting the block hot in the Grand Olympic Auditorium was a true Clash of the Champions, Capital STEEZ and Misery channelling their inner Ricky Steamboat vs Ric Flair as the greatest FBE World Tag Team Champion in history put on an intense fight with the woman rapidly approaching the longest reign as FBE Junior Heavyweight Champion! As seesaw of a battle as you’d ever see, King Capital and the Mis lived up to the hype and more, displaying exactly why they’ve held their respective titles for as long as they have whilst showing off that they can do just as much of a jam-up job under Pure Rules too, two Shining Light League favourites from B and D Block respectively tearing the house down. With the last such potential Semi Final preview seeing Misery’s Death to Juniors stablemate Joshua Epps pick up the win, she was determined to make that 2 for 2. Tangling with an all-time great was no easy feat, but in the end it was indeed Misery picking up her career’s biggest win yet!
Misery (8) def. Capital STEEZ (7)
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A Block: Mr. Calcote Miller [2] vs Paddy Murphy [0]
Despite carrying the burdens of heartbreak on his back after Michael Kalamity lived up to his surname, cruelly ending the fan-favourite Sham-Rock N’ Scot Connection, a determined Paddy Murphy headed into Blitz tonight looking to complete the Journey To The Centre Of The First Win all the same to kick off a different tournament campaign the right way. Mr. Calcote Miller with the strongest standing of A Block currently, sitting on top with an uncontested 2 points, he had everything to lose here, the pressure on him immense to maintain his standing above the rest. And yet, he appeared to handle it rather well, not cracking despite the climbing temperatures. Unfortunately for him, Murphy’s been starved for too long of his moment, firing on all cylinders here to show he’s not as 2nd Rate as it may have originally been thought, producing an unstoppable performance to lead him to his first win in FBE!
Paddy Murphy [2] (10) def. Mr. Calcote Miller [2] (4)
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C Block: Ripley [2] vs Travis Broski [0]
Since the final night of the Carnage Tour, the world’s been frothing at the mouth for a chance to see the Ripple in Time and the Undercity Underdog get in there with each other again, their tantalising draw leaving more to be wanted. Lucky for everyone, fate did its job, pairing them up here in the Shining Light League’s C Block for another certified banger no matter how you spin it. Ripley boasting the upper hand with two points to his name thus far, Travis Broski was left fighting from underneath for a chance to redeem his own first night performance, which worked perfectly in his favour, at his best in circumstances like these. That being said, he still had a mountain of a fight to summit, a landslide headed his way courtesy of The RISE member, though Travis managed to pull Ripley in its way instead to kickstart his own comeback in this tournament!
Travis Broski [2] (9) def. Ripley [2] (5)
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PROVINCE (FBE Television Champion T.M Imran & Erick Koeman) vs The Ark (Cactus Mike & FBE World Tag Team Champion Code Blue)
With a nostalgic episode of Wide World Of Sports preceding tonight’s show, featuring The Ark man himself Code Blue, the excitement for this one was only further launched through the roof, the Pasadena Paralyser set to stand across the ring from his former PRIMETIME partner for the first time since Mayflower Mayhem 2021! At very different points in their respective careers now, T.M Imran running ship with PROVINCE, deep in his second FBE Television Championship reign, Flying Dutchman by his side, and Code Blue… running boat with The Ark, amid the greatest FBE World Tag Team Championship reign in company history, Cactus “Ark Ark Ark” Mike by his side, there wasn’t a shadow of a doubt in anyone’s mind that these lot were at their very best when they tangled under Pure Rules.
Mike soon set to challenge Imran for his title, a big focus was placed on those two as they got familiar with each other’s body of work in order to strategise effectively for the pay day, whilst incorporating sound tag team wrestling on both ends, Blue brandishing his obvious unparalleled experience, and Koeman yet again proving himself to be a valuable glue like he was back in WarGames. Whilst the champion end definitely brought it, it wasn’t to be their night, The Ark gaining the New Hardcore Legend some key momentum!
The Ark (Cactus Mike & Code Blue) (11) def. PROVINCE (T.M Imran & Erick Koeman) (4)
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C Block: EED [0] vs Mark Steel [0]
Neither of these two men strangers to high-profile tournaments, EED involved in the crowning of the very-first FBE World Heavyweight Champion and the Shining Light League’s own predecessor, the E1 Climax, and Mark Steel a member of last year’s stacked Punish & Crush and Heyman Classic line-ups, they channelled the many lessons they’d picked up along the way here, wrestling efficiently so as to not burn themselves out yet still slamming down on their respective gas pedals enough to drive to victory. EED on the lighter schedule, he was the fresher of the two here, though found himself less conditioned to take shots the way Peak Performance was, steeling his way through the Notorious’s offence to give the OG a surprise. Nevertheless, the most accomplished man in his Block by miles, EED didn’t let it get to him, continuing to push on, though he’d have another thing coming when Mark scored one of the biggest upsets of his career, knocking off the legend to secure two points!
Mark Steel [2] def. EED [0] (NS)
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A Block: FBE Pure Champion Dr. Logan Wright [1] vs Arslan Malik [0]
With the A Block leader stunned earlier in the night, Dr. Logan Wright was presented with the perfect opportunity to capitalise and launch himself into first place after a gruelling opening match, though Arslan Malik would not make that easy, knowing what beating the FBE Pure Champion would mean for his career, delivering in prime “Ass-Kicker” form. The Doctor got stabby like it were an XPW show, wanting to inject Malik with the right dose to knock him out for the 3-count, whilst Arslan did his best to avoid the needle and score the winning shot of his own, Malik’s blows just as sharp as Logan’s. In a war of two very different forms of sedation, it was the man with the medical license that eventually won out, the FBE Pure Champion remaining afloat as the tides rose him to 3 points and block leader!
Dr. Logan Wright [3] (12) def. Arslan Malik [0] (3)
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Non-Title/British Rounds: FBE World Heavyweight Champion Inferno vs Joshua Epps
The long-awaited third instalment to the budding saga between Inferno and Joshua Epps came to a head right here in what’s been dubbed “The Wager in the Aether”, FBE World Heavyweight Champion and God’s Greatest Athlete out to prove who the undisputed better man is between them. A traditional 15-minutes on the clock, though split into three 5-minute rounds with a 20 second break between each, Blitz witnessed its first-ever and hopefully far from last British Rounds match in the holy grounds of Rocky Balboa vs Apollo Creed, its two competitors primed to show what pure wrestling is all about.
Epps one of the biggest success stories on Season 2 of Blitz thus far, it was clear just why with him putting on another masterclass on his end, wowing the onlooking judges with a perfect hybrid of catch wrestling and powerhouse bidness that wouldn’t look out of place at all on an episode of World of Sport 6 decades ago. Inferno answered with Marty Jones and Billy Robinson inspired techniques, paying homage to some of the men that’ve influenced his very British style of working, whilst remaining every bit of a cocky bastard as he could be in between, the Gatekeeper of Pure Rules working that mission statement to bring down any new blood that tries to size him up on his domain. Ultimately, three closely-fought, superb rounds resulted in the judges leaning their scorecards in Baba Blitz’s favour, Inferno staying on top of his home turf!
Round One: Inferno (9) def. Joshua Epps (4)
Round Two: Inferno (9) def. Joshua Epps (4)
Round Three: Inferno (8) def. Joshua Epps (5)
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A Block Standings:

Place	Competitor	Points	Record
1	Dr. Logan Wright (c)	3	1-1-0
2	Paddy Murphy	2	1-0-0
2	Mr. Calcote Miller	2	1-0-1
4	Jay Castle	1	0-1-0
5	Arslan Malik	0	0-0-2

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C Block Standings:

Place	Competitor	Points	Record
1	John LaGuardia	2	1-0-0
1	Travis Broski	2	1-0-1
1	Ripley	2	1-0-1
1	Mark Steel	2	1-0-1
5	EED	0	0-0-1

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Three fabulous nights down, but still many more to go. Interesting results are starting to break through here in the tournament as the last of the competitors begin to assume their spots in their respective Blocks, so stay tuned for next week as we see all 20 wrestlers officially be brought into play! Until then, keep wrestling the good wrestling, and pure rules.